The Money Is In The List, Right?
That’s partially true. What many of the marketers pitching the latest list building techniques conveniently forget to tell you is the money is in a responsive list.
To build a responsive list you must work at building trust with the people on your list by providing unique and useful information on a regular basis. You must listen to their questions, complaints and accept both as easily as you’d accept praise.
Traditional list building isn’t for everyone because they are time consuming and require a LOT of work.
A new era has begun.
This new era takes us into the world of interacting with the people we wish to do business with. Blogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites and RSS Feeds are all ways you can share information with people now.
The social networking sites are very powerful in that they give you the opportunity to network with like minded people online in ways similar to what you used to be able to do offline with small business associations, Chamber of Commerce, etc.
These online social networks let you enter your contact information, a bio about what you do, place links to your websites and give you a way to search out and meet similar people. Build viable relationships in this environment and you’ve built something stronger than any mailing list could provide and this is trust with a real human that talks to you honestly.
Mailing lists are static and with spam filters they aren’t as effective as they once were.
Traditional mailing lists will always serve a function and those that choose to build and cultivate these lists are often incorporating them with blogs to add the interactive element.
To build and properly cultivate a responsive network, you will probably need to do some things that are uncomfortable at first because they are new and unfamiliar. Be you, remember why you are doing this and always be honest with people and you’ll do okay.
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Using Opt in Leads in Auto Responders
It doesn't matter if you capture your own leads or buy them, you should ALWAYS verify the email address is good with a validation program. There are several reasons for doing this but I'll cover just a few. Continue reading
Your bookmarks, comments and feedback are always welcome. Disclosure of Material Connection
Email Marketing Is A Good Business Tool
Email Marketing Is A Good Business Tool
Many people resist the idea of building a mailing list because it requires work. In addition to the work, you must usually have your own domain and web host.
The mailing list you build is a business asset.
You can have other business assets like your website and products you sell but these assets do NOT have the potential to create new or repeat business like a customer list and a prospect list.
There are many ways to build a prospect list and some of these are:
- Participate in JV events where you give away a free report, limited membership, etc. in exchange for a name and email address.
- A video that teases while informing the prospect about the value of your offering before offering a free sample.
- A classified advertisement that offers free information.
- A newsletter that contains tips, informative articles and freebies or discounts.
This should be a list that you are constantly and consistently working to build because this group is the pool of potential buyers you have permission to mail to.
- The reader gets used to clicking links in your emails.
- You get targeted traffic to your website or blog that might find other content of interest OR they might click on an ad they see on your site.
Once anyone from any of your lists makes a purchase, they become customers and should be added to a customer only list.
Customers are much more likely to buy again because they trusted you enough once to make a purchase.
A list of buying customers is pure gold if you treat them correctly and build a strong relationship based on trust. This group of people deserves special attention, nurturing and specials others aren’t offered.
Some marketers maintain multiple buyers lists based on product type and price.
There are a number of different services available to manage your mailing lists. I prefer the double optin lists I create at Aweber for all my prospect lists because they have staff dedicated to making sure the deliverability of messages remains high and the double optin gives me proof someone actually made an effort to get on my list. There are a few other good companies too and some with very poor delivery rates.
Hosting a prospect list on your own server usually ends up with a low delivery rate and quite possibly spam complaints because some will cry spam instead of clicking the link to opt out.
You may or may not want to have a simple mailing list script that isn’t a double optin for your buying customers. I prefer the double optin so I have proof of their desire to be on my list but many marketers see that as unnecessary for buyers and listed they’ve purchased that are double optin and verified.
People get so much spam these days with phony opt out links that there is always a chance a good marketer can get a complaint by accident.
A few of the programs I use to build my prospect lists are ViralBuzzAds, Ads List Supreme and Rainbow Marketing System . All three of these programs let me send emails to program members. I send ads offering a freebie with a high perceived value to get these people on MY list so I can begin building a relationship.
I hope this article has given you some ideas on how you can generate more website traffic, brand yourself and make more money using email marketing.
Your bookmarks, comments and feedback are always welcome. Disclosure of Material Connection
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