Yesterday Facebook and Instagram were down and there was a huge huge huge panic because most people do it all their business on Facebook or Instagram.

There was no promotion or building relationships going on most of the day.

This was a good lesson for every author who uses social media as their contact with their audience.  You need a Back Up Plan.

If you follow me, you know I’m always preaching start your mailing list (email list) because I know how important it is to be able to capture your audience and be able to get in front of them when you need to.

If you have a mailing list.  High five to you.  You probably were like me, a little upset you couldn’t play on FB or Instagram, but it didn’t put a huge dent in your promotion, because social media is just an extra bonus for your promotion.

If you don’t have a mailing list, this post is for you.  If you’ve been putting off creating a list, I highly recommend you take some time and start working on yours.  You don’t want to get caught again without your back up plan.

What if social media shut down tomorrow for good?  How would you get in front of your followers?

This is a question I ask my clients because you need to be able to answer that question.

A lot of people believe email marketing is old school.  They believe it’s becoming obsolete.  I’m an old school promoter. My email list it has saved my life many times.

I share how I survived two furloughs because I was able to use my email list to make money to cover my expenses.

I was able to sale books and promotion ads to my subscribers.

I will admit when I started SORMAG, I didn’t have a mailing list, back then most people didn’t.  My first year I had 16,000 people visit the magazine site.  I wish I had a mailing list back then to capture all those visitors.

Promotion was hard for me because I was constantly having to find new readers to come visit the site.  There was no way to let the current readers know I had new issues, I just had to hope they would stop by on their own.

When I learned about creating a mailing list, it changed my whole view on promotion.  Now I had a way to capture my readers.  I could get in front of them daily if I wanted to.  I also knew how many actually subscribed to the magazine vs waiting on the counter to tell me how many visited.

My email list helped me build my readership.  I had a list for the magazine subscribers and one for the SORMAG authors.  When I wanted to offer promotion sales to the authors, I could send out a message to them, without it going to the readers.

If I had an event, I could send to the whole list.  If social media is acting crazy and I can’t host my event, or post in my group, I can send an email to my community.

I teach my clients to always have a way to capture your audience.  It’s great to have 5000 followers but if there’s no way to get in front of them when you need to.  You just have 5000 people following you.  You need a backup plan.

Many authors sleep on the email list because they think it’s time consuming.  It can be, but you choose how often you want to maintain it.

I try to keep mine up to date twice a year.  I’m always inviting people to join it because I know how important it is to have your own audience.  It’s the perfect back up plan to social media.

Don’t worry about how many people you have on your mailing list.  Everyone starts with one to begin.  It grows as you invite more people to join.

Just think if you’ve got 50 people on your list, that’s 50 people who are ready to hear from you.  You know the email will show up in their inbox vs you wondering if Facebook will show your post to some of those 5000 people following you.

Here’s your assignment:

Start your mailing list and start wooing those 5000 followers over to your mailing list.

Do you need help creating a mailing list?

Download my Mailchimp Mailing List Workshop replay.

CLICK to get started today.

Did you find this post helpful, share it with a friend.

Would you like to work with me?  I offer three ways – 1. Join my free promotion training group – See Ya On the Net –  http://bit.ly/SYOTNPTGlist  2. Join my membership – Social Butterfly Promotion Membership – http://bit.ly/SBMCALL  Or 3. Private Consulting – Virtual Tea With LaShaunda – http://bit.ly/TEALashaunda