Email Marketing
Easy Ways to Add an Audience without Spamming
Creating a successful product and following for that product is never a simple task. You are truly drawing a very fine line in the sand with what you can and cannot do. Thanks to spam and scam projects that have taken the internet world by storm, the rules today are much stricter in regard to what you can do with your website and what you can’t do, as well. In order to have success with list building, you have to avoid spamming at all costs. It might seem like a great idea to send 5,000 unsolicited emails just because you can, but that is a good way to get in bad with your potential customers.
If you are looking to add an audience and be successful with list building, here are some ideas that you can use to get the job done.
- Have a contest. People love winning things, even if the ‘thing’ is intangible. You will have better success with actual prizes, but theoretical winnings are often just as glorifying for people. It is a way to generate interest and make people feel special, all while building your list.
- Give something away. Whether it is a free trial of a product or service or just something that you can get “on the cheap” to promote yourself, people love free stuff. Exchange a cool logo pen for an email signup, or even a trial of your product/service so that they will give you their information.
- Write a free ezine on your product or industry. Again, people like free things and when they can get free information that is really important and relevant, they will jump at the opportunity. You can also offer free success articles and other free written materials to get people on board.
- Remember that quality is more important than quantity. Getting 500 people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer is far better than getting 1,000 people who might have an interest, but just wanted whatever you were giving away. With the larger group, you have more people on your list but you are basically taking a craps shoot to see if anyone will bite. With the smaller more targeted list, you will have higher conversion rates.
You CAN succeed with list building without spamming anyone if you are willing to invest the effort. These days, a lot of people are skeptical about giving out their email address but if you show them that they are getting something in return, you will have a much more successful time with list building.
Pros and Cons of Cleaning Email Lists
Everyone wants to know about cleaning out their email lists. It’s like spring-cleaning for internet marketers, and it’s hard to avoid the urge to scratch the itch. Everyone wants to talk about how big their list is and who has the most subscribers, but the reality of the situation is that it isn’t the number that matters. Whether you have 200,000 subscribers or 5,000, you need to make sure that you have quality subscribers who actually want and utilize the emails that you send. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and energy.
Cleaning out email lists has its rewards and disadvantages. You will be able to whittle down the list and make sure that every single address is a quality one that you can benefit from, but you will also lose some subscribers that might be more valuable than you realize. Here are some basic benefits and disadvantages of cleaning up your email lists:
Pros:
- Less to keep track of
- Updated, fresh information
- Actual users kept
- Corrected email addresses
- Eliminates errors
- Helps locate missing data
- Increased profits
Cons:
- Loss of possible subscribers of value
- If you use software, you might lose valuable information if errors occur
- Takes time or money depending on whether you do it or use software or professional services
- Potential annoyance to customers who have to “click here to confirm” information and their involvement in the list
- Might ward people away when you request ‘more information’ or ask for verification
As you can see, having a clean list goes both ways. Ultimately, it is a great way to brush up your business and keep things fresh. However, it might not always be ideal in every situation. Look at your timing, the way that you will clean up the list, and how you want to go about things before you decide what is best for your needs.
With a clean email list, you will only be marketing to people who actually desire your marketing. However, if a genuine customer missed that ever-important email, you might lose them forever because they never heard that they needed to re-confirm their subscription to the list. It really all depends on how you look at it, but having a higher quality list with fewer inconsistencies or wasted addresses is always going to give your email marketing the boost that it needs. In the end, you will have to decide what your business needs.
How to Get Maximum Results by Polling the Audience
Email surveys are a great way to keep up with your customers and help them get the most from what you have to offer. You can’t give people what they need if you don’t know what that is, after all. Taking the time to create effective surveys can help you get a better sense of where things are at and which things need to change, if any. If you have particular questions, you can get them answered. If you just want to know what people think, you can find out. If you want to see who is paying attention, an email survey is a great tool, as well.
In order to create effective email surveys, you need to keep the questions brief and make sure that you don’t take up too much time. People will be happy to tell you what you need to improve, but only if it isn’t going to take them an hour to do it. Any email survey that takes longer than 5 minutes will probably be disregarded by everyone but your very best (or very bored) subscribers. Occasional surveys via email are fine, but you also want to make sure that you don’t send them out too often because that will get on people’s nerves quickly.
Here are some questions that are worthy of asking in your email surveys, which should be kept to 5-10 multiple choice or short answer questions that people don’t need to spend a lot of time on:
- What do you like about the product/service?
- What are your dislikes?
- Why do you subscribe to the service?
- How often do you visit the website?
- How often do you use the product/service?
- What improvements could be made?
- When should emails be sent?
- How do you like the site design/content?
- How do you like the email design/content/delivery?
Finally, you should include a space where people can include other thoughts, explain their answers, or provide more information. This is ideal because it allows more space for people who want it, but isn’t required for those who don’t have the time or desire to offer any more information. Keep it simple, keep it short, and make sure that you don’t utilize these surveys too often in your internet marketing. You can use the results that you get to make changes, know what is working with your website/product/email campaign, and see where your subscribers stand on the issues that matter most to them.
5 Ways to Build a Targeted Email List
When building your readership it is important to build a targeted list organically. This way you will be able to stay in the good graces of major search engines, and also be able to potentiate your base and offer quality content that is purposeful. You can build a targeted list in a number of ways. These are five of the most effective methods.
1. Email Signature. Provide a link to your newsletter or other subscription in your email signature. This is a great way to target potential subscribers because these are people and organizations that you tend to already do business with. You can include established customers, media, and suppliers. Be sure to add a link to your list in your signature line if you are active on any related forums as well.
2. Referral. This is one of the most powerful and often overlooked ways to build a targeted list. Encourage your friends and your established customer base to get the word out about your subscription and the services or products that you provide. One way to potentiate this method is to offer referral contests. Make sure the contests are “opt-in” so as not to encourage spamming.
3. Subscriber Landing Page. This is a page that will specifically promote your subscription and can actively recruit quality members for your list. The page should be optimized for your audience and search engines. This method will insure that your organization will be found under your industry keywords. To make this work, make sure you focus on the benefits of subscribing to the list.
4. Social Networks. Simply letting people know that you have an email marketing program will help build your readership. You can “tweet” your newsletter when a new edition comes out. On Facebook, you can add a subscription form to your page with the “Static FBML Application”. Consider setting up a fan page to promote your products or service as well.
5. Blogging. If you do not already maintain your own blog, consider setting one up. This is a major way you can build a loyal base. Include an email subscription option wherever possible. Many people have this option included on almost every page on their blog. Guest blogging is a good way to build a targeted list as well. When you write a guest post on another blog, there is often a customary “author bio”. Within this bio you can include links to a few different places, one being a link to your subscription page.
There are many “sneaky” ways to get new contacts added to your contact list. But let’s face it, if you have to “sneak” someone onto your list…chances are they will opt-out the first chance they get. Keep your list clean…always have your customers opt-in at their will.
