5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

 

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new sales opportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there's no guarantee they'll return later.

But when you build an email list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.

Here are five ways to integrate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best prospects:

1. Build an opt-in form on your home page.
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to create a list is to integrate an email opt-in form into your home page. To get attention, place your form "above the fold," so visitors can see it immediately and don't have to scroll down.

To get an opt-in form code, you'll first need to sign up with an email marketing services provider, which will cost you up to $20 a month. The cost will likely increase if your subscriber list becomes larger than 5,000 members. This type of company allows you to collect email addresses, manage your lists and send messages to your subscribers. Once your account is set up, log in and follow the instructions in the company's help section.

Related: Email Marketing is Not Dead (Video)

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating an opt-in form:

• Generally, the less information you require to opt in, the more sign-ups you'll receive. Most webmasters find that requiring only an email address and first name -- or even just an email address -- results in the highest opt-in rates.

• You'll also get better results if you offer a bonus for providing your email address. Many merchants find that delivering a coupon code or free e-book encourages more sign-ups.

• Depending on the email marketing services provider you've chosen, you may be able to split test your opt-in form. If so, try designing two different versions of your form that will be displayed randomly to visitors and will help you determine the most effective approach.

2. Include an opt-in option on your About page.
Don't stop with your home page. Include a second opt-in form on your About page. After all, visitors who arrive on this page have taken action to learn more about you and your business. Encourage them to get to know you even more by joining your email list.

Consider the experience of popular blogger Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. By adding an opt-in form to the main text of his About page, he saw an increase of 446 percent in email newsletter sign-ups over a two-month period.

3. Add an opt-in form to your checkout process.
Your checkout process can be another logical place for an opt-in form. If your customers are so invested in your brand that they're willing to pull out their credit cards, chances are they'll be interested in receiving future discounts and other messages from you.

For more information on integrating an opt-in form into your sales process, check with your shopping cart provider. Many of today's top payment processers integrate smoothly with the most popular email marketing service providers.

Related: Six Tips for Maximizing Email Marketing Campaigns

If such integration isn't available, you may need to use an external program or hire a developer to add the opt-in function. This shouldn't cost more than $50 to $200, and you'll likely find the extra effort and expense worth the investment.

4. Integrate an opt-in function into your blog's comments section.
If you run a business blog, you can integrate an email opt-in box into the comments section. You'll be reaching people who already have demonstrated an interest in what you have to say.

Some providers of email marketing services offer blog-specific plugins that will let you add an opt-in feature quickly and easily. If your provider doesn't have that service, you can purchase software for that function for about $100.

5. Consider a pop-up form.
Another option is to present opt-in forms via pop-up advertisements. Although some people find pop-up ads irritating, their continued presence on some of the web's top sites can only mean that they're effective for some marketers.

It's a judgment call. If you do decide to put opt-in forms in pop-ups, be sure to track your site's metrics carefully. What you want to see is an increase in opt-in subscriptions -- without a corresponding increase in your site's bounce rate.

via entrepreneur.com

Hire Jim Woods To Speak to Your Organization

Innovation, Growth, & Hypercompetition Consultant/Speaker/Business Coach

 Website: InnoThink Group

Request a consultation: Office: +1 719.649.4118 or complete our form.  

 

Innothink Group is a strategic management, innovation and business coaching consultancy. 

Our Guarantee. Where many consulting firms are reluctant to bear risks or tie their rewards to project outcomes, we decided to build a better model. We align our success with yours. We’re outcome obsessed, outcome paid, putting nearly two thirds of our fees at risk subject to hitting predetermined milestones. More than a guarantee we wanted from the outset to create true partnerships with shared responsibility. See a few of our clients.   

We provide broad ranging advice covering innovation, commoditization, competitive advantage, business policy and strategy, as well as global strategy and implementation. 

5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

 

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new sales opportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there's no guarantee they'll return later.

But when you build an email list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.

Here are five ways to integrate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best prospects:

1. Build an opt-in form on your home page.
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to create a list is to integrate an email opt-in form into your home page. To get attention, place your form "above the fold," so visitors can see it immediately and don't have to scroll down.

To get an opt-in form code, you'll first need to sign up with an email marketing services provider, which will cost you up to $20 a month. The cost will likely increase if your subscriber list becomes larger than 5,000 members. This type of company allows you to collect email addresses, manage your lists and send messages to your subscribers. Once your account is set up, log in and follow the instructions in the company's help section.

Related: Email Marketing is Not Dead (Video)

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating an opt-in form:

• Generally, the less information you require to opt in, the more sign-ups you'll receive. Most webmasters find that requiring only an email address and first name -- or even just an email address -- results in the highest opt-in rates.

• You'll also get better results if you offer a bonus for providing your email address. Many merchants find that delivering a coupon code or free e-book encourages more sign-ups.

• Depending on the email marketing services provider you've chosen, you may be able to split test your opt-in form. If so, try designing two different versions of your form that will be displayed randomly to visitors and will help you determine the most effective approach.

2. Include an opt-in option on your About page.
Don't stop with your home page. Include a second opt-in form on your About page. After all, visitors who arrive on this page have taken action to learn more about you and your business. Encourage them to get to know you even more by joining your email list.

Consider the experience of popular blogger Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. By adding an opt-in form to the main text of his About page, he saw an increase of 446 percent in email newsletter sign-ups over a two-month period.

3. Add an opt-in form to your checkout process.
Your checkout process can be another logical place for an opt-in form. If your customers are so invested in your brand that they're willing to pull out their credit cards, chances are they'll be interested in receiving future discounts and other messages from you.

For more information on integrating an opt-in form into your sales process, check with your shopping cart provider. Many of today's top payment processers integrate smoothly with the most popular email marketing service providers.

Related: Six Tips for Maximizing Email Marketing Campaigns

If such integration isn't available, you may need to use an external program or hire a developer to add the opt-in function. This shouldn't cost more than $50 to $200, and you'll likely find the extra effort and expense worth the investment.

4. Integrate an opt-in function into your blog's comments section.
If you run a business blog, you can integrate an email opt-in box into the comments section. You'll be reaching people who already have demonstrated an interest in what you have to say.

Some providers of email marketing services offer blog-specific plugins that will let you add an opt-in feature quickly and easily. If your provider doesn't have that service, you can purchase software for that function for about $100.

5. Consider a pop-up form.
Another option is to present opt-in forms via pop-up advertisements. Although some people find pop-up ads irritating, their continued presence on some of the web's top sites can only mean that they're effective for some marketers.

It's a judgment call. If you do decide to put opt-in forms in pop-ups, be sure to track your site's metrics carefully. What you want to see is an increase in opt-in subscriptions -- without a corresponding increase in your site's bounce rate.

via entrepreneur.com

Hire Jim Woods To Speak to Your Organization

Innovation, Growth, & Hypercompetition Consultant/Speaker/Business Coach

 Website: InnoThink Group

Request a consultation: Office: +1 719.649.4118 or complete our form.  

 

Innothink Group is a strategic management, innovation and business coaching consultancy. 

Our Guarantee. Where many consulting firms are reluctant to bear risks or tie their rewards to project outcomes, we decided to build a better model. We align our success with yours. We’re outcome obsessed, outcome paid, putting nearly two thirds of our fees at risk subject to hitting predetermined milestones. More than a guarantee we wanted from the outset to create true partnerships with shared responsibility. See a few of our clients.   

We provide broad ranging advice covering innovation, commoditization, competitive advantage, business policy and strategy, as well as global strategy and implementation. 

Ten Top Tips: How to handle the media in a crisis - Graham Leech

Follow Us

Something's gone wrong and the media have caught wind of it. What do you do next? Former newshound turned entrepreneur Graham Leach has ten ways to save your reputation.

1. Have a plan

This may sound fatuous, but you'd be surprised how many big companies don't have any systems in place for dealing with a media crisis. Never underestimate the impact a negative story can have. The media loves love big stories and are likely to devote a lot of time and attention to them. Most large organisations which do have a crisis plan invariably deal only with internal response and recovery. The plan hardly ever takes the media onslaught into consideration.

2.Get ready for some company

Make sure you're prepared for the arrival of the media scrum - either outside your organisation's headquarters or at the scene of the disaster, the crisis or the major setback for your company. Where will you marshal them - outside on the pavement or will you invite them in to attend formal news conferences on your premises?

3. Prepare for the questions

What will you tell them? Can your spokespeople hold the company line under intense questioning? In general it's best to have a core of skilled spokespeople who can deal with any interview, whatever its format. Don't just rely on your most senior people. They might be on holiday, or ill. In any case, they will be closely concerned with managing the crisis itself.

4. Open the lines of communication

For the media who are not on site, there should be a dedicated phone line available for their inquiries.  The main phone lines of course have to be kept clear to deal with the crisis.

5. Contextualise the problem

Reporters need all the information they can get. Have you background material, pre-prepared and ready to hand out? Facts and figures? Biogs of senior figures in the organisation?

6. Think fast, talk fast

Silence is not golden. However grim things are looking, it's generally best to come out with a statement of some kind – and fast. The longer you leave it, the more quickly the evidence will build up against you in the mind of the public. When, eventually, you decide to confront the media, you may by then have lost a considerable amount of ground, which is then very difficult to recapture.

7. Dole out tasks before a crisis hits

Make sure your press office is fully equipped to deal with the crisis. Everyone should know what role they undertake when the phones start ringing and the media bombardment begins. Once the crisis is up and running, that is not the time to start deciding who does what.

8. Don’t become a slave to the crisis plan

One crisis is rarely the same as another. You need to be adaptable and modify your plan as and when required.

9. Don't neglect social media

Ensure there are people available to deal with the social media. This is where speculation, guesswork and allegations breed and spread. More and more often news or comment appearing on Twitter or Facebook drives the mainstream media. Keeping abreast of the social media is vital in handling a crisis.

10. Make sure your operation is slick

Most importantly, can you accomplish all this in a matter of minutes, before the 24-hour news machines have a chance to speculate and exaggerate?

Graham Leach is a former journalist and co-founder of media training company HarveyLeach via managementtoday.co.uk

 Want to increase growth and avoid more losses? Want to out compete your competitors? Want to bring new products and services to market faster? Want to be more agile? Contact Innovation and Growth Speaker Jim Woods. Jim works confidentially with start ups, governments as well as profit and for profit enterprises.

Visit our website:www.innothinkgroup.com Executive and Business Coaching: http://ow.ly/anBpK

Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group. A global management consulting firms specialized solely in helping organizations of all sizes in all industries catalyzing top line growth through strategic innovation and hypercompetition. Jim has over 25 years consulting experience in working with small, mid size and Fortune 1000 companies. He is a former U.S. Navy Seabee and grandfather of five. To arrange for Jim to speak at your next event or devise an effective growth strategy email or call us at 719-649-4118 for availability.james@innothinkgroup.com

Follow us on Twitter: http://ow.ly/anyCg

Follow us on LinkedIn: http://ow.ly/anyJu

Fan us on Facebook: http://ow.ly/anyQ7