Your list is one of the most vital parts of your email marketing campaign.It doesn’t matter how great your offer or sales message is, if you don’t send it to the right people, it won’t work.
The quick option is to buy in a list but how can you be sure it is the right audience for your offer? Surely the best way to optimise your campaign’s chances is to use a home-grown list that you’ve developed over time from an interested audience.
So how do you get started?
Well it won’t be a quick process. Building your own quality list will take time. It will involve gathering email addresses from customers which means you have to maximise your opportunities to capture them.
You could:
- Have a sign-up box on every page of your website so your visitors can’t miss it
- Provide a free giveaway that’s of value to capture their email address
- Include a sing-up link in your email signature
- Promote your newsletter on your print materials too. Once they’ve signed up for your newsletter you have their details to send other offer to as well
- If you use direct mail, send an offer that will drive them to a landing page that requires an email address to access the deal
- Promote your giveaways through social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) to widen your audience
- If you work regularly with other companies see if they would be willing to promote your newsletter within theirs
These ideas are easy to implement and in time will lead to the creation of a high quality in-house marketing list to which you can make offers and provide news and advice to constantly strengthen your customer relationships.
As I mentioned earlier, it will take time to grow your list but it is worth it as the results from your marketing campaigns will be much better than if you simply bought in a list.
Give it a go and see how it works for you.
Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter