Other List Building Tips
Lists are the frameworks of the online marketers business. To that end, we have had a detailed look at different successful methods. Apart from these structured methods, there are many things you can do on an ongoing basis to collect addresses whenever you can. You must take full advantage of your existing resources. Each time you interact with a customer is a chance to build your list. Here is a quick checklist for your immediate reference:
- Every web form you have must have an email list opt-in box, be it for registration, placing an order or requests for information.
- Whenever you circulate physical paper forms or send out direct mail, request your customers to fill in their email addresses. When you have an event or road show, urge your visitors to write in the ‘Visitors’ book’ giving you their email and contact information.
- Every paper that leaves your office must have an email request. This could be regular correspondence, your answer to customer queries, your bills and other customer correspondence. You might find collating email addresses manually quite tedious, but the more channels you use the better are your chances to increase your list.
- Use your URL. Put it on all your official stationery like your letterhead, leaflets, newsletters, magazines and advertisements. This will serve as a readily available reference for people to visit your website. Your visitors must be able to opt in for email communication with you from anywhere on your homepage.
- Be careful about using agencies that match postal addresses to various databases and come up with email addresses. You can never be sure of the success rate you will have. And its tough to find an agency that will charge you by how many emails are valid rather than file size. If you really have to try this method, you must be prepared for the possibility of unpredictable results. Some email ids may be wrong. The ones that are right may not be interested. Since you have not asked their permission to send them email in the first place, they may treat you like Spam!
- You can use your existing contact list and build on it. Not only will it be a verified list but also an effective strategy. Get your existing contacts to forward emails or recommend them to their friends and family. This is called viral marketing. Since these people receive it from a known source, there is no danger of spam. Make a nice relevant message that can be passed on. Make it easy to be sent on. When these people see the forwarded mail, they will opt in as well. Every communication you send must therefore include a ‘forward’ link option.
- On all your web pages, put a tell-a-friend option.
- Too much is too bad. Don’t bombard your subscribers with one mail after another. At best, they will simply block you. Decide on a frequency based on the content of your message. It is a good idea to let your users know what they are signing up for before they opt in. Once you have them on your list, get feedback about what they think is the correct number of emails and they will be happy to tell you. Can you guess what will happen if you don’t do this? You will receive an opt-out or an unsubscribe request.
- An exciting way to build your list is post events on your web page that are of common interest to the traffic passing through your site. In the events page, invite the participants to get others to sign up and also receive email communication.
- Many businesses keep their prospects and customers updated on industry news by emailing them. You can do it too, and request the recipient to send it on to their associates who can sign up to receive it from you directly. And you keep building your list.
- Think about this: many people have email ids from their universities or professional memberships forever. But these people prefer to have multiple email ids, one for each of their interest so that they can be organized. You can use this to your advantage by offering these people an email address with your business’ brand. This will help you spread the word about you; as well as you can be sure that you have an active email address in your list.
- For your visitor to stay on your list, you have to provide value and a valid reason for them to want to be there. Use your autoresponder to keep your message alive in your prospect’s mind. Wont cost much – will work.
As you keep experimenting, experience will show you more ways to success.
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Filed under: Mailing List
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