1. It’s All About Trust

It really is all about trust. People tend to be wary of things on the Internet. They don’t want to get viruses, but they also want to explore things that will be helpful to them. Provide them with good and useful information on your website to start with. It’s always best if your business is about something that you know well and that you can write about easily. Be sure that you look like a credible and professional business, and people are likely to purchase your products and sign up on your email lists.

You can also gain trust by becoming friends with your visitors. Implement a forum on your website that will allow you to talk and chat with people. They will also allow you to learn more about your email lists wants and needs. At the same time, you can join other forums and attract people to your site.

The money will come when people know you and you show you are trustworthy. You need to hold up your end of the deal as well by providing your customers with products that are useful and worth their money.

2. Offer a Service that People Need or Desire

If you are able to meet the people who are interested in your website and what you have to offer, then you will be able to provide a service or product that people need or want. It is said that people come to the Internet for one of two things – information and to shop. If you can provide both, then you are going to have a very useful site! Invest your time and money in providing excellent service, products and information. If you do this, then people are going to be interested in learning more about you and sign up on your list.

3. Become Friends with Others Who Have Been Successful

If you are in the process of building a successful list, it never hurts to learn from others who have been successful. Do some social networking and become friends with those who have become successful and remain successful. There is nothing better than first hand information.

However, with the flood of people marketing online today, competition IS fierce, as one email competes for another for the reader’s attention. So email marketers have to provide outstanding quality of ads to appeal to their targeted groups.

Here are some email marketing tips to make your emails and your email ads stand out and get noticed:

• Offer a free item – ebook, report, software trial or membership site. People like to get things for no cost.
• State a guarantee in your message. Take the fear out of buying from you.
• Include several ways to reply to your offer. Not everyone has Paypal, for instance. So allow shoppers other means like faxing, calling or mailing in credit card orders.
• Keep message & ordering simple. Write at a ninth grade level (unless you’re targeting a higher educated audience like with tech products for technicians). And keep sentences brief and to the point.

Provide outstanding quality. And appeal to more of your targeted readers. Doing so will produce the results you AND your email audience desire.

Penn Valley, CA, May 13, 2008 - Lists Alive! (www.ListsAlive.com/FreeMarketing), a firm specializing in turn-key marketing strategies, announced today that they will be giving away fully executed online marketing campaigns to three business owners, completely free.

“We help our customers to re-energize their mailing lists, generate new prospects, and motivate current customers to hit the ‘buy now’ button. This promotion is offering our services for free. And we’re not giving away a ‘how to manual,’ we’re doing the work,” says Katie DuBois, founding partner of Lists Alive! “Clients would usually expect to pay as much as $25,000 or more for these campaigns.”

So what’s the catch? “Honestly, there isn’t one,” continues DuBois. “My partner and I want to expand and diversify our client portfolio. Nothing helps us promote our business more than having satisfied customers give testimonials.”

“What we typically find,” says partner Zoey Jordan, “is that folks ignore their email lists. They are already so stretched just juggling their daily to-do lists, that a marketing campaign, which most believe to be difficult and time consuming, gets pushed farther and farther off their radar screen. But if they aren’t marketing to their current customers, they are leaving money on the table.”

From what we see on FaceBook, industry websites, and blogs, everyone is asking the question, ‘How can I make money online?’” says Jordan. “There’s an overwhelming amount of information on the web about online marketing, but most of it seems to offer no real information, and you end up in an avalanche of links. You hit link after link, and end up on a landing page that has a ‘buy the information for $297’ button. It makes it frustrating, especially for the small business owner, and gives them the idea they can’t afford to do any online marketing.”

The Lists Alive! marketing campaign giveaway begins Monday, May 12, 2008 and will last for two weeks. “We had to limit the giveaway for two reasons,” explains DuBois, “we expect this to be a highly popular promotion, with lots of folks signing up. And we want to pick the winners, and get to work with them quickly, so they can start to see immediate results.”

The promotion allows for any size or type of business to be considered. Anyone who enters will additionally receive no obligation bonus materials, offering methods that will help them achieve more online traffic and sales. To learn more, visit www.ListsaAlive.com/FreeMarketing and read through the promotion in detail.

And be sure to checkout this video:

Engage Readers

First of all, BE YOURSELF. Readers want to connect and relate to those that they receive information from. Email marketing is evolving and relationship building, with your list, your audience, is critical in every aspect of your online email marketing campaign.

Next, BE CONSISTENT throughout your email messages. In other words, mention only a couple key issues surrounding your message and stay on topic. Don’t cloud the email body, or overload your audience with distractive and useless content just to “fill in white space”. Keep the flow steady and tight, well focused. Sometimes LESS IS MORE!

Use CLEAR NAVIGATION to your audiences destination and once they are there be certain they can easily find what they are looking for. Test it BEFORE you send your email. Make sure you CAN click on the link. And make sure whatever you ask people to do there – be it sign up for an eZine, a report or purchase a new eBook or package – that this process CAN be done as directed.

And finally, GIVE SIMPLE, COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS for a call to action. Always include contact info for help, in case it’s needed. And make sure the contact information is accurate. (i.e., don’t send readers to reply emails that bounce back or go nowhere.)

Pay attention to details that will engage your readers and readers will pay more attention to you and your email marketing message!

One very effective way to do this is to balance the right blend of benefits and features in your marketing copy. In order to do this, try some of these strategies in your next email marketing communications.

• State your proposition in a personal way, since the focus is all about the customer – i.e. write in the “You” form, not “he or she.” And talk about them or things that they can relate to.
• Focus on customer benefits; people like to save money, join and be a part, learn more, earn more.
• Offer multiple selling points in bullet form. Write them from customer’s point of view & reflect their needs.
• Thoroughly describe the product. Give the customer all the information they need on the product or service in order to make a well educated decision.
• Create a call to action. TELL the customer what to do – exactly, step-by-step. Click here, fill out the form, hit “Submit.”
• State your USP (unique selling position) to differentiate yourself from competition. For example, tell why your product is better than the competition’s.

Rewriting the text on your email message so that it focuses on marketing copy can help readers feel more comfortable. It can also help improve your sales results. Now there’s a win-win!

You want your current customers to remain engaged with your company and services or product. Using an email blast is one of the most cost effective and simple ways for you to let customers know about changes in service, additional products, discounts for loyal customers — think of it as a way to maintain your current clients, build more, and increase your revenue.

And don’t forget - you’ve got competition. It doesn’t matter what product or service you offer, there are other companies out there that are vying for your customers. Make sure that your brand remains in top-of-mind awareness with your customers so you don’t lose sales to someone else.

On your website, you can easily:

• Create a visitor sign-up box (often referred to as an opt-in)
• Design a “Send Page to Friend” link
• Offer a feature that allows your subscribers to forward your email and add a      personal note to their friends

Make a habit of collecting emails to add to your list. Just remember that you are building a permission-based list, which means a person must give their permission before being added. Here are some tips for growing your list in the 3-D marketplace.

• Have a sign-up sheet available at your place of business
• Train employees to collect addresses and permission at every point of contact
• Collect addresses at tradeshows and events
• Collect business cards of people who request information

Of course you’ll want some relevant, useful information to offer your list. Original and relevant content that your customers will appreciate. You can’t hammer them soley with “buy” emails or you’ll have them unsubscribing from your list, and your company, faster than you ever imagined. Email them on a regular basis with relevant news about your industry, new products, invitations to events and sales. You want regular contact with these folks, but you don’t want to fill up their email box too frequently or you’ll be thought of as an annoying spammer.

A well executed email marketing campaign can improve customer loyalty, generate more sales, and even motivate your prospects to become buyers.

If you haven’t done this already then it’s time to create a
content site. One that is on the same topic as the list
that you are building or planning to build.

Include lots of keyword rich articles so that you get traffic
from the search engines, then make sure you add an opt in
email form on all of your pages, so that people that enjoyed
your articles can sign up for your list.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to write all for the content
yourself. You can hire a ghostwriter to write the articles
for you or you can purchase ready made articles and even ready
made websites theses days. Just do an Internet search for
“private label content” and you will find endless
possibilities.

OFFER OPT-IN INCENTIVES

Gift’s - everyone loves a free gift.

Offer a free gift as an incentive for people to sign up
for your list. This is a tested and proven method to increase
the number of people that subscribe to your list.

The gift that you offer doesn’t have to be anything expensive,
but it should be something that is perceived as useful and
valuable to the people that you want to subscribe to your list.

For instance if your website is about dogs, then you could
offer a free report on dog grooming. If you sell software
you could offer a free trial download. Just make sure your
gift is something of great value to your potential subscribers
and you will have people eagerly joining your list.

JOINT VENTURES

If you already have a list and you are looking to get more
subscribers then it’s time to work a little trade (joint
venture).

Do a search for lists or ezines that are similar to yours,
then contact the owner of the list and see if you can arrange
to recommend each other to your subscribers.

Let the owner know that you believe your readers would
benefit greatly from the information that they have to offer
and that their readers will benefit also.

If you keep in mind that most people sign up for more than
one list you will see how this can be a great arrangement
for both of you. Make your offer as irresistible as possible
to the other list owner.