Jumpstart And Increase Your Targeted Email List

Building an email list is one of the most important aspects within an e-commerce business. The reason why I emphasize the importance of an email list is the impact it will have on the future of your business. Read Why Your Internet Business Needs An Email List? as well. Your email list will comprise of subscribers that are segmented in the following:

1. Browsing and want free information
2. Have purchased from you and is a customer of your business
3. A loyal customer who regularly buys and refers your business to others.

Your goal is to move all your subscribers into the 3rd segment – which are customers who buy and refer business to others. But firstly, how do you get people to subscribe to your email list?

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Setup Your Business Emails Using Google Apps

Something very common new business owners overlook when starting an e-commerce business is not having a professional e-mail address. I have had people give me a business card and the first thing I notice is an email address that says “motorcyclestore@gmail.com”. Using free services like Google, Hotmail or Yahoo is not a smart option and I highly recommend moving away from this. In this post I will show you how to set up your own business email address that will cost you nothing going from “motorcyclestore@gmail.com” to “info@motorcyclestore.com”. If you know how to setup a Google Mail (GMail) account already, this will be a breeze for you and no one will know that you use Google Mail to send your emails.

Have A Professional Email Address

Here are the reasons why it is important to have a business email address when you are running an e-commerce website:

• A business email address makes your business look professional whether you are the sole operator or a company with 100+ employees.
• You keep all your business correspondence separate to your personal emails.
• You can have multiple email addresses for different departments such as sales, support or orders.
• The business email address can always be transferred without having to notify contacts.

The next question most commonly asked is what email addresses should we setup?

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Why Your Internet Business Needs An Email List?

Over the Easter Long Weekend I spent time with family and had a very relaxing time pursuing my hobby. I also was in the mood to write, so I added another 12 email newsletters for the Dragonboat email list which has about 400 subscribers. I have set them to be sent out monthly using an automatic followup service, and each newsletter will provide my subscribers valuable information about Dragonboating techniques, nutrition, fitness and upcoming Dragonboat events happening across the world. So why have I told you this and what is so important about having an email list?

The Importance Of Having An Email List?

This list that I have built and maintained for over three years generates over $100,000 in revenue alone and I simply write one email a month to provide valuable information to my subscribers. Furthermore, this list is not huge compared to other lists I have built in the past where I have had thousands of subscribers. This least has about 400 subscribers and if you do the calculations, each subscriber spends on average around $250. I don’t tell you this to brag about my email list, but it should tell you how important it is to have and maintain an email list.

Many business seminars I have attended talks about the importance of having a list and how each person or client on your list is where money can be made. A coach and mentor I have learned business strategies from is Brendan Nichols, also known as “Australia’s laziest entrepreneur”. Brendan is an Australian entrepreneur and business coach who was trained by Robert Kiyosaki from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I personally know Brendan and he is definitely the real deal who practises what he preaches. I highly admire Brendan for what he teaches turning difficult business principles into simple action steps for anyone to apply. This where I learned how to build a profitable email list.

Brendan taught me how to maximise profits from each client and to create a client priority list from my email subscribers.

“The principle of maximisation is to increase the amount of purchases from clients you already have.”

If you want to learn how to build a list please read Generating Leads where I show you some methods on how to capture leads onto an email database. Also a great case study to read is at Yaro Starak’s blog: Building An Email List

How Will A Targeted Email List Make A Difference To Your Internet Business?

Before you can maximise profits from each client your email list needs to have targeted customers or have customers who want your product or service. There is no point in having thousands of subscribers on a database who are not interested in what you have to offer, it is a of waste resources. Therefore your goal right from the beginning when asking people to subscribe to your list is to offer them something they want. In my case, people subscribe to my database to receive information about dragonboating and they receive a free eBook about dragonboat paddling techniques and equipment when they join my email list. Obviously not everyone will subscribe to this list unless they are involved in the sport or are looking to purchase dragonboat equipment.

When you create a targeted email list, it is becomes an excellent tool for building stronger relationships with your subscribers. I consider a person who opts-in to my email list a high quality prospect who will ultimately purchase a product or use our services in the future. This is why promoting to a targeted email list allows you to focus on narrower topics and reuse content over and over again as each new subscriber moves through your sequence of emails. As a result of this, you have structure and a refined system that requires less work and produces more income.

Maximising Profits From Each Client

Whilst you are building a targeted list of email subscribers you will constantly look at ways to maximise profits from each customer providing them with valuable content and offering your products and services in conjunction. Here are three hot profit maximisation tips to help you increase your income:

1. Look for add-ons products or services to upsell or use additional promotions
2. Develop an upselling script e.g McDonalds: would you like fries with that or a soft drink?
3. Create a special priority client list to offer them special offers and pre-launch events. e.g. If a sale starts on the 1st Decemeber, they can take up that special on the 25th November as a VIP client and get in before the rush.

The key to successfully maximising profit from each client is to ask the question, “what can we do for our clients that they can’t do for themselves?”. Essentially we are creating value and offering them a service to save them time and resources.

The true power of building an Internet business with a targeted email list is to leverage the website as the traffic creator and relationship starter, and then finish the process with email marketing to generate your income.

There’s a lot of subtleties to this system but I guarantee you the results will speak for themselves.

Tyrone Shum
Building Targeted Email Lists

12 Sales Effective Marketing Tips

MARKETING YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS may already be your strength, or you are struggling and just getting by. No matter how your business is performing everyone can benefit by exploring some low cost marketing opportunities that will help grow your business. You don’t have to spend loads of money on advertising, it just requires some creativity and planning. Furthermore, not only does it add more dollars to your bottom line in money not spent on advertising it can also boost your confidence. Here are 12 tips for you to implement into your Internet business.

12 sales effective / low cost marketing tips:

1. Press Release – send a story about yourself relating to your business via email to a newspaper or magazine relevant to your industry. A story will increase your businesses public awareness and credibility and it is free marketing for you as well. Don’t forget to include  a professionally taken photo of yourself.
2. Send Email – contact your existing clients and offer them something via email to entice to visit your website.
3. Public Speaking – offer a presentation at your local service club like Rotary or Leagues and ask if they would be interested in allowing you to present a subject of interest. Don’t do a sale pitch, offer something to people that will be of value and record the session to use for later public broadcasts. You can also use this in your credentials to show people you have spoken in public and is good for press releases as well.
4. Keyword Marketing - not enough businesses use this method and it’s low cost as long as you set your target and budget correctly. You can buy keywords relating to your business from as little as 5c per word. Be really specific and make sure your target audience sees your advertisement.
5. Post Advertisement On Noticeboard - your local shopping centre, schools, universities will have noticeboards for you to post up notices and advertisements. Use them and take advantage of them because many people still read noticeboard and give them an incentive to call (maybe include a tear off at the bottom of your notice).
6. Networking – join a business club or a forum in your area sharing the same interest. Attend these events regularly and swap business cards.
7. Setup A Stall – sometimes just setting up a store at your local fair or market creates brand awareness for your business and is a great opportunity to talk to people in the community and hand out brochures to offer your products or services.
8. Cross-Promote – contact other businesses that offer complimentary services or products to yours and work out a co-operative marketing strategy to promote together. It’s a win-win to help each other out.
9. Promote On Your Car – A very cost effective way if you drive around a lot. You can purchase magnetic signs to stick on your car with your business details. You will definitely get people looking because not enough people do it.
10. Give Away Vouchers – When a consumer purchases your product or service give them a discount voucher for their next purchase to entice them to come back to spend again.
11. Talk To People – Don’t worry, they’re not going to bite you! Talk to your friends and acquaintances, they will be more than happy to refer your details if you approach them nicely.
12. Write A Guest Post – This is becoming more popular across the Bloggersphere where you offer to write an informative article for other bloggers. They may have readers that you want to attract and they are interested in what you have to say, then it’s a great way to market your Internet business.

Try to implement a couple of these ideas over the month and test your results. The best way to find out if they work is to ask your customers when they contact you, “How did you hear about us?”. This is the best way to measure and learn from your customers as it can help you determine what is working and what is not. It’s all about trial and error to find the best marketing method for your Internet business.

Tyrone Shum
Marketing Tipster