Top Ten Email Marketing List Building Tips – Part 2

Yesterday’s blog post covered email marketing list building tips one through five. Here’s a quick recap of the first five list building tips I covered in yesterday’s post:

1. Add a Sign Up form or Opt-In Box on Every Page of Your Website
2. Advertise in Another Ezine
3. Promote Your Ezine in Your Email Signature
4. Send Out a Press Release
5. Announce Your Ezine to Your Network

Remember, with a personal, relevant, value-added ezine, you can attract new customers and prospects to join your list. And, that’s what it’s all about, building your list and getting contacts into your marketing funnel.

With that in mind, let’s move on to email marketing list building tips six through ten:

TIP 6: Use Your Business Card

If the back of your business card is blank, print new cards and include your mini ezine advertisement on the back. Include a call to action or an irresistible offer that drives them to your website to get a free gift and a complimentary subscription to your ezine.

TIP 7: Attend Live Networking Events

The people you meet in person will be your most loyal and valuable prospects and customers, and if they opt-in to your ezine list, the probability that they will purchase something from you skyrockets. After all, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. Taking the time to connect with people in person, accelerates the “know” and “like” factors, and a consistently well done ezine will build the “trust” factor.

When you are networking, be sure to mention your ezine in your commercial. If you have time, or someone wants to know more, chat about the benefits subscribers receive. Let them know when your next issue will be sent and offer to add them to your list. If they are still unsure, offer to send them a sample copy to review.

TIP 8: Use Article Marketing to Promote Your Ezine

Article marketing is the use of a written article to market and promote your business, products, services, or programs. You can write value-added articles on any area of expertise and post them to several article marketing websites, such as www.ezinearticles.com and www.articlesbase.com. Attached to each of your articles is your author resource box that contains more information about you! Here you can include a link back to your website, a plug for your ezine and special offer, your tagline, and more.

TIP 9: Get Published in Other Ezines and Blogs

Bloggers are HUNGRY for fresh content and if you approach them the right way, will usually welcome a well-written guest post. Make sure you look at who the bloggers target market is and what the content theme of the blog is prior to contacting them. You want to submit a post idea or post content that fits their market, stays in the same genre of content the blog readers are expecting to receive, and provides information that will benefit the readers.

Just as bloggers are looking for new fresh content, so are ezine publishers! Many entrepreneurs that publish weekly ezines will occasionally publish feature articles by guest writers. The same criteria apply for ezine publishers: 1) Make sure the article provides information of value to the readers and 2) Make sure your article topic fits the overall ezine theme and reader expectations.

It also doesn’t hurt to offer a reciprocal post for them on your blog or in your ezine. Check out what they are doing in their business. Are they planning an event or getting ready to launch a product? Offer them a post around that time to promote their business efforts.

TIP 10: Start Doing Some Public Speaking

Public speaking is a great opportunity to do some ethical, permission-based list building. And with an ezine, your post-event follow up can be easy and inexpensive. As the speaker at an event, you already have the audience’s attention, now it is your responsibility to give them an easy way to sign up for your ezine.

Here are some ways you can build your list as a speaker:

• Offer to send a free copy of your presentation notes, or a copy of your PowerPoint presentation to attendees who give your their business card.
• You mention your ezine in your presentation and pass around a signup sheet to collect their names and email addresses. Make sure your signup sheet includes a compelling headline with your ezine name, a short description, and your opt-out terms or privacy policy.
• If you have a table or booth at the event, you can hold a drawing for a free gift or an hour of consulting time. To enter the drawing attendees simply drop their business card in the bowl!
• You can offer a free gift or a prize during the close of your presentation. First, mention the item or offer you are promoting and all of the fantastic benefits attendees can receive as a result. Make sure you get them really excited about your offer. Second, announce that one lucky person in the room is going to get it for free along with a free subscription to your ezine! Third, tell the audience to get out their business cards. You can either have someone collect them, or have people hand them in.