E-mail marketing lists

Wendy Lowe has a great guest post over on Working Naked about getting started with email marketing.

Making money on the internet is tough enough, but if you don’t have a viable list of people to pitch to, it’s that much tougher. Now, these aren’t random people you’ve collected addresses for. There is a certain ettiquette to email marketing that must be adhered to. Your recipients must opt in to receive your emails, or you could be hit with a complaint for spamming them.

Here’s the thing though: Some marketers just don’t care. I attend a lot of conferences where business cards get passed around. Within days of returning home, I’m suddenly “subscribed” to about 50 new email lists for newsletters and promotions. I had to laugh when I read the same thing from Chris Brogan in his “Stop adding me to your email newsletter” post he put out a few months back.

Most of the time I go through and unsubscribe myself, which takes time out of my day that could be better spent doing other things. There’s one list though – Townhall.com – that is impossible to remove yourself from. Impossible. I have unsubscribed several times, plus sent them emails requesting that they forget my name – to no avail. I will be stuck with Townhall.com until the day Obama shuts off the internet.

Anyway, with those caveats in mind, getting started with email marketing is actually pretty easy. You have to build a list, but AWeber makes that so easy you could cry. Simply pop their opt-in box onto your site, and direct people to it. If you want to give them incentive to sign up, offer a free report or video/podcast. Most people want something free, so they’ll add their email address in order to take advantage.

Says Wendy Lowe:

Start building your opt-in e-mail list. Opt-in means that your customers understand clearly that by signing up they are giving you permission to send them e-mail communications. In addition to name and email address, think about other information that you can collect that will help you target your e-mail campaigns, such as gender or geography.

• Include a check-off box option for your customers to learn more about certain products and services as well as topics, issues and challenges that interest them.
• Use all of the tools at your disposal to gather e-mail and customer information including a quick sign up on your homepage.
• Actively seek people you want to reach by attending relevant trade shows and conferences.  Gather business cards, ask for permission and add them to your list! [My bold- Ed]

Launch your first email campaign! Kick things off by introducing yourself and setting expectations.  Let your audience know the type of information they’ll be receiving and how frequently to expect it.

• In your first campaign, don’t just sell, but also offer valuable information or tips your audience can use.

Encourage feedback to begin an ongoing dialogue with customers, allowing you to continually gather more detailed profile information to improve the targeting of future campaigns.

I subscribe to a few programs that send out regular emails, usually timed. AWeber allows you to schedule emails to certain people at certain times, like for example: You sign up for a 5-day e-course. The teacher certainly isn’t going to sit down and write each student an individual email each time someone enrolls. Instead, the emails are pre-written and once someone subscribes, the emails are sent out in order to that specific person. It’s too easy for words.

Many people don’t want to spend the money on a system like AWeber to manage their email list, so they try to do it themselves or use a free program like the one built into Feedburner. Eventually, almost everyone makes the switch to a paid service for convenience and flexibility, with AWeber being the #1 choice. I tried using iContact a couple of years back, but it just wasn’t enough. AWeber is the way to go, and you can get started for only $1.

Good luck, and happy marketing!