I wrote these three-minute FOMO guides for the frantic business owner who hates to miss out but also has a to-do list as long as their arm. For this person, adding one more task – like email marketing – requires careful consideration.

I have a bit of history with email marketing. I received my first colourful HTML email message in 1999 when I helped establish an email marketing software provider. Since then, and with the advent of Ark Advance back in 2002, my team and I have assisted in the successful deployment of hundreds of campaigns to many millions of subscribers for a multitude of business owners.

With this in mind, here are my four reasons why successful yet busy business owners spend their precious time with email. If none of these seem compelling to you then you can feel confidently ditch any FOMO feelings you might have for email marketing.

Reason #1 – You control the channel.

Let’s say that three years ago you added 500 prospects to your newsletter list through online marketing. Each subscriber will happily continue receiving your messages unless one of two things occur. First, they could get bored with your messages and unsubscribe. Or you could suffer the same malaise and fail to send anything out.

Now let’s compare this to your natural rankings within Google. And let’s assume that instead of investing in growing your email list, you paid someone to work on your website so it achieved some strong page one rankings. This delivered a bump in traffic, followed by a lift in prospect enquiries. How confident are you that three years on, given all the changes from Google as well as the optimising efforts of your competitors, you’ll still enjoy a page one ranking?

Better yet, what about social media? Instead of investing in email marketing or SEO three years ago, you paid a Social Media Expert to grow your “likes” on Facebook to 500. Three years on, can you communicate to all those people without having to pay Facebook for the privilege?

Investing in email marketing – specifically growing your subscriber list – gives you control over a communication channel that is thankfully beyond the grasp of Google and Facebook, the two advertising powers of the Internet. And that, my friend, is very, very valuable.

Reason #2 – The cost of entry is low.

You don’t need to spend thousands to send a message that looks a million bucks. While a great, highly functional e-commerce website needs some solid investment, the email messaging platform that supports it could cost a tenth or less.

And while you may need a team of web developers to deliver the website, you may be able to adapt a standard email template with your branding to enable your first campaign.

As for your mobile audience, whereas your website may need a complete rewrite to ensure it works for them, your email marketing template could take just a few alterations to achieve the same result.

Which all means it’s really easy to get started.

Keeping going, however, is another issue…..

Reason #3 – Frequency builds success.

We all know that remaining top of mind with our customers makes sense, especially in a crowded marketplace. But how many visit your website each month of their own volition? Probably only a few. A great email marketing newsletter points customers to your website every month.

That regularity and frequency is exceptionally powerful. I was once told by an expert in radio that it can take up to two years of repeated advertising to build a brand via that medium. I believe the time frame with email is a lot less; six to twelve monthly editions of well-written content can go a long way to bind people to your company.

Reason #4 – You can see what works.

The fourth reason for dedicating precious time to email marketing is that you know when your efforts have paid off. Nearly all email deployment tools will tell you who opened the message and clicked on each link within it. If those links take people to your website, then you can configure them so your Google Analytics account will treat those visitors as a distinct campaign. Then you can allocate sales or website conversions directly to specific emails.

That’s real power!

So, which of these reasons resonate with you and your business? Add them to your list of things to learn more about. Better yet, contact Ark Advance so we can guide you on your first steps 🙂