HOW DO YOU KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR 'FANS' & CLIENTS?

I know there will be a whole group of you who will read this and you'll think 'what! there are small business owners out there who don't have an email list? or a newsletter?'.

Yet there will be an even bigger group who don't have this at all. There will also be a group of business owners who don't even have a website.

There will be a myriad of excuses for this, very few of which are valid. Here are the valid ones I've heard over the last 16 years.

*I get all of the business I need from in-person networking - do you really? If this is your only route to market - how many networking groups can you attend in a week and do you really have time to keep adding more, following up and doing the work?

*I'm going to retire soon and my business will retire with me - fair enough but what if you want to sell the business? Will your lack of online profile affect that value?

*I have other income so my business is a side hustle, a bit of fun and I don't want it to go beyond where it is now - that's great, good for you.

*I do a ton of other PR activity so I don't feel that this is a tool I need to explore - that's great, just keep an eye on it, so you are not left behind or you can act when your usual routes to market are slowing.

All of the above are perfectly reasonable business decisions not to build an email list and not to send a regular newsletter out to those on your list. Sometimes in the wide word of PR (and that includes every single marketing activity) it's fine to choose your tools and stick to them.

However here are ten reasons why building a list and then regularly showing up for those on the list in a non-salesy way is a fantastic way to build your business - alongside other PR activity.

*When someone signs up to an email list, they have shown a commitment and many will stay with you if you aren't spamming them every five minutes. Therefore even subliminally they will get to know you.

*It's an entry level offering in your value ladder of offerings - where you can share value and where people can sit while they consider if they want to work with you. Or they can afford it. This can take years in some cases.

*It shows a commitment and passion for your business and what you do which gives people confidence. You are ready and willing to 'show up'.

*It shows consistency and consistency builds confidence in you, your expertise, your service or product or both. So you must be consistent - choose a time frame you can commit to regularly ie. once a quarter, once a month or once a week. Many brands will actually send out offers several times a day! I wouldn't recommend that for a service-based business.

*As you list builds you can treat those on it as VIPs and they get 'first dibs' on any workshop or product you offer. The bigger the list, the bigger the proportion of people who will buy.

*It's a great way to thank and to therefore show which clients you work with and what you've achieved for them. Again that gives confidence to those who might be toying with the idea of working with you.

*It's cost effective - many forms of PR involve money on the paid ad or advertorial spend side of things. With email marketing there are platforms which offer support for free and you pay as your list builds. Once you are at the paying level you will not even think twice about that cost.

*It keeps your clients and would-be clients informed of your news, industry news - you become a useful person/expert to know.

*It can drive traffic to your website - if you keep reminding people about your website.

*It will improve sales - if you are consistent and you remember to sell!

As with much in the world of PR, it can feel relentless and time-consuming and also expensive as there's always a trade-off between an investment of time v. money. Yet do nothing and you will not move forward, you will not grow your business and you will not build an audience where a proportion want to buy from you.

Yet for me an email newsletter coupled with an email list (and later even a segmented list with different messages for different segments of your audience) are essential for growth in terms of sales and visibility and brand awareness.