There are many forms of free marketing online, and it’s important to not only know what they are, but to know HOW to use each one effectively. There are certain points that can make the difference between success and failure – and if you know what you’re doing, you can make sure you’re in the success category!
Free marketing online – using email lists for marketing products to a mass audience
You’re sure to have received more than your share of spam emails, so you probably know how much damage that can do, and I’m sure you’d never deliberately spam anyone. However, it’s very easy when starting off in free marketing online, to fall into the trap of unintentional spamming. Unless you use a Fiji Email List good email opt-in system, it is possible to be accused of spamming even if your intentions were good. You need the prospect to acknowledge that they’ve agreed to receive emails from you. Never buy email lists – the chances are, at the very least many of the emails will be inactive, and at worst, you’ll be opening yourself up to spam complaints.
Creating an opt-in email system
You could do this manually using your own email account, but it would be very risky. I advise either using a well-established reliable paid-for service like Aweber, or you could do a search for “free opt in email”. Although I’ve done a lot of free marketing online, I’ve never used a free opt-in email service, so I don’t know how reliable they are – make sure you check them out thoroughly before using them. However, I’ve used Aweber for years, and can highly recommend it.
Building email lists marketing appropriate products
The most reliable way to build a good, well-targeted email list is to create a “squeeze page”. A squeeze page is a web page that has an opt-in form on it. A visitor to the page can fill in the form – usually with just their name and email address – and by doing that, they’re agreeing to receive email from you. Of course, you need to offer them something for doing this – you could offer free information, an e-book or report.
The safest method of building email lists marketing products this way is using “double opt in” – this means that when the prospect has filled in your web form, he’ll receive an automated response asking if he has indeed agreed to receive emails from you. He’ll be required to click on a link in the email to confirm his consent. Once he’s done this, he’ll receive the information he requested, and will be added to your email list.
Creating an Opt-in Web Form
If you’re using an opt-in email service, they should provide you with the facility to create the form for your squeeze page. If you’ve chosen to manage the list yourself, you may be able to create a form using your website editing software, but if not, do a search for “free web form” – there are various sites that allow you to create a form and then copy and paste the html code into your webpage.
What to write in your emails
It’s important not to use your emails as virtual fliers. Although an email list is an effective method of free marketing online, it won’t work if you provide junk mail. Make sure you include valuable information that is of interest to the type of person who signed up, and that your product link is either only in your signature, or that you include it in the information as an extra resource, not as something you’re trying to sell.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say your product is a recipe book for people who hate vegetables. Here’s how you would set up your email marketing.
- Create a “squeeze page” with an opt-in form that offers a free set of 4 vegetable-haters’ recipes.
- When someone fills in the form and accepts the opt-in, he receives the free recipes and is added to your list.
- You set a series of emails to be sent by auto responder (or by yourself, if you’re doing it all manually). The first email may be all about which celebrities also hate vegetables, and it could have the link to your recipe book at the end, with this text: “Click here for 101 vegetable-haters’ recipes”.
- Your next email may be about which foods contain similar nutrients to various vegetables, and can therefore substitute for them. In this email, you could suggest the recipe book as a source for meals that include these particular foods.
- Another email could be a list of responses to use for those vegetable-haters who are invited to dinner by vegetarians – using some humor in your emails will encourage people to keep reading them.:)
And so you can continue, including any news on the topic, and any other products you may have or may be an affiliate for, that would fit in with the niche. As you can see from my absurd made-up example, no matter how obscure the subject, you can still use email lists marketing a product to great effect – it is one of the most effective methods of free marketing online, if you do it right. Have fun with it!
