If you market your business on the Web, you may already know how powerful a mailing list can be.
A list of email addresses is your gateway to opportunity. The longer your list, the more people you can expose to new services, offers, deals, and discounts. If your business sends out a monthly newsletter, the list helps you remind your audience what you’re up to.
It also reminds them that you’re still there.
But how do you get email addresses for your list? In 2011, we’re in the thick of an “opt-in” culture that demands we obtain prospective customers’ permission to market our businesses online. And obtaining permission to market via email may seem like a tricky predicament.
While not everyone who visits your Website will sign up for your newsletter, the following tips ought to help you get more email addresses on your list:
1. Give something away.
An increasingly common(and effective) list-building technique is to offer a free product in exchange for an email address.
This usually comes in the form of a free e-book, report, or white paper. Make sure the free product (we’ll assume it’s a document of some kind) promises to solve a problem your audience is having and delivers on that promise.
You’ll simply advertise the free product on your site and ask that readers sign up for your mailing list to receive it.
Not only does this method help you build your list, but it creates an opportunity for you to demonstrate expertise in your niche.
If you are using Aweber its very simple to set it up and promote the ebook or a free download immidiately to your audience. ZK uses Aweber on this blog very effectively. Aweber has a free one month trail for $1.
2. Put an opt-in box below blog posts.
You may already have a newsletter opt-in box in your sidebar, but having one below your blog posts could prove even more valuable.
Think about it: Potential customers read your blog and think it’s helpful. They’re already convinced you’re an expert and that you can help them solve whatever problems they’re having. Why not use that opportunity to invite them to join your list?
Just be sure you have stellar content in the first place. Otherwise, nobody will want to join your list after reading your posts.
3. Learn to love the checkbox.
Who would have thought a little checkbox could help you generate business? If you already sell products through your Website, putting a newsletter opt-in checkbox on the purchase page is an awesome way to build your list. Customers simply decide at checkout whether they want to receive emails from you.
Don’t forget that you can usually leave this checkbox checked by default. While lots of buyers may forget to uncheck it and wonder why they’re getting your newsletter, remember that they can always unsubscribe if they decide they don’t want you to market to them.
While a little checkbox can go a long way, it should be just one of many items in your list-building toolkit. If you’re consistently helping your customers solve their problems, who wouldn’t opt in to your list?
Do you have an email list ? Which tool are you using to build the list ?
This is a guest post by Adam Green, if you want to guest post check out the guidelines
Image Credits: The House Of Hearts
4 comments
Very interesting post, I do not use a mailing list but I do subscribe to many websites and the main thing which prompts me to do so is generally not based on the products that the person is marketing but most generally based on the content of the website. If I get a lot of useful information from a website, I won’t hesitate to subscribe but those which I sense they are going to bombard me with promotional offers, I NEVER subscribe!
@Wez
You are right, bombarding your list with promo offers will not work to build trust with the audience. Use the list to build trust with unique content and tips that they are interested to receive.
The check box tip is especially good. It is something that most people seem to gloss over and would yield great results.
Everyone likes something for free which will give them value, you do see many sites offering free e-books, and reports, i guess if you can figure out what your audience want, what will attract and interest them, based on this you can think outside the box, and come up with a killer give away in exchange for their email address.