Building an opt-in list gives you the freedom to create a following and later market toward these subscribers without the restrictions that are imposed by paid advertising or spending innumerable hours ranking your website within search engines.
The following article will tell you how you can create your own opt-in list and begin using it for your business.
Step 1: Sign up for an email marketing service
As you begin the process of creating your opt-in email list, you’ll want to use an email deliver service as oppose to your own server. Restrictions from your web host won’t often allow you to send out mass email without being blacklisted or put on temporary suspension.
Email marketing services additionally utilize analytics and tracking tools to improve each new email campaign.
The top three recommended email marketing services are:
Aweber
ConstantContact
MailChimp
Each of these services does a fine job at handling your email marketing campaigns and won’t break the bank. Just remember to choose one which you plan to utilize for quite some time as you’d need to opt-in your subscribers again if your service provider changes.
Step 2: Create an opt-in box
Common to creating an opt-in list is the element of your opt-in box. Your opt-in box is usually set to stand out amongst the rest of your content and includes call-to-actions to entice users to subscribe.
Best practices include asking for the name and email of the subscriber; any more information will often deter visitors from subscribing.
Step 3: Include an opt-in incentive
Other best practices when creating your opt-in list is to include an incentive as part of the person subscribing to your list.
Common incentives for opt-in in include:
eBooks
White papers
Video tutorials
Guides
Exclusive information
The key is to offer an incentive that users find a great value toward in which they will gladly exchange their email in return. Test various offers until you find the one which your visitors are most common to subscribe.
Step 4: Create worthwhile email content
After a visitor subscribes to your list, you’ve now included them in a process of great information, soft and hard sales.
Through your email drops, you should provide your subscribers with regular content which pars the information they received when signing up.
At a later time, you can begin the process of soft and hard selling. Soft selling recommends a product through the use of great email content while hard selling is a direct marketing message with the intent of the customer to buy.
Step 5: Test and improve your list
Even after your email list is up and running, you should constantly be testing the effectiveness of your subject line, content and call-to-actions.
With each email sent out to your list, segment it into multiple parts as part of an A/B test; record the data you receive through your email marketing service to later improve your marketing efforts.