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Email List Building and Training
How to build and email list is currently the topic that we receive the most questions about from people that have learned or heard about adding Email Marketing as a part of their overall marketing campaign and budget. By reviewing this content, many of your questions will be answered and you will have a better understanding of how to get started.
How Long Has Email Marketing Been Around?
Email Marketing, as we mentioned in prior articles, is not new, and it has been used professionally for over 10+ years. However, like any Advanced Technology Engineering product, it has taken on advancements and features that have allowed people to utilize these types of services with greater ease and results.
The Good News For You:
It is about finding out that there is another way to promote your branding and stay in touch with customers in an ever increasingly competitive business climate. Today, you have found out about Email Marketing, and you are still in business. Therefore, it’s never too late to add this powerful marketing tool that will put you and your business ahead of your competitors.
Below, we will walk you through the building of a contact list, in a short amount of time, and how to keep that list growing, adding value to your efforts with ease.
Questions About Email Contact Building
We have compiled the following questions and have provided the best answers possible:
Question: Can I buy my email list from a contact list seller or rental place?
Answer:
NO. It would then be considered SPAM. If you are buying names and email addresses from a broker, list seller, or rental company, that means that the contact information for those people are all over the Internet. These list compiler companies are getting names from websites and anywhere on the Internet that they can, and they are capturing the email addresses. They are getting them from department email addresses that many companies list on their websites or groups that have sign-up boxes, such as “you could win a prize” contests, “earn a free gift card” promotions, and so on..
These contacts are real people, and they have expressed no interest in what you might be offering, no matter how great the offer is. To detour you from buying a list, know that the list could be from the Blind Persons of America and you are in the business of selling race car parts to racing teams. Therein, the problem lies. You need to be aware of the contacts that you are marketing your business to.
Question: Can I borrow a list from a trade group for our industry?
Answer:
NO. However, there is an exception: if the trade group has a form that people fill out at the trade show’s registration desk or an online registration form with a check box for allowing them to receive relative information, via email messages, from the trade show exhibitors, members, and organizers, then these lists are fine to use. The organizers might have a form that they provided to the exhibitors when they signed up for a trade events or shows that provides a box that they checked to agree to receive related offers from the group or its group affiliates from time to time. These are great, and these are exceptions to the rule.
Question: Can I start with my emails in the INBOX of my personal computer?
Answer:
Yes, you can! Stick with close friends and family or even clients (but be cautious) that you know very well and that you know would like to see what you are offering. However, if you are like me, my personal computer does not have many email contacts, but they are people I know well enough to send my messages. So this is a start. Below we are going to share how to build your contact list in a really short amount of time.
Question: Where and how do I get my email list of contacts?
Answer
Building a great list of email contacts is really easier than you think. If you are in business, you might belong to a trade group, chamber of commerce, have a store, have a chain of stores, or you have a website where people come to see, learn, or buy what you are offering.
Here is how to build your email contact list starting today. Viper Mailer, being an email marketing solutions provider, has worked at and, of course, has built our own list of email contacts, so we are going to share how we did that with you!
Your Site.
Have your webmaster build a sign up form for your website and have them place this box on the left hand side of each page. Be sure that the box has a place for your visitor to enter their first name, last name, and email address. Additionally, be sure that there is verbiage explaining that you would like to periodically be allowed to send them offers related to the products or services that you offer on your website. This is known as SPAM Free, Opt-In, email list building.
Next, you have the webmaster install a program code that you request and is provided by Viper Mailer. This way, as people sign up using your form, the data is automatically uploaded to your Viper Mailer account. This makes it much easier for you, instead of having to manually type them into your account.
Collecting Email Addresses or Contacts from Non-Website Opportunities
This method is as simple as the previous method, and it is easy to implement. You will again be surprised at how quickly you can gather a few hundred to a thousand contacts in a short period of time.
Create a printed form that you can use when you ask people you call or people that call your company, and fill out this form for them. Also, place these forms in the hand of your sales clerks. Have your sales clerks give them to people/customers coming into the store and ask those people/customers to fill out the form. Again, be sure the form indicates, and your sales clerks know to explain, the value of providing the email address and contact information so that your company can kindly send them special informative offers in an email message from time to time. Store these forms somewhere safe to prove you gained these requests legally in the future.
Next, at chamber functions, business group events, and meetings, there are important people that you talk with that you should ask for their business cards. Verbally ask them if you may be allowed to, from time to time, send them special offers, “How To” tips, information about releases of products, etc.
Importing the Contacts Manually Into Your Email Marketing Service Account
We recommend that a very responsible person or employee be given the task of importing these contacts, storing them in an online file, or manually inputting them into your Viper Mailer account on a weekly basis. This task should become routine, because, once you begin sending out messages, it will be important to have all the contacts in your Email Marketing Account ready. That way, you are in front of your potential clients right away, while you are still fresh on their minds. This trusted person entering the data has a very important job to maintain this now very valuable company asset.
Please Note:
Never sell or borrow your list to anyone. It will destroy your email contact list and its value to your business or organization. After you sign up with an Email Marketing Service, such as Viper Mailer, have that company provide you with a web master code that adds the website sign-ups directly from your website into your Email Marketing Account. This will keep the contacts up to date, in real time, in your Email Marketing Account, which are coming directly in from your website.
Within one week of being new to Email Marketing, your entries can be allowing you to gain traffic to your website and traffic to your store locations. To learn more about Email Marketing, please visit our Email Marketing Educational and Training Center. |
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