I love the beginning of a new year. It’s just a date on the calendar, but there’s something about January 1 that says “fresh” and “new.” I go into planning mode and figure out more stuff in two weeks than in the previous six months.
This first post of the year is a natural time to talk about building your email list. A permission-based email list is a valuable marketing asset. It’s an invitation to stay in touch from prospects and customers who want to hear from you.
What you send to your email list is only limited by your imagination. Keep it fresh. Keep it relevant. Provide useful information that your market will appreciate. Be sure to talk up your products or services and don’t be shy about including a call to action.
If you’re emailing less than 100 people, you may be inclined to send directly from your company email address. But manually sending mass email has some inherent drawbacks you should be aware of.
- It’s an unfortunate fact that many people click on the “report SPAM” button rather than properly unsubscribing from mailings. That puts your company email at risk of being blacklisted by major Internet service providers.
- Most email accounts have strict limits on the number of emails processed per day. Hit that limit and you’re done for the day. Period. No outgoing emails after that point either.
- If you do email list marketing from your company email address, be sure you’re in compliance with CAN-SPAM law. You need a physical mailing address displayed in your email, clear unsubscribe instructions, and permission granted from each and every subscriber.
We’ve handled all of the above through Feedburner on this blog until now. But as of today, we’ll be offering email subscription only through AWeber . We want more control over the look of our email – better formatting – and also, better tracking.
AWeber makes email list marketing easy. You open an account and work through their setup wizard. Choose a template on your web form. Easily customize it, then copy the HTML code to your web site. Then choose one of their attractive email templates, again easily customized. That’s all there is to it, but if you run into trouble, there’s an extensive help section and live chat. At only $19 per month, it’s an investment that won’t break the bank. AWeber provides and easy way to begin building your list in 2010.
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