10 Secrets for Building Money-Making E-mail Lists (Part 2)

This blog is devoted to design elements you can use in your e-mail mailings to grow your list quickly. Here are the remaining five tips I promised you last time. Hope they get you thinking about growing your own e-mail list.

Secret #6: ADVERTISE your site and electronic newsletter in other publications or use web banners and traditional advertising mediums, such as print, TV and radio. Encourage e-mail subscriptions on all print ads. This secret may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised by how often it is overlooked. Depending on your type of business and industry, this can be an effective method to grow your list. 

Secret #7: Use PAY-PER-CLICK Advertising to send targeted traffic to your mini-site or main site through Pay-Per-Click search engines. Pay-Per-Click advertisements show up alongside the natural site listings on the search results pages (SRPs). You go to your favorite search engines and set up an account and bid on the keywords terms related to your target market. By using PPC advertising you get you in front of your target market almost instantly. More traffic means more subscribers. But before you rush off and open a PPC account, keep in mind that you need to know the “value” of each subscriber, as well as your break-even cost of acquiring a lead and customer. If you haphazardly set up PPC and start bidding on keywords without understanding what you’re doing, you could easily waste thousands of dollars. If you can’t devote the time and energy to do it right, or can’t hire an expert certified in Pay-Per-Click advertising (like me!), skip this secret for now! I guarantee you that if you implement the other secrets I’ve offered you, you’ll still have more than enough to keep you and your marketing team busy for quite a while.

Secret #8: Get listed in E-ZINE DIRECTORIES. There are many sites that contain directories of e-zines; most list new e-zines for free. Getting your e-zine listed in these directories can help you attract more subscribers (and perhaps even some advertisers if you offer advertising in your e-zine). I’ve seen a wide variety of results generated from this method, so get listed! E-zine directories can also be a great resource for finding other lists for JV deals. 

Secret #9: Create an E-MAIL SIGNATURE.  An e-mail signature is the text that you see at the bottom of an e-mail message. Most e-mail software applications allow you to create a custom e-mail signature that will be used automatically each time you send out a message. I have several e-mail signatures that I use, depending upon the purpose of the e-mail, but all of them promote something with a link back to one of my websites. While advertising is often banned in mailing lists and newsgroups, e-mail signatures are not. Post a message and your carefully worded signature will follow. Use e-mail signatures and watch your subscriptions grow.

Secret #10: OFFLINE PROMOTIONS can work wonders. Don’t forget you can promote subscriptions to your e-zine offline too. Here are a few quick ideas–train your staff to collect subscribers from incoming sales and service calls; create printed subscription forms that customers can fill out and send back to you (add a field for them to enter their e-mail address if they want to subscribe to your e-zine); if you have a retail store, have your printed forms available on point-of-purchase displays or at the checkout counter. If you attend trade shows, make sure you have printed sign-up forms in your booth. If you send direct mail, include a subscription form with your sales letter or catalog. If you don’t want to bother with printed forms, simply put a note on your documents and brochures telling prospects how they can receive your free e-newsletters via e-mail. You can even use your voice mail system. For example, “Hi I’m Ford Saeks, I must be out helping someone improve their marketing efforts so please leave a detailed message.”

So there you have it–10 great strategies for building up your e-mail list quickly and dramatically. I hope you see how easy these are to implement right away. Good luck!

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit https://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.