The Basics of Building a Mailing List

Envision this: You’ve just landed on a site that offers the kind of information and products you are looking for. The content is engaging and informative, and you noticed several products on the site that you’d like to buy.

Suddenly, the phone rings. It’s your boss, and he wants to call an emergency meeting. You drop everything, grab your laptop, and head off to the meeting… you’ll just have to come back to the site afterward.

When the meeting is over, though, you come back to your desk to find a stack of papers marked “Urgent”. It’s a rush project that a client needs to have finished before the end of the day. You know this client is very demanding, and would have no problem taking her business elsewhere if the deadline isn’t met. So you delve into the project, working feverishly to complete it before 5:00.

During the commute home, you think about the site… you’re pretty sure you remember the address. But when you get home, you remember that your daughter has ballet practice. So it’s back in the car.

A few hours later, you finally have a few minutes of your own… but you can’t remember the website address. You try a few Google searches, to no avail. You might be able to check your browser history in the morning… if there are no emergency meetings waiting for you when you get to the office.

If this has never happened to you, you must have a more tranquil life than most of us. For many people, this is a daily event.

Now, let’s look at the flip side of this scenario. From a marketer’s standpoint, you’ve lost a potential customer. It doesn’t matter how compelling your content is or how great your products are… if a visitor becomes distracted and can’t find your site again, your marketing efforts have been for nothing.

This is why it is critical to build a  mailing list. If a visitor likes your content, he will want to “opt in” to your newsletter, so he can find your site again.

Building a mailing list is accomplished through the use of an “opt in” form. This is a simple script that you place on your site which asks for the visitor’s name and email address (and sometimes other info, such as mailing address and telephone number). Once a visitor enters his contact info, he receives a confirmation email. He must click on a link in the email to indicate that he really does want to receive email from you.

After the visitor has confirmed the subscription, you are free to send emails – newsletters, product reviews, updates, etc. – to keep your visitor thinking about your business. Of course,  you’ll want to include a link to your site in each email, so your subscribers can easily find your site.

There are several companies online that offer email marketing services, such as Aweber, GetResponse, and Vertical Response. These sites make it easy to create opt in forms, manage your lists, and send emails.

Next time, we’ll look at ways to encourage more visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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