You’ve created, designed and launched a website (or blog) for your business and now anxiously await the stamped of traffic you hope to accumulate as a result of the many hours of marketing you put in. You know you have amazing products and offer outstanding service, but what if your visitors choose not to buy during their first visit to your site?
If you fail to offer your website visitors the option to subscribe to your website or blog so that you can follow up with them at another time, you risk the chance of loosing that visitor forever. You worked hard on creating your site but what good will that do you if you aren’t able to reconnect with your visitors?
A huge part of building a profitable business online is learning how to implement successful marketing strategies that get you the results you want. Before profits can start rolling in consistently, you have to have an audience to market to, and what better way to do that than with Email Marketing!
Email Marketing provides a few great benefits for small business owners. Using this form of marketing allows you to establish and build a loyal relationship with people who are already interested in what you have to offer and gives you a way to stay in touch with new and current clients and continue to offer them products or services that meet their interests.
To set up an email marketing campaign for your business website or blog, you first need to choose a email marketing service provider. I personally use and recommend MailChimp.com. They offer a free service with great features and do not include ads in your outgoing emails. Other services you may want to check out are; aweber.com, icontact.com, constantcontact.com and madmimi.com just to name a few.
Once you choose your service, you can than create your email campaigns and set up autoresponders that will automatically send out pre-written messages (by you) to go out to your list at times you choose.
Each service provides special code so that you can add a subscription box to your website for your visitors to subscribe, or opt-in to your mailing list. (Watch my video: How to Add an Opt-In Subscription Box)
Now that your email marketing list is set up, the next task will be deciding…
How to Get People on Your List
Give a detailed description. Let your visitors know exactly what they can expect from you once they sign up to your list, then hold true to your word. If they opt-in to receive healthy eating tips, make sure that is what you give them. You can also create a “squeeze page”, which is similar to a product sales page except your visitors only option is to subscribe to your list. Using a squeeze page can be good if you utilize the space enough to share in detail all the benefits and incentives visitors will get when they choose to subscribe to your list. This brings me to my next tip.
Offer an incentive. You may want to consider offering an incentive in exchange for contact information. This works well when you have a specific niche market you want to reach. For instance, if you are a web designer and your visitors are mostly interested in web design, you could offer them a free report or ebook about how to design a website when they subscribe to your list.
Provide compelling content. If you own a blog (which you should), make sure that you are always providing quality and informative content for your readers. When people see you offer value and useful information that will actually make their life easier, they will be more comfortable subscribing to your list because they have a sense of what you bring to the table. This is why it is important to have an opt-in box on your blogs and websites to allow your visitors easy access.
Focus on your Niche. Another great way to get people to opt-in is to serve a particular niche. The more your content, products and service can target a specific audience, the more likely they will be to join your mailing list. Again, they can trust that you will deliver the kind of information they need and want.
Promote your list. There are a variety ways you can promote your mailing list. If you enjoy writing and blogging, find another blogger related to your industry and offer to do a guest post. You can take advantage of the bio box you will be able to add at the end of your post by sharing a description and link to your newsletter. Article writing is another way to reach more people. There are many article directories you can submit your articles to. You can always share links and sign-up information across your social networks and on twitter. The most important thing to remember is that in order for you to build a great list, you have to promote it on a continuous basis!
Being Consistent
Once you start your email list, it is important that you stay consistent. Be sure to always stay focused on providing the content your subscribers want to receive from you and on a regular basis. Email Marketing is an easy way to offer products and services to your list however, promotion should be kept to a minimum. When your goal is to provide your subscribers with useful content that will help them, in time, they will be more comfortable taking you up on your product offer when you share it!
Remember, just like every part of business building, establishing your list for email marketing takes time. Be patient consistent, and creative and watch your email list grow!
RESOURCE: 101 Smart and Easy Mailing List Strategies
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