The Power Of An In House Opt-In Mailing List
by John Stone
Much is said on the Internet today about Email Marketing and why it is soimportant to your web business. If that is really the case, then why do I get somad when my mailbox fills up with six gazillion emails that I never asked for.Better yet, they tell me in the email that, "You signed up with one of ourmarketing partners."
"No way," I say. The email address that they are using is one thatI use exclusively as a promotional address. Meaning, I use it to receiveresponse mail from a group of targeted individuals, not when signing up forthings.
You know - This is a nice time for a little break in my point. Don't you justget tired of people lying to you about how they got your email address? Wellhere is what I do. Since I have my own domain (several actually), I can have asmany email addresses as I wish. I give out the web site name as the front half(left of the @) and my domain name on the back half (right of the @). So if Isign up for an account at NBC.com, I would use "nbc@stoco.net." Thisway, I will always know where the addresses originated. All other emailaddresses are guarded closely and never given out to the likes of a sly onlinebusiness person (like myself).
Enough of that! So it occurred to me, "if I get ticked off at all theemails, are the people that get my emails getting this ticked off?" Theanswer, maybe or maybe not. "Great John, I came looking for advice and yougive me the maybe answer. Geeze!"
The truth is, I market exclusively "Opt-In." And it is to a listthat is 100% self generated. All the addresses are from people that have come tomy site, for one reason or another, looking for information that they wereinterested in. My auto-responder takes care of the rest.
When entering the site, prospective clients are greeted with a powerfulmessage to receive a world class Ezine with articles from top marketing gurus."Click Yes to sign up now!" My pages have a "QuickSubscribe" button to allow them to sign up if they passed the first time.
Every page I have has the ability to produce the pop-up. The auto-responderkeeps track of the occasional "no" answer (and will not display thepop-up again), to make sure that we are not annoying for the visitor. Click here for an example.They onlyget the message on the first page they visit. If they leave and come back, theyget it again. This way, if the visitor is referred to a page other then the homepage (by an affiliate or a search engine) they can "Opt-In."
The result, everyone on my list made a choice to be there when they werelooking for services that I offer. My mailing list is full of people that haveasked to be there and are wanting information from me. My Gosh, it's nice to beliked!
The bottom line - my lists have a 4% or less opt-out rate! That means that96% of the people that asked for my information will continue to get it. And mySpam complaint rate - 0%. Not that someone wont ever turn me in for it, but ithas not happened yet.
The point of this article - If you are not building an in house email list,you are loosing sales. You are far better off putting your sales letter in frontof people looking for your services than you would be by just throwing them outto whomever. They become your clients, accustomed to your information. They getto know you.
To your success,
John Stone
About the Author
John Stone is the founder of Stoco.net, a service based Internet site dedicated to delivering solutions for the small business owner. John has released several commercial software products and provides web hosting at discount prices. Software products include small utilities for organizations, automation and web site control including Publication Manager (an Email Auto-responder) and Ad Manager (a web page automation tool). John is also recognized as a Perl automation expert and offers advice to the Internet newbie through Stoco.net and MaxTrafficExchange.com.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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