Most marketing experts agree that the development of an opt-in email list is a key factor of business success.
Benefits Of Opt-In Email Lists
It is unusual for first time visitors to your web site to purchase your products and services. Normally, your visitors need to develop trust in you and what you are offering. An opt-in email list allows you to stay in front of your prospects and customers encouraging repeat visits to your site that will result in sales.
People receiving your message will not regard it as spam as they have opted to join your mailing list. They have given you permission to send them flyers, newsletters and messages. You have the opportunity to develop trust and to demonstrate your expertise, credibility and how you can benefit them.
Your list may become the most valuable asset that your business owns. Not only does it allow you to reach people cost effectively who are interested in your products and services, but also it can be a source of advertising revenue and future profits for your business.
The larger the list you are able to develop of qualified prospects and customers, the better off you will be. Ensure that you offer subscription details in a prominent position on your main web pages. Entice people to join the list by explaining the benefits they will receive.
To avoid misunderstandings and high unsubscribe rates, ensure that your potential subscribers know what they will be getting. Tell them how often they will be receiving email from you. If you publish ads between issues, tell them and give them the opportunity to choose the newsletter and ads or just the newsletter.
A key way to let potential subscribers know what to expect is through a privacy statement. Most people are concerned about what you will be doing with their email address. Reassure them that you will only be using it for your newsletter and not letting others have access to their details. To help you develop your privacy statement, you can use these online privacy statement generators:
http://www.truste.org/wizard/
http://www.the-dma.org/topframe/index7.html
Make subscription management easy for your subscribers. Always make it clear how they can unsubscribe. When you receive unsubscribe requests, act on these promptly. To do otherwise will not enhance your online reputation or credibility.
Don’t be too aggressive in obtaining email addresses as this can often backfire. For example, I was visiting a site recently to download a free e-book. Before I could download, I had to enter my email address. No indication was given as to what my email address would be used for. I chose not to give my address and not to download the e-book. That site missed out on an opportunity because they did not provide me with confidence as to how my email address would be used.
Another technique used is to add addresses obtained from people requesting information via your autoresponders. In my opinion, it is better to have a series of autoresponder follow up messages rather than adding the names to an opt-in list. The ethical approach is only to add those people who have specifically given permission to join your list.
Posted by ta3259 