3 Innovative Ways To Build An Optin Email List That Stands Above The Crowd

With so many optin email lists out there, your really need to come up with a hook to attractive subscribers. It needs to have something special or different. It could be something you offer inside every newsletter issue, like interviews with experts. Or the hook could be a unique incentive that website vistors can take advantage of immediately when they sign up.

Here are 3 ideas you can use for your own sites, or use as inspiration to get you thinking a little outside of the box:

-- Build an Optin Email List by Creating a Private Members Only Site or Section --

Create a private web site and have people sign up to get free, immediate access. For example, you could say, "Subscribe to our free e-zine and get free access to our private membership web site!" You can choose to have them receive a username and password every time they want to login, or you can just provide a link to the site in your welcome email.

Your private members only site can be as big or as small as you want. Some of the things you can include inside are: reports, software, articles, ebooks, etc. Inside the site, you can advertise your affiliate programs, as well. And you can follow-up to let them know about updates, new products they might be interested in, the latest news in your industry, etc.

-- Build an Optin Email List By Giving Subscribers a Free, Tangible Gift --

Instead of offering a free ebook (or a whole package of them) like most everybody else, promise to give your visitors something they can hold in their hands if they give you their contact information.

For example, you could say "Subscribe today and get our new report mailed to you via First Class." You could print out your report on standard 8 x 11 sheets of paper, fold it up, put it inside an envelope, and mail it off.

Or you can offer a tips booklet and mail it to new subscribers. Or you can create your own CD full of information targeted toward your market and mail that. Or if you have a wholesale supply of a product of interest to your subscribers, then you can send one to each new subscriber. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Follow-up possibilities include: articles (your own or written by others), tips you pick up, news in your niche, reviews of products or other interested, related websites, etc.

-- Build an Optin Email List Through a Contest or Sweepstakes --

Hold a free contest or sweepstakes at your website where they must give their contact information, including their email address, to enter. Make the prize something that your niche market will be interested in. Otherwise, they'll never want to enter.

If you already have an ezine up and running, you could offer free automatic entry for new subscribers. For example, you could say, "Subscribe to our free newsletter and get automatic entry into our contest." You'll also want to retroactively include current subscribers.

You can announce the winner(s) at the end, as well as send any new contest announcements or product announcements. Or you can make this an ongoing contest, where you give away the same thing to one (or more) lucky people every month. That way you'll entice many subscribers to stay on your list.

You can find niche products to give away through wholesalers or dropshippers. Or you can create it yourself. One of my favorite ways to do this is create a CD-Rom with a guide or report (or sometimes several) that my niche market will find interesting.

Once again, you can follow-up with tips, articles, news, new product announcements, or just an announcement of each monthly winner(s).

Hopefully, now I've inspired you to take some action or encouraged ideas of your own with these tips. Any idea, the more popular it gets, requires you to think outside the box every now and then in order to be effective. Building an optin email list is no different. And with newsletters and ezines saturating the Internet day by day, you need to offer something a little different to make them want to sign up to yours. Or you'll just end up getting left behind.

11 Reasons to Submit This Article to an Ezine

What's an article anyway, and why would I want to submit one to an ezine? That was a two-fold question and will require two answers.

An ezine article is usually composed of approximately 500 words on a single subject that would be of interest to your target market. At the end of the article, you should include a "resource box." This box should provide such things as your name, the name of your company, your web site address, email address, and a small blurb about your product/service.

Writing an article is not hard work. All it requires is some research and note taking. Use any of multiple sources to find information about the topic that you choose to write about. Then write your article in your own words using the notes that you took during your research. It's not difficult and it's something that you learned to do early in school (grade school probably). Write in a conversational tone. Write like you are talking to your best friend.

Now, I'll answer the second question. The reasons to submit this article to an ezine are varied, but not difficult to understand. They all boost your bottom line.

1. The submission of the article will help identify your business (web site) in the Internet marketplace. This is normally called "branding."

2. Article submission provides publicity, virtually free.

3. Someone may like your writing style and hire you to write articles or ebooks for them.

4. The published article will drive traffic to your web site.

5. If the publisher of the ezine that you submit your article to maintains an archive, your article may be read many months later. Traffic may still be driven to your site this way.

6. People will come to know you as an expert on your subject.

7. You might get your article published in free ebooks that are distributed all over the web. This will drive more traffic to your web site.

8. This will help you become a trusted vendor of information.

9. If you allow anyone to publish your article or email it to a friend, you will gain further exposure for free.

10. Webmasters may read your article and display it on their web site. You get additional free exposure.

11. If you send out an ezine, you could offer to swap articles with other ezine publishers for free. This provides more publicity without expense.

So, there are quite a few benefits that you could receive from publishing small articles like this one. If that isn't enough reasons for publishing your own articles, I don't know what else you'd need. Don't forget to provide enough valuable information. The more knowledge you supply, the more valuable you become. Provide real value and you will always have people clamoring for more.

9 Low Cost/No Cost Marketing Tips & Techniques

Copyright 2006 Sandra P. Martini

Do you need to get more clients?  Are you trying to get your first client?  Is your marketing budget equivalent to the cost of a Happy Meal?   The following tips and techniques are not by any means hidden secrets, but they are some of the most overlooked ways to market a small business today.

1.  Know your target audience.

As silly as it sounds, many small business owners kick off a marketing campaign without regard to whom they want to target.  If you send out a coupon for NASCAR tickets to the first 1,000 people in the phone book, some will undoubtedly be thrilled and will do what’s necessary to earn the tickets  (akin to dropping 1,000 mailers from an airplane -- some will hit the target).  But just imagine the response rate if you sent out the same 1,000 NASCAR ticket coupons to only those people who attended a NASCAR event in the last year.   You’ve gone from wildly shooting to steadily aiming your campaign, thus increasing your response rate and decreasing your cost per customer.

2.  Publish an e-zine (or newsletter).

Publishing an e-zine or print newsletter (even as short as a page) is a great way to keep in touch with your customers and clients.  You can produce one online using a program such as Constant Contact for little to no money and can even set your e-zines up in advance using easy-to-understand templates.

3.  Have a website and keep it updated.

All businesses, no matter your size or field, need a website these days.  You can get a domain name for as little as $2.95/year and, using templates, have a basic design done in a few hours.  Once your customers, clients, and potential customers and clients have visited your website, they will find fresh, quality content in the form of new e-zines, articles, blog posts and tips.  This will keep them, and the search engine spiders, coming back for more.

4.  Opportunity is calling.

While not usually viewed as a marketing technique, answering the phone and follow-up is critical in this day and age of limited valuable time and impersonal service.  Have you ever called someone only to not get a call-back or sent an email and waited days for a response? More clients and prospects become lost revenue these days due to inadequate, or non-existent follow-up.   If you receive a phone call from a prospective client or from an existing client, call him back as soon as possible or, better yet, immediately!

5.  Get involved online.

Find out where your target audience hangs out and participate in those online discussion groups and forums.  Yahoo Groups is a great place to find a wide variety of discussion groups.  Several business owners also belong to Ryze -- an online networking forum. By consistently offering your help to others, you will position yourself as an expert that others will turn to when the time is right for them.

6.  Get involved offline.

Getting involved with local organizations can help to build your reputation as a “doer”, a “go getter” or just a really dependable individual (all things which will help your business). Just remember that you are representing your business in everything you do and act accordingly.

7.  Word of Mouth/Referrals.

We’ve all heard the saying that a happy customer tells somewhere between 1 and 3 people about her experience while an unhappy customer tells up to 12 people about hers.  Keep your customers happy,   ask for feedback as to what you could do better, and once you know they’re happy, then ask for a referral.  People generally are willing to help those they like.

8.  Use postcards.

Whether you are an online-only business, a brick & mortar establishment or a hybrid, you can effectively use postcards to market your business.  Postcards are easy to do, inexpensive to mail and have a high readership.  Many people associate postcards with personal notes from friends and family and don’t even think before they turn it over to read the message.   With this method, you have already gotten into the hands of many people that wouldn't take the time to open junk mail.

9.  Have others do it for you or with you.

Never underestimate the power of cooperation and reciprocal agreements.  Is there a vendor that has a related, but not directly competitive, target audience to yours?  If so, form a strategic alliance where you recommend his products/services and he recommends yours.  For example, a movie theater and a restaurant could share customer information and play off each other for promotions.

While many of the above tips and techniques will arouse the “DUH” response, it’s constantly surprising to me how many businesses – small and large – overlook these basic items in their day-to-day marketing and operations.

10 Benefits Of Submitting Articles To E-zines

1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe.

5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don't publish your articles.

6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your income.

7. You could allow e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your advertising could multiply all over the internet.

8. You will get your article published all over the web when you submit it to an e-zine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site. They'll allow their visitors to republish your article.

9. You'll gain people's trust. If they read your article and like it, they won't be as hesitant to buy your product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits.

10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in an e-zine. You could agree to run one of their articles in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run yours in their e-zine. It's a win/win situation.