Maintaining your list
1- Use your list right away
One of the biggest mistakes online marketers make is to focus on building a large list, but in the process not paying much attention to the new people on their list. Make sure you begin building that relationship with your subscriber right away. Send them a welcome message which tells them what to expect. Send them value in the form of links, downloads and information. Also be aware that they will be at their most enthusiastic when they first sign up. Therefore, don’t be afraid to try to monetize them right away. Let your free content lead to your paid content.
With a professional website and professional looking email communications, you will build authority and credibility and get your prospects to trust you. The easiest email marketing service we know of is Aweber, which can help you get set up with a fantastic squeeze page, template, and complete email marketing system if you follow their tutorial and have good content all ready to queue up for your new list of readers.
2-Create a communication plan
Make sure you’re communicating with your subscribers on a regular basis. An auto responder is a wonderful tool because it enables you to create and schedule your messages in advance. Each new subscriber can receive the same messages in the same order, regardless of when they signed up. This gives you control over the relationship-building process.
Also remember to offer valuable content, not just promotional messages. An auto responder automates the process, including the subscribe and unsubscribe management. You don’t need to hire anyone to manage the task for you. Your time is free to build your business in other ways. List members can register and unregister at will, and you can preload messages years in advance if you like (for example, it is never too early to start thinking about the holidays. Write one email and use it year after year!)
3-Partner with others to grow your list
Once you have your list building and management process in place, and you have got an idea of how good your offer is (are you getting a large number of registrants each day, or not?) out, consider partnering with others to continue to grow your list.
You can really boost your subscribers by entering into strategic partnerships with other similar or complementary business owners. For example, the website owner who markets to pet owners might partner with a website that sells pet toys. They can help market your opt-in list by including a link to your form in their newsletter and vice versa. You can support each other to succeed.
Your opt-in list can mean the difference between thousands of prospects and only a few. Having a regular number of subscribers on your list to whom you can make regular, interesting offers, can really boost the bottom line of your business. If you don’t have an opt-in list, start creating a plan to build one. Create a great offer, produce the content. Register for AWeber and create your squeeze page. Then nurture your relationship with your new subscribers, and when your list is large enough, look for joint venture partnerships.
Email marketing, done in an informative and non-spammy way, is one of the best ways to build a loyal following of customers who will turn you time and effort into profits.
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For more in-depth, step by step information on how to set up your own email list, you might like:
