Email

How To Write Great Email Subject Lines

Setting Up Highly Targeted Opt-in Offers

How To Get Visitors To Your Opt-In Page

Despite the recent growth of various online marketing strategies such as social media, email marketing still remains to be the most effective marketing tool for websites. A mailing list is therefore one of the greatest assets a business can possess.

Building this list however is not an easy task. Some websites have even resorted to buying lists in a desperate attempt to increase their subscribers but in the end this proves useless and even damaging.

A good mailing list is one which a website has developed naturally. Such a list contains individuals who have a high potential of becoming loyal customers. To build a good mailing list you need an equally good, high conversion opt in page.

The first step in creating a successful opt in page is increasing the traffic to it. Without people visiting the page, you have no chance of building your list. Below are some helpful strategies through which you can boost the number of visitors visiting your opt in page.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

To get as many people as possible to visit the opt in page, you need to put your website in front of as many eyes as possible. The best way of doing this is through search engine optimization.

The proper use of certain rich keywords and key phrases and providing value to your visitors through the content on the website are all effective SEO methods.

With an increased ranking, more web users will see your website and possibly visit it.

Paid Advertising

If you are just beginning to build your mailing list, getting the traffic you need naturally can take time. To jumpstart the list, make use of paid advertising. You can advertise using Google, Bing or Facebook ads among others.

The advantage of paid advertising is that the traffic that you receive is still beneficial since the people who will click on the ad are those who are interested in what you have to offer.

Ensure that you have crafted your ads, especially those on Facebook, well enough so as to attract as many people as possible.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus are some of the best social media websites that you can use to triple the traffic being received on the opt in or squeeze page. Facebook is especially effective at this.

All you need to do is create a fan page and then get people to join it.

You can even use Facebook ads to get more fans. Frequently invite your fans to sign up for something and place the opt in page url where they can easily see it.

Be careful however not to spam your fans. Instead, strive to provide value and make offers that they cannot refuse.

Solo Ads

This is another popular method of jumpstarting your list although you will have to pay for it. It involves using someone else’s list to market your website and create your own subscribers.

For instance, if your website is in the health niche, you can find a well-developed almost similar health website and then pay the site owner to email your content or offer to his list.

Of course, you can only use solo ads with other related websites. For those in marketing and business niches, a form of solo ads is Safe Swaps – http://safe-swaps.com

A word of warning though; not all solo ad vendors are made equal and there are a lot of poor providers out there so this is NOT for the novice marketer as you can lose a lot of money quickly. In all honesty, paid advertising via the likes of Google, Bing and Facebook are more reliable.

Forums

Many websites owners do not realize the potential that forums hold in getting more people to visit an opt in page and subscribe to emails. You can easily build a list with hundreds of subscribers simply by using forums.

Just find a popular forum in your niche, sign up and then become an active participant. Answer and ask questions and contribute to discussions.

As you build your authority on a forum, more people will be curious to find out what you are offering.

Article Marketing

Article marketing has long been said that it no longer works. However, it should still be part of your traffic generation strategy, as you’ll still get traffic from those searching for information around a particular topic.

This involves creating short articles, between 300 to 700 words and then posting them on various article directories. At the bottom of each article, you include a url to your opt in page.

To increase the number of people who follow the url ensure that the article contains helpful and informative content and use more than one article directory.

Even better, post the articles to directories in a certain niche rather than general directories. Here’s an article directory where you can submit your articles: http://ezinearticles.com

Press Releases

Media releases are particularly effective at getting people to check out what you are offering.

To increase the effectiveness of press releases, create them regularly and submit them to different news websites.

Guest Blogging

Get in touch with popular bloggers and ask whether you can submit a blog post.

Although you may not get paid for the post, you may be allowed to place a link to your website at the end of the article.

This tactic is all about exposure and you are borrowing the site owners expertise. The more popular the blog, the more traffic you will get.

Contests

People love winning things, and a contest of any kind will receive a lot of attention.

Start a contest on your website and publicize it on social media and ask your fans to share it with their friends.

Ensure that the reward for the winner is appealing enough for people to want to participate.

YouTube

YouTube is the most popular video hosting website. Take advantage of the millions of visitors who visit it every day to boost traffic to your opt in page.

Learn how to create a viral video that is both helpful and interesting. In the video and description, provide a link to the opt in page. You can also encourage people to share their video on their websites for more visibility.

In your effort to get people to visit your website, make sure that they are people who are likely to sign up. Hence your efforts need to be directed towards a specific target group. As you work within your niche, you attract relevant visitors who in the future can easily turn into paying customers.

After you have attained considerable traffic increases, remember that there is also the work of getting people to actually join your mailing list. But once you have established a steady stream of reliable traffic, you have tackled this major first step in email marketing.

If you want to know more about building your list after they have opted in, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further.

How Often Should You Email Your Subscribers?

All marketers will know that building an email list should be your number one priority when starting out in any kind of online business. If you ask any marketer what they would do if they had to start again, most will invariably say that they would start to build their list from day one and wish they would’ve done this the first time around.

This is because an email list is an asset you own, unlike the many social media platforms that you may be on who can shut you down without any notice at all.

So, after you have started to build your list what then? Well, you email them on a regular basis with useful help, tips and advice. You should also try to entertain them and open up to them and show them the real you rather than a business persona.

This opening up builds the know, like and trust factor that will make them more likely to buy from you again and again.

The key is to be yourself and don’t try to fake it. They want to know about you and your perspective on things or they wouldn’t have signed up.

You can also send them offers that you may think they will be interested in but the key here is not to promote everything under the sun (especially poor quality products that you haven’t personally invested in).

They want to know that you have their best interests at heart and that you don’t just think of them as a commission on a sale!

So, now you have an email list and have started to write to them; great.

The next question is, “How often should you email your list?”

Believe it or not, this is one of the most commonly asked questions regarding email marketing. Some marketers say that you should mail daily so that your list can get to know you.

You’ll be creating a habit where they look forward to your emails. This is true and there are several marketers who mail their list several times a day and make six figure earnings from email marketing.

On the other hand, many other marketers feel that you shouldn’t swamp your list with emails or they’ll get fed up and unsubscribe. So, they mail less often… but they make good money too.

So who is right? How often do you mail out?

The truth is that there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It depends on several factors ranging from the people on your list to the type of marketer that you want to be. We’ll look at a few tips below and they’ll shed light on how frequently you should mail.

The Golden Rule

The golden rule is that you should do unto others as you’d want others to do unto you. If you do not mind receiving several emails from marketers promoting products every single day, you’d probably have no qualms mailing your list daily or even several times a day.

However, if you prefer getting one email every 3 or 4 days from a marketer and daily emails seem like too much for you, you can choose to email every 3 or 4 days.

You’ll feel better about yourself… and this will reflect in your emails.

You’ll also attract subscribers who prefer fewer but better emails. It’s of vital importance that you do what’s right for you and your list.

If several people on your list tell you that they prefer fewer emails, then mail less frequently. You must have a ‘feel’ for your list.

What Type Of Marketer Do You Want To Be

There are two types of marketers when it comes to email marketing. One type follows the ‘Churn and Burn’ method of email marketing.

Basically, they release products constantly and use traffic generation methods such as solo ads and paid ads to build their list.

They then hammer this list with emails promoting offer after offer after offer. This can be very effective and they may make thousands of dollars doing it.

However, they’ll burn out their list quick and this explains why they keep having to add new subscribers to the list.

The second type of marketer sends fewer emails to the list and he or she is more concerned about building a relationship and rapport with the list. The focus is on repeat customers and the long term value of the customer.

Their goal here is to build a business and not sacrifice long term profits for short term rewards.

Providing value and helping their list is put ahead of short term profits. They treat their subscribers as people and not cash cows.

Both methods are just as profitable… and ultimately, you should choose one that you’re comfortable with.

Do You Have Something To Sell?

If you feel like you have something to sell to your subscriber that will be of value to them, cast aside your hesitation and mail away. Just make sure you exercise due diligence and check the product out first.

Never make the mistake of blindly promoting a product that you don’t have a clue about. Like they say, trust takes years to earn and seconds to break.

A good practice to follow will be to always have a link to something a subscriber can buy. Even when you’re sharing information and providing value to your list, there should always be one link in your email that will take them to your store or a product that they could buy.

Curious subscribers will click on the links and you will make sales. So, even if your emails are purely helpful content, do find a way to add a link or two subtly within the email that could lead to sales. After all, you are a marketer and you do need an income to keep your business going.

At the end of the day, the best way to know how often you should email your list is to self-reflect on your business goals and to do what is comfortable for you. Monitor your email open rates, click through rates and unsubscribes. With these stats you’ll have all the information you need to figure out just how often your list wants to hear from you.

Do You Struggle With List Building?

If you’ve been around internet marketing for any length of time, I’m sure that you’ve heard the phrase “The money is in the list.” You might get weary of hearing it, but it’s smacking you in the face for a reason – it’s the truth! Actually the phrase should really be “The money is in the buyers list.”

First of all, let’s answer the question, “What is a list?”

A list in internet marketing terms is a database of contact information for your prospects. So if you have a product or promote products about gardening and I sign up for your list, I’m a prospect that you can market to repeatedly until I unsubscribe.

So why is building a list so important? Let’s say you start off as an affiliate marketer. You find a niche you truly enjoy and you start working what you’ve learned into some traffic for your affiliate links.

Over a period of 30 days, you funnel 5,000 prospects from the World Wide Web who are interested in your niche straight through your affiliate link to the product owner’s site.

They even buy – yea! You’ve made a 50% commission with a 2% conversion rate. That means 2 out of every 100 people you sent bought the product, and your share was $26.00 (as an example). You earned a cool $2,600 this month – good for you!

But you’re leaving money on the table. Those 100 people who bought from your 5,000 clicks? They’re now on the product owner’s list, not yours. So what they’re going to do is send them more offers over the coming weeks.

After all, they are proven buyers. Over the next 30 days, those buyers fork over some more money for products that complement the original one they bought. That money goes to the product owner, not you – because you passed on building a list the first time around.

A better way to build an internet marketing business is to start with a list from day one. Before you let a single person slip through your link without capturing their name and email address, have your system set up to build a list.

Why should the product owner get to cash in on that person again and again when you’re the one who brought them the customer in the first place? Stake claim to each prospect and leverage your relationship with them for future sales and commissions.

You can have unlimited lists for different niches and send automated emails using a simple tool called an autoresponder, examples of which are Active Campaign or Aweber. Every day you can log in and see how many people have signed up, and you can create automated messages to send out to help convert your list into more sales.

If you want to learn more about autoresponders, you can read this article.

If you are serious about growing a successful online business, then you must make list building your main priority.

Even if you are an affiliate marketer like in the example mentioned above, there are ways to capture the prospects email address before sending them to the sales page.

You can do this by creating a free gift that the prospect opts-in (i.e. give up their email address) to receive. The trick here is to make the gift highly relevant to the affiliate offer.

Checklists, workbooks, case studies are such examples of good gifts, or “lead magnets” as they tend to be called.

Once you have your gift, you can create something called a squeeze page (sometimes called a bridge page in affiliate marketing) using your page builder of choice. If you use WordPress, I highly suggest OptimizePress and if you don’t use WordPress I would suggest Convertri.

When you are ready, you send your traffic to the squeeze page, the prospect opts in and is then sent to the affiliate offer.

This is a real win-win because you are building your list and you may also get some affiliate commissions if they decide to buy 👌

When you are a little more confident, you can try your hand at creating your own products and having affiliates send traffic to your offers. How amazing is that?

But whatever you do, you must ensure that you are actively list building all the time.

You also need to manage your lists proactively, and learn how to write compelling emails to get readers to open them and to take action on the contents.

Don’t just bombard your new subscribers with offer after offer. It is important to nurture your list and give huge amounts of value and helpful advice before asking them to buy even more stuff from you.

This is a major mistake that a lot of marketers make, especially in the internet marketing/make money online niches.

Another thing you should be doing is not bombarding your buyers with offers to buy things they have already purchased; this is just plain lazy marketing and happens all the time and shows that you don’t really care about them.

So, as you can see, list building is critical for the success and longevity of an online business. But it is also incredibly important that you nurture and manage your list once they have subscribed as it is much easier to convince a customer to buy from you again.

Write emails that help your subscribers and don’t be afraid to get a little personal and reveal things about yourself as this will only make them connect with you more, as you are not just another marketer, but a real person.

And remember that your email list is a source of free traffic, so look after it and it will be a source of income for you for years to come.

Your subscribers will expect you to sell to them so that isn’t a big issue, but don’t go for a hard sell every email. Always have their best interests in mind, rather than making a quick buck and they will reward you with their loyalty and custom.

And don’t email them too often! Some marketers email daily, others a few times per week or once a week. There is no right or wrong but you do need to email them regularly; once a week minimum or they may forget about you.

Some marketers can be very pushy and email multiple times per day, especially if they are promoting a product launch, but I personally think that is too much and too aggressive.

And don’t be afraid of people unsubscribing; it happens and is nothing personal. You only want people on your list who are going to connect and engage with you, so repelling the wrong type of person is just as important as attracting the right kind of person.

As I said earlier, you need to be managing your list and this includes removing people from your list who aren’t opening your emails as this can affect your delivery rates. And as long as you are continually trying to build your list, this shouldn’t be a big issue for you.

Just remember that your subscribers are real people with real problems that hopefully you can help them solve and you will do well.

So, go out and start building and nurturing your list today. 👍