Six reasons why every coach must build a mailing list

copied from: http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=127309154&gid=1693527&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloggingforcoaches.com%2F6-reasons-why-every-coach-should-build-an-email-list%2F&urlhash=u-tP&trk=news_discuss

Most coaches (me included) start coaching because we want to help others and make a difference. The problem is that clients don’t magically show up when you need them. It most cases they probably don’t even know you exist. One of the most lucrative ways of getting new clients into your coaching practice is to build an email list.

Regardless if you’ve started coaching this year or you’re a coaching veteran, you can always start building an email list.

Here are 6 good reasons why you should build an email list for your coaching business:

1. An email list is a Prospecting Tool. An email list helps you build a list of prospects. When somebody subscribes to your Newsletter, what they’re really doing is putting their hand up and and saying, “Hey, I love what you got and want to learn some more.” The reason this is a great prospecting tool is because now you’re in a position to to send them more information to educate them about what you do and how it helps them.

2. Building an email list positions You as an Expert. As you consistently send out messages to your email list and teach something of value, you’ll start to get known as the go-to person for that subject. Just last week I spoke to a lady who is a subscriber to my Freedom Education Newsletter. She told me that the information on my blog is just fantastic – she’s been to other websites, but she tells me that it doesn’t compare to the content on my blog and in my Newsletter – so she always comes back.

3. Product ideas are born with the Subscribers on your email list. As I was speaking to the lady who had been telling me how fantastic my free information was, she told me that she bought a product on subliminal mediation. It turns out that she clicked through one of my Google ads and got to another website where she bought the product.

That got me thinking, “I probably got $0.05 from the Google ad she clicked on, which is peanuts. Why not create my very own information product? That way I’ve got the potential to earn anywhere from $27 – $197 per sale of that product. (As an aside, I just finished creating this information product and it will be available very soon.)

4. Building a Tribe of Raving Fans gets you More Traffic. You’d be surprised how fast this can happen. Hani has been blogging with his new website for just over 7 months. He’s building an email list and every now and then he gets a subscriber who is completely in love with his free content. Some of them are so excited about his free information that they start publishing links to his Video blog on other social sites like LinkedIN and Twitter.

5. Building an email list Increases the Value of Your Business. I have several email lists on my blog that are targeted to different groups of people – who all want very different things. One of the subscribers from a smaller list contacted me. (At the time I only had 75 people subscribed to this list.)

The subscriber was very interested in the topic I had been teaching about in my mailings and wanted to learn more about my coaching program. The funny thing is that I never offered coaching in these mailings. I was offering a completely different product.

The key (I’ve discovered) to create more value in your coaching business is by giving away a lot of free content. And not only that. Make sure to send your free content to a specific group of people by building an email list.

6. You’re Missing an Opportunity to capture Qualified Prospects. Most people out there are skeptics. They don’t like to be sold on their very first visit to any website or blog. That’s why traditional sales copy letters are useless with brand new readers.

A few internet marketing professionals have even told me that it can take anywhere from 7-9 visits for a reader to take any sort of action on your blog (like leave a comment, subscribe to your Newsletter, etc.) So, if you don’t have a Newsletter setup in the first place, then you’re missing an opportunity to capture qualified prospects on an email list.