The Importance of Opt-in Email Marketing
If you’ve ever even dabbled in the world of Internet marketing then there is no doubt that you will have heard of opt-in marketing. Many internet marketers will steer clear of opt-in marketing as it doesn’t offer a instant sale. Affiliate marketing in particular is particularly difficult without the use of an opt in list. Below I’ll demonstrate why an opt-in list is so important to your marketing efforts and why you should consider it for all your marketing campaigns.
5 Reasons to Use Opt-in Marketing
1. Build Trust
One of the main reasons many internet marketers struggle to succeed is because they don’t understand the importance of trust in selling. The amount of scams that exist on the internet means there is a lot of mistrust and simply setting up a page to hard sell your product is not enough unless you have a very high volume of traffic. Offering your visitors something for free, that is of value, in exchange for their email address means that you have both gained. They have something for free and you have a the ability to email them without it being spam.
2. Build a Customer Base
This is perhaps the biggest reason that marketers use opt-in marketing. Having an opt-in form on your site means that after a while you will have a built-in customer base who you can continually market your products to. This is an invaluable asset to have and will ensure your long term success in internet marketing. You should be wary of overselling to your list of customers however. The best strategy to implement is to send regular, helpful emails related to your field and every so often offer a product – whether it be something you have created or an affiliate product.
3. Measure Your Success
Another great aspect of opt-in marketing is that it allows you to track your success incredibly easily. You have access to stats including the percentages of sales for an email campaign and who is interested in what. This is invaluable information to have as it gives you the ability to tweak your campaigns for maximum sales and profit.
4. It’s Easy to Do
Opt-in email marketing is incredibly easy to do. You simply get the code for your opt-in form and paste it into your website. The hardest part of opt-in marketing is to create the product your planning to give in each exchange for your visitors’ email addresses. As far as running your campaigns go it is a simple as writing an email and clicking a button.
5. It Works
The biggest reason to use targeted opt-in email marketing in your online efforts is simply that it works. Like anything else you do online it only works if you put in the effort and do it in the right way ie not overselling to your list and creating a product that people will want to give you their email address for in the first place. However once you have taken care of that and get the word about your product out there you will see your list start to grow. The bigger the list you have the more money there is to be made. Patience is key to this strategy as although you will not be making sales at the beginning you will reap the rewards in the end.
Top 3 Email Marketing Companies
Aweber
Aweber is the biggest and most trusted name in email marketing and for a good reason. They have established an excellent record of trust and reliability. There prices start from $19, with the first month for only $1. They offer advanced auto responder option, more than 100 custom opt-in form templates and excellent tracking tools. As with all email marketing companies – there prices increase as your subscribers do though they offer extremely competitive rates.
Mail Chimp
Mail Chimp is less known than Aweber but is still an excellent email marketing tool. One of the best things about Mail Chimp is that it’s free for up to 500 subscribers. This is a fantastic offer as it lets you test the water without risking your money. Other great things about Mail Chimp is there excellent iPhone app, social media integration and user friendly interface.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers a 60 day risk free trial of there services without the need for a credit card number. This makes it the best option for more inexperienced internet marketers who do not want to risk money until they are sure of their strategy. Some other excellent features of Constant Contact includes- professional email templates, excellent opt-in form templates and easy import options for those migrating from another service, thereby making it one of the best email marketing services.
