Building your very own list of subscribers will always reap more rewards than renting a list as the quality of the list will be better. Although there are some very reputable sources to rent a list from, you can’t always be guaranteed how fresh the list is or how responsive.
Not to mention that building your list yourself, although it might take longer, will be much more affordable for you in the long run if your marketing budget is on the small side.
So, how do you build your own permission-based email list? There are a couple of ways you can go about it.
Create a Newsletter
One of the best ways to start building your list is to create and distribute a company newsletter. You’ve seen these newsletters before I’m sure, you may even be receiving a few every month in your own inbox.
Have a sign-up form prominently displayed on your homepage or in your blog’s sidebar area, and make it very clear what you’re offering in your newsletter. What kind of information will you be providing? People need a compelling reason to give their email address and sign up, so give it to them.
Give Away Value For Free
To get the most opt-ins to your list, it’s a good idea to give high value away and make the offer as attractive as you possibly can.
For instance, offering to send a free catalog would be an incentive for people to sign up. Offering a free ebook that will help someone solve a problem they might have would also be very attractive. And offering something like a free trial for something such as software is even more attractive.
Many newcomers to list-building get squeamish when I tell them they have to give something away for free.
But you cannot underestimate the value of creating a list of people who want to hear from you and want you to send them your offers.
Give away value upfront and you will get an amazing return on that investment.
Build Trust
Once your list starts growing, the next step is to build a relationship with your readers. Do not immediately start sending offer after offer. Would you like that? Your initial emails to them should build trust. Continue to give them value. Continue to help them in some way.
If you build a trusting relationship first, you’ll find your offers convert much easier down the road.
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways of getting your offers in front of a highly targeted group of people.
If you haven’t started building a list already, now’s the time.
9 Powerful Subject Line Starters
Novelists have shared the horror they feel when they sit down to a blank screen or sheet of paper (do writers even use paper anymore?). You may have experienced this same horror when you’ve sat down to write your email campaigns.
Writing the subject line alone can cause some people to curl up into the fetal position and whimper. And who can blame them; the subject line is THE MOST IMPORTANT element in your entire email campaign. Get the subject line wrong and you can pretty much kiss all of your efforts goodbye.
The thing is, though, once you learn how to write them, subject lines become easy. So, in an effort to make you life easier, I present 9 of the most powerful subject line starters.
- How to…
- The truth about…
- Learn the Secrets…
- Strategies for…
- 3 Ways to avoid… (negative consequence)
- 5 Steps to…
- Top 10… (a bit overdone these days, but still effective)
- 10-Minute…
- Tips for…
Simply fill in the blanks with your own information and you will create subject lines worth clicking on.
