Three Quick And Easy Ways To Build A Profitable Opt In List

Three Quick And Easy Ways To Build A Profitable Opt In List


You are determined to pursue e-mail marketing and you realize that you need a good opt-in mechanism to build your list. You read a lot of articles and seek expert advice and read success stories of people who have created a small fortune running successful e-mail marketing with thriving opt-in mechanisms. That's enough! Finally time to have one of your own. And then it happens, you think you have researched everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed the sage advice to a "T". Yet you still cannot make a profitable mailing campaign with a growing distribution list. As they say in my corner of South West France "Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" (What happened?).

You may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to write fantastic copy, you have technical expenses and have to pay for small 'lures' as opt-in gifts. And sure you have a big mailing list, but only a very small percentage of people buy anything from you or visit your site. You realise after a few months when you see your website statistics and sales figures that for all the research, expense and effort, it isn't working.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed?

The most common mistake is to dive straight in. You choose a niche you think could be popular and will earn you money (haven't we all been there!). But, just writing to people and emailing the shot doesn’t mean anything is going to happen instantly.

Here are three tips from my own experience for those either wanting to start email marketing, or for those who have tried it and maybe want to rejuvenate a flagging campaign.

1) Build Trust. You have to get your customers to trust you and your products first. Launching an email opt-in capability on your website does not make you an instant expert and a believable seller. Write as many different articles as you can and promote them on your website and amongst aquaintances and past customers first before you start your opt-in list. Write about topics you know and which are relevant to your website. Participate in Internet forums to gain knowledge about your customers' wants and needs and target those wants and needs in your site. This way you can gain a tremendous amount of learning without having to look amateurish in your own site.

Provide expert advice and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build an emailing base with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they can see what you're business is all about and encourage them to sign up.

The only certainty? Don't give up in the early days and business referral will only come when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that has a certain "Trust Mark" behind it - especially on the web where fortunes and companies come and go all the time. People are not going to buy something you recommend if they don’t know you or can't find out about you.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need and frame your sales in a way that drives them to you: not someone else. Although your product may not be your forte, if you provide a service or product that you have researched and learned about well and which people need, you will probably overcome the initial mobilisation paralysis all new companies experience and mature it with email marketing to become a successful seller. If you have merely slung together a couple of unrelated ideas and try to make them look like a cohesive whole and people show no interest in what you are doing, then you will probably not succeed. I have seen both sides of this coin. A successful business is an investment of a lot of time, effort and money on your part in the early days as much as it depends on you having something people want or need.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, if it is turning out that what you are trying to sell requires too much "push" from you, and is showing too little "pull" from other people, then it is time to put your ego out of the door and move on to something else. (I have been here too). Do your research well, launch your product or service with a passion; burn the midnight oil, especially in the early days and you should begin to turn a profit. Provide your subscribers with promotional material that they can also use and spread around like viral marketing. (This is subject of a separate Briquesetclics masterclass)

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is beneficial especially if you know someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this sort of marketing mechanism and experience is way the best teacher! While there are many articles on the internet about "how to succeed at email marketing" or "How I grew rich from email marketing", there is nothing like getting first hand knowledge and tips and tricks from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for everyone and different cliffs have to be climbed, the general truth is that first-hand experience freely shared is very helpful. There are many things to avoid, many things that work and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in email marketing list definitely does not just happen overnight. You have to do a lot of ground work; obtain reputation and trust; have a product or service people want and get out there to them. Whilst your opt-in list will be built from scratch, probably starting with friends and acquaintances, as your list grows, you should maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will remain willing to buy from you.

About the Author: Richard Martin of Briquesetclics is a Certified Management Consultant and Accredited Internet Marketing Consultant of 20 years experience in IT. Briquesetclics offers exquisite eBusiness solutions, website design and Internet Marketing with English to French Translation to expat and French Comunities in Southwest France. He serves the Limousin, Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine regions and the cities of Limoges, Poitiers, Bergerac, Perigueux, Angouleme, Cognac, Bordeaux, Niort.

Briquesetclics will find you market with eMail Marketing. Find out more here.

We're always ready to talk to you. See our contact details.

Click below for APEX Pacific's eMail Marketing Software Solution "eMail Communicator"

Do you know, how much your competitors spend on AdWords? SEMRush.com will tell you!