Download this FREE report “Marketing Ideas For Your Business“. If you are new to internet marketing or are just getting started, then this report is for you. In this report you’ll discover 10 top tips to marketing your business. No opt-in required. Download “Marketing Ideas For Your Business” here. Feel free to distribute this report.
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Building the biggest opt-in list around isn’t always the best thing for your business. There are a number of factors to consider such as quality of the list versus the quantity. Of course, if you combine the two, the results will be very positive to your business. If you consider a list of 500 that brings in 30 sales, while a list of 3000 brings the same.
Which is more valuable?
The quality of your list is much more important than quantity. Sometimes as an Internet marketers, we can lose sight of the object of building an opt-in list.
Here are three list building strategies to help you build your business.
Rule #1: Ask. To find out what your list members want, ask. Ask them what kind of information will better serve their online business needs. This fits right into our nature as humans,…asking our opinion makes us feel validated. When it comes to your online business, nothing is more valuable than your list members opinion.
Rule #2: Don’t go over-board! Although staying in touch with your opt-in list is important, you don’t
want to irritate them either with too many announcements and promotions. For example, don’t send out three emails in a day, as this made distract, interrupt or even bother some of your members.
One email per day should be enough, unless special circumstances arise requiring more. Have a good balance between quality information and promotions.
Rule #3: Know who your members are. Are your list members single mothers, or senior citizens? Are they newbie Internet marketer or are they golf enthusiast? By knowing who your members are, you can better provide them with right information and products. More than likely you want to build a list of like-minded individuals. Also, don’t hesitate to ask your list to recommend you to their friends and co-workers, or to others who share their passion for your niche.
Conclusion
As you can see, asking your list what they want is essential to your business. You can accomplish this by using such services as SurveyMonkey, or a script by Mark Hendricks. When contacting your list, the frequency of your emails will depend on the relationship you’ve built with them or are establishing. If you are unsure, have them take a survey. Using these list building strategies will better serve their online business needs, which in turn will build your business.
Building an opt-in list is essential to any online business, but keeping them engaged week after week while building your relationship with them is also important to your bottom line. Never take your subscriber for granted and make certain that you respect what you are establishing with them.
Here’s are some proven tips to help you make the most of your list:
1. Provide high-quality content.
Make certain that your articles are highly informative and user friendly. This will keep them engaged and will want to be contacted by you.
2. Keep your emails simple and user friendly.
Write in a conversational manner, and stick to small paragraphs, and make certain your contact email is accessible. Remember that we live in a society that is constantly giving us information around the clock. Don’t use big paragraphs and use bullet points when necessary. Keep each point in a different paragraph and then spare a line between each paragraph.
3. Keep your customers updated and informed.
After all, they’ve subscribe to your list for a reason. Right? Updated them about new products, or blog posts. A weekly newsletter would help even more.
4. Don’t babble, just get to the point and quick.
Of course, this will highly depend on the relationship you have with your subscribers. Keep it real and don’t make false promises. Always be honest and truthful.
5. Experiment, with different means of communication
Use audio, video and anything that can help you to reach out to your customers. This will help them get to know you better, as it provides personalization.
6. Don’t promote everything under the sun.
To put it bluntly, don’t be an affiliate harlot, just because there’s money to be made with the latest launch of “John Q. Guru”…
Please note, there’s nothing wrong with promoting high quality affiliate products, just keep a nice balance between providing high-quality content and affiliate promotions.
7. Update your autoresponder list regularly.
Keep your list clean by removing any and all fake names and email addresses.
8. Use a spell checker.
You don’t want to turn off one of your subscriber just because you were to lazy to check your spelling. Taking this extra step will keep your emails free of spelling errors, and will help you avoid getting flagged as spam email.
9. Test your emails more than once.
Subscribe to your own email list as this will provide you with the opportunity to see what your subscribers see. Check your headline and see if it fits the AIDA model of attention, interest, desire and action.
Conclusion
Never forget why your building your opt-in list, and understand what your motivations are.
Is your primary goal to make money?
If so, it will show in the content you provide as well as the emails you send out. However, if your goal is provide excellent content to your subscribers along with great customer service, then you’ll reap the rewards of your hard work.
Remember, there is nothing wrong with selling, after all, you are running a business and not a charity. You’re building this opt-in list for a reason. The key is to establish, build and nurture your subscribers and find the right balance that is right for you - between promotions and content.
One of the most important aspects to your Internet marketing business should be - getting targeted traffic and list building. Little or no traffic to your website will result in a low opt-in list. There a various methods to generating traffic to your sites, like PPC, article marketing, Ad exchanges as well as joint ventures. Although these are excellent methods to building your opt-in list, many overlook the effectiveness of blogging.
Blogging is the Key
Generating traffic and building an opt-in list all rely on advertising in one form or another. Some may not call it advertising, and regardless of what label you give it, people HATE advertising. Nevertheless, it is the life source of Internet marketing and without it, your business won’t survive. The key is to disguise it so it doesn’t look like advertising, and that’s where blogging comes in.
For some reason, Internet surfers are attracted to blogs! The need for every human to feel validated, provides the Internet surfer with a way to give their opinion or their two cents worth on any topic they choose to discuss. People are naturally curious, and they love to post to blogs but they also like to read posts made by others as well. This is where you use blogging for the sole purpose of driving traffic and building your opt-in list.
Join Other Bloggers
Go join blogging communities like My Blog Log and Blog Catalog, and get to know other regular bloggers by visiting their sites. Take you time and post relevant and helpful information that pertains to the topic. Don’t forget to include your website URL, as well as your signature tag at the bottom of every post. If you make educated comments, other bloggers will click on your sig tag and visit your website where they then become part of the “traffic”. If you repeat this process enough times, this will provide your visitors with an opportunity to join your newsletter or RSS feed - thus building your opt-in list.
Conclusion
Starting a blog is not as difficult and technical as it once was. Today’s cPanel provide a simple push-button system to creating your blog through Fantastico. If you haven’t started your blog, your missing out on a grand opportunity to building your opt-in list through blogging.
Taking you offline business online can seem like an intimidating task, especially if you’ve never had a website. Unfortunately, many that do make the transition from the offline world to the online community that is called the Internet, at times put up barriers that can turn off would be customers. It is important that you understand the unique differences between a typical brick and mortar business and that of an online presence.
If your plan to take your offline business online anytime in the future, there a few things to consider before taking that big step, which could impact your business significantly. In this months audio tip, you’ll discover what you need to know about your future online customers.
Even though starting an affiliate marketing business is easier and more affordable than starting a real-world business there is still some risks. This is why it is important to conduct your online affiliate business as you would any other business. If it is your sole source of income you’ll want to give it your all and make it as successful as possible.
Today we will look at ways to get your business going and make it successful so that you can get your online business off to a great start and keep it profitable.
First Golden Rule of any Business - Identify Demand
With affiliate marketing you’ll likely be giving a range of products to sell. Check out the demand of these types of things. You should try to stay away from trendy items. They’ll sell like mad one minute but you’ll be giving them away the next. You want thing that you know people want and need. That way your long term sales objectives will get met.
Don’t Limit Yourself - Offer Variation
Next is don’t limit yourself to just one product. Try to offer a variety of things. Many affiliate marketing programs offer a selection and it is best to go with these. Basing your business on one product may work in the short term. However someone will eventually come along with something better or cheaper.
Set your business apart from others. You need to establish what makes you and what you offer better from others. What do you offer that sets you apart from other businesses? You should always use tact when talking about your competition. Putting them down or being rude will only backfire on you. Talk up the advantages that you offer and leave it at that.
Provide Great Customer Service
Always do your best to ensure fast and efficient service to your customers. However there will come a time when there is a glitch. You need to keep your customers informed and aware of what is happening. Listen, things happen that are beyond your control but most customers are very forgiving if they are made aware of this. Keeping your customers in the dark could result in loosing them for good.
Conclusion
Finally, keep your customers happy. The happier they are the more likely they are to come back. Offer your customers incentives such as savings on their next purchase. It may cost you more but only in the short term. Keeping your customers happy will result is them referring you to others.
Online affiliate businesses can be easier to operate in the sense that they can minimize risk, however everything else is like any other business. You need to work very hard to keep your customers happy and you need to set yourself apart from others and protect yourself against the worst. By following this simple advice you will be giving your online business the best possible chance for success.
Just like the cold virus spreads from person to person, so does a marketing campaign when done correctly. Viral marketing uses techniques that exploit existing social networks to increase awareness of a business or product. Viral marketing is a technique that has been used in the offline advertising word for a long time and has recently made its way to the Internet.
How Viral Marketing Works
Viral marketing is accomplished when a website or program facilitates and encourages people to spread marketing information along voluntarily. Viral marketing tactics include:
Viral marketing is very different from network marketing and multi-level marketing schemes. Viral marketing is essentially a separate activity all by itself and has little in common with either of these things. It does not involve participants signing-up or paying for anything during the marketing process.
Early Examples
A classic example of early viral marketing techniques was when companies placed links at the bottom of users free e-mail accounts so the recipients of the e-mail could follow the link to sign-up for a free account. Many people use this technique within their own e-mails now to advertise links to their business website. Additionally, many of the web based free e-mails services allow companies to place their link at the bottom of their users e-mails.
Word of mouth and other tactics have been used to spread information since the beginning of time. Using new technologies like the internet has made this method of exchanging information much faster. Increasingly people are spending more time online and they are creating online identities and communities. Viral marketing takes advantage of the power of having these communities easily accessible by connecting with people in the online communities, so they can connect to other people.
Spreading The Word
If a company creates a marketing material through a blog, video or article they can begin the viral marketing campaign by starting the spread of that marketing material using an RSS feed. They would place the item on a website other than their own using the RSS feed and other people will see it and spread it elsewhere. Thus, the marketing material takes on the characteristics of a virus.
When people see the blog, video or article they may become interested in its origins and use the information they obtained from it to seek out information about the company that created it. That is why it is important to discreetly brand you viral marketing promotions with your companies information. You don’t want to be overt about branding your content, but it is important to slip it in there.
Conclusion
There are many reasons people choose to participate in viral marketing. A successful viral marketing campaign will spread like wildfire all over the internet and generate a great deal of interest in what your business has to offer. It is the Internet equivalent of creating product buzz on the streets. Viral marketing is also relatively inexpensive as well because you are not paying for the message to be spread. The idea is that your potential customers are spreading the message for you.
