If you’ve got anything you want to market, there’s nothing like a captive audience that is interested in what you have to say! And a very effective way of building a growing audience for your Internet marketing efforts is to start and maintain an opt-in e-mail list. We’re not talking about a random list of e-mail addresses here, but a group of people who already know about you and who have explicitly chosen to receive more information and news from your business.
While you can actively gather e-mail list sign-ups at points of sale or during conferences and trade shows, the easiest way is to use your website itself to build your e-mail list automatically from the visitors you receive. Here are some tips on how to do it:
Put up a prominent sign-up button or form on your website
The easier it is to sign up, the more visitors to your website will do so. Make sure your opt-in form or button is clearly visible at the top part of your web page. Use colors and/or graphics to attract attention. People have no time to hunt around for your sign-up button, so if it’s not in their face, you lose!
Offer something for free
Many times it takes that extra little incentive for people to hand out their e-mail address to your business. Consider offering something worthwhile, such as an e-book, software download, trial period or access to a special ‘members only’ area of your website to boost e-mail list opt-ins.
Start a newsletter
One way of growing your e-mail list is to start a regular newsletter that your clients will look forward to receiving. The good news is that you do not necessarily have to write all - or even any - of your newsletter content from scratch. For example, if you already have a blog, you can easily put together a weekly or monthly newsletter based on a digest of your latest blog posts, compiled in a handy format.
Include opting in as an option on your order and contact forms
It goes without saying that when people make an order or contact you with a query, they are automatically giving you their name and e-mail address. So why not add an e-mail opt-in checkbox (ticked by default of course) that will sign them up to receive news and information? This one’s a no-brainer!
Have a privacy policy and display it prominently
Your e-mail subscribers will expect you to treat their personal information with care, so establish a privacy policy, display it prominently (or link to it) as part of your sign-up form, and make sure you abide by it. As a minimum, you’ll be expected to promise not to disclose the e-mails you collect to third parties and to allow your subscribers an easy way to opt out whenever they want.
Send a prompt welcome e-mail when people sign up
Make sure your sign-up confirmation e-mail is sent promptly so that you avoid people forgetting about you and thinking your e-mail is spam.
Track your sign-up methods and improve your opt-in rates
Will a red signup button work better than a green one? Is the right side of the page better than the left? Will more of your visitors sign up if you give away an e-book about healthy living, or will one about how to be more romantic work better? The only way to know is to try out different things and track performance, building on what works best to continuously improve your opt-in rate.
Use your list wisely
Remember to always treat your e-mail subscribers with the utmost courtesy. Once you have a sizeable e-mail list, it can be tempting to abuse it with too much pure marketing material. Instead, you should aim to offer quality information related to your field. Not only are your subscribers more likely to stay loyal that way, but they could even encourage friends and colleagues of theirs to join your mailing list too!
If you’re serious about keeping in touch with your customers and website visitors (and you should be if you want to market your website efficiently) get that e-mail list started right away and you’ll see how it will turn into one of your greatest assets. And look out for some advice on how to use your e-mail list to maximize your business, coming soon!
