There are two ways in which email is typically used by an online business:

1) As a means of contact and communication
2) As a means of sending messages to your list

Each of these areas require some thought on your part.

While the autoresponder service that you choose is very important to your business, it is equally important to have a business like email address for routine communication and this is what we will be looking at today.

The business email address that you use to communicate with others about your business says a lot about who you are and how serious you are about your business. The email service that you are using, provides the extension that people associate with you. Some email services may markedly reduce your credibility in the eyes of those who receive your information. As well, you might want to reconsider using a goofy name such as many have signed up for over time. Goofyguy@yourbusiness.com doesn’t exactly inspire trust.

Many free services, such as AOL, are seen as being less trustworthy than a business email address. This in turn labels you as less trustworthy. Another common issue is with spammers. Spammers love free email accounts and your message may be flagged as spam due to the source instead of the content.

Reliability may not be an issue with these services, but they may give the impression that you are less than serious about your business and that flags you as being less than credible.

An email service you may want to consider using is Google Apps – Standard Edition. This is a free service from Google that allows you to re-point email received at your domain name to a Gmail type online email client.

With this service, Google allows you to use your own domain name and allows you to setup multiple email accounts for contact such as support@yourdomain.com. This gives you a business email address to use with the convenience of online availability. In addition, if you have multiple accounts, but only want to check one regularly, you have the option of forwarding email received from all accounts to the one that you check.

Other benefits include the ability to use additional features in Google Apps such as online docs. Online docs allows you to create word and excel type files that are accessible online.

To sign up for Google Apps – Standard Edition visit: http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new

To see how I set up Google Apps for WBOBR.com, visit this post: Setting Up Google Apps For Your Domain

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

Keep in mind that this may be the first contact someone has with you and you want to use an opt-in squeeze page that has a clean, professional and welcoming look to it. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Creating A Simple Squeeze Page

1. Headline

Remember that online readers are skimmers surfing for items that interest them. Your headline may be your only chance to capture their attention and entice them to want to learn more. Sum up the content of your page in an attention getting headline that stops them in their tracks such as: “Researches Say That It Takes Two Weeks to Make or Break a Habit.”

2. Keywords

When creating a simple squeeze page it is usually designed specifically around one or two keywords or keyword phrases. Additional pages are created if more keywords are to be targeted.

This allows you to optimize the headline and content of the page for those specific keywords, which in turn, helps the search engine spiders decide to give the page a high ranking in regards to the keywords it has been optimized for.

3. Get Personal

Where ever possible, share a personal story that is relevant to the subject matter. Possibly there is a habit that you would like to develop. Give your readers an insight into the issues that you face in developing this habit and how you solved them.

4. Keep It Reader Friendly

Your online skimmer will be far more likely to stop and read if they are able to first pick up the essential message your page addresses through sub-headings, numbering and bullet points. Words written in bold or in a contrasting color also help them to pick out the main points addressed.

5. Prepare For Action

As you are creating an opt-in squeeze page, so don’t neglect to include your opt-in form and instructions on what it is you want them to do. If you want them to sign up for something, give them clear instructions on what is required and what they will receive in return for taking the action you are asking for.

Squeeze pages are used to gather all types of information. Some may only require the filling out of a questionnaire with general information or it may be designed to collect zip codes. It all depends on the intent of the squeeze page.

If you are asking for more personal information, such as a name and email address, take care that you also include some assurance that this information will not be given or sold to anyone else. A link to your terms of use page and privacy policy is a good idea as well.

Creating an opt-in squeeze page is one method that is used to collect the names and email addresses of people that have an interest in your niche.

Squeeze pages provide you with a great way to grow a targeted list of potential followers and customers. Use the list building tips above for creating a simple squeeze page and get your list growing.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

We used to look for a way to have information delivered directly to our mailbox rather than having to go out and track it down. These days, however, people are more interested in receiving this information in electronic form, as it won’t then be piling up on the living room coffee table or where ever this stash is kept. This is where newsletter email subscriptions come into play.

So far you have been filling your website or blog with content as a means to draw your targeted niche market to you. Your keywords have been well researched. Your headlines are optimized and eye catching and you are using numerous other tactics to draw and keep your readers interest.

But, we all know that even with doing all of this, there are always some juicy little tidbits that you can store away for a special purpose, such as content for your newsletter.

Benefits Of A Newsletter Creation

What makes newsletters so popular? Exclusivity is one highly desirable aspect of a newsletter. If a subscriber knows that the more detailed content of your newsletter is “for their eyes-only” and not shared in the general content of your website or blog, the value of that information increases for them.

Exclusivity is an attractive feature that encourages opt-ins for your list. If the newsletter you send out is seen as relevant and valuable, your readers recommend it to their friends.

The only question now is what exactly goes into a newsletter during the newsletter creation process. There are many components that can be used in a newsletter and the more you are able to add the greater value your subscriber will receive.

Here are a few of our list building tips on what components you might use for your newsletter email subscriptions:

• Contest Entries
• Discount Coupons
• Letter from the Editor (You)
• Juicy tips and articles not shared on your website
• Pictures and links to audio and video resources
• New product information and announcements

Newsletters are generally sent out on the same day, once a month. Because of this, it is easy to setup a newsletter creation work schedule to help you meet your targeted release date.

Once created, you can set up the release to your newsletter email subscriptions list through your autoresponder service either as a stand alone series that someone would subscribe to in addition to your regular list, or it could be setup in addition to your regular email series as a broadcast message.

If your newsletter tends to have time sensitive material that would not benefit someone joining that list at any old time, the broadcast method would be the best method to ensure the newsletter only goes out the one time.

There are many different formats that can be used in newsletter creation. One format would be to use the newsletter to update your list on new content that has become available on your site.

Of course, this method would not provide exclusivity, but it is one that allows you to inform as well as provide links, which in turn will draw the reader to your website and increase traffic. You could provide a landing page for them to visit if you include a contest or poll that they are able to participate in.

Some website owners set up pages that give access only to their subscribers. They then post the newsletter online and send an email to their list with the access details and link. Here subscribers may be given the option of downloading the material or reading/listening to it online. This is also a good way to provide access to archived newsletters, particularly if you have endeavored to create content that is timeless and valid no matter when it is seen.

Thinking of using newsletter email subscriptions to build your list? Put some thought into how you would like to provide your newsletter to your list.

Make sure you have the time available to meet the newsletter creation commitment you will be making to the subscribers to your potential newsletter. Then include some or all of the list building tips above to produce a newsletter that will have people waiting impatiently for your next edition and telling all their friends just how great it is.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

These messages will go out to people in the same order whether they are the first to subscribe or the 199th.

I don’t know about you, but at one point in time I was totally impressed with the ability of some marketers to write to me almost everyday. That was very naive of me of course, but it also points out the magic that can be behind a good autoresponder series.

The messages you put together should not be thought of as one unending sales pitch. Always keep subscriber satisfaction in mind.

Most of us have been the recipients of an autoresponder series that was put together with only the sales pitch in mind. So we know from our own experience, that these messages can become highly annoying in a hurry and it does not take long for that annoyance to lead the mouse cursor to the unsubscribe link.

Think of your email message series as yet another opportunity for you to communicate with your list and build a deeper relationship with them. Those that subscribed did so as an expression of their interest in your niche and their desire to know more about it and about you as well.

The content you provided in your posts and other marketing efforts will have led them to believe that possibly you have something they would be interested in buying. Now they need to be comfortable with making that decision by learning more about you. People do not buy from a business, they buy from the person behind the business.

You will, of course, make mention of your products from time to time in your emails. But the strong, arm twisting emails of the past are rapidly disappearing amongst the more savvy marketers aiming for a high level of subscriber satisfaction.

What they will do instead is segment their list. Segmenting your email list occurs when a seperate autoresponder list is created for a more targeted audience. This method is often used when a major product launch is in the works.

These marketers will invite their list to join a product-centered launch list. Those that join are aware that they are expressing an interest in knowing more about the launch and they are prepared to receive emails that aggressively market the list product. Meanwhile, the sanctity of the original email series is maintained.

5 List Building Tips For Constructing Emails For Your Autoresponder

1. Never forget the SEO essentials. Create an eye-catching headline (subject line) using your targeted keywords. You want to stand out from all the noise your subscriber sees daily in their inbox and entice them to open your emails. Get straight to the point. Remember, online readers are skimmers, so tell them exactly what they will find when they open the email.

2. The most beautiful sound to anyone’s ears is the sound of their name, so address your subscribers by name. Generic greetings distance you from the reader. They look on it as a sign of indifference on your part or possibly that you have no time to be concerned with them. Of course there is always one joker in the bunch that subscribes to your list with a name that is not theirs, but that is out of your hands.

3. Remember the question or statement that you posed in your subject line? Repeat it in the opening of the email and then follow through with information that is pertinent to this question or subject line. Write the email as you would when addressing a friend so that you come across as focused on the reader. Keep the length of your emails between 300 and 400 words.

4. Ask the reader to take an action of some sort. No, this is not a sales hook necessarily and you need to think beyond the relationship of the words “take action” and sales pitch. If you would like to offer them some free information such as a report, discuss what the subscriber will receive in what is offered and provide a link for them to access it.

Some marketers use this tactic to increase traffic to their blog by introducing a blog post they have written with a link to the balance of the post and thereby encourage not only traffic, but also comments from their readers.

Another item that many people fail to think of is the promotion of their articles that they have written and published in article directories. While most article directories will frown on a PPC campaign pointing to your published articles, there is nothing wrong with notifying your list of articles (or even guest blog posts) that you have written. Providing an introduction to the article and a link they may use to read the remainder of the article.

5. Use your real signature along with a method for subscribers to contact you or your support desk. Show them that you are personally involved in what you are sending out to your list.

Keeping your subscribers has a lot to do with subscriber satisfaction. If they are satisfied that they are receiving value by being on your list, they will stick with you. Use strategies such as segmenting your email list for special promotions and also the 5 list building tips above to increase the value of your email series to your subscribers.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

There are few people left in this world who have never received an email. It seems though, that advancement in technology usually brings with it a negative side as well. When it comes to email, unsolicited email tops the list in the negative category.

What happens to this unsolicited email? It ends up in the cyber trash of course and generally leaves the recipient with a negative feeling.

This is why it is important that your list building efforts are done in such a way that you are only emailing people who want to hear what you have to say. You don’t want people associating negative feelings with your name.

Email is a common form of contact between online business owners and their prospective customers. It provides you with a method of giving you contact with people in a manner where it is far easier to reach them than calling them up on the phone would be.

The introduction and increased availability of Wi-Fi hotspots, makes it easier than ever for people to access their email from wherever they happen to be. This makes the use of email lists a highly important business tool and one that need to be managed correctly.

How Your Autoresponder Email List Is Built

The most common method of building an email list is to provide an opt-in form on your website or blog. Generally an incentive, such as a free report, discounted products or some other item of benefit is offered to a potential subscriber in return for their agreement to join your email list.

It is important to include a statement or disclaimer along with your opt-in form that informs the potential subscriber of your intended use of the information they are being asked to give you. A person will find it easier to input their information if they have been assured that it will not be sold to a third party or spammer.

A word of warning here. Do not abuse your list by saying you will not give out their information and then going and doing it anyway. The Internet may be a big place, but it becomes exceedingly small in a hurry if someone thinks they have been conned. It will be talked about and your business will suffer as a result.

The initial list that is built using this method will be a mixture of those that you are targeting and others that were only interested in more general information. Over time, the untargeted subscribers will opt out and drop off your list.

While many look on this as being a bit disheartening, in reality, this weeding out process is a good thing in that it leaves you with subscribers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say and in the services and products you have to offer.

Autoresponder Services

All right, you now know how to go about attracting people to your email list, but how do you set up an opt-in form? And where is this list going to reside? Oh wait, how are you going to work with this list once you have it? This is where an autoresponder service such as AWeber comes in.

There are many autoresponder services and even software that are available for the online marketer to use. AWeber is one of the best known and trusted services of those that are available. But it is not the only one. There are other services out there that are both free and paid services.

For the most part, you get what you pay for when using free autoresponder services. Many find that in the end, it ends up costing them a significant amount of time when the service doesn’t do what they need it to do. It may also cost you customers, as these services generally support their own business by placing ads in along with your messages.

Because an autoresponder service is a vital component of doing business online, you want to thoroughly investigate what is available and in what price ranges. Many autoresponder services will offer you the opportunity to make use of a free trial so that you are able to become comfortable with them and also have the ability to compare their service with competing services.

Give Your Lists A Purpose

Once you have decided on which autoresponder service to use, it is then time to determine the purpose of the list or lists you will be setting up. Each list that you set up should have a specific purpose.

You can set up a list for newcomers or a customer list for people that have bought from you. A list could also be made available for people to receive information in a sub-category of your niche. Several marketers use this type of list for something like a series of a specific number of emails that provide training or information on a specific subject.

Once you have determined the purpose of a list you are setting up, you can then use the software within your autoresponder account to perform other necessary chores. Here you are able to create an opt-in form for your site, or direct those who opt-in to the download page you have created so that they can pick up the incentive you offered them for subscribing.

Double Opt-In

Autoresponder services may also include systems that allow you to require a double opt-in agreement from a subscriber. A double opt-in agreement will send the potential subscriber an email requesting that they confirm their agreement to receive information from you.

This double opt-in format protects the recipient in cases where someone might use their email address without their permission and it also protects you from spam allegations as you have confirmation of their agreement to receive information that you send.

Another item that helps protect you from spam allegations is the opt-out link that the autoresponder service places at the end of your emails. If your service does not do this, look for another one.

Other Considerations

Now all you have to do is create some more quality content and information on your products to share with your list in the form of follow up messages. These follow up messages can be created in bulk and scheduled to be sent to your subscriber over a given time frame automatically. The creation of a follow up message series can take a fair amount of time, but this too can be outsourced to a ghostwriter if you so choose.

An additional tip that many marketers use in conjunction with their email lists is to place a beginning portion of a post or article that they have written into the body of their email message. They then provide a link to the post or article where people can go to read more and comment if they so choose. This helps them increase traffic to their sites and helps them to gain feedback from their readers.

The last consideration to think about is the frequency of your contact with your list. A rule of thumb that many use is to keep this contact between 2 and 3 emails per week. If you are not in touch enough, people may forget why they are hearing from you.

Contact that is made too frequently or aggressively, can be viewed as spam and only ends up annoying people. Above all, if you have promised to send something like a newsletter at a set time, make sure that you follow through.

Well now, that was quite a bit of information to digest at once. Feel free to read through these list building tips on autoresponders and email list building once again and when you are done, please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Check Out AWeber’s Autoresponder Service Here!

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

Article marketing is one of the most highly recommended methods of attracting the specific readership base that will be the most interested in the service or product you are offering. Essentially, article marketing & list building are uniquely compatible and work hand in hand with each other.

This is why article marketing tops the list when it comes to list building tips.

Your goal and the goal of your business is to make money. How long you remain in business is directly linked to the success you achieve.

When you think about list building, think about it as a means to gather a group of people together who are associated through a similar interest, and with whom you are able to build a relationship.

Cultivation of that relationship is important, as that is what leads to future sales. List building with article marketing helps you draw an interested audience to your list, which you are then able to market to.

List Building With Article Marketing

It is a standard recommendation that people base their choice of a niche on an area that they have some knowledge in and that appeals to them. The knowledge that you bring to your niche can be used to your advantage when you are list building with article marketing.

Article writing involves, you guessed it, writing. As obvious as that is, it also involves writing content that is relevant and appealing to your niche. Now if you don’t feel writing is your strongest talent and you want some help with it, you can look into hiring a ghostwriter or an article writing service to help you out.

You will need to give them some direction in the way of what type of article they should write, its focus and the keywords you would like to target. After that, leave it up to the writer you hire to do the hard part of producing an article that stirs your intended audience.

As mentioned above, you don’t want to forget the keywords. They play an important role in helping the readers find your article. Select one or two targeted keywords or keyword phrases that are relevant to your niche and the topic you are writing on and ensure they appear in the title as well as naturally throughout the body of your work.

Once you get the experienced with writing with keywords, your articles will draw readers in to hear what you have to say.

Articles can be published in many places such as your website, blog or with online article directories such as EzineArticles.com These directories expect quality content, so don’t just slap a bunch of words down and submit it as an article. Take the time to research and write a piece of content that provides value to a reader.

Once submitted, the directorys editorial staff will scrutinize your article. If it meets their criteria, the article is then accepted and published by the directory.

Growing Your List With Niche Related Articles

The goal of list building with article marketing is to grow your list of qualified subscribers. So what does qualified mean?

In this scenario, qualified means someone who has expressed an interest in your particular niche. When someone subscribes as a result of a niche related articles that you have published, they are considered to be qualified subscribers.

If they were not interested in your niche, they would not have been reading your niche related articles to begin with, and they certainly would not be signing up for more information from you on your niche.

Once people have joined your opt-in list, it is up to you to find a means of keeping them there. Chances are good that if you hammer them from the start with sales promotions, they will not remain on your list for very long and it will take longer for your list to grow.

If, on the other hand, you are able to provide them with timely and relevant content or an interesting newsletter, they will most likely remain loyal subscribers for some time to come, giving you the opportunity to market to them at opportune times.

As you can see, article marketing and list building work hand in hand to help your business grow. A lot of these list building tips are just common sense.

Readers who find the type of information that they are seeking and are given time to become comfortable with you, will be far more likely to give you their information freely in order to hear more about you and your products.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com

The giving away of items in exchange for someone’s opt-in details is an accepted strategy used by many online marketers to build their lists. Freebies catch the eye of those interested in the area that you are promoting and if they don’t, the person most likely wasn’t all that interested to begin with.

Now, many of you will be asking at this point just how giving stuff away for free is supposed to help you to make money. This is a very good question and one I asked myself when I was first introduced to this concept. Keep reading to find out the benefits list building with freebie can bring to you now and in the future.

Return On Your Investment (ROI)

The term “return on investment” or ROI, is a business term that tells you how much you made, once the cost of your investment has been deducted.

Basically when you invest in a product to sell, you want to be sure that when it is sold, you receive back more than your investment. With this thought in mind, lets take a look at how list building with freebies can produce similar results.

In the words of an old door-to-door salesman, you need some way to get your foot in a potential customer’s door. This is where giveaways come into play.

In reality, calling it a giveaway or freebie is a misnomer. You are looking for something that is very valuable in return, their name and email address. In reality, your giveaway is the cost you are paying to obtain that information.

With it, you are then have the opportunity to further promote your business and products to this prospect. Notice I am using words like potential customer and prospect.

Just because someone agrees to give you their information, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will buy from you now or in the future. It only means that you now have the opportunity to market to them.

Using freebies also helps you to sort out those that have a genuine interest from those who were never interested to begin with. It is not unusual for there to be some that will sign up just long enough to download what you are giving away and then opt out and disappear. But that is ok, because they would not have become paying customers anyhow.

What Type Of Freebies Should You Offer

We are not talking about breaking the bank or blowing your budget here. While there may be marketers out there that can afford to give away a laptop for free, you won’t find any of the smart ones doing that.

Those types of offers are generally reserved for the promotion of high-ticket items worth several thousands of dollars and then, only if the prospect takes action and buys from that marketer. Most of these marketers will also protect themselves by only making something of this much value available after the waiting period has expired and they are sure they will be receiving their portion of the commission from the sale.

The type of freebies used are more likely to be free report giveaways, or possibly a short video or audio file that can answer a question of importance to your intended niche audience.

These days, people are often required to give their information to even see what the product is that is being offered, particularly when a high end product is being launched. This type of sign up lets the marketer know that the information being sent is reaching an interested audience.

As a businessperson looking for a free report giveaways to offer, you have several options available to you. You can take a few days to write the report yourself, hire a ghostwriter or writing service to write it for you. Or you can shop around for a quality PLR report that you can edit in your own voice or more specifically target to your intended audience.

Think Long Term When Choosing Content For Free Report Giveaways Or Freebies

The primary key to keep in mind is that it must all relate directly to your specified market. So, if you are going to write a report catering to the purchase of lingerie for the older woman and you are recommending a cute little number in black, you had better have that cute little number available for sale on your site.

Your audience needs to be able to trust that if you are recommending a solution to a problem that they have, you also have the means with which they will be able to get their hands on that solution.

While most freebies these days are down loadable products, they can also come in the form of tangible items that must be shipped. With down loadable products, once you’ve paid once for the item, its ROI increases with every sign up or sale that results from its use and it can be used over and over again to continue increasing your list of prospects and chances of future sales.

These are just a few list building tips to help you realize the return value you might receive when list building with freebies. With the quick changing pace of the today’s Internet, allow your imagination to help you to come up with additional ideas that you might use to build your list.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com