Repeat Business through Opting In and Email Lists
By Matt Hodkinson
By far the best way to generate targeted web site traffic and repeat business is to form an email list. As many a web marketer or e-business expert will tell you; “The money is in the list”. Opting in captures the email address of visitors to your site, so that you may market and promote products and services directly to them. It’s called “Opting in” as the visitor has the option of unsubscribing at any time.
By having a list of interested, targeted, potential customers at your disposal, you can be sure that you are pitching your products and services to a group of people who are more likely than most to take you up on your offer. Imagine taking a cross-section of society and trying to sell them, for example, a sports car. Immediately, some of your audience will count themselves out, being too young or old to drive, having insufficient income to purchase such a car, some won’t even have a license! Now imagine that you have the contact details of people of driving age, who all own a license and who all have the kind of income required to own and run a sports car. You’ll find it a lot easier to sell it to them! The conversion ratio is immediately increased, and you’ve wasted a lot less time pitching to a group of people who even the best salesman couldn’t have won over. Your list should weed out those people who can’t really be considered potential customers.
The best way to entice your site visitors into signing up for your email lists is to offer them some form of incentive for doing so. This can range from a free e-book on your site’s subject matter to a full audio or video course download. One thing is certain; your visitor must feel that they are getting something in return for their valuable email address. If you’re in any doubt about offering something which you may ultimately have to pay for in the short term, just compare this to the value of targeted repeat traffic to your site. You will soon realise the benefits!
It’s important to make the process of signing up for your email updates as simple as possible. Let’s not complicate things; you’re essentially asking for someone’s email address, and that’s all you need! Make your “Squeeze Page” (The sign-up page) as uncomplicated as possible, and make sure any incentives you offer are given prominent placement. It’s also important to detail any terms of use or legal declarations, if you so wish.
Driving people to your squeeze page should employ many of the standard e-marketing methods, such as Search Engine Optimization and Article writing. Traffic generated by your articles is extremely valuable, as the reader already has an interest in your products, having consumed some of your well-written views just moments before. You can expect 50% or more visitors to sign up as a result of following an article link.
Writing Blogs or “Web Logs” is been popular for a long time now, and can provide an excellent way to sell your services to a potential email list audience. Let your email list know every time you update your blog, but don’t post them the whole entry. Entice them into visiting the site to read the full story, and experience all your site has to offer.
All the time you are signing up new customers and marketing products to your email list, it is imperative that you stay on the right side of the law. Research your local laws on email use and spamming. Be sure to offer an “Unsubscribe” link on all your communications (If your emails are of good quality, no-one should use this anyway!) and always value your subscribers’ rights and, most of all, value!
A lot of good systems are available on the Web for automating and simplifying the management of your lists and newsletters. GetResponse is a market-leading product which allows you to maintain, update, and grow your list, whilst automating some common tasks, such as emailing your list when your blog updates. Many people have had great success with GetResponse. I would recommend you check out their site, before starting out with your email list.
Using email lists could be the best way to monetize your website, so put these steps into place and you will be onto the biggest e-marketing earner on offer. You can even take some of the legwork out of generating your lists by using one of the better products on the market; List Spawner. It will give you a head start over your rivals, and help you to build a killer list in a fraction of the time.
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