Innovative Ways to Build An Opt-in Email List That Stands Above The Crowd

Innovative Ways to Build an Opt-in Email List

With so many opt-in email lists out there, our list really needs to come up with a hook to attract and subscribers. It needs to have something special or different. It could be something you offer inside every newsletter issue, like interviews with experts. Or the hook could be a unique incentive that website visitors can take advantage of immediately when they sign up.

Here are some ideas that you can incorporate into your own website to entice new subscribers to opt-in to your list.

Build your List by Creating a Private Members Section on your Site

Create a private web site and have people sign up to get free, immediate access. For example, you could say, "Subscribe to our newsletter and get free access to our private membership area”.  You can choose to have them receive a username and password that they will use every time they want to login, or you can just provide a link to the site in your welcome email.

Your private members only site can be as big or as small as you want. Some of the things you can include inside are: reports, software, articles, eBooks, etc. Inside the site, you can market your business, as well. And you can follow-up to let them know about updates, new products they might be interested in, the latest news in your industry, etc.

Build Your List by Giving Subscribers a Free, Tangible Gift

Instead of offering a free eBook (or a whole package of them) like most everybody else, promise to give your visitors something they can hold in their hands if they give you their contact information.

For example, you could say "Subscribe today and get our new report mailed to you via First Class." You could print out your report on standard 8 x 11 sheets of paper, fold it up, put it inside an envelope, and mail it off.

Or you can offer a tips booklet and mail it to new subscribers. Or you can create your own CD full of information targeted toward your market and mail that. Or if you have a wholesale supply of a product of interest to your subscribers, then you can send one to each new subscriber. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Follow-up possibilities include: articles (your own or written by others), tips you pick up, news in your niche, reviews of products or other interested, related websites, etc.

Build your Email List Through a Contest or Sweepstakes

Hold a free contest or sweepstakes at your website where they must give their contact information, including their email address, to enter. Make the prize something that your market will be interested in. Otherwise, they'll never want to enter.

If you already have a newsletter up and running, you could offer free automatic entry for new subscribers. For example, you could say, "Subscribe to our free newsletter and get automatic entry into our contest." You'll also want to retroactively include current subscribers.

You can announce the winner(s) at the end, as well as send any new contest announcements or product announcements. Or you can make this an ongoing contest, where you give away the same thing to one (or more) lucky people every month. That way you'll entice many subscribers to stay on your list.

You can find products to give away through wholesalers or drop shippers. Or you can create it yourself. One of my favorite ways to do this is create a CD-Rom with a guide or report (or sometimes several) that my market will find interesting.

Once again, you can follow-up with tips, articles, news, new product announcements, or just an announcement of each monthly winner(s).

These are just a handful of ideas on how to entice new subscribers to your list.  It is important to be thinking outside of the box and coming up with ideas that you can use to grow your list on a regular basis.

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Increase your Email list with these Tips

Email Marketing is a very effective tool to use in your business.  One key however to using Email Marketing successfully is to build your list of subscribers.  Without an active list of subscribers your Email Marketing efforts may not produce the results you are hoping for.

Here are a few tips to help you increase your list of subscribers:

Make it easy for subscribers to sign-up for your list–  Make it easy for people to sign-up for your email list by placing your subscribe form above the fold on your website.  This will help make sure that it is seen by visitors.

Offer multiple ways to subscribe to your list – Provide your prospects and clients several ways to subscribe to your email list.  Provide a link in your email signature, add it to your facebook pages, add it to your print material and always as them for their email address when you do business with them.

Make your subscribe form simple – If your subscribe form is simple in most cases you will have a better response rate.  To get started in most cases you will want a name and an email address.  You can always ask for an address and phone number later in the process.

Give your prospect or customer a reason to subscribe –Often in order to capture interest and trust of your client of prospect you must offer something in exchange for them providing their name and email address.  Provide an incentive.  This incentive can be a coupon, free report, teleconference, or even just a newsletter packed full of information.

Ask for referrals –When you do send email out to your list add a line in there asking them to forward it to others that may benefit from your information.  In a lot of cases this will prompt the person receiving the information to also sign up for your list.

Remember that effective Email Marketing starts with your list.  Using these tips will help increase the size of your list and make it more effective.

SourceOne Technologies offers Email Marketing assistance with various programs available from the do it yourself system to a full service system.  To find out more please use the form below.

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Tips for Using Email Marketing Effectively in your Business

 

Using Email Marketing as part of your marketing mix is a great way to stay in contact with your prospects and current customers and in most cases generate more revenue on a regular basis.

One key to using email marketing successfully is to be consistent.  Being consistent with your email marketing will keep you in front of your market and help build a connection.  Consistency being key you should market to your email list approximately 2 – 4 times a month. 

Here are a few additional tips to help you use email marketing effectively in your business:

Provide something of value to members of your list when you send them email.  Coupons are great to send out to your list and are often shared with others.

Track your results.  It is important that you know what emails are effective and which ones are not.  This can be achieved by using a system that shows you who opens the emails and if they click on any links included in the email or not.

Personalize the emails you send.  Use a tool that will allow you to personalize the email you send to each prospect and you will see an increase in your open rate.  Everyone likes to be addressed by name.

Respect your list. It is critical that you respect your list and never spam them with email they do not want.  To prevent this a system should be used that allows subscribers to un-subscribe if they no longer wish to receive your email marketing.

Make it easy to share.  Make it easy for your list to share any email you send with someone else.  This will help you grow your list over time.

These tips will help you effectively use email marketing to reach your prospects and customers and stay in front of them on a regular basis, ultimately generating more revenue.

About the author: Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence by offer their services as an Online Marketing Consultant.

 

If your business is ready to capture the benefits of Email Marketing SourceOne Technologies can assist you in getting started.  We offer several plans that range from the do it yourself to the everything done for you plans.  Click here to find more about our Email Marketing plans.

 

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Implementing an Automated Email Marketing Campaign for your Business

Businesses that are run online have been using a strategy for years for selling products and services; email marketing.  This is a marketing tool however that many businesses with a store front or office overlooked and did not include into the marketing mix.  Email marketing however, can no longer be overlooked and should be incorporated into every businesses marketing mix.

Email marketing will allow a business to build a list of customers or prospects and keep in touch with them on a regular basis.  In most cases staying in contact with your list of prospects and customers will increase revenue.

There are several benefits to using email marketing in your business.  Here are a few of those benefits:

• Low Cost
• Offers Unlimited follow-up with your prospects and customers
• Offers increased opportunity for more sales
• Is a great customer retention tool
• Can be automated
• Implementing Email Marketing typically increased revenue

There are also several ways that you can use email marketing with communicating with your prospects and customers.  Here are just a few:

• Thank them for their purchase
• Provide a coupon
• Send information on a sale or special promotion
• Promote an event
• Send a newsletter
• Share information on new products or services
• Profile the customer of the month

As you can see using email marketing has many benefits and uses for every business. Email marketing should no longer be an overlooked item in any business marketing mix.

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence by offer their services as an Online Marketing Consultant.

 

If your business is ready to capture the benefits of Email Marketing SourceOne Technologies can assist you in getting started.  We offer several plans that range from the do it yourself to the everything done for you plans.  Click here to find more about our Email Marketing plans.

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Are you leaving money on the table ?

As a business owner are you leaving money on the table?  Unfortunately many business owners are doing just this, leaving money on the table; but this doesn’t have to be the case.

One of the top things we see all the time is a business owner missing out on additional revenue, sometimes thousands of dollars worth by not capturing the name and email address of their current customer base.  The good thing is that this is something that can easily be corrected.

One of the largest assets a business has is its customer list, but the value in this asset is only there if it is utilized.  Current customers that have already benefited from your products and services more than likely will use you again, however you must stay in front of them so they remember you.

Implementing Email Marketing where you capture your customers name and email address and send them regular newsletters and coupons can be set up very quickly for you and in many cases can be greatly automated.  Once this is in place you will usually see at minimum a 10% increase in revenue from your current customers.

In many cases your current customers will also become word of mouth advertisers for you and begin forwarding your newsletters and coupons to friends who will also be interested in your product or service.

If you are interested in seeing how Email Marketing can be implemented for your business please contact SourceOne Technologies at 720-306-5001 today.

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Getting Started with E-mail Marketing

If you are a business owner and haven’t started using email marketing to communicate with your customers and prospects yet – now is the time. Jupiter Research predicts that US spending on email advertising will grow to $2.1 billion by 2012, so if you haven’t started using email marketing now is the time if you want to survive.

What exactly is email marketing?

E-mail marketing is is the use of email to send a targeted messages, information or offers to a designated set of customers or prospects. This is done by asking your customers or prospects to sign up or opt in to receive email from you.

If you haven’t gotten started yet with email marketing there are a few things that you can do to get started on the right foot.

Getting started with email marketing

The first thing you should do is identify the email management tool that you will use to store your customers or prospects names and email addresses and send out email from. There are a few tools that we recommend for this that range from $18 – $40 a month depending on your needs. This tool must provide an option for the visitor to opt-in to your list and if they wish to opt-out. It is important that you don’t skip this step. Trying to cut corners on this step could end up costing you.

The next thing that you will need to do is establish a method for collecting the names and email addresses of your customers or prospects. There are several ways that you can do this. One of the top ways to capture names and email addresses is to set up a lead capture form on your web site and offer a coupon or special in exchange for providing their name and email address. If you have a storefront location you could have your customers complete a registration card to be added to your mailing list, or you could place a computer near the checkout as well and have them register when checking out.

How to build your list?

One key to successfully building your list is to offer your customers and prospects an incentive to sign up for your list. In most cases if you operate a retail store or restaurant a good incentive to sign up for your list is to offer a a coupon of value (i.e.: 20% off, Free Dessert, Free Appetizer). A good incentive for a doctor, dentist, or other health care provider could be a free report on a health related topic.

Once you have your email management tool in place and have a method to collect the names and email addresses of your customers and prospects it is time to begin marketing to your list. The key to effective email marketing is to provide useful, relevant information to your customers and prospects without directly selling to them with every email. Your goal is to build a relationship with your customers and prospects and position yourself in their mind as the first choice when they need the product or service you offer. If you are a restaurant or retail store owner it is a good idea however to include a coupon or a special in your email messages, this is typically very well received.

If you follow the tips above for setting up an email management tool, building your list and how to mail to your list you will experience great success in your email marketing and you will l not be left behind with email marketing.

About the author: Stefanie Blackburn is the Internet Consultant for SourceOne Technologies.  SourceOne Technologies  focuses on helping our clients excel when it comes to creating an online presence and succeeding with email marketing.

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E-mail Deliverability Tips

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Ensuring requested opt-in E-mail is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the E-mail address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free E-mail address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending E-mail to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of E-mail. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet E-mail senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber E-mail. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

E-mail deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your E-mail delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

SourceOne Technologies has several packages available to assist you with your E-Mail Marketing Needs.  To find out more you can visit our E-Mail Marketing Packages page or feel free to call us at 720-306-5001.

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Compelling Statistics on how effective E-Mail Marketing is

If you are on the fence about adding E-Mail Marketing to your marketing mix the following statistics should help you see the power of using E-Mail Marketing.

• Consumers who subscribed to email newsletters generated 34.25% more product sales. – ConAgra Foods case study in association with MarketingSherpa (2007)

• Email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent on it. – DMA (2008)

• Email drove an average of $0.14 in revenues per delivered message. – Epsilon “Q3 2008 Email Trends and Benchmark” (Jan 2009)

• 56% of recipients of permission-based e-mail from retailers say they are more likely to make purchases from the retailers that they receive e-mails from

• 54% of respondents in a consumer survey said they had a more favorable opinion of the companies that send them email. – Epsilon (Oct 2008)

• 48% say they feel more loyal to retailers and their products as a result of receiving permission-based e-mail

• 55% share a coupon or forward the e-mail

• 62% of marketing executives surveyed say that email newsletters are tactics that are a part of their 2009 marketing strategy. – Datran Media “3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results” (2008)

• 67 percent of respondents stated that email has helped boost sales through other channels. – Datran Media, “Marketing & Media Survey” (2008)

Get Started today with our turnkey E-Mail Marketing Packages

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Increase your Revenue from your Current Customer Base

As a business owner I am sure you realize the value of your customers. Customers are what makes a business successful and allows you to succeed. If you do not have customers then you will not have revenue and in time you will go out of business.

I am sure you are often searching for ways to add additional customers and increase your revenue. This is a great way to increase your sales, however there may be another way to go about this.

What if there was a way to focus on your existing customers to increase your revenue as well as add additional customers?

There is a method that any business that wants to generate additional revenue from their existing customer base should be using in today’s economy. This method is E-mail marketing.

E-mail marketing is a direct mail method that is done by sending electronic mail or E-mail to your customers. This method is very effective and very direct because you only send this to customers that have given you permission to send them E-mail.

Using E-mail marketing you stay in front of your customers reminding them what products and services that you offer. Staying in front of your customer will make it so that when they need a product or service you are offering you will be the first to come to mind.

One great way to utilize this tool is to send coupons via -mail to your customers. Often if someone receives a coupon it will push them to action so that they can utilize the coupon. Here are some examples of effective use of coupons:

Restaurant Owners:

If your customer is thinking about going out for dinner and they receive a coupon via E-mail more than likely they will visit your restaurant versus another so that they can get the discount

Examples of coupons: buy one get one free, 20% off your total bill, Free Appetizer with meal, Free Dessert with Meal

Chiropractors:

Often patients will come in when they have something bothering them and only them. If you are communicating with patients regularly and offer coupons that provides an additional service or discount they are very likely to come in and use the coupon. You could also provide coupons for referring new patients.

Examples of coupons:

Refer a New Patient and get 50% off your next visit, Take 25% off your next visit if you come in by April 30, 2009

Bottom line is that by communicating with your existing customers regularly and offering coupons they are more than likely to come in more frequently and often spend more and even refer others to your business.

E-mail marketing is an excellent way to stay in contact with your existing customers and increase your revenue from the customers you already have.

SourceOne Technologies is here to help you implement an effective E-Mail Marketing Campaign so that you can follow-up with your existing customers easily and effortlessly for less than $5 a day.

Contact us today at 720-306-5001 to find out more about E-Mail Marketing and how you can implement it so that you are able to increase your bottom line with your existing customers.

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Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

Aweber is a tool that we reccomend to our clients so that your potential customers do not forget about you.  Find out more about how Aweber will keep you in front of your customers now.

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