OK. So, you want to get better at marketing online, and you know e-mail is one of the most effective forms of online marketing. Well, it is.

But you’re worried if you are too aggressive, you’ll piss off the people you are trying to sell to. Or worse yet, you’ll be accused of being a SPAMMER! And that’s the rub, isn’t it? The fact is we get a LOT of e-mail all the time. But some people get so many messages that your messages get lost in the pile.

So, you have a decision to make. Do you e-mail them over and over to make sure they are getting your messages? Or do you e-mail so little that you constantly get lost amidst the daily horoscopes, newsletters, and other information in your prospects and client’s inboxes?

Well…have no fear. In this series you’ll discover how to find a happy medium between these two losing strategies and I’ll give you some tips that are virtually guaranteed not to piss off most people.

Before you start

First things first. Let me go into what I mean about pissing people off. Let’s get one thing straight. You’re bound to piss somebody off. I mean, there are people out there with some incredibly thin skins.

I got an angry e-mail form someone unsubscribing to my list because he said I was e-mailing him too much. Well…he did subscribe to my blog updates, but he said he only wanted to hear from me once a month.

Great for him, but my business would be dead in the water if I only followed up once a month with people (and yours probably would be too).

So, someone is bound not to be satisfied by your efforts to safeguard their inbox.

But don’t fear…most people will appreciate your effort.

Making people happy starts before they even opt in

The first tip you will get is probably the most important. First of all, before you start your e-mail marketing campaigns, you’ll need a service to manage the people that want to opt into your list. You’ll need this because you want a way to automatically follow up with them. As we go deeper into this series, we’ll talk about using autoresponders (automated e-mail messages) for marketing. And you’ll need a reliable service that delivers your e-mail (you’d be surprised how many of these services fail to deliver your e-mail).

I don’t recommend using your personal database software because it is hard to send automated e-mails and you might run into SPAM complaints (more on this later).

The service I recommend is Aweber. I’ve used them for years now, and they’ve been very reliable and offer outstanding customer support. Best of all, they offer a 30-day trial, so you can try before you commit to anything.

Once you have a good system in place, you can start your e-mail marketing campaign.

Tip #1: Give people something of value in exchange for them opting into your list

How many times do you give your name and e-mail address to someone offering you this awesome free report, only to find the report is not worth a pile of horse hockey?

When you ask for someone’s e-mail address, you are asking them for permission to communicate with you later. For that privilege, I’ve always believed you must offer something of value upfront.

For example, offer a valuable free report, a white paper, free video, free audio, or something else that you feel will be valuable.

As for me, I offer updates to free things on my site. Currently, I give away an eBook. Anyone coming to this site can just snag it without giving me anything (this type of method will be covered later in this series). If they want to be notified of future free things, I will let them know by e-mail. But I also give people the chance to get e-mail updates to this blog. So, I think if people feel the content of this blog is valuable, they can opt into my list.

Getting value upfront will make your prospects happier in the beginning and more apt to accept your future e-mails.

* a note on newsletters. Personally, I think there are too many newsletters out there, and “opt in to get my free newsletter” isn’t as effective as it used to be. If you have a newsletter, I recommend having archives on your web site so prospects can determine the value beforehand. That way if they find it valuable they are more inclined to subscribe.

Tip #2: Do a Double opt-in

When you are asking them for a name and e-mail address, do what’s called a double opt in. This means someone must confirm that they do, in fact, want to receive e-mail communication from you.

I believe the double opt in is crucial to keeping down the piss-off factor. The reason is two-fold:

1. By confirming, a person is taking one extra step, therefore showing they are interested in what you have to offer.
2. You prevent people from fraudulently signing up others. This actually does happen. And you don’t want to get spam complaints.

Most 3rd party services require this. I know Aweber does. Having a double opt in puts you in compliance wit the CANN SPAM Act. There are ways around doing a double opt in, but I don’t recommend it. When you do a double opt in, it protects you from people who call you a spammer since they confirmed that they wanted to be on your list.

So, to recap:

• Get a good service for delivering your e-mail (I recommend Aweber)
• When you ask people to opt-into your list, make sure you are giving them something of value in exchange for their e-mail address.
• Make them confirm that they want to be on your list.

In part 2, I’ll give you some tips on how to empower the people on your list, so they will want to stay on your list once they are on.

Topics: Marketing Archive |

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