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Are you an email marketing newbie, follow the guidelines and find out an effective method to building a list. To get people to sign up for your list, you usually have to give them something in return, like a free ebook or report, a monthly newsletter, access to a free membership site etc. Again anything that people want and you can provide will do the trick.
In return for this freebie they give you their email address and permission to mail them.
If you are an email marketing newbie the following point is very important. Most people now recommend using double opt-in methods where someone submits their email address to you then has to click on another link, sent to them in an email, to confirm its really them (not someone just using their email address)
Single opt-in means that you can accept an email address immediately and start mailing. The problem arises if someone wanting your freebie has put another persons email address in the opt-in box on your website. You could theoretically get into trouble for spamming in this way, as an email marketing newbie this could affect your progress, this is why I and most marketers use double-opt in. Its safer but you lose a percentage of people who do not bother to confirm their address.
Strangely enough most gurus recommend double opt-in but actually use single opt-ins themselves. Go figure.
The little opt-in boxes you see on sites where people are asked for their email addresses are usually provided by mailing list management companies (also called auto-responder services) such as Getresponse, I recommend this for an email marketing newbie because of their easy step by step guide, there are others such as aweber as well.
Your service will give you HTML code to put on your opt-in page (the one where you offer to swap your freebie or newsletter for your customers email and their permission) so that a little opt-in box appears.
This usually asks for name and email address. It asks for name so any messages you send can be personalised : Dear Tom or whatever.
Your service will also automatically add the persons details to your mailing list when they opt-in.
Once you have swapped enough freebies and you have enough names you have a mailing list, you are now making a transition from email marketing newbie to intermediate marketer, I made a living from 1000 names and now have more than that. Certainly not huge in Internet Marketing circles but more than enough for full time marketing.
Once you have your list you can look deeper into the workings of your service and start using follow-up messages. These are pre-written messages that are automatically sent by your service at intervals pre-determined by you.
So for example when someone signs up to your list the sequence might go like this:
Immediately after sign-up : They get a welcome message and details of where to download the freebie
Day 2 : (i.e. 2 days after signing up) A message saying you hoped they liked the freebie, as an email marketing newbie be personal in your emails as if you are talking to that particular person (people want to be treated as individuals), you want these subscribers to stay with you.
Day 4 : A message telling them that you also sell an ebook which is related to the freebie and they can get it from your site, and you include the URL
Day 5 : A message saying you are offering free information on another subject and they can sign up for that freebie at (your website)
(Note : they are now on two lists as a email marketing newbie this is very beneficial because now you can sell different types of product)
Day 6 : A message saying you now offering a mentoring service at $500 a month and they can sign up at your website.
So each person who signs up for your original freebie goes through the follow-up message process.
The beauty of the system is that its all automated; all you do is see the sales come in and you can keep adding follow up messages advertising products. Forever if you wish (or until they unsubscribe)
Thats it, a really basic overview of how a mailing list works.
If you have not got one then start getting one, always research on methods of all kinds to improve your marketing strategy, within a short period of time you will be an advanced marketer, starting new product lines and become more effective. You wont even remember that you were once an email marketing newbie.
