by Boris Mahovac
If you are an ezine publisher/email marketer, or you are considering becoming one in the near future, then the importance of having your own email list cannot be stressed enough: the money is in the list.
You can have the best widget on the planet, or the best service, but if there's no one to offer it to, you do not have a business. Always remember, you are in the business of selling your products or services, so without sales, there will be no profit.
Size does matter here, but it is not crucial. However, the bigger your email list, the more likely you are to monetize it, so let's see how we can build your list.
There are hundreds of ways you can attract prospects to join your email list. Some will work better than others, depending on your specific target market. For example, public speaking will do wonders for an IT professional, or a motivational speaker. However, if you sell powerboats, there will be less opportunity for you to attract new customers this way.
Here are five tips on growing your list that should work for most businesses. The first three are purely online strategies, while the last two are traditional, off line methods of generating leads.
1. Sign Up Forms
Weather your home page is a "squeeze page" or you have a regular, branding-type multiple-page web site, you must have a sign up form of some sort on every single page of your web site. Don't think about your web site just in terms of your home page, because, if you have articles, about pages, resources, etc., any page can be an entry point for your visitors.This is because search engines will index all of your pages, and people searching the Net using keywords you used can land on any of those pages.
Lets say your web site consists of your home page and 9 other pages. Unless you have a sign up form on every page, you may be missing an opportunity to sign up 90% or even more visitors who may never see you home page. For this purpose, you can use regular HTML forms, pop-ups or pop-unders.
2. Ezine Advertising
Find ezines whose target market matches yours, but whose publishers are not direct competitors. Try to find ezines that are complimentary to yours, e.g. a winemaker might want to place an ad with an event organizer, or a chef.
Contact them to see if they accept classified ads, or ad swaps, where they would place an ad in your ezine in return for running your ad in theirs. Use an ad-tracking program to see how many clicks you receive, and how many subscribers and sales result from those ads. I use my shopping cart's built-in ad-tracker module.
3. Affiliate Programs
Simply put, an affiliate program allows you to grow your list and make more sales at the same time. When other people join your affiliate program, they agree to promote you, your products or services on their own time and using their own resources. In exchange, you offer them a commission on any sales that result from their efforts. Each and every affiliate partner will have their own list of clients they can promote you to.
There are several options for you to set up the program. I use and recommend EzineCart.com.
4. Postcards and Greeting Cards
Email is fine, easy and (almost) free, but nothing beats the deliverability of the good old post office! Send out custom postcards to stand out from the crowd. Again, use tracking to determine how your postcard campaigns are converting by setting up a special URL, e.g. www.yoursite.com/postcard. This way you can split test different card designs, headlines, etc. to see which one pulls better.
For large-scale mailings (5,000 or more cards) use a commercial printer and mail shop to deliver your cards. If your list of prospects is smaller, or simply to test your postcards on a small sample of prospects, use GrowBizWithPostcards.com which is my link to SendOutCards. It's an online on-demand printing and delivery system that works very much like sending personalized email, only it prints, personalizes and mails real postcards and greeting cards in any quantity. You can send a dozen custom postcards for about 10 bucks. I use this service myself and I love it.
5. Your Business Card
OK, when was the last time you updated your business card? Take a look at it now, and see if there's room for improvement. Here are some tips:
1. use both sides of the card to deliver your message;
2. have a clear, benefit-driven statement that addresses your prospects needs/wants;
3. include a call to action, such as "Visit our web site to sign up for ABC and receive a free XYZ";
4. ask your printer about using AQ coating because it will protect the ink from smudging, but will allow your prospects to write on your card with a regular pen.
If you're really cash-strapped you can get your cards for almost nothing on line at various sites, but I'd recommend you invest in a nice custom designed card, which will project a more professional image. If you attend a lot of networking events, where you may leave your cards unattended for anyone to pick up, I'd recommend not using your real email address, but list a Yahoo, or similar account on the cards, so that you can protect yourself from unwanted email.
Ezine expert Boris Mahovac, "Your Ezine Coach," publishes the 'Contacts 2 Clients' biweekly ezine. Sign up today and receive a free tele-seminar: "Six Steps to Setting Up Your Business On Line and Making Money with Ezines," an exclusive interview with Glen Hopkins. If you want to jump-start your small biz marketing, make more money while working less, get your free tips now at http://www.YourEzineCoach.com
If you are an ezine publisher/email marketer, or you are considering becoming one in the near future, then the importance of having your own email list cannot be stressed enough: the money is in the list.
You can have the best widget on the planet, or the best service, but if there's no one to offer it to, you do not have a business. Always remember, you are in the business of selling your products or services, so without sales, there will be no profit.
Size does matter here, but it is not crucial. However, the bigger your email list, the more likely you are to monetize it, so let's see how we can build your list.
There are hundreds of ways you can attract prospects to join your email list. Some will work better than others, depending on your specific target market. For example, public speaking will do wonders for an IT professional, or a motivational speaker. However, if you sell powerboats, there will be less opportunity for you to attract new customers this way.
Here are five tips on growing your list that should work for most businesses. The first three are purely online strategies, while the last two are traditional, off line methods of generating leads.
1. Sign Up Forms
Weather your home page is a "squeeze page" or you have a regular, branding-type multiple-page web site, you must have a sign up form of some sort on every single page of your web site. Don't think about your web site just in terms of your home page, because, if you have articles, about pages, resources, etc., any page can be an entry point for your visitors.This is because search engines will index all of your pages, and people searching the Net using keywords you used can land on any of those pages.
Lets say your web site consists of your home page and 9 other pages. Unless you have a sign up form on every page, you may be missing an opportunity to sign up 90% or even more visitors who may never see you home page. For this purpose, you can use regular HTML forms, pop-ups or pop-unders.
2. Ezine Advertising
Find ezines whose target market matches yours, but whose publishers are not direct competitors. Try to find ezines that are complimentary to yours, e.g. a winemaker might want to place an ad with an event organizer, or a chef.
Contact them to see if they accept classified ads, or ad swaps, where they would place an ad in your ezine in return for running your ad in theirs. Use an ad-tracking program to see how many clicks you receive, and how many subscribers and sales result from those ads. I use my shopping cart's built-in ad-tracker module.
3. Affiliate Programs
Simply put, an affiliate program allows you to grow your list and make more sales at the same time. When other people join your affiliate program, they agree to promote you, your products or services on their own time and using their own resources. In exchange, you offer them a commission on any sales that result from their efforts. Each and every affiliate partner will have their own list of clients they can promote you to.
There are several options for you to set up the program. I use and recommend EzineCart.com.
4. Postcards and Greeting Cards
Email is fine, easy and (almost) free, but nothing beats the deliverability of the good old post office! Send out custom postcards to stand out from the crowd. Again, use tracking to determine how your postcard campaigns are converting by setting up a special URL, e.g. www.yoursite.com/postcard. This way you can split test different card designs, headlines, etc. to see which one pulls better.
For large-scale mailings (5,000 or more cards) use a commercial printer and mail shop to deliver your cards. If your list of prospects is smaller, or simply to test your postcards on a small sample of prospects, use GrowBizWithPostcards.com which is my link to SendOutCards. It's an online on-demand printing and delivery system that works very much like sending personalized email, only it prints, personalizes and mails real postcards and greeting cards in any quantity. You can send a dozen custom postcards for about 10 bucks. I use this service myself and I love it.
5. Your Business Card
OK, when was the last time you updated your business card? Take a look at it now, and see if there's room for improvement. Here are some tips:
1. use both sides of the card to deliver your message;
2. have a clear, benefit-driven statement that addresses your prospects needs/wants;
3. include a call to action, such as "Visit our web site to sign up for ABC and receive a free XYZ";
4. ask your printer about using AQ coating because it will protect the ink from smudging, but will allow your prospects to write on your card with a regular pen.
If you're really cash-strapped you can get your cards for almost nothing on line at various sites, but I'd recommend you invest in a nice custom designed card, which will project a more professional image. If you attend a lot of networking events, where you may leave your cards unattended for anyone to pick up, I'd recommend not using your real email address, but list a Yahoo, or similar account on the cards, so that you can protect yourself from unwanted email.
Ezine expert Boris Mahovac, "Your Ezine Coach," publishes the 'Contacts 2 Clients' biweekly ezine. Sign up today and receive a free tele-seminar: "Six Steps to Setting Up Your Business On Line and Making Money with Ezines," an exclusive interview with Glen Hopkins. If you want to jump-start your small biz marketing, make more money while working less, get your free tips now at http://www.YourEzineCoach.com
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