3 reasons to advertise to your email list

If you have been read just about any blog for entrepreneurs, you will be well aware of the benefits of growing your email list for your business. Unlike social media platforms, your email list is the platform you own for talking to your audience. But there is another reason why you should build your email list: it is one of your secret weapons for getting better results with Facebook ads.

One of the great things about Facebook ads is the power it gives you to target warm audiences, that is people who know who you are and have shown interest in what you do. These audiences are much more likely to buy off you than someone who has never heard of you before seeing your ad appear in their Facebook feed. Because the audience knows you, this reduces the cost per conversion of your ad; it costs you less in advertising per sale.

Combined with a good strategic email marketing system set up, it can get even more powerful if you are tracking your followers’ behaviours and interests through your email marketing system.

One of the options you have to target warm audiences in Facebook ads is to set up a custom audience using your email list.  You download your email list (or portion of it), upload it in the Facebook ads system and you are all good to go to target ads to your list.  It won’t be a 100% match as Facebook matches the email you upload to the one on their system to determine who to show the ad. Not all emails will match as people don’t always use the same email for all their online activities but a good percentage will.

But why should you advertise to your email list at all? Surely you are already sending them your sales emails?

Three reasons to advertise to your email list

Not convinced you should advertise to your email list? Here are three good reasons why you should consider advertising to them:

1. Not everyone opens your emails. If you have ever looked at your email open rates you will know that not everyone who receives your emails will open them. If more than 30% of your subscribers open their emails you are doing well with average open rates hovering around the 20% mark, depending on your industry. Mailchimp have analysed open rates by industry and you can find the results for your industry here. What that means is that if you send your beautifully crafted sales email to your list of 1,000 only 300 will even open it. That is 700 people who aren’t aware of your new product, that you can show a Facebook ad to, to let them know you are launching.

2. People are busy. If you are like me you scan your emails while waiting in a café for your coffee, see something that interests you and if you are really organised, mark it to come back to later. Then life happens and you completely forget about that new product or service you meant to look into. The email slips down your inbox list and disappears from view. By showing your subscribers a Facebook ad you are reminding them of what they were already interested in.

3. Your emails go to junk or promotional folders. No matter how non spammy your emails are there is always going to be the risk that your emails go to someone’s junk or promotional folder or mail box. Again people aren’t going to see your emails about your new product or service. Facebook ads are a back-up plan for your emails going astray. The ads make sure as many of your fans as possible see what you are offering.

While your email list should be your go to place for promoting new products or services, Facebook ads can be a great tool for helping you get the most out of your email list and your sales emails.

You have to work hard to build that email list; make sure you are making it work as hard as possible for you.

Not sure how to set up Facebook ads to advertise to your email list? Download my guide on creating custom audiences.