Brooks Digital Marketing

In this article we are going to look at methods for building a receptive email list that you can market to again and again.

First of all let’s consider the significance of email marketing today and the importance of continued communication.

Email marketing averages 6% returns, that’s a 300% increase on direct mail.

Think about this too, 48% of businesses never follow up with a prospect, 25% only make a second contact and 12% only make three contacts.

It has been proved that maintaining a relationship with your prospects is the real key to making fantastic money online. Once you’ve got a customer base that you’ve sold to already you will find it 10 times easier to sell to them than it would be to a new prospect.

Believe it or not, it is the third contact where your conversion rates start to soar and by the fifth contact they will skyrocket. Email marketing is the perfect opportunity to tap into these amazing figures and start doubling or even tripling your profits today.

Choosing the Right Software

In order to market via email you will need an email marketing system that is easy to use, reliable and has the power to do what you need it to.

There are many systems out there but we recommend using a company with solid support and a good reputation in the market and there are loads out there.

A software system with a long history of sending email to major email providers such as Hotmail and AOL is critically important as this will ensure that your messages reach your intended recipients.

Ok, so once you’ve settled on a system that suits your requirements, we need to then look at how to build your list of hot emails.

Where to Start

In order to market to customers effectively you have to a receptive audience. So where better to look first than your existing customer data.

Now you might already have a database of email contacts that you’ve built over time and this is a potential goldmine. Put simply though if you’ve not been keeping in touch this data needs to be purified.

1. Mining the gold in your existing customer list

Our first suggestion is to blow the dust of that spreadsheet or database and re-introduce your company to past customers with a compelling email.

Now if you are concerned that you haven’t been in touch for a while and might get your hand slapped for spamming don’t worry, business law is slightly more forgiving than that which applies to the general public and it is perfectly acceptable to send an email to the business if you have had at least one contact with them and you provide a clear route for them to ‘opt out’ of further emails (check this email marketing legal document out if you are worried).

In fact your first email to ANY new sign up via your web site should always include an opt in link verifying their interest.

Failure to provide this step drastically reduces your credibility so don’t think that ignoring will help you.

The email should contain an interesting update about your product or service and a special offer of some sort like a ‘secret report’ to download or a limited time discount coupon – your offer will be something that fits in with your business of course.

The key here is to make it an offer that they can’t refuse as the aim is to get them to stay opted in to your list. If you do this properly you will now have a list of re-qualified customers that you can really get into.

2. Attracting New Customers

For this next strategy there is the assumption that you are getting traffic to your web site already (see here for more on traffic generation).

Now this can be more tricky and time consuming than purifying your own customer database
but remember, this business of data capture isn’t about snaring unsuspecting people so that you can spam them to death.

Your goal is to build a hot customer base through providing them with useful content (and your offers later!). If you don’t stick to this goal your new sign ups will unsubscribe and you will never see them again – simple as that.

So what is the best way to get the list growing?

Again, just make them an offer on your web site that they can’t refuse!

Our first technique for building a list is to provide access to a free downloadable report packed with useful facts or access to an e-course in the form of videos, mp3s or PDF’s.

For this to be most effective you should make your offer highly compelling like revealing insider tips, industry secrets, competitions etc. This technique will generate a nice list for you to work with.

The trick here is to ensure that your offer is quick and easy to sign up to, so only ask for their name and email otherwise you are complicating the issue.

So there you go, two tried and tested methods of getting a qualified list together that you can action now.

Part 2 of building a hot email list discusses how to set up your campaign for maximum potency.

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