Opt-in
email is the opposite of "Spam" email. When people
voluntarily sign-up to receive your electronic messages, they
are "opting-in" to your mail list. Because they have
actually requested information from you, your messages are not
considered to be junk mail, spam, or unsolicited email. For
example, you are probably reading this article because you opted-in
to the Internet Marketing Tips ezine list!
Sending messages
and information to people who have given you permission to contact
them is a great way to build the kind of relationships that
will encourage a steady flow of traffic to your website... and
greatly increase your online sales!
All
online businesses can benefit from having an opt-in mailing
list of some kind! Opt-in email lists generally fall into 4
categories….
- New
Content Notification - You've probably seen sites
that offer to notify you whenever they have new information,
products, or content. To tell you the truth, this is probably
the least effective kind of opt-in list, simply because most
people won't sign-up. Instead, they'll bookmark your site
thinking they'll just come back from time to time - but don't
count it! Of course, there are certain kinds of sites that
CAN benefit from this form of opt-in list. For example, if
you have a site that runs contests, you can offer to notify
people whenever a new contest begins.
- Free
Report - Another kind of opt-in list involves the
offer of a free report, or series of reports. However, be
careful with this! By offering a free report, you are restricting
the number of times you can mail to your list … it's
not a good idea to capture the names and then bombard them
with a continual stream of sales material when they were only
expecting one or two reports. This would be considered spamming!
If you offer a free report, it should contain "real"
information and a reason for them to visit your website again.
- Resource
Updates - You can offer to update subscribers on
various issues or resources. For example, if you are in the
real estate business you could send people a list of current
mortgage rates for the top 10 or 20 financial institutions.
You could send this out once a week, once a month, or whenever
there are significant changes in the rates.
- Free
eZine/Newsletter - A great way to build an opt-in
list is by offering a free subscription to an electronic newsletter
or ezine. Newsletters are a really good way of regularly reminding
your subscribers about your website and products. By writing
a newsletter that contains copy which is both informative
and compelling, you draw subscribers back to your website
again and again! In my Insider
Secrets Course I have a huge chapter devoted specifically
to explaining how you can develop a fantastic newsletter and
get thousands of people to subscribe to it! Having an ezine/Newsletter
is one of the best ways to build credibility and rapport
with your readers and customers. If you understand
the value of a "Lifetime Customer", then you know
exactly how powerful an ezine or newsletter can be!
Once you determine
the kind of opt-in list you are going to have, you need to automate
it. Why? Because one of the secrets to running a successful
online business is to automate as much of the routine
work as you can!
- At your site,
put up a simple CGI script designed to capture people's names
and email addresses. This information will be sent to your
email address so that you can add it to your database.
- You can get
great CGI scripts for free! Simply go to http://cgi.resourceindex.com
and look up "Mail List Management" to find dozens
of free scripts.
- When people
sign-up, you should immediately send them a confirmation email
using an autoresponder. In this email, you should remind them
that they have signed up and have asked to be on your list.
Let them know how to unsubscribe (this information should
also be in every email you send them). Restate the benefits
they will experience by participating in your opt-in list.
Let them know how often they will hear from you - will it
be once a day, once a month, or only when there is something
new to report? You should also confirm that you will not sell
or let anyone else use their email address.
- Good software
will subscribe and unsubscribe people from your list automatically.
It will take the information sent to your email box by the
CGI script and add or delete it from your database. Doing
this manually can quickly become overwhelming - particularly
when your subscriber list begins to grow! These are the kind
of tasks that you want to be automated - your time will be
better spent on other things, like promoting your business!
- Sending email
to your list should be an easy process. You should be able
to simply merge your message with your address list, click
a button, and send them off! We recommend Mailloop
because, in addition to automatically subscribing and unsubscribing,
it makes the task of merging and sending personalised Email
messages very easy. It also allows you to set-up an unlimited
number of autoresponders... plus a whole pile of other things
I do not have room to list here.
Once you have
your list set-up and automated, you can concentrate on WHAT
you are sending your subscribers. They have subscribed for a
reason. You made them promises, now it is time to follow through
…
- Your message,
your report, or your eZine/Newsletter should be content rich.
- It should relate
closely to the theme of your website and to what your audience
is interested in. It should help them in some way!
- The information
must be timely and relevant.
- And…
it should draw people back to your website!!!!
By building an
opt-in list, you are building the future of your business. People
have invited you to send them information. They have invited
you into their homes or offices! Your messages are a constant
reminder for people to come back to your website and visit again
and again.
When they come
back, you have another opportunity to build rapport with your
visitors. You also have another opportunity to sell them your
main or backend products!
Now, I'm not going
to try and tell you that building an opt-in list doesn't require
a whole lot of work. It does! But it is an important step in
building a successful, long-term business. It is definitely
worth the work! Add an opt-in list to your website and you will
be well on your way to building a very valuable asset - a customer
list that you can sell to again and again, year after year!
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how
to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to
$2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all
his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools,
and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over $60 Million
in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/892189
Article
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