Building a Successful Email List in 7 Steps

Most small business owners that have built large, responsive, email list consider it to be their business’s most valuable asset and one of the keys to successful small business marketing. Тhis might seem like a stretch but take the example of Hotmail, which was purchased by Microsoft in 1998.  Microsoft didn’t need their email technology – that had a team of the worlds best developers at their exposure.  The reason Microsoft acquired Hotmail was because of it’s 9 million users – essentially their email list.

Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Email marketing is effective and established way to get your small business noticed. You don’t need to grow your email list to 1 million, in fact, you don’t even need to grow your email list to 90 thousand, or 9 thousand.  The number of subscribers you have is not really as important as the relationship you have with those subscribers.  Do you get emails that you don’t read?  Of course you do, we all do…  But, do you also get emails from certain people or companies that you open immediately when you see them in your inbox?  Maybe you even look forward to a certain day of the week when an email newsletter that you enjoy gets delivered to your inbox?  This is the same for the subscribers to your email list.  It’s better to have 900 subscribers drooling at the mouth for your next email than to have 90,000 subscribers ignore it…

How to Build a Responsive Email List that Reads Every Email and Buys Every Product or Service You Offer?

Тhat was quite a headline for this paragraph, but, this is the ideal situation you want to be in when building your email list for your business.  Keeping these ideals in mind from the very get go will allow you to get started on the right foot and even automate a lot of the processes involved.  Here is outline for achieving a responsive small business email list that loves receiving your emails and buying the products or services you recommend in them:

• Use a professional auto-responder service to manage your email list.
• Use some type of “bribe” such as a Free Report, eBook, Training Course, to build your email list fast.
• Create an auto-responder email sequence to be sent out automatically starting the day they sign-up.
• Build credibility and position yourself as the expert in the industry by providing REAL value in your emails (don’t just try to sell them something every email).
• Use your real name, do not hide under to company name.  People connect with and by from real people, not corporations.
• Have a call to action in each email to built responsiveness with your list.
• Presell a product or service before it’s available.

Okay, now that we have the outline for a successful roll-out of your email marketing plan, let’s look a little deeper into each one…

1 – Using a Professional Auto-Responder to Build an Effective Email List for Marketing Your Small Business

This is a critical and often missed step in the process of creating a successful email list.  With so many SPAM problems it’s impossible to grow a list beyond 100 to 200 email addresses without starting to have some major problems.  First and most commonly, many of the people on your list will never even get your email – not even to their SPAM folder.  This is because your email hosting provider will only allow a certain number of the same emails to go out before they start blocking them.  Also, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, etc. will flag this message as SPAM and not allow it to be received even if it does get sent out.

To fix this problem you absolutely must sign-up for a professional auto-responder service to improve your small business. Such company works directly with all of the top email service providers to ensure that they are always within their guidelines.  They also strategically send out batches of 10 or 20 emails at a time from different physical locations which allows for better sending/receiving rates. Once you have this service you can go crazy and start building your list to thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers!

A word to the wise:  you CANNOT switch your email auto-responder service without making each of your subscribers re-opt-in and agreeing to receive emails from you.

2 – Grow Your Email List Fast with a “Bribe”

If you’ve ever put a “get our newsletter” opt-in box on your website or seen them on another website but didn’t sign-up you probably understand that without some kind of incentive, most people will not sign-up to receive emails from you.  This is where the “bribe” comes in. You’ve seen this before, in fact, you’ve probably sign-up for an email list to receive a bribe yourself.  Common bribes include “Free Reports”, “eBooks”, “Training Courses”, “MP3 Downloads”, or Access to a “Members Only Area”.  These are all VERY effective in allowing you to build your list quickly and effectively.

Not only does it help to build your list but it also help to build a relationship with your subscribers and position you as an expert in your industry.  When they read your eBook, watch your Training Course, etc., you become the go-to expert for them.  Of course, if goes without saying that your bribe needs to be awesome and TRULY provide VALUE.  That is the key to making this work.

Many people worry about giving too much away with their “bribe”.  Top recommendation is to give your best small business information away for free.  Now, don’t give everything away, but give a full them some really good stuff they wouldn’t find anywhere else for free.

3 – Automate the Process with an Email Auto-Responder Sequence

What’s an email auto-responder sequence?  It’s essentially just a series of emails that you setup to be send out a number of days, weeks, or months after your new subscriber signs up.

The best way to explain this is with an example;  let’s say you’re building a list and using your new eBook as the bribe.

Day 1 you setup your auto-responder to automatically send them a link to download your eBook as the first email they receive after signing up.

Day 2 you might send them a little tip from the book and add the link to download again incase they missed it (or got busy/distracted) yesterday.

Day 3 you might send out another tip from the book with a third link to just triple check they downloaded it.

Day 4 you might send them another tip from the book and this time ask for their feedback. You could have a link to a SurveyMonkey survey asking them what they liked/didn’t like, etc.

Day 5 you might thank them for filling out the survey and tell a small personal story to help them connect with you as a person (also, put the link to the survey again in case they missed it yesterday).

After that you might want to setup a new value-driven email to go out every 3 to 4 days.

4 – Build Credibility and Position Your Small Business as an Authority in your Industry by Providing High Value, Unique Content

By providing your email list with high-value content that is specific to your industry you will be able to quickly build credibility and position yourself as the go-to expert in your industry. Whether they are looking for related products or services for themselves or their friends/colleagues/family members your name is sure to be the first one that pops into their heads.  This is what will allow you to grow exponentially and with minimal advertising costs.  The more unique, intriguing, and actionable your information is the quicker your list will grow.  The quicker your list grows, the more income you can generate off of your list.

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5 – Send Emails from Your Name, not your Company Name

This might sound like strange advice to some of you, but the fact is people connect with, and by from other people.  You might think you like a brand or a product but most of the time if you really think about it you might really like the founder or CEO behind the brand, or the expert that recommended the product you love so much.  This step is so important when building a responsive email subscriber list.  You want to have a personal connection within the mind of each of your subscribers.

It’s incredibly powerful to tell emotionally charged or meaningful personal stories to subscribers – really open up with them.  This humanizes you and makes you more trustworthy and easy to connect with.  When you’re doing this the best type of stories those of struggle.  There is no better way to connect with anyone on this planet than to have a mutual story of struggle… especially when that story ends in overcoming the struggle.  One thing you MUST steer clear from is anything that could be looked at as bragging…  Just be yourself, a humble expert that has gone through struggles and learned a lot on the way and you’ll be perfect.

6 – Place a Call To Action within Each Email to Build Responsiveness with Your Subscribers

People enjoy reading great emails that provide value but sometimes your readers can feel “left hanging” if you don’t provide any Call To Action within the email.  This could be as simple as “go check out the video here”, “click reply and let me know what you think”, or “go sign-up now for 50% off”.

By providing a clear and concise Call To Action you will also start to build a responsiveness into the mentality of your list.  In other words, your subscribers will get used to doing whatever it is you recommend in each email.  This will be of great value to you later when it’s time to let them know about a new product or service you have that they need.

7 – Presell Each Product or Service Before It’s Available

Within your professional auto-responder service you have 2 types of emails you can send out.  The one that have been described so far is the “sequenced” emails.  You can also send out “broadcast” email that just go out to everyone on your list at the same time (just the one time).

When it’s time  to sell an existing product or service you might build the “pre-sell” into the sequence. This could just be a “Product X is going to be great because…”, then “Product X is almost ready…”, then “Product X will be available tomorrow at Noon…” If you have a new product you can do the same type of sequence but use the broadcast system to be sure that your entire subscriber list will receive the emails (as some of them will be in different parts of your auto-responder email sequence).

Email List Marketing is Your New ATM

As you continue to build your small business email list you’ll realize that it will quickly become your business’s most lucrative asset.  You’ll literally be able to send out an email with a link to your product or service (or affiliate product/service) and instantly get sales.  Not to mention it’s always there, working even while you sleep…