Building your Email List - Tips and Strategies to Create a Quality Email List

Now you're ready to send your first email newsletter, e-zine, or email campaign. Once you have finished adding all the details, hit Send and it will be sent to your 38 subscribers. Don't you feel proud of yourself?

Your email was opened by 10 people, but only one clicked on the link.

All your enthusiasm vanishes, just like air coming out of a balloon. This isn't the solution to your sales woes you were hoping for.

Don't give up.

Problem: You need to have a larger list. Although opening rates can vary depending on the industry, you may be surprised to learn that 20% and higher means you are doing well. You might be wrong if you believed that 90-100 percent of your email list would view your e-news. You can now see the reasons why you must build your list. You will get sales opportunities from your list. Effort spent building your list means more sales opportunities.

Quality is more important than quantity when building a list. A quality list will attract subscribers who are interested in what you have to offer. It is a huge waste of time to build a large list of people who don't want your product or services. It could also damage your reputation by irritating people with unwelcome emails.

Trust is the key to building trust with your subscribers.

Offer something of value. Email addresses should be valued. Email addresses are personal communications.

Promoting your e-news will be easier if you think of it as a valuable product

You should send content that is valuable to your readers. These articles are valuable for your readers. Your e-news will be viewed as a valuable product, and it becomes easier to promote it.

Decide first what the value is. Special offers, tips and ideas, alerts, industry news, etc. You can write a line about the offer you are making.

e.g. Subscribe to our e-news to receive information about future promotions and special offers

To make it more appealing, you can add some exclusivity.

e.g. Sign up for our e-news to receive our exclusive subscriber offers superintendent email list

Incentives to encourage people to sign up

People are cautious about giving out their email addresses. Who wants to receive more emails? An incentive can be used to convince people that your e-news has value and that you are authentic and provide something useful.

Incentives:

· A competition: Offer a monthly prize draw to win a voucher that can be used in your company

· Software is free

· Free membership to a forum

· You can get a free ebook (you can either write your own or search for "free content" in Google. There are tons of free ebooks available that you could give to companies.

Ideas for e-books A brief history of the area and a guide to walking in the area is helpful for guests staying at self-catering cottages. A guide for starting a blog could be provided by web developers.

Requesting information

Ask for as little information as possible. Long forms can be confusing. The minimum requirements are first, last and email addresses. It is possible to ask about the country or region of origin, but you don't need to have full postal addresses unless your subscribers want to be mailed to.

Email addresses, and the law

It is a good practice and legal requirement to only send emails to people who have "opted in" to your list. Otherwise, you will be sending spam. Unsolicited messages. The anti-spam laws in the USA and other countries such as Italy are strictly enforced. If you break them, you can face severe penalties. You can check the UK Privacy and Communications (EC Directive), Regulations 2003 to make sure you're on the right side.

You must ensure that you comply with data protection laws. You can find all the dos and don'ts in the UK here .

Quick tips for promoting your enews.

Promotion

· Register on your website (homepage or every page) to receive an incentive.

· Pop-up windows on your website that appear whenever people visit or leave the site. Be careful, especially when people leave the site. This will prevent people from being forced to sign up before they have had a chance to see what you have to offer.

· In your email signature, add the incentive and link for signing up.

· You can post a link to each enews to your Facebook page. Talk to your web developer to automate this process. Post a link on your LinkedIn page to each enews.

· Tweet a link for every enews (many email programs will automatically do this for you).

· Promote your e-news via your blog.

· Here's a sample of the enews. Then, a link will take you to the full version. Finally, a link will take you to the sign-up form.

· Guest blogging. Your article should be shared on other blogs.

· Online directory entries - Many membership sites allow you to write about your business in a 2400 word limit. Include your sign-up text and link.

· Include a link at the bottom of each enews. If you use an email marketing program like Mail Chimp your enews will be posted on a public page so that not everyone who reads it will be a subscriber.

· After you have completed your check out, ask for opt-in.

· E-news swap: Find out which e-news subscribers are reading (from complementary businesses, not competitors), and ask the supplier for recommendations. You might also offer guest articles to them and then publish their articles. This is a great way to grow your list.

· Ask existing subscribers to recommend you to colleagues or friends who might benefit from your enews. While most email marketing programs include a forward-to-a friend button in their footers, you might want to send a campaign twice per year. Include text subscribers can send to colleagues or friends.

Offline Promotion

Double opt-in is required in countries that require it (e.g. Customers must subscribe once and confirm their subscription. Use methods to encourage customers to sign up online using your form.

· A kiosk can be placed in retail locations. It could simply be a computer with your sign-up form and information about your electronic news.

· Ask them if they would like to sign up once they have completed their purchase.

· On feedback forms, ask for email addresses and permission to sign up.

· To collect business cards from business customers who visit your premises, set up a fish bowl at the reception.

· Use the fish bowl to get your customers business cards. However, you can also offer them simple forms that they can fill out.

· Ask people if they would like to subscribe by calling to inquire, book, or request more information.

· Inform people about your enews by visiting Visitor books.

· Include a note about signing up for your estimates and invoices.

· To make your enews useful, you can use the back of your business cards.

· Make sure to include the website address.

· Offer something of value during presentations. Offer to send a report for free and request business cards from people who are interested.

· Events - Attend trade events where your target audience is represented, e.g. If your target audience are wedding suppliers, you can visit wedding fairs and speak to business owners. You can offer something engaging and targeted, e.g. You are more likely to receive a response if you offer discounted advertising in wedding magazines.

· Postcards - If you have a mailing list that contains postal addresses and not email addresses, you can send a postcard asking people to sign up for your online newsletters.

· Telemarketing campaign - If you have phone numbers, but not email addresses, you might consider an update information campaign. Ask your subscribers if they would like to receive news, offers or updates via email.