List building is an important promotional strategy that every Internet marketer must consider. In fact, without a list you’re most likely losing profits that are going to other Internet marketers with a list. Although it may seem daunting at first, it really is quite simple to get started. Once you have collected a list of people who are interested in your niche you can start building your email marketing campaigns.
How to get Started Building Your List
First of all, you need to give your site visitors an incentive to fork over their names and email addresses. This is most often accomplished by offering something for free like an ebook, ecourse, report, or even a free trial of something. Make sure that you offer something that is truly of value in this first offering because even though it is free, you want to begin your list building strategy by building trust in your future customers. You also want them to trust that when they get an email from you that it will contain something of value to them and not just be filled with sales talk.
Use an Autoresponder Service
You’ll want to use an autoresponder service to manage your lists and automatically send out your marketing emails and/or ecourses. Choose your autoresponder service wisely; although there are free ones out there, they offer limited services and if you should move over later to one of the fee based ones, like Aweber, you’ll lose your list and have to start all over. Therefore, if your budget allows you may want to pay for one at the outset to save yourself countless headaches later on.
Don’t Forget the Opt Out Option
Even though the people on your list have opted in to receive emails from you, don’t forget to include the option to opt out if they so desire. Not only is this the law but the last thing you want to do is annoy your potential customers. This is another reason that using an autoresponder service makes sense. You don’t want to have to spend hours and hours sending out emails and organizing your list and on and on and on when an autoresponder service can do all of that for you at a very nominal cost per month.
Manage Your Email Marketing Campaigns Wisely
It will take experience, time, and testing to fine-tune your email marketing campaigns. You’ll need to discover which times are the best times for sending out your emails. While you may already realize that most holidays and weekend nights aren’t conducive to the majority of your emails being opened, it may very well depend upon the demographics of your target group as to when the best time is.
Do make your emails personal. Many Internet marketers prefer to use just the first name of the recipient as opposed to the first and last name because it sounds more personal. Always use your name as well and pay special attention to your email subject lines. While they don’t need to be punctuated with three exclamation points, they do need to convey a compelling message in order for them to be opened and read. While most of your emails will be an opportunity for your customers to buy something, once in a while send out purely informational emails that serve to provide your customers with valuable information. This will go a long way toward building that all important trust with your customers that will keep them your customers. Do make your emails interesting but avoid slow loading graphics and annoying audio. Keep it simple and you’re more likely to keep your customers.