I’m a big fan of email marketing… have been for years.

In fact it’s one of the biggest contributors to my brand on the internet. Things have changed a lot in the last few years though, and for the beginner there’s a very fine line between doing it right, and doing it way wrong. If done right it can be a very affordable and effective way to drive traffic to any website. If done wrong it can get you shut down and labeled as a spammer. So you have to be informed, and careful.

In this blog post I’m going to go over some of the different methods for email marketing, the pro’s and con’s, and what I recommend to be the best and safest. It is, after all, important to know what’s available and you can decide if it’s for you or not.

AUTORESPONDER MARKETING – Email marketing with an autoresponder, or autoresponder marketing, is an extremely effective method of marketing, as well as being a skilled trade, and is a method that I teach to beginner internet marketers. It will require having a list to email to, that you can learn to build.

Follow up is one of the keys to branding yourself as an informed source and a leader and that’s exactly what an autoresponder does for you. Being able to “drip” info on your database once they’ve opted in to your list is a great way to create relationships, educate your subscribers on a subject, and promote yourself as well as your products or service on an ongoing basis.

Because your subscribers have opted in to receive information from you, it’s also the safest method of email marketing. When visitors that are on your site leave their email address in exchange for news and updates, or education, they have now become a part of your “permission marketing” list… and that is the holy grail for any internet marketer.

MAILERS – This is a general term for companies that have accumulated databases through various means, that marketers, for a fee, can send emails to. The problem here may lie with not knowing exactly how the emails were accumulated, or what quality in relationship to your needs the list will be. ROI with email marketing has everything to do with how targeted the list that you are mailing to is. The companies claim they have categorized their database so they can fit your niche.

These mailers were quite popular at one time, and newbies get excited about being able to “rent” someone’s list for such a small fee. Beginners also like the fact that it’s the mailer company doing the mailing. But even with the mailer company doing the sending, spam has become so rampant now that a lot of recipients simply block certain senders. They don’t know you and they don’t recognize your name, so they don’t know what you are offering, and they might not care. For these reasons the mailers have a tendency to have low conversion rates.

SAFELISTS – Very similar to mailers. The companies have accumulated databases of people who agree to receive emails in exchange for being able to send emails back to those people. It requires you getting a special email address just to receive all the promotions coming back to you so they don’t plug up your main email inbox. Again, effective at one time, but the market has become increasingly saturated with newbies marketing back and forth, who’s only care is to send their stuff. This can be frustrating with very low conversion.

BUYING LEAD LISTS – Can be effective if you know what you are getting. There are some respectable lead brokers out there, but low cost leads are being sold over and over again, creating frustration on the recipients end from receiving endless marketing and promoting. You can get more exclusive leads, for higher costs, but there are still drawbacks … once again the recipients don’t know you so they are liable to block you as spam.

In addition most autoresponders now will not allow importing of bulk lead lists because of the spam problem, so you will have to have your own mailer and know how to use it, and it’s easy to get your ISP shut down on you if you don’t know how to email in bulk properly. Bulk emailing is risky business and most don’t know how to do it safely and effectively.

TRADING LISTS – Sometimes email marketers with databases will swap lists… but… you are essentially renting out a database that has opted in to YOUR list. Those people might get a little upset or put off if all of a sudden they are being mailed from someone they don’t know.

It takes a lot of work building a good list and you want a good relationship with those people. Your list is an investment so to speak, which you will become very protective of. Sometimes email marketers will act as “mailers” for a colleague that they trust and who has good products they can endorse, but this is something that usually takes a few years in the industry.

MY ENDING THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS – Email marketing can be a highly effective marketing method that if done right can bring great rewards. I believe it is essential to learn how to build your own list and follow up with your subscribers. This is a skill and a talent that takes time and effort to learn, but that can pay you back forever. With your own database of subscribers you will create relationships with those people. They will get to know you and trust you, and will follow your recommendations.

Your list is like gold, and can grant you high conversions and returns. Once you learn proper marketing and list building you will not want to – or need to – mess around with these other less fruitful methods. Once you learn how to market properly you will also be able to teach others how to do the same thing, giving you leadership status in the marketplace.

I hope you got some value from these email marketing tips. Feel free to leave us a comment and let us know if you did!

by Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

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Your prospect is interested in MLM because they’re interested in financial freedom.

But are they only interested in your MLM? … or do you think they might also be interested in training, resources, and tools to help them build their MLM business?

In this post we are going to tell you the advantages of having your own list and how you can help your subscribers, in addition to promoting your main product or company.

Becoming a business owner creates many needs. More so than just about any other occupation. Those who are serious are going to need to learn sales… marketing… leadership… time management… you name it. We all require tools, training and resources to be successful at what we do.

Building a list of prospects is the single most advantageous thing you can do for your business.  These will be people who are interested in you and what you are doing. However their interest goes far beyond what your MLM company is. They have needs just like you did when you first got started.

There’s no reason you shouldn’t help your customer solve all these other problems as well.

When you have your own list, you can help, guide, and direct those people to what they are really in need of. Including what you yourself may not have direct access to. With a substantial list you have the ability to do what are called “joint ventures” with other business owners. In fact you will find that as your list grows, and you become more established as a list owner and a leader, other company owners will come calling on you to talk about the possibilities of partnering up with them.This gives you more to share with your subscribers.

The reason joint venturing is so powerful is because  … 1) You’re reaching a large audience that you know for a fact would be interested in what you have …  and 2) You’re doing so with the added credibility of having your message endorsed by someone that audience already knows and trusts.

So you see building a list gives you leverage and power with other company and industry owners and leaders..and you control what your subscribers are presented with. It makes a lot of sense to have the resources to provide solutions to your subscribers. The more the better…because if you don’t have what they need, they will go elsewhere for it.

Think about this… just because you don’t recommend something to your customers, doesn’t mean they’re not out there looking for it themselves. Remember, anyone who’s interested in a given topic is most likely to be interested in other related topics as well. Your prospects will buy things from other people. You might as well be the one to point them in the right direction so you can benefit from it. Basically what you’re doing is sharing customers. Businesses do this all the time.

You have to control the list.

If you do, you wield enormous power. A whole new world of possibilities opens up to you because a list is a highly valuable business asset you can leverage off of – just like a piece of property in a prime location. As distributors, we build the customer list of our MLM company, making it their asset, not ours. We can still be distributors, but we can also learn to build and control the list ourselves.

What happens if your company goes out of business? What happens if it gets shut down by the FTC?  MLMs come and go in this industry all the time. It’s part of the industry… just as it’s part of any business industry. Building a list… YOUR list, is an insurance policy against these tragedies when they happen. There are tons of good and reputable companies out there… but just saying stuff happens right.
But it doesn’t stop with the list. Your entire business needs to be centered around you so that you have complete control over it … for example the following assets which you should be controlling, not a company your represent.

• Your own traffic. (Ex: Ads you place, other websites that link to yours).

• Your own testimonials that establish your credibility.

• Your own content. (Ex: Articles, email series).

• Your MLM organization of course

• Your relationship with your customers. (Determined by how you treat them and the value you bring to their lives.)

• Your USP. (Unique Selling Proposition – What makes you different from everyone else).

• Your website.

• Eventually your own product(s)

All of these are assets that have a real, measurable dollar value (some harder to measure than others). They not only protect your business, they also open you up to an endless amount of ways to make money. If you ever chose to sell your business at some point, they would also have a huge impact on how much it would be worth.

Don’t worry about putting all this together at once. Nobody’s able to do that. Just add one piece at a time, little by little, starting with building a list.

Every time you do, the value of your business increases.

Thanks,

Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

Build The Brand Of You… this free ebook will get you off to a good start!

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