Sending messages and information to people who have given you permission to contact them is a great way to build the kind of relationships that will encourage a steady flow of traffic to your website... and greatly increase your online sales!
All online businesses can benefit from having an opt-in mailing list of some kind! Opt-in email lists generally fall into 4 categories?.
New Content Notification - You've probably seen sites that offer to notify you whenever they have new information Lucas Duda Jersey , products, or content. To tell you the truth, this is probably the least effective kind of opt-in list, simply because most people won't sign-up. Instead Billy Hamilton Jersey , they'll bookmark your site thinking they'll just come back from time to time - but don't count it! Of course, there are certain kinds of sites that CAN benefit from this form of opt-in list. For example, if you have a site that runs contests, you can offer to notify people whenever a new contest begins.
Free Report - Another kind of opt-in list involves the offer of a free report Alex Gordon Jersey , or series of reports. However, be careful with this! By offering a free report, you are restricting the number of times you can mail to your list ? it's not a good idea to capture the names and then bombard them with a continual stream of sales material when they were only expecting one or two reports. This would be considered spamming! If you offer a free report, it should contain "real" information and a reason for them to visit your website again.
Resource Updates - You can offer to update subscribers on various issues or resources. For example Yordano Ventura Jersey , if you are in the real estate business you could send people a list of current mortgage rates for the top 10 or 20 financial institutions. You could send this out once a week, once a month, or whenever there are significant changes in the rates.
Free eZineNewsletter - A great way to build an opt-in list is by offering a free subscription to an electronic newsletter or ezine. Newsletters are a really good way of regularly reminding your subscribers about your website and products. By writing a newsletter that contains copy which is both informative and compelling, you draw subscribers back to your website again and again! I have a huge newsletters devoted specifically to explaining how you can develop a fantastic newsletter and get thousands of people to subscribe to it! Having an ezineNewsletter is one of the best ways to build credibility and rapport with your readers and customers. If you understand the value of a "Lifetime Customer" Bo Jackson Jersey , then you know exactly how powerful an ezine or newsletter can be!
Once you determine the kind of opt-in list you are going to have, you need to automate it. Why? Because one of the secrets to running a successful online business is to automate as much of the routine work as you can!
At your site, put up a simple CGI script designed to capture people's names and email addresses. This information will be sent to your email address so that you can add it to your database.
You can get great CGI scripts for free! Simply go to resourceindex and look up "Mail List Management" to find dozens of free scripts.
When people sign-up, you should immediately send them a confirmation email using an autoresponder. In this email George Brett Jersey , you should remind them that they have signed up and have asked to be on your list. Let them know how to unsubscribe (this information should also be in every email you send them). Restate the benefits they will experience by participating in your opt-in list. Let them know how often they will hear from you - will it be once a day, once a month, or only when there is something new to report? You should also confirm that you will not sell or let anyone else use their email address.
Good software will subscribe and unsubscribe people from your list automatically. It will take the information sent to your email box by the CGI script and add or delete it from your database. Doing this manually can quickly become overwhelming - particularly when your subscriber list begins to grow! These are the kind of tasks that you want to be automated - your time will be better spent on other things, like promoting your business!
Sending email to your list should be an easy process. You should be able to simply merge your message with your address list Wholesale Kansas City Royals Jerseys , click a button, and send them off! We recommend 1shoppingcart because, in addition to automatically subscribing and unsubscribing, it makes the task of merging and sending personalised Email messages very easy. It also allows you to set-up an unlimited number of autoresponders... plus a whole pile of other things I do not have room to list here.