flexi-vaOne of the many advantages of using the internet to grow your business is the high level of automation available. Nowhere is this automation more evident than with the use of emails to contact a large list of customers. In order to keep the email process clear of any accusations of spam you will need to use opt-in emails.
When someone agrees to receive emails from you they are ‘opting in’ to your list or newsletter, that way they can’t accuse you of spamming them by sending them unsolicited emails.
When they visit your website they will be encouraged to sign up for your list. In order to get them to sign up you can offer them something of value such as a free report, or a multi-part mini-course. Whatever your incentive is you have to make sure it’s a good one or your visitors won’t sign up.
Once you’ve got your visitor’s contact information it’s vitally important for you to carefully follow through. Make sure they receive whatever you promised them and continue to provide them with quality information when you send out your follow-up emails.
You can send out follow-up emails as often as you like, but remember, every time they receive an email from you there is a link at the bottom that says ‘un-subscribe’. If your emails are nothing but an obnoxious sales pitch a lot of the people on your list will be hitting the unsubscribe button and you don’t want that. So be careful that you continue to offer them something that they can benefit from and not just a sales pitch.
Of course, the whole point of gathering your website visitors’ names is to hopefully turn them into a buying customers. It’s estimated that up to 98% of the people who visit your website won’t make a purchase on their first visit… and they won’t ever come back. That’s why using an opt-in email list is essential.
To monetize your list you have two basic options: you can send out a sales message say for every 5 or so informative emails, or you can add a brief sales message as a postscript to each email you send out.
Either of these methods can help you turn your email list into a virtual money machine, if you use them properly. If you use the 1-in-5 method you will be able to include a longer message, and of course, you can combine both methods.
Remember that the people on your list probably get a lot of emails every single day and you want to set yourself apart, you want to show them that the information in your emails will help them and that it’s worth their effort to open and read your emails. If you can accomplish that your emails will be the ones that get opened on a regular basis.
To build trust and rapport with your website visitors use an automated auto-responder system and opt-in emails. The more of your business that can be automated the more time you’ll have to do other tasks that need to be accomplished, like spend time at the beach!
Using the internet as a way to help you build your business, whether it’s an online or offline business, is an extremely cost-effective technique. When it comes to mass email marketing you can literally reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers all with the click of a button and with very little overhead (just the price of your internet connection and website hosting costs).
The low cost of this type of advertisement had a downside, companies started sending out millions of messages to unsuspecting email recipients who then started complaining about spam – unsolicited bulk commercial emails.
The rocketing number of spam emails that were being sent out created a backlash from the public which eventually led to new laws to prevent the abuse of the email message system, the CAN-SPAM laws. These laws basically state that you can’t send out a lot of emails to random email addresses.
In order to be in compliance with the law, and not be accused of spamming, there are a few things you need to do:
1. Your email message must have an accurate ‘from’ heading where you put in your name or the name of your company.
2. The subject line on your email must be accurate and relate to the actual content of your email.
3. As the sender you must provide an actual physical address for you or your company.
4. Make sure to clearly label your email if it contains adult content.
5. You cannot have a false header on your email.
6. You must provide a clear, and free, link for the recipient to ‘un-subscribe’ and if they click on that link they should immediately be removed from your email list and you should never send them another email.
7. Having an ‘opt-in’ list is probably your very best defence against being accused of spam. This method will encourage your website visitor to sign up to receive your emails. They are giving you permission to send them emails.
These are the basics of the law. I’m not an expert or a lawyer so make sure you take a little time and learn all the ins and outs of the CAN-SPAM law so that you can make sure your company is in compliance. Don’t let the new laws scare you off from using mass email marketing since it can be a very effective marketing tool for your business.
If you take the time to find out what all the regulations are and then you follow them, you will be in compliance and you will be able to add a lot of customers to your business which will eventually lead to a lot more sales, and that’s what we all want.
“Building A Profitable Email List Is The Best Thing You Can Do Online”
