In this day and age of social media, many experts have started to believe that list building and contacting subscribers has lost its charm. No doubt that social media is a whole new way to connect, but the importance of lists and list building isn’t lost.
Why Social Media Does Not Beat List Building
Let’s analyze the top social networking sites and see what their exact limitations are:
Twitter: Although you might have 500 people following you on twitter, how many of them actually read your tweets? Of course, you may have many at-@ mentions and many conversations; no doubt about it. But the fact remains, that when you say something important, your prospective client misses it just because he wasn’t around at that point, reading your words.
Facebook: Facebook although less random, also has the same limitation that your status update might go unnoticed. People would actually have to visit your profile to see what you have to say. And they aren’t going to do that every day, every minute right?
Important updates need to be reached out to your audiences in a specific and targeted manner and not randomly.
Image Credit: Krazy Kory
Why Other Online Communications Methods Do Not Beat List Building
For instance the RSS Feed: If you are an internet junkie then you are sure to love the RSS Feed to stay updated with all your info. But how many of us actually read all the RSS that reaches us? Simply speaking subscribers in this case are subscribed to a lot of content and often simply glance through the work.
Why List Building Is Still Important
So ultimately, although other mediums can be interesting, people don’t really become your clients because the reach is restricted and random. With list building you have various advantages:
1. The List Of People Have Requested Your Interaction
Buying and selling of contact information is not legal. Hence, it’s not advocated and neither practiced. However, the list that companies actually build, are of those people who have shown interest in your work. They have agreed to permit you to contact them and hence, it’s a good way to connect.
2. Helps Keep Clients And Prospective Updated About Your Work
You may be launching a new product or service or you may be doing discounts or sales – how do you reach out to people? And say, you are in an urgent need for money in your small business, you decide to launch an offer with discounts and freebies, how do you reach out to people? Sure other ways could work as well, but dropping an e-mail for the same will certainly work.
3. It Is Faster To Manage And Automate
A little bit of smart work, time management and setting up a campaign for automated messages can work very well for conversions. This doesn’t mean you spam your users, but a balanced approach can do wonder; for instance, sending out one e-mail a day for a campaign of 5 days, with a little information about how to make purchases. Why wouldn’t it work? But having said that again, it doesn’t mean you automate your responses to queries too! Of course, you need to be prompt and genuine there.
At The End Of The Day, Why Would List Building Work?
- People themselves have asked you to send them information
- They may not be logged into their social profile all day, but they certainly check their e-mail every day.
- It is the direct connect that always works.
So go ahead, and don’t hesitate in making your list strong!
Author is a tech blogger and love writing on articles on tech products. She writers for barcode-uk.com a leading onlinr retailer for bardcode related products.