The money is in the list. Growing an email list is essential for your online business. Email can be the best way to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. It is one of the most intimate ways to engage with prospects and clients and the best way to build long term relationships.
Many marketers will tell you that your email list will give the highest return of investment. These are the people that you send your newsletter, special announcements and offers to each week.
Unlike social media, like Facebook and Twitter, you cannot control the flow or when a person can see your posts or tweets. Your email list gets your personal email through an email marketing platform scheduled at the time and day you want to send. They receive your email through their personal inbox that they open daily. Your email can be kept for months, read and re-read.
So how do you evaluate and grow your list?
One: If you have just launched your new business, make sure you have a free opt-in offer on your website. This is one of the ways to capture email and increase your email list. We use AWeber to send emails to our list.
Two: Have an offer that your readers are looking for. If your readers are looking for “How to make money from home” and you are offering “How to be the best parent in the world”, your audience is not going to want that free opt-in offer even if you have the best landing page and offer.
Three: Evaluate your offers every few months. We know most companies change their free offers, are willing to test the free opt-in offer and make necessary changes to suit the needs of their audience. Added to that, all businesses evolve and grow and the focus may change. To make the free opt-in more relevant to the change, you may need to change it too.
Four: Add multiple free opt-in offers. Some business owners have an audio, free report or webinar offers.
Five: Evaluate and ask questions. Ask your audience what they are looking for. You may find that what you think they need may be different from what they need. The best offer would be the ones that answers and gives solutions to their most urgent pressing problems.
Six: Promote your free offer and make it visible to your audience through social media, guest blogging, advertisement and on your website.
Take a look at your email list today. How many people are in your list? Is it growing consistently?
