What are mailing lists and why do businesses need them

In this article, I will tell you how mailing lists increase loyalty and generate sales.
Mailing lists are sending a single notification (message) to a large number of recipients.

We send and receive newsletters on a bunch of platforms:

• SMS;
• Messengers (Telegram, Whatsapp, Viber);
• Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn);
• Email.

1) With the help of newsletters, you can automatically inform a person that an order has been made/ a package has been sent, etc. These are service mailings that save the time of the call center.

2) Thanks to mailings, you can form loyalty — that is, tell about yourself in such a way that readers form such an image of your company / blogger in their minds so that people can trust and love you. This can be achieved with the help of useful content. For example, if your service is online accounting for entrepreneurs, then you can send an explanation of the new tax regulations in human language in the newsletter.

And if you write on behalf of a blogger who is an expert in copywriting, you can send a new text creation tip once a week. Sometimes such mailings are used only for loyalty. For example, when you send them only to your customer, but you have nothing to sell and your task is to keep this customer with you for a long time. Sometimes selling elements are inserted into them.

3) Mailings can be sold. Moreover, you can sell in a variety of ways. In large online stores, email newsletters are configured so that you receive instant emails about the products you have just been interested in on the site.

For example, on the Booking website — if you look for (not even book) hotels in Prague, then after a while you will receive a newsletter about Prague. Or you can arrange a closed sales club in the form of powder and send letters with discounts to a limited loyal base a couple of times a week. And you can also use a chain of emails instead of a separate newsletter.

A chain is a series of letters that are sent sequentially one after another and warms up a person inside himself to commit a targeted action. That is, he leads him by the handle along the buying path.

'Welcome' chains are a series of letters that a person receives after subscribing. Its purpose is to warm up the recipient and motivate him to perform the next target action. For example, make an appointment for a consultation or make a purchase.

This chain usually includes 4-7 emails. Moreover, according to statistics, most often a purchase is made on the 4th letter. But in any case, you need to experiment to understand which letter your audience will buy from specifically.

Due to their mechanics, this type of mailing is used in messengers and social networks, but not in email. The essence of the mechanics: you ask a person to answer 5-10 questions by choosing one of the answer options. Usually there are 2-3 options. The mechanics can be packed into a test and submitted through the idea of "Check yourself how much you know about ..." / "Take the test and find out which cosmetics suits you", or submitted through the game. For example, enter a character and name the game's test "Help Imran pass the exam". In fact, this is a classic quiz, implemented as part of the mailing list.

What are the advantages of such a mailing list:

— People like to play, so many reach the end
— Based on the results of the test, you will receive data about the person, which can be further used for personalized newsletters.

For example, let's take a classic funnel for an information product:

— there is traffic to the landing (single—page site) (from a blog and/ or target)
- a person registers on the landing using a bot, choosing which platform it is more convenient for him to receive messages

— Instagram or Telegram — then messages from the bot begin to arrive at the selected site

This is the newsletter, or rather one of its variants. There are others. For example, if you work only with a cold audience (only with a target), then the entire free course can take place directly in the form of a mailing list — messages with lessons will be interspersed with warming and selling messages.

This is a very good option for B2B companies and services — that is, brands whose target audience is not mass, but representatives of a specific profession/business. For example, an online accounting service or a law office that conducts courses for lawyers. In this case, you prepare high-quality expert content for subscribers, and in return you receive loyalty.

Naturally, it would be strange to do this out of pure altruism — that's why there are regular sales in the content. But there are not so many of them compared to useful content.

Another option for content newsletters is a paid content newsletter. Many experts in such newsletters share interesting news and analytical articles in their field. And you can also make a course in the form of a mailing list.

This is a newsletter that comes after the user commits an action on the site. For example, if a person left an order on your site but did not pay for it, you can send them an email with a reminder or even a personal offer. Such mailings are most often found in email.

These are emails that are sent to the database of people who have not made purchases for a long time. For example, if you once sold goods in an online store or delivery and there will be a lot of people in your database, they can be invited to buy a new product.

Regular events (offline and online)

• Courses/marathons/online schools
• Shops and showrooms (online and offline)
• Experts
• Services

And in general, any other companies and businesses that have a customer base in the form of phone numbers and/or email.