Why do you need a professional email management program to make money and succeed online? I will tell you my story. When I started online in 1999, I hated spam, I hated email from” internet marketers”, and I resisted all advice to start building an email list.
I got very annoyed at people sending me email trying to sell me things. As time went on, I watched people I knew whom I knew personally who had started online around the same time as I did start to make a lot of money, One of my mentors who had actually helped me learn how to build my first website using Xsite Pro is now an online guru, and multi-millionaire. He never spams people and when he sends me emails, I read them.
Needless to say, I have had to rethink my approach to email marketing.
I now realize I must build my list. Your email list is literally your gold.
No matter what you do , author, teacher, life coach, editor, writing coach, sales, consulting, offering products, small business, non profits, it does not matter, your email list will be where you are guaranteed to make money or sell your product.
When people sign up for something you are offering, they have already made the first move in trusting you.
If they like what you do and have to say, you will be able to build trust with them through further emails.
Many of my clients start out using a free email program like “php list”, or just their own email, like outlook.
So why not just use those?
One of the primary reasons to use a professional email set up, is the delivery/open/read rate.
When you use a professional email/list building program, people have to opt in.
This gives you around a 70-80% actual open rate. People who opt in want your messages.
What good is building a list if when you send the email, people delete it, think it is spam or never see it because their host or email program says it is spam? Also you encourage good will and build trust by allowing people to opt in or opt out of your mailing list.
You can learn a lot about what works and what does not work this way as well.
How are some ways you go about building your email list?
You can offer a newsletter or a tip sheet, you can use it to just update interested clients and readers about what you doing or speaking. If you have a new book coming out, the people who have expressed an interest will be alerted and you can include the buy the book link.
You do not have to commit to a monthly newsletter if that is something you do not want to do. Here are some ideas to offer for your clients, readers, customers to sign up for your email list.
- Free tips sheet
- Free video
- Free lesson
- Free white paper, (A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem)
The most important thing is to just get started building that list.
I have tried iContact , Constant Contact, and AWeber. I ended up going with AWeber for several reasons.
I find their interface easy to understand, they have a plugin you can just add to your WordPress site and pop onto the sidebar, (the newsletter sign up on my sidebar is using their plugin).
It is worth spending some time exploring them before you commit, since you will be working in that interface and hopefully staying with them for the long haul. It is a bit of a hassle to change mid-stream since all your subscribers will have to re-opt in again.
I suggest you utilize the free trials for all 3 programs and see which one feels like the best fit for you.
Just click any of these ads to take advantage of the free trials and other offers.
No matter which one you choose, be sure to add the code for the email sign up on your website and start building your own “pot of gold” today!
I use AWeber because I find them simple to use and they have some nice email templates and newsletter templates already set up.
You can sign up for a free trial below.
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