Home Improvement

 by: Glenn Curry

Whether yours is a simple mom and pop business or a larger

email marketing business, building your own mailing list is

key to keeping your customers informed and connected. In

marketing businesses, a mailing list can really make a

difference to the bottom line. Direct sales calls can be

expensive and time consuming. If you are a home based

business and want to generate leads or even qualify them,

direct mail will save advertising costs. It’s a great way

to introduce new products or information to your current

customer. If they’ve bought the blue widgets from your

company in the past they may be interested in the new

improved purple ones. The idea is to never take your

customers for granted. Keep them informed and offer them

choices.

Many websites don’t have anything set up on their sites to

ask your permission to get back to you. This is a big

mistake. If someone has browsed your site and you haven’t

set up a way to contact them of any future sales or goodies

you might be offering, like a newsletter for instance, you

may be losing out on a life-long customer. That’s how you

should look at building your mailing list- this is a list

of potential life-long customers. When you go shopping in a

store you usually get asked if you would like some help

finding something, don’t you? Well, consider that your

website is very much like a store and the only way you will

get to talk to your customers is by getting them to leave

their name and email.

It is so easy to set up a request feature. You can choose

from a wide range of autoresponders. They offer you the set

-up screens you need to get someone’s name and address and

it is quite simple to do. Once it is installed you are on

your way to building your mailing list. Simply wait a few

days and send a brief introductory letter, thanking them for

visiting your website. Because they ‘signed up’ for your

list, you can then add some tempting product offer links.

You are advertising and marketing through e-mail! The beauty

of this is that the person added subscribed to your mailer-

you are not being a pesky scammer. Still, make sure you have

an ‘unsubscribe’ feature on all your mailings.

Get your autoresponder set up today! You’ll soon see how

building your own mailing list is the ‘bread and butter’ of

doing business on the Internet.