Online Marketing >> Email Marketing

Make Money With E-mail Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays and it makes sense considering the fact that almost everybody is using email. Therefore, if you're not using this method, you are definitely missing out on a lot of cash that you could be enjoying right now. In fact, assuming that your site receives a considerable number of unique visitors per day, what chances do you have that these visits will be repeated ones? Probably scanty if not none.

Most online entrepreneurs, specially newbies, make the mistake of thinking that just having a website is all it takes to succeed on the internet. It is unfortunate that so many people build websites and stuff them with ad banners and affiliate links and believe that that is enough to see some money rolling in. Having a website has never been and will never be suffiscient for online success. Any seasoned online marketer will tell you that the key to online success is a mailing list.

Just by placing a form on your site, for your users to subscribe to your mailing list, you guarantee yourself targeted customers because, if you think about it, these people come to your site out of interest in what you have to offer them. Besides, they have willingly signed up to your mailing list which only means that they liked what they have seen in your site and have decided they want to see more and maybe even purchase whatever product or service your company and site have to offer. However, be careful not to spam any of your visitors otherwise you will be facing dire repercussions. In fact, by law, opt-in marketing requires the consent and permission of a customer to be included in a mailing list.

Once your mailing list is built, you can now start sending bulk messages in the form of newsletters, catalogs and promotional mailings via e-mail. This process is both time and cost effective.

How To Build Your Opt-In Mailing List?

There is a saying among marketers that "The money is in the list". This is why building your mailing list should be one of your priorities because in the long run your online business will depend on it. There are actually so many ways you can use to coerce your site visitors to willingly input their names and email addresses into your subscription form. Below I state some of the techniques used by most marketers to grow their mailing lists.

• Obviously, to capture a visitor's info, you will need a form. However, note that I have put this medium first just to show you that you need one. There are other mediums that you should put a lot of effort into otherwise the form will not serve any purpose. For instance, if your site is not enticing and appealing enough you can be sure that no one will subscribe to your mailing list. Speaking of the form, you can basically find a way to place it on all your pages or at least place a link to a page that has the form on it. An other way of making use of your form is that you can have it displayed as a popup when the page loads or when the user tries to exit your website.
• An other way of convincing someone to subscribe is to demonstrate what's in it for them and what they're going to get in return if they subscribe. One way to do this is to offer them something valuable for free. It's commom sense, people like free stuff. In fact, you can offer them a free e-course that they can receive in instalements. Or you can offer an e-book about a subject of interest to them. Pick a subject that you think your visitors will be interested in an write an ebook about it. If you need help on how to write an ebook, you can grab a copy of my 30 Writing Tips For Ebook Authors. It's a must have for anyone who is starting on ebook authoring.
• You can also kind of bribe users to input their friends' email addresses into a tell-a-friend form. When those friends receive an email, they're likely to click on the link to your page and, eventually, if they find your site interesting, they will subscribe to your newsletter. Let's do the math....Imagine that every day 10 users refer 5 of their friends to your site and only 3 people from each referral end up subscribing to your mailing list. That's 30 new customers you just added to your downline. How genious can that be?

Auto Responders

Now, it is good to implement the techniques mentioned above, but they wouldn't serve a purpose unless you have a mechanism that would take care of capturing the user's email address and sending out your newsletters or promotional offers. That's where autoresponders kick in. In fact, an autoresponder not only snatches a user's email address but automates all mailings to your list. An autoresponder is like an employee who works for you 24/7, never takes a vacation, never asks for a raise and above all never gets paid. Once you set it, it will work for you around the clock. Thanks to autoresponders, your business runs on autopilot and flourishes without you lifting a finger

An autoresponder is your best option whent it comes to delivering sales messages to your list. It is the tool that you use to automatically deliver your newsletters, e-courses or any promotions that you're advertising whether it be your own products or someone else's. Therefore, as an online marketer, you can not just thrive without an autoresponder. In fact, autoresponders and online marketing go hand-in-hand.

Up until three or four years ago, there was only a small number of online companies that offer autoresponder services and the cost was relatively high. However, now you have so many choices that you can choose from. Besides, you can pick a service according to your budget.

There are two ways you can get an autoresponder. You can either sign up with a company that offers the service or you can install an autoresponder program on your own server.

Choosing An Autorespodner Service

The autoresponder service that is most used by online marketers is Aweber. Aweber offers you all the tools you will need to automate your business. Not only will you have a variety of newsletter templates you can choose from, but they automatically generate the code for the sign-up forms which you can just paste in your pages. You will also be able to create as many autoresponders and compaigns as you wish. Therefore if you're serious about your online business, Don't put off getting an autoresponder right away.

Another great autoresponder service you can use is 1ShoppingCart.com. Personally, this is my favourite one. In addition to all the features Aweber offers, 1ShoppingCart.com makes it very easy to intergrate a shopping cart on your website so you can accept credit cards. Customers will make purchases without ever leaving your website.They provide you also with the tools to set up your own affiliate program. What's best than having a sales army to work for you for a fraction of the sale price. Think about it.

If you are just starting in online marketing and you can not afford a paid autoresponder service, then you can opt for a free one. However, you have to bear in mind that nothing is always free. What I mean is that on each autoresponder that you send out , there is always a piece of advertisment included in your messages which is sometimes annoying to your customers. Over all this a good way to start until you're ready to switch for a paid service

Autoresponder Programs

The other option you have is to get an autoresponder program that you can install on your server. The advantage that this option has is that you only pay once to purchase the program. You won't have to pay any monthly fees. The only drawback is that if ever something goes wrong, you will have to figure it out by yourself because you will be your own customer support. However, it is a good way to go specially if you're just starting in online marketing and you want to lower your business cost. if you wish, you can check my autoresponder program which I have been using myself for some time. You just follow a couple of easy steps to install it and voila! You're ready to become a real online marketer.

Rlated Articles

• Free Autoresponders: Advantages And Limitations
• Build Customer Service With Autoresponder