Stop Spamming: How to grow your email list the right way
Email Marketing • Posted on June 2, 2015
How awful is it when you go to a networking event, hand out a few business cards, and get an impersonal html email in your inbox the next morning? It’s only been a few hours since you met this new contact, and they’ve already added you to their email list without your permission. When this has happened to me, I’ve hit the “mark as spam” button a few times. All the other times, I’ve promptly unsubscribed and made a mental note to avoid this person at the next event. And I’m not the exception; people do not like being spammed.
By sending that email out without the person’s permission, you are no longer that person they met at that networking event. You may have lost your chance to become a thought leader in this person’s eyes. That’s right, your emails are now one of those that they ignore, delete, and/or groan about when they see it. You, my friend, are now a spammer.
So how should you grow your email list? Here are a few ideas.
Every marketing activity you pursue should be tied to a goal. As an example, let’s say you’d like to grow your list from 500 to 600 quality subscribers over the next three months. If you maintain your 5% click rate, this should drive about 30 visitors to your site each time you send an email, up from 25. This is your goal: a 20% subscriber increase within the next 3 months.
Ask your contacts.
If you have existing contacts that could benefit to subscribing to your email list, tell them why and ask them to. Be human. Write an email and pretend like you’re speaking to them face to face. Give them an example of what you include in your emails, and have a link so they can subscribe themselves. Don’t make them feel obligated, just be real.
Ask your website visitors.
Add calls to action to your website pages and blog posts that prompt people to subscribe. Tell them what’s inside or link to your latest email so they can see what it’s like.
Create the type of content that people love. Do your research, and give your visitors what they want. If they love it, they’ll want more. The call to action you already put on your blog pages will give them a place to ask for more.
Capture emails at in-person events.
Going to a trade show? Make sure you bring a way to capture the email addresses of the people you meet.
Tap into your online communities.
Post your content to the online communities you’re a part of. Ask for feedback, and ask your peers to subscribe if they enjoyed it.
With all of these tactics to grow your email list, you want to make sure they’re highly targeted. You always want to think quality of quantity when it comes to your subscribers. Once you really hammer down who it is you’re looking for, and where and how to reach them, you’ll hit your goals quicker and easier.
There are so many places you can tap into potential subscribers. At the end of the day, you want to make sure you’re adding value to their inbox with each send. Adding numbers to your list at the expense of opens and click-throughs will end up becoming a headache with no real positive outcome.
Digital marketing takes a lot of planning and analyzing. If you’re doing things right and staying diligent, the results will come.
Facebook • Posted on April 29, 2015
Have you ever posted a link to Facebook, wanting it to look like this:
But instead, it looked like this?:
If your Facebook link image is not showing, It can be pretty frustrating. That’s why I’m here to help you to make sure that every link you post looks professional every single time.
The first step was done perfectly in my example. Simply copy and paste the URL of your link into your status. The link should automatically appear. If the image from the webpage you’re posting doesn’t automatically appear, go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug. You’ll see this:
Paste in the URL and hit debug.
You’ll get lots of information including when and how the URL was scraped, meta tags, and images. At the bottom, you’ll see what it will look like when it is shared. As long as there is an image within the page for Facebook to pick up, it should look the way you want it to. If it still doesn’t look right, try refreshing the page.
A few years back Facebook allowed you to upload your image right then and there if you wanted it to be something other than what was on the post. They also allowed you to change the title and description on the post, but that feature is no longer available. There are tools you can use within your website to set the image. If you’re using WordPress, Yoast allows you to set your share settings on your post or page before you share it to social media.
Tricks like this can save you a lot of time and frustration if you’re managing your own Facebook business page. Be sure to like us on Facebook for more tips like this one and feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Inbound Marketing • Posted on April 23, 2015
According to Wikipedia, Inbound Marketing refers to “marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects’ attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers, makes the company easy to be found, and draws customers to the website by producing interesting content.”
Consumers have become savvy to the sales process, and they don’t like the idea of being sold to. It’s become easier and easier to hang up on a cold caller, and businesses that butt into their daily routines are deemed annoying before they have a chance to even look into what that business is offering.
People want to make a decision to purchase your product or service based on their own due diligence. They want to do the research about your brand and feel confident that they are making the decision to enter the buyer’s process with you.
The sales role is changing
The rise of inbound marketing doesn’t mean that sales is going away. It simply means that the sales activities have changed. Instead of making a cold call and leading a potential customer down the sales funnel within a few minutes, we’re using inbound marketing tactics for them to make their way into the sales funnel themselves. In many cases, there is a point where the sales team takes over and closes the deal, but this time they’re not cold calling because the potential customer is already well acquainted with their brand.
The above statistic is from HubSpot’s state of marketing report in 2014. Content is the oil that makes the inbound engine run. Inbound marketing is about creating content that is useful to your potential customers, and to put that content where they can find it. In return for great content, the marketer asks for information about the prospect which will help them to deliver even more great content to them. This process builds trust and also qualifies leads, making sure that both parties involved (the buyer and the seller) are where they want to be. The bottom line is; statistics have shown that the average cost per lead sourced through inbound practices are consistently less expensive than outbound leads. So if your company is still relying solely on outbound sales, there is a big opportunity to get more return on your marketing and sales budget.
Blog Writing, Inbound Marketing • Posted on April 8, 2015
Content creation has become one of the most important avenues for driving traffic to your website. According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound report, companies that blog have 55% more website visitors, and generate 88% more leads than those companies that don’t.
Here are some reasons why you really need a blog:
It’s a great way to get valuable inbound links!
Most people have trouble with content creation because their topics are too broad, and they’re not thinking about their audience. They want to start with what they offer, when they should start with feedback they get from customers or potential customers.
You have a business that installs flooring for residential customers. It’s not a good idea to write a blog post about carpet, even though that’s a big part of your offerings. You’ll need to think smaller. Think back to your last customer and what led them to the decision they made to go with a specific brand or type of carpet. Maybe they wanted a carpet that doesn’t stain easily because they have small children. What did you recommend and why? There’s a blog post. Maybe there was no option for what they were looking for but you educated them on the best ways to keep their new carpet clean. There’s another blog post.
When it comes to content creation, thinking about specific interactions with your clients is a great place to start. And whenever you hit a road block and the task of blogging becomes a monster, you probably need a more specific topic.
Questions about blogging? Free free to follow Stacey for more content creation tips, or contact us.