by CHICKMELIONfreelance
Email/ Newsletter Marketing is not like other marketing activities with respect to the target audience. While most other marketing efforts are geared to solicit prospects to your site, list building it a tool and technique that allows a continuation of servicing the prospect once they are there. There are some very good reasons why you will want to engage in list building and I am not going to quote the rhetoric about the "money being in the list" .
Simply put it is well known that it takes at least 3 to 5 contacts with a prospect before they consider or trust you well enough to do business with you. In addition, it is far less costly to service and maintain current prospects and clients to turn them over to a (repeat)customer as it is to search our new ones. If you establish a rapport with these individuals and companies, they can help your list and your organization to grow by word of mouth and referrals. It is their endorsements that will be your most effective marketing tool of all...
Now list building is wrought with it’s dangers and thorns. Email marketing has taken some blows by unsavory characters looking for the quick and easy engaging in spamming activity, so you are cautioned to work your list building activities ethically and responsibly. No foundation is ever safe or worthy to stand on if it is built quickly and recklessly. The consequences if you don’t could earn you blacklist status and it is far easier to slowly work with a good reputation than it is to repair a ruined one made by haste. But be cautioned, even the most frugal of email marketers and list builders find themselves blacklisted unknowingly. Therefore take the time to look over spam laws, and how to get out of hot water if you inadvertently find yourself there in this kit, so fear not! Check out some of these sites for some help on the subject: http://carlasnmc.blogspot.com/ (copy and paste address to your web browser)
Although Newsletters are not the sole activity of list building and email marketing, it is very important tool because of it’s very nature in fostering a sense of value with your activity, as well as guaranteeing regular contact with prospects. Marketing nowadays gravitates around expectations of the prospect to be wooed by a free sample, gift or token of appreciation in order to gain their loyalty in return. Once your efforts have landed your prospect on your site, you want to keep them there, or in the very least keep yourself in their mind’s eye. A newsletter is a fantastic delivery of gratuitous gifting as well as a direct one on one advertising vehicle.
Newsletters offer the following benefits:
1) They build long term relationships,
2) allow you to gain the trust of your prospects,
3) and establish your authority and expertise in your niche.
Now if you are new to the scene, no doubt you are struggling to pull a list together so here are some ideas:
1)Start with friends and current business contacts and always remember to ask them to pass the word on. Theirendorsement is worth more than any paid advertisement. But REMEMBER TO ASK! Very few are going to volunteer
yet even fewer will turn down a polite request.
2)Work your social network
3)Put a contact form on your web page and use your web analytics to determine the readership patterns of your visitors to your web page... put the contact form in the highest visible spot and offer an incentive for them to sign up.
4)If you have a link exchange going on your site you may consider a very polite email to these contacts asking if they would be interested in being a part of your mailing list. An incentive like a link or a mention on your newsletter may help as well!
5)Work a banner ad pitch and/or a squeeze page pitch or even both in unison to solicit potential opt in patrons.
6)If Article marketing it is worth a mention or a pitch in your Author’s Bio... be creative!
List building is a very important activity and will be a regular ongoing process during all the life cycles of your enterprise. Although it is not the "end all- be all" it does warrant allotting time and attention on a scheduled regular basis. Here’s to your success!
