SHOCKING: 56% of Bloggers Do No Email Marketing. Why Not?

Sometimes, people like me can’t help but wonder why others read our advice and don’t actually apply it.

Case in point…

A recent survey I ran over the weekend shows that 56.4% of bloggers (at least in my audience) don’t engage in any kind of email marketing.

179 responses to that particular question – which isn’t bad since I did run this thing right over Easter weekend. 🙂

I was surprised by the result, though. (And, yes, the “shocking” pat of the headline was a bit of an exaggeration. 😉 )

I’ve talked a TON about the importance of building a list. Whenever somebody has asked me about the one thing I wished I knew to do when I was first starting out, my answer is almost always that I wish I started my email list sooner.

And I’m BY FAR not the only person saying that. Almost any successful blogger or online marketer out there will tell you the same thing. Having an email list is about the most important thing you can possibly do online. And I KNOW you guys are reading other blogs besides mine. 🙂

And yet…

56% aren’t doing any email marketing.

Why not?

What’s stopping you? Or, in other words, why are you deciding that this advice doesn’t apply to you?

Get this…

The same survey shows that 86.8% of respondents have the goal of making money with their blog.

Also, 47.5% of respondents get between 0-100 visitors per day to their blog. 21.8% get NO traffic (although 16% said they don’t even have a blog at all, interestingly).

But, the point is…

There’s a strong contingent of people who want to make money and have low traffic… yet they STILL don’t think they need an email list?!

Why You Need A List

Most people think they need a list only to pitch and sell things to them. And, because too many bloggers have this fear of selling, they just don’t build a list.

Or… people are unwilling to pay for anything to host an email list. And so they don’t start one.

Both reasons are stupid and let me tell you why…

First, selling things to your list is NOT the reason you build a list. Even if you never intend to promote anything to your email list, YOU STILL NEED TO BUILD ONE.

Your email list gives you the power to:

• Mobilize your audience’s attention and point it at something.
• Proactively bring your audience in rather than counting on their memory to come back.
• Reach out and communicate with your audience in the medium where they already are… rather than forcing them to come back to your blog.

Your list is the ultimate LEVERAGE for building your TRAFFIC. Without it, people will come and go and the chances of them ever returning to your site are almost none. No leverage at all. However, if you get people to subscribe to your list, you have the ability to bring them back.

This is so much more important than any ability to promote stuff to them later.

If you have no control over when your audience pays attention to something, you’ve got NOTHING.

Your traffic will remain in the dumps. You’ll get no interaction. And, yes, you’ll remain broke.

Now, as for the thing about paying for the list…

If you’re going to sabotage yourself by not doing what is necessary at the beginning, you might as well give up and go home. Aweber starts with a $1 trial and then goes for $19/month. It is MORE than worth it. And – in all seriousness – if you’re not willing to pay $19/month for something so fundamentally important to a goal which 86% of you say you have…. then you’ve already lost. Give up and go home.

There’s also Mailchimp. I’m not as fond of them as I am Aweber, but they offer a free account (with limitations). And that is a LOT better than having or building nothing.

Recommended Stuff

• Aweber. As far as I’m concerned, this is where you want to build your list. You get what you pay for. Plus, it isn’t as if Aweber is expensive unless you build a large list. But, by then, you’ll be making so much more than Aweber costs you, it’ll be a no-brainer.
• Master Your List. This is a short training program of mine to show you all the in’s and out’s for building your list and then how to use it. If your list efforts are flat-lined or you want to get better results with the list you have, that is exactly why I created Master Your List.

Your Experiences

What have been YOUR experiences with list building or email marketing?

Have you gotten results with it?

And, if you’re part of that 56%, please post below and let me know what’s holding you back. I’m here to show people how to accomplish that goal that 86% of you say you have. So, I’d like to help.