Business depends on successful marketing. In contemporary business, successful marketing depends on a quality email marketing list. And, a quality email list depends on your ability to grow and filter the list quickly and regularly.
Building and improving an email marketing list requires time and attention, expenses to any business new or established. A marketing email list contains the addresses of people you sell or hope to sell. A better email is one that only lists addresses of prospects you have collected manually or of those who subscribe to or follow your website.
Huffington Post says, “The importance of an email list cannot be understated regarding your success as selling products and services.” Reaching the point where you have a quality list takes focus and effort. Keeping the list current and in good shape takes monitoring and maintenance. So, if you are connecting to customers, you should know how.
7 ways to create your marketing email list fast:
Shoot for integrity. Your email marketing list must be accurate in more ways than one. First, it must be correct. The addresses must be accurate in detail. The spelling, email service, and the use of upper and lower case, symbols and numbers must be sound.
Second, you must deliver what you promise. If the subscribers joined for your newsletter, deals, or coupons, you must stick to your promise. If there’s no meat to your promise, you are just sending spam. And, this requires some upfront strategy if you are going to need material to mail frequently.
Give them something free. You can send your viewers something to hold their attention. It could be something physical, a low-priced promotional item with your business name imprinted. That will also secure the prospect’s snail-mail address.
Most web marketers offer marketing magnet leads like newsletters, ebooks, trial offers, free shipping, white papers, and more. You might layer the values of several leads, each in exchange for more information about the contact.
Let content draw their attention. Web pages with quality content will catch attention by increasing your search ranking. Businesses that offer services or B2B sales profit from offering unique content copy. This includes the language a websites static pages, but it also includes blogs, articles, ebooks, reports, and newsletters. You will also want to encourage readers to share the content with others. In a recent article, Derek Kinzer wrote “Each post you publish is like a marketing soldier helping to attract more visitors. The more soldiers, the bigger the army, and the bigger the army.”
In addition to text content, you should include embedded how-to videos or invitations to webinars. Here, too, you need a strategy for developing these products and following through with them. For example, a webinar requires some staging and production, and videos need some investment.
Simply, make a request. You can’t “steal” email addresses without asking permission if you expect to build trust. But, you can ask for their contact information. Demanding email addresses will corrupt your list with false or secondary addresses, not to mention irritating the prospect. Still, as you offer leads and freebies, it’s only right for you to request something in exchange.
To optimize this, you must have your website developer or manager install the mechanics to capture the information provided by the web viewer. The site must connect viewers with your offers and download the content offered. You cannot offer incentives you cannot deliver.
Get and stay social. Today’s marketing must use social media. If viewers see you as a subject matter expert or thought leader in your industry or service, they will follow. They are also likely to share and the content you post on social media multiplying your contacts. Your presence on social media is a great opportunity to promote your marketing lead magnets.
But, you also have a real-life social network to maximize. You should not forget in-person contacts developed at Chamber of Commerce meetings, professional association events and local networks. Any occasion to exchange business cards offers a chance to add email addresses to your list in addition to placing a face with the mail.
Invite them in. If you follow your website activity closely, you can invite customers to offer testimonials. The invitation pats the customer on the back. But, it also lets you piggyback on their social recognition. This works especially well on LinkedIn where it makes the testimony network available.
If you secure that testimony on video, it doubles the effectiveness because it makes the contributor a thought leader. As an option, you can invite readers and customers to publish a blog or white paper, a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” approach to networking.
Launch a contest. Running a special event, competition, or contest takes a lot of work, but it will grow your email marketing list. Many online prospects are game-trained and indoctrinated. They like to compete for badges, points, and prizes.
You can make the event seasonal or tie it to a calendar of public events like the Superbowl. A valid email address and other contact information would be the price of admission. You might frames the contest in sports terms: innings, downs, goals, and so on. And, the prizes would be downloadable materials, gift certificates, or free subscriptions.
Keep connecting to customers
If your business has a website, it is static and unproductive without a dynamic connection with prospects and customers. It’s a place to build business and sustain customer loyalty. But, it takes time, effort, and investment.
According to Inc.com, “Building your email list should be a top priority if your goal is to communicate regularly with your customers. Like phone numbers, though, convincing someone to give you their email address isn’t easy since no one wants to receive spam.”
If you’re just starting your online business, the contents listed here can help. But, you may need help to keep pace. When you welcome that stage of growth, you now have the vocabulary to shop for and negotiate with email list providers and managers.
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