2 Ways to Grow Your Email List FAST (How I Captured 700,000 Emails)

Email Marketing For Beginners ($0 to $10k Per Month)

7 Habits of Great Email Marketers

If you want to get your email marketing off to the right start, it helps to think like the pros. There aren't many rules with email marketing and it's important to find your won approach. That said, if you start with these ideas in mind, you'll skip a lot of pain.

Habit 1: Always Add Value

Assume your reader is busy. Also, assume they're annoyed and looking to take it out on someone. If you do this, you'll write emails in the right way.

You'll be entertaining.

You'll be useful.

What you won't be is annoying, long-winded for no reason, insulting or a waste of time.

Every email you send should be valuable. It should offer a unique insight or provide something useful.

I know one marketer who hadn't quite figured this out. She would send a weekly email talking about what she's up to and the latest offers. The problem was this only changed every month or so, meaning she sent the same email - word for word - three times in a row.

Sometimes you need to say the same thing more than once. That doesn't mean you have to say it the same way. Keep it fresh and reward the reader for opening your email.

Habit 2: Focus On Success and Forget About Losers

Let's say you create an amazing bribe to entice subscribers onto your list.

Then you see someone subscribe, download your bribe and unsubscribe 20 minutes later.

You might be tempted to get upset and start rethinking things.

Don't. You can forget about people like that. Freebie-seekers won't buy from you anyway, so who cares?

Focus on making sales. If a bunch of subscribers opt-out of your list but you make record sales, that's a win.

Focus on building the relationship. Someone might be on the fence now and that's okay. Give them time, keep offering value and they'll probably buy later. And if not, who cares, right?

If your readers are trusting you more and more over time, then email marketing is working. If you're making sales, then it's working. Forget about individuals who just want your free bribes - they're not worth thinking about.

Habit 3: Learn From the Best

Who are the best email marketers in your niche?

Who are the best on the planet?

Have a read of their emails. Subscribe to their list. Notice what they say and how they say it. Compare their bribe to yours.

What can you learn from them?

What shouldn't you learn from them, because it won't work for you?

Trust me - the best marketers ask themselves this a lot too. Marketing always changes, so even the best know they need to keep learning.

Habit 4: Find Your Unique Voice

I said learn from the best. I didn't say imitate them.

When you study the best marketers, you'll notice a lot of amateurs imitating their style. I don't recommend it.

For one thing, it doesn't work.

For another, it's harder than figuring out your own voice.

Pay attention to how you speak in person. What's your energy like? Are you upbeat or crotchety? What strange phrases do you like to use?

Write your emails like this.

Yes, you want to come across as a professional. Definitely, do that. You also want to come across as human, though.

Habit 5: Be Reliable and Consistent

If you say you'll email five times a week, then email five times a week.

If you imply you'll add value with every email, then do so.

Consistency is key. Is it the most important thing? I don't know, but if you're consistent and you live long enough, success is guaranteed.

Habit 6: Sell

Your email marketing exists to sell. This is part of the value you add to the world. If your product or service helps people, then you owe it to them to convince them to buy.

Yes, you get something out of it.

But so do they. If there's mutual benefit and you're transparent about it, then it's the most ethical thing you can do.

Some people sell with every email they send. Others like to break it up with useful content. That's up to you to figure out - though you'll notice I sell with each of these. No matter what you choose, though, don't let a week go by without selling something to your list.

If they don't like it, they can leave. Say good riddance, as per Habit 2.

Habit 7: Keep Growing Your List

Over time, people will opt-out. It doesn't matter how good you are or how amazing your emails are. It happens.

This means you keep needing new subscribers, even if you want to keep your numbers stable.

You need to keep growing just to stay in the same place.

Some parts of your marketing efforts need to be dedicated to capturing subscribers. In between writing sales letters and emailing your list, you need to go out there into the world to find new readers.

Put your ethical bribe in front of them. Wiggle it enticingly until they can't resist anymore.

But remember, not all subscribers are equal. Go to where your ideal clients live - haunt their forums and Facebook groups and, if it's not against the group's terms, invite people to subscribe.

Want to get in on the email action?

If you want to keep learning about what email can do for your business, then sign up for this simple training for beginners here:

https://skl.sh/2JTgdps

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/William_T_Batten/2522089

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas)

Simple But Effective Steps To Increasing Your Email Open Rate

Are you an email marketer losing nights on how to improve your email open rate? If you answered yes to this question, then grab a glass of chilled water and read this piece to the end.

To many, email marketing is plummeting but that's a pure lie. If you own a business and you are yet to start building your list, is a time you start.

Why build a list you may ask?

It is simple: the email list gives you full control of your prospects and leads. If you depend on Facebook or any of the social media platforms, the owners could just wake up and set a new rule that might take you some time to implement in your business.

With an email list, no one makes and changes rules for you. You have your subscribers and sends broadcast whenever you want.

But the problem often associated with email marketing is how to increase email open rates and this can be done without losing nights.

Yes, you heard that right.

Follow these simple steps to increase your email open rate.

Write Engaging And Valuable Content
Your subscribers subscribed to your list because they are interested in the information that you promised delivering to them. And to keep them continuously interested in you, you have to consistently deliver on your promise.

In delivering your promise, you have to focus on delivering value to your list first before pitching - deliver more valuable content.

And remember, creepy content will cause your subscribers to lose interest in you. So strive to always deliver quality content at all times.

Clear, Concise And Compelling Headline
The subject headline is where you make your first impression, the first thing your subscribers see whenever they receive your email is your headline, and their decision on whether to open your email or not is in a way determined by your headline.

You must always strive and dedicate ample time to crafting a clear, concise and compelling subject headline which by merely skimming through it will let them know what is in it for them.

Nobody wants to waste his/her time on what doesn't add value to his life. If you are really dead serious about increasing your open rate, you must try as much as you can to stop using a vague headline. Always ensure that your headline is relevant to the body of your email.

There's not as annoying as tricking someone with your headline to open your email, and the entire content is totally different from the headline.

Desist from such as it will only have one effect on your open rate - reduce your email open rate as a result of subscriber losing interest in you.

List Segmentation
This is another way of increasing your open rate but it has to be done with care. You could decide to segment your list in many ways. For example, it could be based on niche interest, purchase, opened messages or time since your last interaction. Splitting your list into segments helps you deliver high-quality content, high-quality blasts and by so doing, improve your email open rates.

Personalize Your Email
Just like every other marketing copy, your email is much more likely to be opened and engaged if it sounds like it is written to a particular person.

Write as if you are talking to a person sitting before - write to a person and not persons.

If this sounds difficult, get a picture, place it before you and write as if you are talking to the person on the photo directly.

This level of familiarity will engage the subscriber and encourage him to keep opening your emails in the future.

Optimize Your Email For Mobile
Many have actually neglected this aspect in their email marketing. But it is actually one thing you mustn't joke with because 41% of email opens now happen on mobile.

And for you to grab your own share of this number, you must optimize your emails' layout on mobile so that it renders very well on mobile.

If it doesn't render well, it will cause people to lose interest in opening your emails since they can't read it and this will result in a low open rate.

Subject Headline Length
Hitting the right number of the subject headlines is important because some email programs cut off some characters from a lengthy headline.

It is advisable that your headline should contain 50 characters. But it doesn't still mean that 40 or 60 characters won't work. But for you to achieve the maximum result, 50 characters is the general rule of thumb.

Send As A Person, Not As A Brand
If you are observant you will notice that most of the big brands send out their emails as a person and not as a brand.

They are not stupid for doing that. They actually understand the effectiveness of sending emails as a person and not as a brand.

People want to get in touch with real people and not inanimate objects.

Email marketing is not dead; it is still one of the best marketing strategies out there with its results speaking for it.

Always strive to make your emails stand out because you are competing with a very busy inbox, full of work, marketing, and promotional emails.

And once your emails stand out from others, your email open rate will skyrocket.

Thanks for stopping by to read this piece; we would love to hear from you via the comment section.

Website URL: http://onlinebusinesspool.com

Facebook page URL: https://facebook.com/onlinebusinesspool

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Stanley_Kelvin/2559731

TOP 3 BEST AUTORESPONDERS FOR EMAIL MARKETING

3 Advanced List-Building Strategies You Should Start Using

Highly Effective Email List Building

Last month we covered 3 ways to list build that are working especially well this year. If you missed the article, you might want to go back and see how to build your list with Facebook Live Videos, Guest Posting with Upgrades and Hosting a Virtual Summit.

Today we have three more list building techniques that are working really well this year.

And before we get started, I just had a thought: What if you implemented all 6 of these techniques in the next 60 days? Can you imagine just how fast your list might grow?

Hmmm. Something worth thinking about. And definitely something worth doing. That's because if your list isn't growing, odds are your income is either stagnant if you're lucky, or diminishing if you're like most marketers.

The fact is, there are two kinds of customers who tend to buy the most stuff from you. One is the fan who will buy most anything you recommend or create. The second is the new list member who right now thinks you're hot stuff. And you are! But the problem is, sooner or later they will latch onto someone else or lose interest in the topic, and then they're not such a great customer anymore.

Which is why you always need to be list building.

Let's get started:

Method #1: Give the Bonus

This one is simple and quick. You take one of your products and offer them to someone who is about to launch a product. Your product then becomes a bonus to their product.

To be effective, you should offer a product that is currently selling well or at least recently sold well. This will make it easier for the product launcher to say yes.

Your product should also be an excellent fit while not duplicating content. For example, if they're selling a course on meditation, you might offer your product on getting great sleep, easing stress or thinking more clearly - all benefits of meditation.

Everyone who buys the product from the launch will be added to your list, so you can send them the freebie.

Method #2: Do Webinar Giveaways

When you publish a new blog post on how to do something or achieve some kind of results, give a free webinar, too.

To entice people onto the webinar and get them to join your list, you're going to offer an incentive. It should be something people love that is very closely related to the blog post topic.

Once people get on your webinar, let them know how to get the freebie, teach the content in the blog post, and at the end pitch your paid product that is directly related to the blog post.

Here's what the sequence looks like:

· Publish a blog post

· Offer a free webinar to blog post readers

· Let everyone on social media know about the webinar as well

· The incentive to get on the webinar is that you are teaching the content in the blogpost (and then some) AND giving away something really enticing and valuable.

· On the webinar, give them the URL to download the freebie (they give their email address so you know where to send it). Teach blogpost content. And pitch a product that is directly related to the blog post.

Don't forget to record the webinar and place it on the blog post. This will keep new people coming to the webinar and signing up for the enticing freebie, as well as buying your paid product.

And of course, you can continue to send people to the recorded webinar via social media.

Rinse and repeat.

Method #3: Get New Subscribers to Tell Their Friends

Using a tool such as SmartBribe http://www.smartbribe.com/ you can bribe your brand new subscribers to tell other people about you via social media.

Here's how it works:

You need a lead magnet. Identify the most popular and awesome free thing you give away. Or create something new, or even use one of your products as your lead magnet - whatever works for you.

Then you set up SmartBribe to give away something even BETTER on the thank you page in exchange for people telling their friends about you.

Once your new subscribers tell their friends about you via Twitter and email, they'll get the even more awesome thing.

A word of caution: Most people will read this article and do nothing.

A small handful will choose one list building technique and use it to quickly add more subscribers.

But only the truly motivated will use all 6 techniques - those in this article and the one that appeared last month - to build their lists at an exponential rate.

And those are the folks who will be earning 6 figures a year from now.

Just sayin'.

Discover how to engage and excite new customers into taking action and spending money with you by using these simple free marketing tips from Nick James, The Internet Business Coach http://www.Nick-James.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Nick_James/4882

How to Start an Email List — Tutorial Video #1

Email Marketing Best Practices - 9 Tips

Your 2019 Guide on How to Use Video in Email Marketing

It's not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days.

From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more apt to purchase from you.

Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.

This article focuses on using video in your email marketing. Keep reading for the technical parts of utilizing video in your email marketing and the creative aspect for some inspiration.

I've talked about using video many times in the past, but in case you're still not convinced or didn't think to use video in your email marketing efforts, it's time to pay close attention. According to a study done by SuperOffice, including video in emails led to open rate increases of six percent (the average open rate across industries is about 25 percent).

Some other benefits of video marketing:

• It saves time. You can create short, engaging pieces of video much more quickly than it will take you to write an 800-word blog. It also gives info to your viewer in an easy-to-understand way.

• It can help SEO. Your Google search ranking can improve if your footage is viewed and shared by enough people.

• It's cost-effective. You don't need CGI effects or animation to make something great. A video can be much more affordable to produce than a blog or ad.

• It grabs attention. Especially when added into your newsletter, a video captures your audience's attention and compels them to want to watch.

First, the Technical Part of Video Email Marketing

Before you start brainstorming ways to use video in an email, you need to know how it plays in different email clients.

There are over 30 major email clients, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail, and some of them don't support the requirements for using an email with a video.

Traditionally, marketers would use HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) to code HTML video directly into an email, but recipients with certain email clients aren't able to play it. Many popular email providers will only show a fallback image, and your marketing message will be lost in the crowd.

Fortunately, some of the popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact and AWeber make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.

This gives the appearance there's actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.

Instead of having to learn HTML5, there are also 3rd party services that can create a video snippet for you to include right in the body of your newsletter. In fact, I did this in a recent newsletter of ours!

Check out Playable to embed a short video in your next newsletter. Playable will replace the video with an image of your choice if the email service provider doesn't support the video technology.

>> Learn more about the features of our favorite email providers.

No matter what eNewsletter tool you use, it's crucial to test your campaign before you send it out. You'll need to have accounts on all of the popular email platforms so that you can see how your footage works in each of them.

Sound like a lot of work? Trust a professional marketing company that's been helping clients create successful eNewsletter campaigns since 2003.

Next, Make Sure You're Mobile

According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you're keeping smartphones in mind when you're email marketing with video.

Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.

It's still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn't need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don't have the fastest download speed.

A good tip is to take a 10-second snippet of your video to use in the newsletter. That snippet can then link to the full feature on your blog.

Also, always make sure the autoplay is off, especially on mobile. Most people don't appreciate having something start playing (often noisily) as they sit in the office or on a bus; they prefer to click on Play themselves.

Now, On to the Creative Part

With the technical stuff out of the way, let's look at how you can actually create content that will engage your viewers and get you more visitors to your website.

You need a plan with clear objectives or else you're just sending content out into the world and hoping it will be seen and loved.

Why are you creating this campaign? To generate leads, brand awareness, followers...?

Once you've identified your objectives and goals, you can start thinking about actual email, and the content you want to produce.

As mentioned, host the full-length video in a blog post, landing page or even on social media and then plan to incorporate a "sneak peek" of that video in your email marketing campaign, linking to the full-length version.

Here are six tips and inspiration to get you started:

1. Use the word "video" in your subject line to make your message stands out.

2. Promote an event. Let's use a law office as an example. We created a short video using Wave. Video for one of our clients, A Family Law Firm, to promote an upcoming seminar they were hosting.

3. Offer tips. When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips. A "Top 5" or "4 ways to improve" will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product.

4. Create a series. This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you're providing is valuable to them. Stay away from a five-part series on your latest offering. Instead, solve a problem.

Using the law firm video marketing again as an example, you could set up a list-building campaign and do a four-part video series on ways to prepare for a separation or divorce:

• Part 1: DIY or hire a lawyer?

• Part 2: Filing the necessary paperwork

• Part 3: Dividing assets

• Part 4: Supporting your children

5. Make tutorials. Your product or service solves a problem, so how can you showcase this to your clients? Educate your viewers with a short explanation of how your product or service will improve their lives, using real-world examples.

6. Think outside the box. Now, we don't all have the budget outdoor company Patagonia does; however, look at how they've integrated amazing footage into their email campaigns. It doesn't focus on their surfing gear, but it's relevant to their customers.

Whether you're a life coach shooting some footage while you're on vacation or a wellness provider offering viewers a glimpse of your dinner prep process, get creative and get shooting!

Email marketing with video can be incredibly powerful, increasing your open rates, engagement, leads, and sales substantially.

However, not every email should contain one. If you start using this marketing tactic every time you send out an e-newsletter to your subscribers, they'll stop paying attention. Think of it as one way to stand out from the crowd, but don't neglect your other tactics.

Crafting an eNewsletter campaign with video (or without), choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or else you'll end up alienating and losing subscribers.

Susan Friesen, the founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having a lack of knowledge, skill, and support needed to create their online business presence.

As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.

Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Friesen/260293

Love Your List & Your List Will Love You

You may have heard the saying often thrown about in internet Marketing circles: The Money is In the list. I'm not going to argue with this, it is as true today as it has ever been.

In fact, I would go as far as to say the single most important thing to do for anyone new to the world of internet marketing is to start building an email list as soon as possible.

Indeed the great majority of any internet marketers time is taken up by growing their list. But unless you spend some time looking after the existing customers in your list then everything you've invested will have been wasted.

If I could give only one piece of advice to anyone starting out in Internet marketing it would be "Love Your List."

Unfortunately the majority of people venturing into internet marketing make one major error. They are so focused on squeezing as much profit out of their list as they possibly can that they forget they are dealing with real people.

This approach may work well in the short term and could even give you a good initial income. However, eventually you will lose the confidence and trust of the people on your list and they will stop responding.

This way you are going to have to put time and money into replacing the customers you are consistently losing.

Believe me you will have better things to do with your time than constantly replacing people dropping out of your list due to neglect.

These are real people!

You need to understand that behind every email address you collect there is a real person. Someone who has shown an interest in what you have to offer. They have trusted you enough to give you their name and email address. A conscious decision was made to take the time and respond to you. They may even have downloaded one of your products or possibly made a purchase from you.

So you must remember these are real people with real dreams and real feelings. You will find that if you treat them as such, if you show your human side, you will be in this business for the long term rather than be just a quick flash in the pan.

When you get a new subscriber don't go all out sell, sell, sell. Because if you are constantly plying people with sales emails, you will lose more people than you retain. If this has been your approach so far you need to stop now. This method has been a tactic of internet marketers for so long, it's just not working anymore. People these days will just not put up with that kind of hard sell.

Think about the times when you subscribed to someones list. It was probably because they had a free offer that interested you, right? Now when you gave them your email address you knew that would not be the last you heard from them. You know at some point down the line they are going to try and sell you one thing or another.

If they take the hard-sell approach and keep pestering you with sales emails chances are you will unsubscribe from their list. However if they are sending you useful information. Or they are giving you free training or great advice, you are more inclined to read their sales emails when they inevitably do arrive.

Remember it cost a lot more time, effort and money to get a new subscriber than it does to keep your existing list happy and interested.

People will stay on your list if you are giving them great FREE content. The longer they are on your list the more chance you get to build their trust. The more they trust you the more likely they are to become a paying customer. They are more likely to recommend you if they think that what you are providing is useful and worthwhile.

These people on your list can be your greatest form of promotion...

You can tell people how great you are. You can tell them what a wonderful product you are selling. They may or may not believe you, they may or may not buy from you. But if someone totally unconnected to you gives you the thumbs up... that is such a powerful thing.

There is nothing greater for yourself or your brand than the endorsement of one of your customers.

It is for this reason that I say Love Your List.

If you put the time and effort and love into your existing customers then it will pay off in the long term. Not only will you have to spend less time replacing the customers you are losing. You are more likely to have a growing list who are willing to become paying customers.

When you are starting out, building an email list can seem like the hardest thing in the world. To get complete strangers to trust you enough to join your list can really take a heck of a lot of time and effort. So doesn't it make sense to ensure that all that work you have put in to get your subscribers should not go to waste?

In Conclusion

Remember! it is extremely important to keep growing your list, but it is equally important to look after your existing subscribers. After all you don't want the effort you are putting in to growing your list to end up being largely to replace the people you are losing.

Once you start to build your list, ensure you spend some time connecting with those people. Send them an email AT LEAST once a week. Make them feel wanted, valued and loved. Send them free content, help, advice and tips. Give them free training but ensure it is the full course that delivers on what you promise.

Don't give away 80% of something and then ask people to pay for the final 20%. This is a sure fire way to get people reaching for the unsubscribe button.

In short if you love your list, your list will love you.

I'm a full time internet marketer and product developer with a passion for helping newcomers succeed in what can be a very confusing business. If you would like more free advice, tips, help and information on running a home based business feel free to drop me a line. Just visit my website at: http://darrenjrussell.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Darren_Russell/2379573

How to Build an Email List Fast and for Free — 5 List Building Tips

Autoresponder - The Key to Running a Successful Online Business

In this article, we shall define what autoresponders are, and why you should utilize them to achieve successful online business.

If you run an online business it means you already own a website or a blog. Once your online business is setup, the next most important thing to consider is using an effective autoresponder.

Autoresponder defined

In simple understandable term, it is actually electronic newsletters forwarded automatically to your subscribers via your mailing list, and this is done at intervals that you specify or define. By sample, you can design and specify an autoresponder so that once a person signs up to your mailing list he or she will receive a welcome note from your business. Subsequently, you can send other messages such as business discount codes, invitation to connect on social media, new product launch, etc.

The importance of autoresponders

Using autoresponders for your online business keeps a large bulk of your email marketing automated, and that's if you setup things appropriately. With an autoresponder installed on your website, your subscribers will be able to receive specific vital key messages about your business. With this benefit, you do not need to bother about manually sending these messages out, as it is fully automated as set. This simply makes the importance of using autoresponders all the more clear. In short, they help you save time running your online business, loads of it.

How can you utilize autoresponders to help promote your online business?

• You can utilize them to forward custom birthday greetings with other related offers to subscribers on your mailing list.

• You can transition a subscriber from one phase of communication to another after they purchase an item/product. For example, you can move a subscriber from a 'prospect' level series of messaging to 'upsell' series of communication.

• You can forward mails to subscribers exactly one month after they purchased a product. This can be done to motivate them to renew a 'policy or guarantee.'

When autoresponders are utilized in such creative and meaningful ways, it can help generate substantial sales and income - with high returns on investment for your business.

To use them, you can sign up with popular providers such as MailChimp, Getresponse, Aweber, Mad Mimi or Campaign Monitor, etc. These providers are renowned for offering businesses robust autoresponders with dedicated tools for hosting mailing lists and forwarding newsletters and messages.

Finally, autoresponders when setup and used properly can help online businesses automate lots of marketing activities and tailor specific messages to a mailing list for profit making and client engagement.

The $ is in the LIST! All the Web tools you need to achieve success under one roof for only $10/month! Autoresponder, Hosting, Splash/Squeeze page builder, Tracker, Rotator, Advertising and much more! Plus Unique Pay Plan, unmatched in the MLM industry - 100% commission! Discover how you can build a successful online business and start making $ NOW!

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Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Neumann/2497570

Email Marketing 2019: Here's What's Working Now!

How To Grow Your Email List With A Contest

You should be building an email list of prospects and customers. You constantly need to add new prospects to fill your sales funnel, and once someone buys a product from you, that person is more likely to buy something from you again in the future.

A great way to broaden your email list is to hold an online contest. Contests not only allow you to create something useful and beneficial for your audience on a particular topic, it also creates more engagement, usually daily with your target market.

You can create a contest or competition where everyone has to submit their email address to enter.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

If you don't know who your target audience is, you can't do anything - from creating content, to developing products, to holding a contest. Knowing your target audience lets you know when, what, why, where and how you'll move forward. Everything you do is about your audience and what type of value you can provide them.

The Goals for Your Contest

One goal, in this case, is obviously to grow your email list. But are you wanting to promote a specific product to the list that you build? Do you want to launch a new product and make sales? Know the goals for your contest so that you can make sure that you're doing what needs to be done to meet that goal.

The Right Tools for Your Contest

There are many tools that you can use for contests. Each social platform has its own approved contest software. If you want to run a contest on Instagram and Facebook, check out ShortStack.

Market Your Contest

Don't have a contest without also adding the marketing element. Consider it just like you would with any product you want to launch. You're going to want to run some online ads, and share widely on all social media platforms. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are absolutely perfect for marketing your contests and getting sign-ups.

Follow Up

When the contest is over follow up with everyone. Announce the winner and interview them. Also interview the top three entries. Send email messages that you've pre-planned to everyone who entered and everyone who signed up during the contest.

Holding a contest to grow your list is an excellent way to accomplish your list-growing goals. Treat the contest as you would another product so that you promote it, launch it, test it, and improve it for the next time.

Online contests are a great way to engage with your audience and add grow your email list. When people are engaged and interacting with your business it helps drive sales and profits. To learn more about running a contest for your business, download my free checklist, Running A Challenge at https://jonallo.com/challenge

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948

Why Sales Funnels Are The Next Thing In Affiliate Marketing

The term "Sales Funnel" might be new to you. It's a marketing technique that's been around for decades in the offline world. It's also a technique that's been routinely used by product sellers online.

It's a way for a seller to make more money from the people who visit their site.

What's new is that affiliate marketers are now also starting to use sales funnels to boost their own earnings.

There are two general types of sales funnel:

1. The Multi-Product Funnel

There's the funnel that's always used on the likes of JVZoo, Warrior Plus and sometimes on ClickBank.

This is where you buy a low-priced front-end product and are then subjected to variety of upsells and one-time-offers that are designed to part you with more of your money.

The goal of this type of funnel is to sell you multiple products in quick succession before you really have time to consider your options.

The offers often have timers showing how little time you have left to make a decision or you're told that limited quantities are available.

2. The Single Product Funnel

The second type of funnel is geared around selling you a single product.

The purpose of the funnel is to repeatedly expose you to the product and explain why it will be useful, if not essential, to you or your business.

This is often achieved by attracting a visitor to sign up to get a free product and then sending them a series of emails describing the benefits of the product you're trying to sell them.

A less common tactic is to provide free training and information to prospects regardless of whether they end up buying or not.

Sales Funnels In Use

If you've ever bought anything in the Make Money Online niche, you've already been exposed to the multi-product sales funnel.

They can often leave a bad taste and you end up feeling like you've been hounded into spending a lot more money than you intended. That can build some resentment in you.

If you recognize that feeling, is that something you'd want to bring out in your own customers?

Don't forget that those who look at your offers are real people, not credit cards with legs.

Treat your potential customers just like you'd like to be treated by a seller.

That's why I prefer the second type of funnel.

There's no hard sell involved. You're giving your prospects something free to entice them in the door.

From there, you start introducing them to your offer and why it might be a good fit for them.

You're trying to persuade them that what you're offering will make their lives easier or solve a problem for them.

If they buy, then they've made the decision to buy.

You haven't forced them to make the decision by using some false scarcity tactics like a countdown timer or saying only a limited number of copies are available.

Because a prospect has made the decision to buy on their own terms, they'll feel much better about their buying decision.

You'll have earned their trust and you can use that to further build your relationship with them so that you can market other offers to them more successfully in the future.

So How Does This Tie In With Affiliate Marketing?

In general, affiliate marketers are given access to affiliate links and resources like image ads and emails that they can send out.

These are used to drive traffic to an offer.

However, when a prospect buys or signs up on a squeeze page, they go onto the sellers email list, not the affiliate's.

That means that the affiliate has lost access to that prospect forever and it's the seller who can market to that customer time after time.

The better affiliate networks will also pay affiliates on products that are in a seller's sales funnel.

So yes, you can earn commissions on multiple products.

But what you, as the affiliate, don't know is if the seller is offering products that are not in the "public" sales funnel to people on their list.

So you could be missing out on commissions as a result.

Typically, a sales funnel starts out with a low-priced product, offers higher-priced products in the funnel, culminating in one or more high-ticket products at the end of the funnel.

This tends to be where sellers make the bulk of their money. It's far easier to sell one high-ticket product than tens of low-ticket ones.

The seller is quite within their rights to market products that you won't earn a commission on.

After all, they own the email list that the buyers are now subscribed to.

So, to counter this, affiliate marketers have been creating their own sales funnels.

They select the front-end product, the upsells and any high-ticket products to promote.

These can all be from different sellers. But you, the affiliate, may think that some products complement each other better than the products in a seller's own funnel do.

Yes, the prospect will be exposed to each seller's funnel as well as the affiliate's.

But the affiliate knows that a sale of any product in their own funnel will generate a commission.

That said, I still think that the Single Product funnel is the better approach from a customer-relationship point of view.

If a prospect ultimately does not buy into your offer, you still have them on your email list. And now it's time to promote a different offer to them.

You can market to these prospects as often as you want, as they're in your email list.

So the greatest advantages of building your own sales funnels are:

1. You get to add prospects to your own email list
2. Your email list is a business asset you fully own. It's usefulness doesn't depend on the whims or algorithm changes of Google, Facebook or whoever.
3. Email marketing is still the best way make money online.
4. You can market to your subscribers as often as you want.
5. You can build your own unique sales funnels, combining products from a variety of sellers

As an affiliate marketer, you should never send people directly to an offer. You're basically giving sole access to that person to the seller.

You should always send people to a squeeze page first - one that you own - and it's only after they sign up there that you send them on to your affiliate offer.

This way, you've captured their email address and they are now part of your 100%-owned business asset - your email list.

How Do You Build A Sales Funnel?

If you use WordPress, there are plugins that will build squeeze (optin) pages and other types of funnel page for you.

But creating an actual sales funnel is not the easiest. These plugins are great at creating individual pages rather than an entire funnel. It can be done, but you need to be very organized and keep track of how each page relates to another.

Another approach is to use a service like Clickfunnels that's designed exclusively for building sales funnels. There's a link to a review in my bio below if you want to know more.

With a service like this, you don't even need your own website. The tool can do everything for you.

I hope you now see the advantages in creating your own sales funnels, whatever tool you end up using to create them.

Gary Nugent has been a full-time affiliate marketer since 2004 and runs a number of blogs in the internet marketing niche as well as a blog building service. His Clickfunnels review is here. If you're an affiliate marketer, consider building a passive income by promoting Clickfunnels, like he does.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gary_Nugent/4229

5 Reasons Email Marketing Is Important

What Is An Autoresponder And How Can It Help Me?

Do you use email marketing in your business?

If so, you may be tired of having to get up every single day and try to create some content to send out on a daily basis. Did you know that there is a way you can create all of your content and have it go out automatically? Through the use of an autoresponder you can place all of your emails into it and have them delivered at specific times.

In addition, you can create an opt-in form which will allow new subscribers to get a predetermined email campaign. This is a great way to introduce new customers and leads to your business and products. Let's take a look at how an autoresponder can help you get more clients and sales.

If there is one thing we know about customers is the fact that they hate getting sold to. It is absolutely essential in today's business to seem as non-salesy as possible. And one of the best ways to do this is by genuinely helping our leads. We can do this with great content that will help them and our product or business will allow them even greater success. One of the first things you would need to do is create a lead generator. This is going to be something that you create that is going to help your clients.

Let's look at this from a weight loss clinic. They may be in the same situation as you and wonder what is an autoresponder and how can it help us. Well, they are going to begin by creating a great piece of content of ten foods that will help you lose weight quick. Individuals will land on this page and opt-in to an email list of the autoresponder. The autoresponder captures the individual's name and email and will send out the report.

Now that the autoresponder has the individuals name and email it can begin to send out emails. These emails need to focus on helping and not selling. These emails will be sent out automatically to the individual until they unsubscribe from the list. If the emails are helpful and build trust, they will stay on the list. Over time when trust has been built the weight loss clinic can begin a soft sell on a product or service.

What makes autoresponders so invaluable is everything can be created once and it is a set and forget business model. Of course, you can always add emails into the mix at your will and do a daily blast. This is great if you want to capitalize on a trending topic or have a sale you want to introduce. An autoresponder will become an invaluable tool for your business.

While this gives a basic rundown of what is an autoresponder, there is much more to it. It is best to research the various responders on the market and understand their true power. Regardless, these are one of the best tools to have in your business arsenal!

Shane Allen Bost is an Internet Marketing Consultant specializing in new product development and affiliate program management. www.ShaneAllenBost.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shane_Bost/464266