If you build it, he will come. ~Field of Dreams, 1989

Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner,  was an inspiring movie about an Iowa farmer who hears someone whisper the now-famous words, “If you build it, he will come“.  The farmer, Ray, is ridiculed for following through with building a baseball diamond on his land.  In the end, many great players of the past emerge from his cornfield to play on his baseball diamond.  Mark Kuhn has done something similar by building a tennis court on his Iowa farm. (though I haven’t heard of any ghosts appearing yet).

The point of my story is that it all starts with a dream, an idea, a desire to build something meaningful.  For the purposes of this post, I’m going to show you 7 steps to building the perfect email list.  If you build it, they will come.

Step #1 – What is the purpose of your emails?  There’s a fine line between providing valuable information and sales.  Add self-promotional information conservatively.  People who feel like they’re getting a sales pitch every time they get your emails will unsubscribe.  Instead of WIIFM (what’s in it for me), try the WIIFY (what’s in it for you? approach.  Engage and connect with your contacts  by giving them information that will help them with their pain points.

Step #2 – How will your emails be delivered?  There are free and paid services that will do the heavy lifting for you.  Constant Contact provides pre-designed templates that can be customized with your branding.  If your list is under 2,000 and you won’t be sending email blasts more than 12,000 times per month, MailChimp’s free service can be a great option for you.  If you want to keep track of your business, emails, drip campaigns and more, Ixact Contact is something to look at.

Step #3 – What type of auto-responder works best for you?  An auto-responder is a preset email designed to automatically send after a particular form has been completed.  Let’s say you have a free e-book about marketing a home during the holidays.  You can set up your auto-responder to allow an immediate download upon completion of the lead capture information.  Alternatively,  you can set up an email to automatically send to the contact with the download link.  This ensures that the contact’s email address is correct.

Step #4 – Have you set up your landing page?  Create a landing page for your freebie.  WordPress themes and plugins are great for creating landing pages.  Include compelling content, graphics and your lead capture form.  Add share buttons to your landing page.  This provides more opportunities for  contacts to share your information with family and friends.

Step #5 – Don’t forget the thank you.  Set up your auto-responder to include a thank you message.  This can be directed to a page within your website or by email.

Step #6 – Make your new subscribers feel welcome.  This can be done personally or via your auto-responder.  Send a welcome email and make sure they received the download they signed up for.  Include the link as well as your contact information for any questions.

Step #7 – How often should you send emails?   Someone who has subscribed to your newsletter will expect to be notified once a week or once a month.  Sales emails should follow the 80/20 rule.  80% of emails should be sales-free.  20% of the time is acceptable for sending an email that contains sales information.

When it comes to email list building, quality is more important than quantity.  An organized contact list that is used on a regular basis is gold!

Take the time to put these 7 steps into action.  You’ll be building trust and showing off your expertise to people who really want to hear from you.

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Email marketing is an important part of doing business.  There are many ways to entice your contacts to open and respond.  There are also ways that will absolutely make people hit the delete or unsubscribe button.

Here’s 6 Things You Should be Doing for Email Marketing Success:

Get Their Attention – We scan through dozens of emails every day.  Oftentimes we scan the list to see which emails are most important or interesting.  Creating a strong headline piques interest and guarantees a better open rate.

Get Personal – Most CRM programs provide the opportunity to add the contact’s name to the salutation and body of the email.  Doing this makes your email seem more personalized instead of mass emailed.  Put your name in the “from” field of your email.

Short is Better – When I skim through my emails, I not only look at who’s sending it, I also look at the length of it.  Too many words will often end up in the delete bin or marked to “read later”.

Formatting Counts – Just like a blog post, add white space, bolding, headings and subheadings to your emails.  Again…people start with scanning the emails to see if it’s something they want to read.  Drawing attention to sections of your email give you a better chance of them reading the entire thing.

Call to Action – This is the most important part of any email.  After you’ve sold the benefits of your product or service, tell them how they can get your offer.  Include a link to your landing page.  Some people are hesitant about clicking links.  So, give them the option of clicking your text link or doing a copy/paste of the direct URL.

Options are Good – Although we don’t like to see someone opt out, we must still give them the option.  Emails that don’t have an opt-out feature stand a good chance of being accused of spamming.  On the positive side…knowing that a contact has opted out saves you time and money.  They more than likely weren’t going to do business with you anyway.  Put your energy into those who value what you have to offer.

Here’s the Very Important “Don’t” 

Never, Ever, Ever – Don’t spam people.  Seems like common sense,  but it can actually get you in trouble.  It’s called the CAN-Spam Act under the Federal Trade Commission.  Be sure to include an opt-out option in all of your emails.

Use these six tips for a successful email marketing campaign.  If you need more tips, read my post called, “Internet Marketing Tips for a Successful Outcome“.  You can also register for my free, “5 Ways to Test Your Client Engagement” email series.  Just sign up below.

The post Email Marketing – 6 “Do’s” and One Very Important “Don’t” appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.