“Email marketing is the best form of marketing in the entire world!”

Email is entirely powered by content, and if you’re still struggling to build a responsive list to engage with, this email marketing 101 has all the information needed to make you a success.

But I’m not making you a promise; there is work to be done.

And building a huge list of potential customers is oftentimes ‘slow.’

But don’t be scared by the gradual sailing, it’s worth your every ounce and I’m going to reveal some helpful strategies to double, or even triple your email list.

In this post, here are things we would look into:

  1. –          What is email marketing?
  2. –          What is list building?
  3. –          How to build a mailing list
  4. –          How to create a good impression with subscribers
  5. –          How to connect with subscribers creatively
  6. –          How to monetize your list and make good money
  7. –          How to leverage your list for product ideas
  8. –          How to build a 10,000 Member-List
  9. –          And so much more…

What is Email Marketing?

 

Email marketing simply means capturing, connecting and sharing helpful and VALUABLE information with your target audience via email. If Google refuses to send you organic traffic, you can leverage on your email database to market your products and services.

Email marketing is different from list building. Although, both are interwoven – list building is just an arm of email marketing. As a form of marketing, email is the first connecting-cord between you and every other person. Social media networking is also effective, but it’s no rival to email marketing.

The web is primarily powered via emails, even though social media marketing is popular. If you’re looking at email marketing from a one-off perspective, you may not get the full benefits it offers.

Yes, you can embark on email marketing for a short term, but what happens when you’re done with the list. Do you throw subscribers off the window? I don’t think so. You brood them, and channel them to a viable platforms where you could easily leverage on the asset.

What is List Building?

 

People tend to confuse list building and email marketing. List building is simply the art of capturing email addresses of your visitors (potential customers), so that you can follow up with quality, informative and solution-based content.

Building a strong relationship is the bottom-line and when you successfully establish that rapport, selling and making money from this list is possible. When email marketers struggle to make money from their list, the problem isn’t the product or service they provide, but the level of relationship they’ve created – in this case, it’s still low.

If subscribers don’t know you personally and how concerned you’re in helping them solve a definite problem, they won’t trust you with their hard earned money. You’re just like every other scammer out there – so, build a list that’ll respond when you call. That’s the goal and nothing is as vital as maintaining a good profile with subscribers.

 

How To Build A Mailing List

 

If you dabble into building a mailing list, you may likely give up on the way. I’ve wasted a lot of time building list and because I wasn’t prepared to follow up and establish that ‘connection,’ I left the list unattended.

To get started, think of what your target audience is passionate about. When I first build a 347 member-list in the weight loss niche, I discovered that subscribers are desperately looking for proven and affordable weight loss programs.

They don’t necessarily need a short report or e-book. But when you come to internet marketing niche, short reports, videos and membership sites are still great for building a list.

 

There are five things you can do to build your mailing list:

–          Create a landing page: A page to capture email address and names. It’s the lead magnet and sometimes, we call it the squeeze page (to squeeze out email address from visitors).

–          Get a list-bait: A product you can use to entice visitors to op-tin to your list. As I said earlier, you need to study your audience to know what bait they respond to. Is your audience the reading-type or the watching-type? If they prefer to watch, using a short video clip on your squeeze page can triple optin-rates.

–          Use Autoresponder: Email software that enables you to build a mailing list easily and follow up seamlessly. Your web host has a kind of autoresponder service, but it’s not advisable to use the in-built software.

When your list grows, you need a third-party email service to maintain it. And besides, you can easily customize your newsletter and add extra benefits to your bait. I recommend aweber and getresponse autoresponders.

–          Setup Double Optin: It’s vital to have a double-optin setting when visitors subscribe. Permission based email marketing is supported by United States Email law, but you can be prosecuted if you spam people.

When you get subscribers to verify their subscription, it’s an open invitation to send all kinds of promotional offers to them. And when subscribers verify accounts, it shows they’re desperate to receive your email letters.

–          Drive Targeted Traffic: the last step to take after setting up the double optin and creating a beautiful squeeze page is to start driving targeted traffic to the page. Bloggers should not drive visitors to their homepage, except you’ve a pop up opt-in system.

 

How To Create A Good Impression With Subscribers

 

You only have 2 minutes or less to prove your expertise and credibility. When someone subscribes to your newsletter, the first email follow-up shouldn’t be a sales promo. Heartily welcome subscribers to your newsletter and assure them of quality, relevance and VALUABLE information.

The first email they receive must show how passionate you’re in that niche and positions you for success in subsequent follow-ups. Whatever you say or do in this ‘welcome email’ would either impress or express your view on the given subject.

So, don’t be overly promotional or strict. Have a unique persona, be transparent and professional and don’t forget to address people by their first name.

This can be achieved easily when setting up the follow-up emails – provided you’ve captured first names. If you promised to send a free report when they subscribe, make sure you do it. Don’t send them to a salespage first, deliver on your promise and you’ll be on the winning side.

 

How To Connect With Subscribers Creatively

 

When you do a task from a unique perspective, people will see it as original, fresh and creative. Truth is, you can never send 100% original content to your subscribers, but you can make it original by being creative.

To connect with subscribers, always ask them questions. Use survey monkey to create simple questionnaire and send it to them.

If you can get subscribers talking and responding to your emails, you would easily connect with them and that would bring new things into your business: sales, reputation, targeted leads and influence.

Whenever you send an email to subscribers, ask for their feedback or comment. A lot of people aren’t friendly with their parents because the communication gap is wide.

If you can communicate, laugh and stay closer to your mom and dad, they’ll definitely provide you with the best things of life. Stay connected with your subscribers and they’ll give you everything the world pressures you to get: money and fame.

 

How To Monetize Your List To Make Good Money 

If you’ve been following my email marketing strategies up to this point, then making money from your email subscribers won’t be a hassle.

I mean, they already trust you to provide quality and helpful products and services.

You can sell high-ticket items and cash in. Subscribers are different from strangers who may not even buy a $37 e-book.

Strangers don’t know you personally, and that’s why selling at first sight is a waste of time and resources. Capture email address first, then sell.

It’s the ideal way to make money online.

  1. The best ways to monetize your list are:
  1. –          Research and write a valuable e-book and sell to them
  2. –          Refer subscribers to affiliate offers (earn on 2-tiers)
  3. –          Promote Affiliate programs to your list (good programs only)
  4. –          Send subscribers to adSense Page (high paying keywords)
  5. –          Invite subscribers to a paid webinar
  6. –          Develop an app and sell to them
  7. –          Develop a wordpress plugin and market to list members
  8. –          Create and bundle WordPress Themes and sell to subscribers
  9. –          Partner with subscribers to promote your short reports
  10. –          Generate more leads by licensing your e-book with MRR (Master Resale Rights)
  11. –          Sell copywriting, email, and SEO content writing services to subscribers
  12. –          Become a ghostwriter and help subscribers to craft quality content
  13. –          Design websites and sell to subscribers
  14. –          Invite subscribers to a premium email letter (charge $12 – $100/month)
  15. –          Sell a software that’s helpful and affordable
  16. –          Sell digital products to subscribers (Mother’s Day Gifts etc.)
  17. –          Sell Blog Consulting Services to Potential Customers ($100 – $1000/hour)
  18. –          Review a hot affiliate product on your blog and blast the link to your list
  19. –          Package a PLR product (ebooks, videos, software et al) and sell at reasonable price to subscribers.
  20. –          And so much more…

How To Leverage Your List For Product Ideas

 

Content marketing has evolved and you need to know the right buttons to press. Instead of creating a product off your head, or the little knowledge you’ve amassed, you can ask your list members for ideas. What are their biggest questions and how desperate they want answers.

Asking intelligent questions not only connects and builds strong relationship with subscribers; it also frees their mind to supply the right answers when you need them.

If you write an e-book without knowing what’s hot and the problems faced by subscribers, no one would buy. It doesn’t matter how much rapport or relationship you’ve built. People only spend money on products and services that can solve their immediate and future problems.

Apart from asking questions directly, you can read the comments on your posts to see what subscribers and readers have in mind. People are not far from their words. So, capitalize on their honestly and craft a top-notch product. You would make more money using this strategy.

 

Want To Build a 10,000 Email List?

 

List swap, article marketing, social media marketing, media-buying and other list building systems are proven traffic generation systems. But they are not as effective as the modern article marketing which has swept through the entire blogosphere. I’m talking about guest posting.

Can you research the A-list blogs, with over 20,000 active readers, and can you write quality articles to make the readers’ node their heads and click-through to your landing page? Then get ready for uncommon web traffic. The last guest post I did for FreelanceSwitch, brought in 200 subscribers within 24 hours. Can you beat that?

Guest posting is powerful and I pride myself as an expert in it. I don’t know much about list swaps and social media marketing, but guest blogging on niche blogs have given me an edge and my list is growing.

You can grow a list of targeted subscribers by guest posting on authority blogs. If you persevere, it’s possible to build a 10,000 member list within 12 months. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it certainly would if you stay-glued and work real hard.

 

Over To You…

 

Did you enjoy this email marketing 101 tips? I know there are other points worth mentioning, but this is all you need to get started. And when you’re at it, you can scale it through and build a six-figure email list. Share your comments and let your fans, readers and networks know about this post. See you ahead!

Image Credit: getwebsitetraffic and mint

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