Build Your Email List in 3 Easy Steps

This article is sponsored by VerticalResponse, a direct marketing self-service provider and proud supporter of the OfficeArrow community.

Email marketing (the process of sending company newsletters, product information and/or special offers via email) is a cost effective and efficient tool for communicating with your clients and prospects. If you've been tasked with improving communications or boosting sales, you'll want to explore the world of email marketing.

Of course, getting permission to send someone an email is probably one of the toughest, yet most important, aspects of this kind of marketing. Why is it so tough? Because you have to gain your potential recipient's trust, that's why. They need to feel comfortable that you won't abuse their valuable, personal information.

Developing your email list can be a challenge. The two most important things you need to strive for are size and quality. How can you build your list while maintaining the overall good quality? Here a few ideas that will help you get started.

Form it Up!

The first thing you can do is place a registration form prominently on the homepage of your company website, or better yet every page. Start driving people who visit your site directly to the registration form and you'll be amazed at how many people will end up filling it in.

Tip: Most Email Service Providers (ESPs) provide an easy-to-use form-building tool. This tool walks you through a series of steps enabling you to create your own form that you can customize to fit your company's look and feel. And it just takes a few minutes to create. Put it on as many pages as you can so you'll have a better chance of capturing that email address.

Some forms are free to use and others charge you monthly to host your data depending on how large your list is, so be sure you know up front what costs, if any, you'll incur.

Also beware of the laws. If you do collect information make sure you know exactly what you can do with it. There are not only laws for anti spam, but also telemarketing and fax laws to keep in mind as well.

Leverage the Web

Now that you've got a form on your site, create a newsletter and take advantage of the "forward to a friend" features available through your ESP. Your newsletter will take on a viral effect and your list will continue to grow. The next step is to research other places on the Internet where you can advertise your newsletter. Remember, you can advertise your products or services, but why not treat your newsletter like a product or service too? Here are some ideas you can implement to grow your email list.

Complimentary Sites

What other sites do your clients and prospects visit? It's easier to find out than you think. If your company's website is ranked as a highly visited site on the web, the traffic ranking site Alexa will tell you. Simply go to: www.alexa.com, type in your site URL to see where/if you come up in the rankings of all website traffic. If your site is "ranked" you'll be able to review the list of other sites your users visit. Identify them, visit them and see if they have advertising or barter opportunities for your product or newsletter sign up.

Obtaining Permission Offline

You may find that you have a great list of postal addresses for your customers or prospects but you lack email addresses (or permission) for them. Wouldn't it be great to have a choice whether to use email, direct mail or telemarketing to communicate with these folks?

You can also send your clients and prospects a postcard (that's right: a good old fashioned snail mail postcard) to tell them about the benefits of sharing their email address. You can either ask them to call you, or direct them to a web page where you outline the benefits of them joining with their email address and include your opt-in form. Offering an incentive to join (such as a discount or something free) generally helps motivate them. This can be a very effective way to change your direct mail list into email recipients saving you direct mail costs in the long run.

Telemarketing

Many businesses have had existing lists long before email became so popular. And you may have mailing information for them but you may also have phone information. Wouldn't it be great to get email addresses for these prospects and customers so that you can easily and more cost-effectively communicate with them?

"Update your information" campaign - Your telemarketing campaign could revolve around an information update. Simply ask your customers if they'd mind updating their information with you over the phone and then ask if they'd mind getting email offers from you instead of mailings. If they're your customers you've got a better chance at getting this information than if they're prospects.

Once you build your list and start communicating, remember: you made a promise to them about what you would send them when they joined. Try to avoid straying from that promise; it's all about trust in the end. If you do stray you will have a greater chance of losing them and you'll spend your time patching your reputation instead of growing your list.

Watch your business grow with email marketing! With VerticalResponse, you can create emails in minutes, no technical experience required. Choose from over 300 designs, type your copy, select your recipients and send...it's that easy! Sign up for a free account today and receive 250 free emails just for being an OfficeArrow member.

For more information on email marketing solutions and building your email marketing list, visit the experts at VerticalResponse.com