The From Line
Sending, Managing & Monetizing Email
There’s a consensus among marketers that one of the hardest things to do is to continually grow a quality opt-in list. Aside from using RegReady to help aid you with this process, below are some quick tips to ensure your gaining quality of quantity. Remember, building an opt-in marketing lists of highly responsive subscribers is no different than starting any type of quality relationship.
1. Be transparent and outline benefits
Be upfront and clear on your sign-up page or welcome email what you will be using your subscribers’ email addresses for and the frequency of your sends. Of course in order to gain quantity it is important to outline all the benefits associated with your opt-in email communications program. Use short bullet points to outline your email’s value. Once your audience feels is comfortable with your value proposition they will convert to subscribers.
2. Incentivized opt-Ins = some nuggets and lots of crap
Incentives work well for quantity, but not necessarily for quality. If you’re incentivizing opt-ins with discounts or contests, make sure you clean these addresses in real time with a service such as LeadSpend. Many subscribers use temporary or disposable email addresses in addition to fictitious ones for curiosity purposes.
3. If you do use incentives, create urgency.
Adding a time limit or countdown to a free incentive always helps to increase your opt-in rate. If your audience is convinced that the time limit is legitimate, they will make an instant decision, rather than waiting. Advanced online marketers use this approach all the time with success.
4. Know your statistics
Once your site has achieved predictable traffic patterns, your opt-in rate should remain steady. This is when you should test different placement, incentives, etc. Test one variable at a time for the exact amount of time and evaluate if there is an increase in conversions. Conversion rats for blogs tend to be higher than other types sites however, if you are just sending traffic directly to a squeeze page without blog traffic, expect these rates to be lower. Your goal should be to always find ways to attract quality subscribers that will become engaged and loyal customers.
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So you're offering a great service but it's difficult to attract new business? As almost anyone in sales knows, lead generation can be a daunting task. However, it does not have to be an impossible task. There are proven practices that you can use to build new leads.
Here are three great ideas for lead generation.
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Offer free analysis. An excellent way to generate leads is to offer a free analysis or initial consultation. Attorneys do this all the time. It's a great way to introduce yourself to the prospective client, and demonstrate to that prospect that you are a subject matter expert. You can also take this time to "wow" the prospect with an initial assessment of how things could be if your services are rendered. For example: you can tell the client how much money will be saved by using your services. Then, closing the deal becomes a win-win. You get a new client, and the client saves money.
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Write an article that demonstrates your expertise. You may have some knowledge that your prospective clients simply don't know about. Demonstrate it to them with a well-written piece that is either a) published by a reputable magazine or b) goes viral on the web. This is a great way to gain exposure for your business. It's important to ensure that the article is both practical and well-written. Consider obtaining the services of a ghostwriter if you are not capable of crafting a well-written piece.
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Obtain partnership referrals. If you are offering a great service, then chances are that your prospects are using the services of another business that complements yours. For example, if you are an accountant, then your prospects might be using the services of management or marketing consultants. Why not partner with those non-competing consultants and obtain referrals that way? Of course, you would be expected to refer them to your clients as well. But, once again, it's a win-win.
Make your content marketing and lead generation programs go further with a RegReady membership. Contact us for more information or visit our FAQ section.
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The old style of marketing, known as “outbound marketing” required businesses to attempt to warm up fresh leads through cold calling, print ads, trade shows, and other means. All were attempts to get the leads to come to them. Not only did this process require a lot of time and patience, but the cost of acquiring one qualified lead was very expensive. Many businesses have taken a completely opposite approach – why not have the leads initiate the contact with us? Lead generation through what is known as “inbound marketing”, or “permission-based marketing” has been shown to produce more sales-ready leads at a lower cost per lead than any traditional form of marketing. Let’s look at some ways to reduce your cost per lead with inbound marketing techniques:
Business Blogging Will Expand Your Inbound Marketing Efforts
By creating an effective business blog, you can greatly expand your inbound marketing efforts while also improving SEO. The major search engines reward sites with fresh content by giving them a better position in search results. By providing fresh and relevant content on a regular basis, you can establish yourself as an expert by providing information people want and need. Your blog gives you one more place to use promotional tools like free giveaways, webinars, and social networking. You can place your message in front of interested consumers who will actually come to you, rather than being forced to chase after them. Creating a blog and keeping it current does require time, however. Since time may be your most valuable asset, you may consider outsourcing your blog to a business blogging service.
Social Media Builds Relationships Before And After The Sale
You are probably using social media sites like, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or LinkedIn already, but you may not be using these sites to your maximum marketing advantage. Just as your inbound marketing efforts are focused on converting leads to customers, you must also understand that a good lead management program must also focus on keeping the customer after a sale is made. Social media should be used to build relationships with customers before and after the sale. You are building brand awareness, exchanging ideas, and establishing trust and confidence in the minds of consumers. If people like what they see, there is a strong possibility they will share their experience with their friends. Word-of-mouth is some of the best advertising and will likely result in permission-based leads that are absolutely free of cost.
Content Marketing Is The Cornerstone Of Inbound Marketing
Great content must always be the cornerstone of your inbound marketing and lead generation efforts. You must have current, relevant, and informative content that will bring people into your sales process, instead of you having to go after them. Your website must be optimized to close leads and engage visitors once they arrive. Your content marketing efforts must leverage your best writing in ways that provide information people are looking for in the ways they want to receive it. Once people opt-in to an offer, you can deliver your message in a way that is important and relevant to them.
Inbound marketing allows you to create a useful informative website, blog, and social media presence in ways that aren’t interrupting your audience to get their attention. Instead of reaching out to cold and potentially unqualified leads, leads come to you.
RegReady is a transparent, fair and balanced customer acquisition community helping you develop true opt-in marketing lists and sales leads. We are advocates of quality customer relationships developed through permission-based marketing and education. We help you find prospects motivated to ask for more information. Contact us today to see how it works.
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There were days in Internet marketing where “acquisition” simply meant getting a lot of traffic to a website. It seemed as though businesses weren’t really concerned about what happened when the traffic arrived, they just wanted to get website visitors. Today, mass marketing has been replaced by target marketing and online businesses are beginning to realize that acquisition marketing is driven by the customer’s experience.
Target Customers Must Become Aware Of Your Product or Service
Obviously, the first hurdle in establishing an effective customer acquisition strategy is making the consumer aware of your product or service. It is no longer enough to rely solely on a well-designed business website to attract a target audience. With the growing popularity of social media, online businesses have a better opportunity to promote their brand and establish trust and confidence in their company. Content optimization, link building, social media, and strategic partnerships all can yield effective results for years to come. Designing permission-based e-mail and direct mail marketing campaigns ensures your message is delivered to those who asked to receive it.
Target Customers Must Learn How Your Products Are Unique
Marketing strategies must focus on how your product or service can best meet the needs of the consumer. The entire process must be easy for the consumer and you must understand their mindset, needs and concerns. With this understanding, you can offer extra information or product assurance through customer testimonials. Another unique quality of your business could be that you are totally honest and transparent in all dealings with consumers.
Target Customers Must Be Convinced To Buy
The acquisition of new customers depends on how well your business can build comprehensive relationships with the general public. Whether it is through advertising, promotions or some other motivation, persuasion is what eventually convinces a prospective customer to buy.
Looking out for your customers’ interests makes acquisition marketing a long-term process. Satisfied customers will buy from you more than once and they will produce more sales through referrals. Customer acquisition techniques must change as technology changes. To remain in competition and maintain a high acquisition rate, you must always explore new methods to entertain customers.
RegReady is a transparent, fair and balanced customer acquisition community helping you develop true opt-in marketing lists and sales leads. We are advocates of quality customer relationships developed through permission-based marketing and education. We help you find prospects motivated to ask for more information. Contact us today to see how it works.
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Content marketing in its simplest terms is the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content to attract and engage a defined target audience. If your business has an established website or blog and you send email messages to prospects, you already have a content marketing strategy, but how well is it meeting your goals of attracting new customers? Let’s take a look at some key factors that can help your business establish a content marketing strategy that actually works.
Content Marketing Must Be Defined By Business Goals
Before any business can establish an effective marketing strategy, it must first understand its overall objectives and missions. For example, is your business objective to attract new customers or build awareness of your brand? By understanding your own needs before trying to focus on the needs of your readers, you will be able to take advantage of the right marketing platforms and be able to develop relevant and valuable content your readers will want to receive. Obviously, the ultimate goal of any business is to make a profit, but unfortunately, many businesses totally ignore the word “quality”. If your current content marketing strategy involves forcing your message on consumers, you are headed in the wrong direction. A well-developed and tested permission-based marketing system will accomplish your intended goals and build the credibility you need.
Content Marketing Demands Great Content
Remember, the key definition of successful content marketing is delivering “relevant” and “valuable” content. We all receive unwanted emails everyday filled with nothing but garbage trying to sell us “stuff”. Effective relevant content will set your business apart from the other guys. To design an effective content marketing strategy, you must stop, think, and behave differently. It is great content that the major search engines want to rank well in search results. Great content is what generates word-of-mouth exposure on social networks. Great content can achieve the same results of traditional advertising – getting people to know and trust the brand of your business.
Prospects Don’t Want To Be Sold – They Want To Buy
Customers and prospective customers seem to be no longer interested in the world of marketing. Many people record their favorite shows or movies so they can just skip over all the commercials. People go online with the hopes of finding meaningful information that they can use to make an informed decision, without being bombarded with buttons and banners that are totally irrelevant. By delivering consistent, valuable information to potential buyers, they will ultimately reward you with their loyalty and their business.
Delivering your message to those who have requested it, by means of an established permission-based marketing system, will allow you to execute sales messages that are needed, even requested, by your potential and existing customers.
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