The Quickest and Easiest Way to Build an Email List

Image courtesy of Master Isolated Images/FreeDigitalPhotos.netAs a marketer, your goal isn’t just to build awareness — it’s to attract and retain customers.

All of your marketing efforts should be focused on building awareness, credibility and trust.

If you’re trying to making a living online and you’re sick and tired of bumbling around making stupid mistakes, you should focus on building a responsive email list now because if not, you’re missing out on one of the most cost effective and profitable marketing tools available.

Even if you’re a non-tech-savvy person there’s nothing more important than growing your email list. After all, if you could learn about the most underrated marketing tool that required minimal investment on your part, you’d want to wouldn’t you?

If you could make a small investment in your business that would unlock a flood of leads and sales, even if you’re an entrepreneur doing much of the work yourself, you’d make it wouldn’t you?

But if something like this existed you’d know about it because everybody else would be using it wouldn’t they?

Right?

Wrong.

 

There Is Big Money In Email Marketing

Why should you care about email?

Well, for starters, the low cost, high return on investment and ability to track and measure all make email one of the best marketing tools available today.

Do you want to drive targeted traffic to your site? Do you want to build a platform? Get more clients? Make more sales? Then you need an email list.

After all, Google can slash your search engine rankings. Twitter and Facebook can suspend your account. But nobody can take your email list away from you. It’s a tangible business asset that you control.

And you don’t need a huge list to be effective. On the contrary, the best way to start your list is by being selective about who you add to it. You should be looking for people who are legitimately interested in your product or service.

Another reason email marketing should be on your radar: As you’ll see later email marketing continues to offer a better ROI than any other marketing channel. Maybe that’s why there’s a popular expression online—“the money is in the list.”

These are just a few of the reasons that you want to grow your email list.

Let’s say you’re slaving away trying different tactics, but you’re struggling to build your very own email list.

I have good news for you.

I’m going to show you how to get up to speed on the subject

 

Ignoring Email Marketing May Be Causing You To Lose Out On Sales

A responsive email list can be a vital asset to your online business. That’s why I’m going to show you how to find more subscribers.

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for so many businesses.

But before I jump into the details, let me say this…

You’re subscribers are more than a collection of email addresses. They’re a group of real people who share a specific interest in your niche topic. Keep this in mind and treat them right and you’ll create a lifelong asset.

Fortunately, it’s really not that hard.

Still, most people aren’t fully reaping the benefits of email marketing.

Why?

Three reasons:

1. Even though email marketing has consistently outperformed most other marketing strategies, it carries a stigma of being “old school” and is passed up in favor of other tactics like traditional advertising, social media, SEO or PPC ads.
2. Most people are lazy. Let’s face it. Most people don’t like change and getting started with email marketing can seem like a lot of work. However, if you’re willing to put in the effort, email marketing will let you connect with potential clients, build trust-based relationships and generate more sales through email.
3. They are still marketing the “old-fashioned” way. What I mean by that is people who are used to “talking to” their customers via push marketing may not be comfortable using email marketing since essentially, email is basically a 1-on-1 conversation. Email is the most personal medium and demands an understanding of your prospects and their problems and desires.

The bottom line: If you don’t make it more complex than it really is, building an email list is simple.

Can you really afford not to improve your email marketing campaigns?

 

4 Rookie Email Marketing Fails and How to Avoid Them

Now, you’re probably wondering if email marketing campaigns are so great how come everybody isn’t using email to bring home the bacon? They may be overwhelmed by the complexity of email marketing. They could be unsure where to start to get the best results. And once they start, it’s likely they’re probably making one or more of these common email marketing mistakes.

1. Not having permission—In a rush to build their list, many marketers use dubious tactics to grow their email lists. Buying or renting lists is typically not the way you want to go. In fact, if you want to be successful in email marketing you need to make sure the people you communicate with know who you are and want to hear from you. If not, you’re sending SPAM and under the CAN-SPAM Act, you can be fined $11,000 for every offense.
2. Bad copy—If you want to build a high-quality, high-converting email list in an ethical and engaging way, you need to speak the language of your audience. You need to authentically express your message and create content your subscribers find entertaining, useful, and relevant. If you don’t have the chops to create this kind of copy, find someone who does.
3. Ignoring best practices—If you want to improve open rates, clickthroughs, and conversions, you need to observe the standard conventions that will help you achieve your goal. For example, if you want your emails to be perceived as professional, don’t send them from a personal address. You should send from an address using your company name and not use a “no reply” email address.
4. Going it alone—You don’t have to do everything on your own. In fact, working with a reputable and knowledgeable email marketing service provider can make getting started with email marketing much easier. It’s tough to create powerful email marketing campaigns in a vacuum. ESPs manage your delivery infrastructure, keep your messages out of the spam filters, and lots of other “behind-the-scenes” stuff for you. There are companies like AWeber, iContact and Constant Contact that will help you. Learn what works and what doesn’t from your email marketing service provider and other marketers.

My advice: Use common sense and err on the side of caution. If you think there’s something wrong with something you’re doing, chances are there might be.

 

Where To Start?

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, you want to get your own email marketing system up and running quickly and getting you results.

If you are looking to try email marketing but not sure where to start, you’re in luck.

Here’s the complete roadmap to getting started with email marketing even if you’re starting from scratch. Let me show you six strategies for growing your email list.

Strategy #1—Spend some time planning. If you don’t have a list take some time to think about who your target audience is, where you expect to find them, and what they expect to get from your emails. Most likely, you’ll need at least 2 lists starting out—prospects and existing customers. The first step in attracting people to join your email list is developing a “bait piece”, or giveaway for the specific purpose of collecting leads. This could be almost anything such as a free, online tool or resource, a free ebook or whitepaper. What would your audience find useful enough that they would share their email address with you?

Strategy #2—Use your website to grow your email list. Make your sign up forms available in multiple locations on your website. These should be prominent areas on your site like your sidebar, footer, and about page. Be very clear and upfront with your call-to-action. Let your visitors know exactly what they are signing up for. For example, “Enter you email address to stay up-to-date with sales, email-only promotions, and special offers.” is a much better call-to-action than “Subscribe here.” You may also consider using entrance or exit pop-ups that prompt visitors to subscribe.

Strategy #3—Take full advantage of the medium. Email offers you opportunities that other marketing channels just can’t match. Use personalization in your email communications. Reassure subscribers you’ll protect their information. Create a “welcome sequence”, or autoresponder series for new subscribers to drive engagement. Since it’s so low-coast, you should email your list at least monthly, although some data suggests that frequent emails may actually be more effective.

Strategy #4—Take advantage of the many ways to grow your list. There’s no one best way. You can collect email addresses at offline events, offer Text-to-Join or Scan-to-Join, do a joint venture with another list owner, or use double opt-in forms on websites, blogs, and social media pages. You can also host a webinar and collect email address as part of the registration process. There are ways to use Facebook to grow your email list quickly as well.

Strategy #5— Optimize for mobile. Since more email is read on mobile devices than on desktop email clients it only makes sense. Statistics say 51% of email is now opened on a mobile device. You don’t want to invest your time and energy just to send your subscribers an email message that doesn’t display properly when they try to read it.

Strategy #6—Capitalize on the ease with which you can measure and track your email marketing campaigns. Most types of marketing and advertising are difficult to measure. But with email you can keep track of metrics like open rates, clickthroughs, and sales, unlike many other marketing tactics, with email it’s easy to calculate your return on investment.

List-building doesn’t have to be hard. What techniques are you using to get results with email marketing?

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Anthony Sills’ work can be found at American Express OPEN Forum, Copyblogger, Infusionsoft’s Big Ideas blog, and elsewhere. He writes about HR & employment, marketing, and business. You can always reach Anthony via social media, email, or by leaving a comment below.