Marketing

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you are selling. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and it helps build credibility with your subscribers. As a result, you can generate more sales and profits.

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, responsive and permission-based email list. If you have a list of subscribers that trust you and consider you an expert, you’ve completed the first step and are on your way!

Below you will several list-building ideas that will help you make the most of your email marketing efforts:

1.Provide useful, relevant and unique content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be useful to your subscribers.

2.Add a subscription form to every page of your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If appropriate, you can also include it in more than one place. For instance, your opt-in form might always appear in the top-left corner of your site, while you also include an opt-in at the bottom of some of your popular articles.

3.Make it easy for your reader to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. (Note: If you don’t have a Privacy Policy, put the words “privacy policy generator” into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form for your readers to review.

4.Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form.

5.Show your first issue or other sample to your visitors. This lets potential subscribers review your newsletter before they sign up to determine if it is something they’d be interested in.

6.Archive past newsletter issues. A “library” of past newsletters is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can send additional traffic to your web site through good search engine positioning.

7.Contact other newsletter publishers. Introduce yourself and explore ways you may be able to help each other. Perhaps you can introduce other publisher’s newsletters or print articles they have written to your list, with a link to sign up. When you contact them, be sure to tell them why you think THEIR readers would like what you have to offer and why YOUR readers would benefit from their newsletters. This is a win-win scenario; both of you will build your lists faster!

8.Give away bonuses subscribers can use. Create an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list. You can write an ebook or PDF report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to only a gift for new opt-ins. Remind your readers that the next bonus is coming soon. People hate to miss out on things. If you systematically pass on “goodies” throughout the year, your subscribers are unlikely to leave.

9.Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find the content you share with them to be informative, they will pass your newsletter on to their friends. This can be a good source of new subscribers.

10.Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you will get new subscribers, traffic and links pointing to your site.

11.Include a “Sign Up” button in the newsletter. If you are using plain text instead of HTML, provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint it online. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe.

12.Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to get an opt-in and build your list. Think of it like a mini-sales letter for your subscription or opt-in bonus. It features a powerful headline and a couple of very important benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up to your list. Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and advertise there using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo.

13.Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put 1 or 2 strong testimonials from satisfied subscribers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video social proof) is more “believable”. To increase that believability, include full names, locations and/or urls; don’t use “Bob K, FL” as a testimonial name.

14.Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with your potential customers, and it creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or Wordpress.

15.Post on other blogs. Post great comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers.

Tagged as: Mailing Lists, marketing, promotion, subscriber list

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Are you looking for a great way to keep your customers and other business contacts up to date? Or keep up to date on them? Or do you just need a quick and easy way to keep up a personal relationship with your contacts over the internet? Well there’s a great new trend picking up called microblogging that may just save you time and even expand your customer base.

Microblogging is similar to regular blogging, but shorter and usually faster and more convenient. While you can access normal blogs through the internet on your cell phone, many microblogging sites will have applications that automatically update you on your phone. This makes it easier for you to reach your friends, family, and customers.

Depending on the service you use, you may be able to microblog in forms other than text. Some sites will let you add video and audio as well, as long as it is smaller than a certain size. This makes it as effective as blogging, but a lot faster and more accessible for you and your contacts.

To microblog effectively, you need to have contacts who receive your posts. The easiest way to build your customer base and advertise a campaign is to use already existing networks to your advantage. A friend passes something along to three friends who pass it along to their three friends and so on, and eventually you’ve got a huge network of people to work with. The beauty of micro blogging is that these sources already have thousands of people who are all interconnected.

Microblogging can be used as a great way to promote your blog. You can add short comments, then direct them to the blog to hear the rest. This way, more people read what it’s about because they don’t really have to go out of their way to look at your blog. Plus, there is software available that will post the microblogs for you. That way, you get all the benefit without all the work.

If you don’t have a blog, you can still use microblogs to increase the traffic to your website as well. Any time you release a product or make an update, you can tell your contacts about it. This will keep them coming to your website over and over.

Microblogging is a great way to keep in touch with business associates and customers without having to do all the work of emailing. You can communicate what you’re doing with them, and keep up and their lives and businesses, and it’s all quick and easy.

You can also use microblogging as a way to establish yourself as an intelligent business person and a valuable asset in your field. You probably already do research on what’s going on with businesses in your field, whether it’s a new idea or an upcoming product release. Microblogs are a great way to pass along these tips, and an even better way to keep up on them yourself.

Tagged as: blog, Blogging, marketing, microblogging

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