Email marketing for newbies
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Articles You can write articles pertaining to your topic, or articles that contain some of the information found in your product, and post them across the internet. Be sure the article contains useful information that will pique readers’ interest and get them to want more and more. When submitting your articles to other sites for publication, be sure to include your name (and company name, if you have one) and a link to your web site. If you have professional credentials that tie in to your subject, write a brief bio to include as well. Just as the idea of free list-building methods appealed to you, the idea of valuable freebies will appeal to potential customers. Obtain short, informative e-books on your topic (or write one yourself) from affiliate programs or other internet marketers, and then offer them as an incentive to sign up for your opt-in list. You can also advertise a contest to give away a certain number of your product, chosen at random from people who sign up for your list during a prescribed period of time. NOTE: Setting limits on sign-up time and the number of giveaways gives people extra incentive to act now. This is a technique you may want to incorporate in your autoresponder messages. Developing a mini-course—a shortened version of your full product—is a great way to increase interest in potential buyers. When setting up a mini-course, break your product up into several sections. Give away a few secrets in each “lesson,” but not all of them. Remind mini-course subscribers that much more information can be found in the full version of your product, and include links to both your product page and your autoresponder landing page in each section. Plug your mini-course into your autoresponder program and fire away! Pop-up ads can be an effective means of gathering addresses for your opt-in list when used on your own site. No one enjoys visiting a site about a topic they’re interested in, only to be bombarded with boxes proclaiming they’ve won free gas for a year or can lose 10 pounds in the next week. But used on your own site, pop-up ads let people know immediately that they can sign up for your list and get exactly the information they’re looking for delivered straight to their inbox. Recent studies have shown on-site pop-up ads to increase sales by up to 33 percent. Let’s again review what an opt-in list is: a collection of e-mail addresses you get from people who are interested in your product, and request to join your autoresponder list. This means your autoresponder messages will not be considered spam, and the reputation of your business will help build consumer confidence and increase sales. Now that you know why you need an opt-in list, let’s talk about how to get one. There are several ways to collect addresses for your opt-in list, and you should institute as many as you can to develop a wide subscriber base. When it comes to building a subscriber base, a little bit of money goes a long way. Most paid list-building methods are relatively inexpensive, and if used properly will more than pay for themselves in a short period of time. For every paid method of obtaining subscribers, you will need your complete site URL and a brief (one- to three-sentence) description of your site. Word your description the same way you would in your autoresponder messages: make it short, to the point, and compelling. You will also need a list of keywords you want people to be able to find your site with through search engines. Some popular paid list-building techniques are: Pay-per-click ad campaigns bring visitors to your landing page by advertising your site on strategic points on the front search results page of keywords related to your topic. The term “pay-per-click” refers to the way you pay for the ads: a certain amount is deducted from your account—the money you put in to fund the campaign—each time someone clicks on your link. The most popular PPC program is Google AdWords; basically, all PPC campaigns work the same way. Here’s how it works: when you sign up with AdWords, you submit a list of keywords and product descriptions. For example, if you were offering an e-book about how to increase web site profits, a list of your keywords might be: website, web site, web site profits, increase profits, internet, internet profit, online profit, online business, internet business, web site business, make money online, and so forth. Come up with as many keywords and search terms as possible so you can increase your chances of getting visitors. You may also consider including common misspellings ofyour most important keywords; in the previous example, possibilities would be: bizness, busness, inernet. NOTE: You can use Google’s free keyword tool to generate even more related search terms for your topic. AdWords ads appear on the right-hand side of Google’s search result pages in shaded boxes. The ads consist of four lines: the first line is your ad’s title, the last is your site’s URL, and the two middle lines are descriptive text. Length is limited—25 characters for the title, and 35 characters each for descriptive text—so you should choose your wording carefully. Also, you can’t use that excessive punctuation (Make Lots of Cash!!!), gimmicky repetition (Money, Money, Money!), or inappropriate symbols/abbreviations (Big Bux @ my site 4 U). So, following the above example, our AdWords ads might look like:
AdWords operates on a pay-per-click basis. This means you pay nothing for your ads unless someone actually clicks on them. When you set up an AdWords account, you assign a monetary value to your keywords according to how much you’re willing to pay for each click on your search terms—the minimum value you can assign to a keyword is 1 cent. You can start an account with $5, and you will never be required to put more in –however, if you find your web site traffic increasing, you may want to consider adding to your advertising budget. In addition to the minimum, you will set a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) value for your keywords. But even if you reach the maximum, the AdWords program automatically determines the lowest price you need to keep your ranking.
Yahoo! also offers a popular PPC program called Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture). The major difference between the Yahoo and the Google programs is that Yahoo requires a minimum monthly spend of $50. You may find one more effective than the other—and it’s always helpful to try multiple methods. More visitors means more sales! Placing classified ads, both online and in print, are a great low-cost way to reach potential subscribers. There are, of course, tons of places to list free classified ads, but the one or two click-throughs you’ll get for the amount of time you’ll spend placing them just isn’t worth it. When composing classified ads, remember that you have limited space to get your message across. You might consider using the same formula as the one for PPC campaigns: an ad title, a few descriptive lines of text, and your site’s URL. For print classifieds, check out your local and regional newspapers. Categorize your ads appropriately: if you have a product about how to work from home, you could probably place it in the Employment section, but if your product is about diets or relationships, you should advertise in another section. There are also many online venues for placing classifieds, from fixed sites to newsletters. Many newsletters make their profits from placing classified ads; if you can find one relating to your topic with a large subscriber place, it may be worth buying an ad—or even a sequential ad series (once again, repetition of your message is the key to convert prospects into buyers. If the same subscribers see your advertisement for three weeks in a row, more of them will visit your site). The best way to place classified ads is to seek out e-zines and newsletters that either deal directly with your topic or would be of interest to your target audience; find out how large their own subscriber base is; and ask about rates. Comparison shop: look for well-written newsletters or e-zines with low rates and discounts for sequential listings. This will help you make the most of your advertising dollar. Check out these newsletter and e-zine directories to get started:
Co-registration lists Remember when we mentioned prefacing your autoresponder messages with a statement that included “…someone else indicated you would be interested in receiving this material”? This is where co-registration lists come in. Signing up for co-registration lists basically enters you into a partnership with other internet marketers who are selling products similar to yours. Each person on the list agrees to request that their subscribers agree to allow their “associates” to send them product information. Co-registration lists are a cost-effective, ultra-fast way to build a huge subscriber base, and work faster at bringing results than just about any other method. The downside to co-registration lists is that they are typically the most expensive method of building lists. Still, we’re not even talking in hundreds of dollars here. Like PPC campaigns, you pay for subscribers on a per-click basis, and only for those subscribers who actually complete your sign-up process. The average cost per subscriber is around 10 cents. With a quality co-registration list, you can amass a great targeted subscriber base in as little as a week, and start selling your product right away. Try these co-registration list building services and get started now:
When it comes to building a subscriber base, a little bit of money goes a long way. Most paid list-building methods are relatively inexpensive, and if used properly will more than pay for themselves in a short period of time. For every paid method of obtaining subscribers, you will need your complete site URL and a brief (one- to three-sentence) description of your site. Word your description the same way you would in your autoresponder messages: make it short, to the point, and compelling. You will also need a list of keywords you want people to be able to find your site with through search engines. |
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