Building An Email Marketing List Is The Last Thing I Wanted To Do
Building an email marketing list is the last thing I wanted to do when I started selling products online.
True, I had reluctance about a lot of marketing strategies and it’s probably why I confined myself to some Google Ads and selling stuff on Ebay.
Maybe I’ve come a long way.
Maybe with online sales becoming more and more competitive I have no other choice. ‘Sink or swim’ as the saying goes.
Additionally, all my favorite marketing gurus have lists. They, like so many successful marketers, preached an old marketing refrain: “The money is in the list.”
I guess it’s fairly obvious. If you have a mailing list you can pester people daily with all sorts of enticing offers. But the good news is that the people on your list usually have some interest in what you’re selling.
Naturally, building an email marketing list that keeps growing and becomes more targeted the more likely your sales and revenue will grow.
But you don’t really want to be obnoxious about it. You may have noticed that I try to combine the occasional product offering with what I hope is information you might find useful.
Some would say, in fact, that aggressive ‘buy now’ messaging is a big turn-off. And it might be for me and you. But don’t kid yourself in this regard. There a some very rich internet marketer’s that employ a very assertive email messaging strategy day in and day out.
On the other hand, too much info without a useful product to go along with it might not be the best way to proceed either. Striking a balance between marketing tips while offering the opportunity to purchase the tools to carry them out is probably the best way to proceed.
For example, my messages are often added to the Tips And Tricks Section of my blog. But in many cases these posts conclude with the suggestion of picking up a copy of The Affiliate Marketer’s Playbook or The Iceberg Effect: The Untold Secret Of Affiliate Marketing Success.
These books are free plus shipping and they can save you a lot of time and frustration. If you want to understand why you are treading water as an affiliate marketer and what you can do to change your circumstances, these books are for you.
Basically, and for me anyway, it’s usually more effective to use a softer selling approach that’s included along with any free advise or useful information. Most of my subscribers would agree. And I would suggest to anyone interested in building an email marketing list to pursue a similar path.
Quality, not quantity, should be the primary catalyst in building an email marketing list. I haven’t found double opt-ins to be particularly helpful. They are usually more of a nuisance. But, obviously, deception of any kind should not be an option. Being too ‘clever’ will lead your account being shut down.
You want a list of subscribers with a strong interest in your niche. Period. Some will come. Some will go. But your core message should remain pretty much the same.
As I write this the coronavirus pandemic is in high gear. While I certainly hope you stay healthy, taking up your time with my personal observations on the crisis is off-topic and probably will not be of much interest to you in any case. You can find plenty of discussion about this elsewhere.
Keep these observations in mind if you are thinking about building an email marketing list someday. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But someday.
It’s a vital tool in building a successful business. Having tried several email marketing services I heartily recommend Active Campaign. It’s easy to learn and it is the most feature-rich autoresponder service for the money that I know of.