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Email Marketing

Your First Month Using Email Newsletter Marketing

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If you are reading this, you have a serious interest in building a solid list of prospects to help move the sales needle for your contracting company. You have secured a provider (Constant Contact, MailChimp and  AWeber are all solid choices), build your opt-in form, and placed it on your site.

Now you can lay in the tall weeds waiting for your unsuspecting prey to casually fill out your opt-in form so you can pounce with an overly-salesy newsletter that turns them off completely, or you can do it the right way. The right way I speak of is by not offering anything at all for the first few messages.

Welcome to drip marketing, wait, what the hell is drip marketing?More

Email Marketing Trust Factors

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If you haven’t heard, there was a massive security breach at the world’s largest email marketing company last week that has a lot of people upset. Obviously, having your data stolen sucks, and you have to assure people through your policies and procedures that their information is protected when doing business with you.

Confidence factors

I talk about confidence factors a lot when it comes to establishing trust with your clients or customers by promoting your longevity, the associations or councils you belong to and awards you have won by your peers in your industry. But you also have to have a confidence factor on your site if you want people to contact you in the first place.More

Your Customer List as a Defense Against Google

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Your Business or Your List!

The recent events about Google and the way they are delivering search results these days should give anyone who uses the web to generate business a case of heartburn. Sure, some of you are experiencing great organic traffic with Google Places and the new layout for the 7-Pack, but don’t think this is going to last because the SEO guys will figure out a way to screw this up for sure. Then Google will have no choice but to reset the algorithm and send everyone for the exits and back to the drawing board.

This is why you need to build your email list!

I have painted a few Google doomsday scenarios over the last few weeks here at Darren’s house of useless knowledge, and I hope you have paid attention and started taking your email list seriously. Because even a list of only a few hundred satisfied customers can be enough to weather a Google search results storm.

What’s the cause for alarm?

Think about it, you are cruising along doing just fine pulling in 25-50 prospects a month through your Google Places page then one day nothing. All of a sudden your once full calendar is looking pretty empty. So you try to rustle up some business advertising in the paper or doing some free or paid ads online. All the while, you are sitting on a goldmine of past customers and you don’t know how to unlock their value.

But I don’t just scold, I teach, or at least freshen up what you might already know. But maybe you don’t know how to get at the dollars locked in that list of yours. Then I want you to pay attention, because tomorrow I am going to give you some fantastic ideas on how to put your customer list to good use in a down economy as well as how to start building a customer list for those of you just starting out or late to the game, so stay tuned America!

Photo Credit: Koalazymonkey

Why You Should Be Marketing Online: It’s In the List Silly!

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Advertising online is a must these days when trying to build a database of current or future customers for your contracting business. Advertising online allows you to find your target audience and determine what they want, quickly and cheaply. Then, when you can give your clients or customers what they want over and over, you will be able to develop a referral-based business that many long-established contractors have come to depend on. But it’s going to take work and that’s why your efforts to market your business online are even more important!

Establishing an email marketing list

In most cases, consumers give their email addresses to you when you are providing them with something that they want, such as free report or a useful product in exchange for their email address. This allows you to set up your list in a credible way.

In order to help your online advertising efforts, there are a couple of things that you can do to increase your chances of success. First, you should develop a tracking system to determine how successful your various methods of advertising online are.

When you see what is working for you, you can modify your system to make it the most effective it can be. Second, you should use repetition with your customers when you have established a mailing list. Studies show that the majority of clients or customers will not buy the first time they hear about your company or see your products. It may take them seven, ten or fifteen times before they decide that what you do is worthwhile to them.

That’s why you need a full-throated email marketing campaign with consistent follow-up messages every 10-14 days once you have a prospect on your mailing list. You will be interacting with people who are ready to make a buying decision, and your costs to manage an email marketing campaign are minimal. So start building a list of prospects today and reap the benefits of increased sales tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day…you get the idea!

10 Ways to Build Your Email List and 5 Ways Not To!

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Build The Perfect List Slowly Over Time

If you have read this blog for any length of time you will notice one trend that stands out above many others; stay in touch with past customers or clients. One of the best ways to do that is through email marketing and list building.

But how do you build a list?

Well, before I get into ways for you to develop your email list, I am going to give you a few tips on what not to do.

  1. Don’t buy your email list no matter what price someone offers you.
  2. Don’t use someone else’s list.
  3. Don’t just add people to your list without them knowing about it.
  4. Just because someone gave you their email, doesn’t mean they want you to blast them with offers. In other words, let them know they will be getting information in exchange for their email.
  5. Don’t use in-house software to manage your list. There are too many services online (many are free) that will perform the task better.

So, how do you build your email list?

  1. Include an opt-in form on the sidebar of your website. That way it is on every page your visitors see.
  2. Collect cards at trade shows. Again, make sure you let people know you will be following up with them.
  3. Offer specials or promotions that only the “exclusive email only” subscribers will get.
  4. Ask everyone, everywhere that you talk to about your business for their email address.
  5. Send a mailer to your past clients or customers directing them to a special page on your site of register for a prize or drawing. Make sure they know that by entering, you will also send them great offers via email. Now you can cut your direct mail costs by doing email blasts.
  6. Make sure all of your employees are asking for email addresses too.
  7. Offer a discount for client/customer emails.
  8. Host your own “How-To” or “DIY” event and ask for email addresses from the attendees. Also ask them to send you before/after pics to promote on your website. This will create stickiness and give people a reason to come back to your site many times.
  9. If you don’t already have it, change all your forms to include the email address from your clients or customers.
  10. Ask. You don’t get 100% of the emails you don’t ask for.

Email Marketing for Contractors – It’s All in the List!

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email marketing for contractorsIf you are a contractor today you need to have a serious advertising budget…or do you? I talk a lot about being online engaging prospects on services like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to answer pre-sales questions, managing branding opportunities and generally get the message out about you and your business.

But you’ve engaged, now what?

Well, one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with clients and prospects is a simple email marketing campaign. Email marketing is often over-looked because a busy contractor has about 25 other things to do with his or her day, but think about it, setting up a newsletter on your site for people is a set it and forget it proposition. And no one joins a mailing list unless they are ultra-interested in the topic, and if they are interested in the topic, then they are more willing to join your mailing list or newsletter so that you can stay in touch with them.More