One of the biggest dilemmas most businesses will face whether you’re a small lawn mowing business or part of a national real estate franchise is how to grow a quality marketing list. The two most essential traits of a successful mailing list comes down to two basic components:
1. The number of contacts you have
2. The quality of contacts you have
And what most businesses don’t realise is these are not quick fixes. You might be tempted to subscribe to a company that can provide you with telephone directories or buying lists. Often these are expensive and there’s no guarantee the information is up to date or legitimate.
However it is possible to construct your own email list with contact details of subscribers who want to hear from you.
Don’t try to run before you can walk. It always pays to plan in baby steps so you can firstly ascertain who your target audience is and what they are interested in. Understanding who you are emailing and how to meet their needs will reduce the number of people who unsubscribe and encourage regular interaction.
Be clear about what you are providing
Ensure your subscribers know what to look for in their inbox (special offers, e-newsletters, reports etc.) and how often they will receive them (fortnightly, monthly or quarterly). Spell out the advantages of being part of your mailing list and you will find more people will subscribe to your content.
Give them a reason to stick around
You’ll know from your own experience the email marketing newsletters that you look forward too and the ones you hit the delete button without even looking. To avoid your emails being trashed the minute they arrive in the inbox you need to focus on your content — special benefits for subscribers, monthly competitions, freebies, specific advice relating to problems they might be encountering. For example: A monthly competition might get your subscriber extra entries when they sign up a friend.
The easier the better
It needs to be simple for your prospective clients to sign up. Ask for only essential information like an email address and or a country. If it’s too complex and you’re forced to answer questions about your household income or age, chances you’ll deter people from subscribing. Leave the nitty gritty questions until after you’ve built a concrete relationship with your mailing list members.
There’s more to life than e-mailing lists
People tend to think that content marketing on the internet is the easiest option and the cheapest. It’s not always the case. Don’t forget there are ways to build your mailing list than the internet (trade show competitions, providing a glass bowl people can fling their business cards into for a prize)
If you need any further help developing content marketing to email to your clients or more advice on establishing a mailing list, the team at XDesigns Advertising are on standby to help you. All you have to do is flick them an email or pick up the phone. See, it’s that easy.
