Email Marketing Strategy – (Part 1) Why You Need A List
I’m going to write a little email marketing guide for those that want to create a blog on their respective niche. This is going to be part 1.
For whatever the reason, many bloggers don’t think about building a list. Blogging is actually one of the best ways to build an opt-in list.
Instead a lot of bloggers worry about their RSS feed, social bookmark sites, twittering, etc…..but they don’t think about the potential of email marketing.
In fact, most blogs that I have visited, don’t have any way of opting into a list.
The Money Is In The List
If you’ve been around internet marketing long enough, you’ve probably heard this expression: “The Money Is In The List”.
Is it true? Well…..yes and no. Can you make a lot of money online without an opt-in list? Sure, you can. Does having a list make it easier to make money online? ABSOLUTELY.
It just makes common sense. Sending a simple email to a big list, is the equivalent of getting thousands of visitors to your site just by pushing the “send” button.
Basically an email list is what separates the little guys from the big guys.
Frankly, I don’t know too many rich and successful internet marketers who don’t have a list.
The list is like the payoff for your business
Most bloggers believe that their blog is blueprint of their business. In a sense, they are right, especially if you just want to be a blogger. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you really want to make the big bucks, your list is the blueprint of your business.
A big list is so powerful in this business, that even if Google were to de-index your site, you’d still have a way to be able to contact thousands of people.
Depending on your niche, your list is what’s going to make you the most money.
I understand that marketing through email may seem a bit old fashioned and it’s not as flashy as any of the other 100 ways you can make money online. So, while Twitter or Facebook may be the latest marketing trends, in my experience, old-school emails will make you the most money.
It’s the simplest way to get a targeted response and put your offer right in front of your readers. If a post on my blog gets a great response on my site, I know the email will be even more responsive by ten fold.
So, all the flashy, new marketing tools that come out may get a lot of attention, but the roots of this business is and most likely, forever will be, by email marketing.
Don’t waste time. Start a list today.
I think one of my biggest mistakes when I first started in this business is that I didn’t build a list right away. I’m not too angry about it, because it’s probably the most common mistake that IM newbies make.
But had I started from day 1 trying to build a list, it would have made a huge difference in my income when I was first starting out, and I could have grown my business at a much faster rate.
Choosing The Right Autoresponder
The first thing you need to do is real simple. You need to choose an autoresponder. Don’t be cheap about it. I know that there are a few out there that are free. Let me just say “you get what you pay for”.
I know that there a few marketers who try to cut corners and use the free autoresponders that you get in your hosting account with cPanel, and then decide to move their list to a better autoresponder when they start to make a little money. The problem is that your subscribers have to double opt-in again, since you are using a new autoresponder. Trust me, your customers don’t want to re-opt into your list again.
Your best bet is to get a professional autoresponder when you are first start off, so you don’t have to worry about this. I personally use Get Response, and I’ve never had a problem with them. They are very reliable. The other highly respected autoresponder service is Aweber. Either one is fine.
If you want to make a living doing this, you are going to have to treat this like an actual business. Businesses have expenses. Having an email list is going to be one of them. It costs a little less than $20 a month, which you shouldn’t have any problem recouping that.
In part 2, I’m going to start digging into how exactly you can build your list. But in the mean time, you can take a free test drive with either Aweber or Get Response.
