I know you’ve heard it before – you need to start building a list. Everyone knows that it’s easier to sell your existing customers, so it makes sense that you should build a list. It just doesn’t make sense when you don’t have a lot of customers. Why do I need to market to that little group of clients?

Basically, you’re going to have to start somewhere. It’s important to start a new routine, and the more you do something, the easier it gets. So why wait? Why not start now and test what works for you?

The hardest part about building a list is getting people to sign up to receive information from you. Let’s face it. We all have inboxes full of offers and newsletters we don’t really want. So you need to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What do they want? What do you have to offer?

In the early days of the internet, you could just add a sign up box on your website, and people would gladly give you all the information you wanted. These days you have to work hard for the privilege of receiving someone’s information. It comes down to trust. Why would they trust you? Do they even know you?

I think the first thing you need to look at is the trust issue. Do you look trustworthy online? Are you a real person? I’m sure you too have visited lots of websites when you’re not sure if there is a real person, or a real company, behind the website – and you worry about handing over your email address and private information.

Maybe a good way to build trust is to add audio or video to your website. If you put your face on your website, you stand behind your product and services 100%. Testimonials from real clients is always a good thing too, but make sure everything is true and honest. Web visitors are suspicious by nature and will see through any sales tactic and any hype. Honesty and integrity is what the web needs.

If you can give your visitors what they need or want, your halfway home. Do you have useful information you can share with your readers? If you are a tax expert, maybe you can write a tip sheet or article that you can give away? Or if you’re a gardener, maybe a chart of what to plant when? I’m sure you can come up with something that relates to your area of expertise. One client of ours who sells marine products, gives away a “10 Tips for the Intracoastal Waterway” ebook when someone signs up for his newsletter. Another lady who does arts and crafts, gives away free instructions for seasonal art projects.

Let’s talk about sending out emails for a second. Everyone hates spam, and sending out spam is illegal. I’m sure you heard about the CAN-Spam Act.

“The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.”
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm

What does this mean for you and your marketing?

Basic Rules for email marketing:

• Your email’s “From,” must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines to mislead the recipient.
• Give your recipients a way to opt-out and stop receiving your emails. The law gives you 10 business days to stop.
• Commercial email should be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address.

Read more details here.

Opt-In or Opt-Out
Opting In, means that you sign up for a newsletter subscription for example. You’re allowing the sender to send you occasional emails with their information. Usually, there’s a sign up box on the website where you enter your email address and information.

Double Opt In means that the sender confirms the sign up by sending you an email with a link. You have to confirm that you actually want the emails and you did sign up. We recommend using double opt in for your list building.

We use two different services, Constant Contact for newsletters and Aweber as an autoresponder. The difference between the services is that Aweber can schedule several levels of follow up emails, for example you could create a five day email course and email it out over five days with Aweber. Or if you want to automatically send an email when someone asks for it, it can handle that. Click here to check out Aweber for yourself.

Constant Contact is have great email marketing templates, is easy to use – and they give you 60 day trial period – so check it out yourself by clicking on the logo below.

The good thing about using a service is that it automatically takes care of subscribers opting in or opting out. You pay according to the number of subscribers you have on your list. If you have less than 1,000 it’s usually around 15-20/dollars a month. We definitely recommend using a service.

Why can’t I just use Outlook?
Once you’re sending out more than 100 emails at a time, you shouldn’t use your regular email. Several small business owner we’ve talked to ended up getting in trouble with their internet service provider because they’re using their regular email program for mass emails and got a lot of spam reports. It’s not a good business practice, and with the new strict spam laws, you definitely want to use a service. It also makes you look professional, and makes managing your email marketing a snap.