Building Your Opt-In Email List

Fourth in an ongoing series of small business online marketing tips, this post covers email marketing and the process of building an ‘opt-in’ list—a list of prospects who have agreed to receive email from your business. Read last week’s small business online marketing tip here.

Summary: Since not all new prospects are ready to buy, your small business must effectively nurture them from cold to hot, a process that’s easier and more efficient with email marketing. But to take advantage of email, you’ve got to build a good opt-in list first. Here’s how.

Why take the time to build an email list? Because email marketing is the most efficient way to move large numbers of prospects from cold to hot.

How does that work exactly? Well, most of the time when a prospect finds out about your business, they aren’t going to be ready to part with their money, for a few reasons:

• Trust. They don’t necessarily know that much about you or your business, and need to learn more to develop a level of trust that you can do what you say you do.
• Investigating. Depending on what your business does, a prospect might be just doing initial investigation into who can help solve a business problem.
• Comparison shopping. You’re not the only company that sells something, so the prospect is comparing you to others.
  

So, email is a great way to build trust and keep your company and expertise at the top of a prospect’s mind. But what if you don’t have an email list to send to? This is definitely an issue I have heard from some Kutenda customers who have a small number of clients they work with.

What are some good ways to build an opt-in email list—meaning, people who give you permission to send them email messages? I don’t recommend buying email lists. Even though the lists are opt-in (meaning, the people on the list agree to receive your email), purchased lists aren’t usually worth the cost.
Better ways to build an opt-in email list for your business

• Ask for emails at every customer touch point: Have an email signature? What about some available space for a quick form on your web site? Make sure that at any place you can ask for email addresses, you get them. Ask people to subscribe to getting updates and information from your company on any employee’s email signature, at the check-out stand (if you are a retail business), on your payment and billing receipts, on feedback forms, heck, even on your business cards!
• Get subscribers on your web site: Place your email list subscribe form on the home page of your web site, preferably “above the fold,” meaning visible on your web site before someone has to scroll through the page.
• Give them something valuable: Give someone an added incentive to sign-up to get emails from you. Offer a chance to win a prize or something for free. Offer to give them free information in exchange for handing over an email address. For example, if you’re a plumber, you could offer a free guide to clearing clogged drains without harsh chemicals. If you’re an accountant, how about a guide to the most-missed business deductions? These kinds of free but useful information are a great way to get people to give up an email address.
• Market to someone else’s list: Do you have other companies that refer you business (or vice versa)? Ask to write an article for their email newsletter on something their audience might need to know. Then give those folks on that list a way to subscribe directly to your emails for more helpful information. Note: You may need to pay the other company to do this for you, but if you think you can get a good list out of it, its probably worth it.

Remember, email marketing can’t do much for you unless you have an opt-in list of email addresses you can send email to. So start building your list today!

File under: Small business online marketing > Email marketing > Email list building