Internet and Businesses Online > Email Marketing > Your Email Marketing List is a Captive Audience
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : John Barbour
You know, many people don’t entirely grasp the power you have when you have a high-quality email marketing list. The folks on that email list are a captive audience for you. I’ve even seen some people use the catch phrase “captive traffic” to refer to an email list.
Permission-based direct email is a tried and true mechanism for increasing sales and improving customer loyalty. The people on your direct email list are truly a captive audience, many of whom actually *want* you to email them about special offers and timely information.
Suppose the money you spent developing your email marketing list had instead been spent for some ‘guaranteed visitors’ to your website. Assuming the vendor were honest, you would have had a large number of people at least ‘eyeball’ your home page, but that’s probably the one and only chance you would ever have to sell or promote anything to 99.99% of them.
In contrast, your list has as many or as few names on it as you can buy or capture through your subscription forms, and you can email them again and again, until they tell you not to. Or you can entice them to one of your double opt-in autoresponders, and get a decent percentage of them as long-term subscribers that way.
So what are you going to do with your email marketing list? How are you going to approach them?
I would suggest you keep a few things in mind as you map out your email marketing campaigns.
First, you need to ‘train’ your subscribers right from the start that if they want something from you, they have to give in return. Initially it might be a double opt-in subscription in exchange for a free ebook or a free report. Later, you will want their attention, and eventually their money, in exchange for what you are offering them.
In the beginning however, you have to be willing to GIVE to them BEFORE you can expect to get.
Give them a free report, or a free ebook, or a free e-course right up front — the sooner, the better. WHY?
Because that is what they signed up for in the first place … information … and they expect it to be free at this point.
Remember, most sales are not made until after a minimum of 5-7 contacts, and right now your list is ‘cold’ - these people don’t know who you are, or whether you can be trusted.
The other thing I would encourage you to keep in mind as you plan your email marketing campaign is the wants and needs of your audience. You have been, and perhaps still are, an ‘opportunity seeker’ yourself. Think about the kinds of things you most wanted and needed when you were starting out. Chances are, the people on your list want the same kinds of things.
Did you want some stranger demanding that you whip out your credit card and pay up for information? Or did you want someone to give you some free advice, and show you the ropes while you got your feet wet?
What problems can you solve or prevent for the people on your list? How can you educate and help them? What can you do to make their quest for online opportunities easier?
REMEMBER — It will be much easier to sell to people later, if you give to them in the beginning. Once you’ve got them looking forward to your emails, and considering you a trusted friend, they are a captive audience for whatever you have to say …
John Barbour is the author of The Email Profit Formula, which outlines his method of "targeted direct email marketing. John also has an email marketing blog at ListProfit.com.
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