Choosing the Right Email Marketing Solution

 

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

 

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!
The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their "goldmine" because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you've built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you've completed the first step and are on your way. Now it's time to "mine" for gold!
Below you'll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:

1. Provide useful, relevant 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 of interest or use to them.
   
2. Add a subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn't look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.
   
3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don't waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!
   
4. Make it easy for readers 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. You can always survey them once they're customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.
   
5. 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. (Note: If you don't have one, put the words "privacy policy generator" into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)
   
6. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it's something they'd be interested in.
   
7. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles 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 increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.
   
8. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don't limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out "goodies" throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that's good for business!
   
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 your content interesting, amusing or informative, they'll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to "pass it on".
   
10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you're happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you'll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.
    
11. Include a "Sign Up" button in your newsletter. If you're using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to 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 them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!
    
12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!
    
13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more "believable" and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don't use "Bob K, FL"). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it's free publicity!
    
14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and 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 thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. 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, and get your brand out there!
    

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How To Write an Autoresponder Message That Gets Results

How To Write an Autoresponder Message That Gets Results
Al Bredenberg
Founder of EmailResults.com

With an autoresponder, you can deliver your sales message or other information rapidly, 24/7. Here are nine ways to use this tool successfully.

The autoresponder (or mailbot) is one of the great workhorses of Internet marketing. With the autoresponder, you can deliver your sales message or other information rapidly. And you can deliver it 24 hours a day to any Internet email user in the world.

But how can you create an autoresponder message that gets real results? Here are some methods of power communication that I've had success with as a writer of sales letters, mailbot copy, World Wide Web content, ads and more.

1. Focus on the reader, not yourself

Your message should be about the customer's needs and how your product will fulfill those needs, not about how wonderful you are and how great your product is (in your own opinion).

Don't talk to me about your fertilizer, talk to me about my lawn. Take a look at my first few paragraphs above. How many times did I talk about "you" and "your" as opposed to "I" and "me"?

2. Make it personal.

As with any sales letter, write your autoresponder message as a one-to-one communication. Pretend you're sitting down to talk to a friend.

Let your message be friendly, animated and informal. Go ahead and use contractions (like "you're" and "don't" and "we'll"). Don't be afraid to start a sentence with "and" or "but." Your English teacher will never read it, and he wasn't teaching you to write advertising, anyway.

3. Emphasize benefits.

Rather than thinking of yourself as selling a product or a service, think of yourself as providing benefits. To determine the benefits, ask yourself, "What does the customer get out of my product?" The answer should be something like "more time," "more money," "more pleasure," "an easier life," "better health," or "greater safety."

Benefits are different from features. Example of a feature: "This computer has a Pentium 4 processor." Now we turn it into a benefit: "Lightning-fast Pentium 4 processor means you get more work done in less time."

4. Include a "call to action."

Be clear in your mind about what you want the reader to do after reading your message. What do you want? A reply by email? A visit to your Web site? An order called in to your toll-free number? Let the user know what response you want, and let them know in a compelling, urgent, benefits-oriented way. Include complete contact information, and triple-check it for accuracy.

5. Offer useful information.

One good autoresponder strategy is to offer a free report giving useful information but including a sales message -- an "advertorial" approach.

For an example, for several years I distributed a report, "10 Tips for Selling on the Internet and the World Wide Web." This was a report with much solid nuts-and-bolts advice. But at the end of the report, I told the user how to order my "Smart Business Guide to Internet Marketing," and I even included an order form. Users didn't resent my pitch because they got so much value from the report.

6. Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

You tell the world whether you're a professional or an amateur by the quality of your marketing communications. Take the time to edit your autoresponder message for errors. If you're not a good speller, get help from someone who is.

7. Use layout to make it easier to read.

Since a mailbot message is delivered in plain ASCII text, your design capabilities are limited. Here are a few tricks you can use to make your message more readable:

* For a headline, use ALL-CAPS and insert a blank line before and after.
* Use short paragraphs, say 5-7 lines at the most.
* Set out material in bulleted lists (like this one).
* Use "white space" to center important material and call attention to it

Warning: I suggest you not try to create cute pictures with text characters. Different computers use different screen and printer fonts, so your picture will often come out as a big mess.

Also, I think it's a good idea to limit each line to 55-60 characters, as many email systems will automatically wrap the text at that length.

8. Obey the law.

False advertising is still illegal, even if you're on the Internet. In many countries, pyramid schemes and chain letters are illegal. You should assume that all tax and licensing laws in your town, state, province, country and so forth still apply. If you're in doubt, check with your attorney or accountant.

9. Read the messages people send to your autoresponder.

A good autoresponder system will send you a copy of the request every time someone sends for your report. With most systems, the user doesn't have to type anything in the body of their message when they send in the request. But often they do! By reading the message and replying to the user personally, you may increase your chances of selling to that person.

If you create a strong, well-written, persuasive message, your autoresponder can help you increase your sales and fulfill the goals of your email marketing effort.

Get your free trial autoresponder here

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I strongly recommend GetResponse!

I've stumbled on a marketing idea that I
really like and I think you too could benefit from it.

It's no secret that pop-ups are everywhere.
Some people find them annoying. Heck, some people
hate them to the point that they install special
software to block them. But one thing cannot be
denied: pop-ups can *still* add dozens, even
hundreds of new subscribers to your mailing
list every day, and be responsible for thousands
of dollars in sales!

Pop-ups are particularly useful when combined with
a follow-up autoresponder system. Quite simply, you
use pop-ups to 'capture' your visitor's name and
email address, and then the sequential autoresponder
"feeds" information to her and close the sale.

This is a simple strategy used by literally every
well known Internet Marketer. Simon Grabowski uses
it. Marlon Sanders uses it. Corey Rudl uses it.
They all do it for a reason: this system generates
great results!

Imagine a follow-up autoresponder that not only
stays in touch with your leads and converts them
to paying customers, but also generates 'stealthy'
pop-ups that don't get killed by pop-up squashers
and sends you waves of new subscribers, every day!

GetResponse, the largest, most reliable and
feature-packed autoresponder on the Internet has
just got even better. Simon and his crew added the
Pop-up Creator that does exactly what I described:
it lets you add unsuppressed pop-ups to your site
and capture more signups, more subscribers and
more leads.

If you would like to put your marketing on an
autopilot AND capitalize on pop-ups, I strongly
recommend GetResponse!

Get your free trial autoresponder now...

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