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The Power Is In The Pipes: How To Get
Maximum Leverage From Your Website
by Michael Southon
What is the most important part of
your online business? Many people would say: "my website". And that's
understandable –– it's the most visible part of an internet business.
But the real power in your online
business is email. It's the ability to reach your database of contacts at
the click of a button. The efficiency of your email pipeline will
determine how much money your business makes.
Your website is just a way of
building your mailing list - by collecting the email addresses of your
visitors.
In fact, we're not talking about one
list, but several. Here are the lists that I maintain –– they're all
people who at one time or another have visited my websites:
- people who have bought my products
- people who have signed up to
receive my articles
- people who have joined my affiliate
program
- people who have signed up for my
email course
- people who have joined my
newsletter
So why are these lists so important?
Because most of your visitors won't
buy on the first contact. Statistics show that most people will need to
see your message 7 times before they make a purchase. So if you're not
collecting the email addresses of your visitors, you are losing out on a
lot of sales.
But there is one list in particular
that is like gold. It's your list of previous customers. These people are
predisposed to buying from you. In fact, some businesses make 80% of their
sales from previous customers.
All well and good - but what do I do
with these lists?
Here are some ideas:
- announce your latest product to
your customer list
- announce your latest product to
your affiliates list
- send your latest article to your
articles list
- announce your latest product in
your newsletter
- publish your latest article in your
newsletter
- announce 'related' products to your
customer list
- send your latest article to your
affiliates list so they
can use it to promote your products
For each list that you manage you
will need (1) an autoresponder account or an autoresponder script and (2)
a way of capturing your visitor's email address.
(1) Autoresponder Accounts
An autoresponder account gives you
the ability to manage a list without installing software - it's all done
on a remote website. Most autoresponder accounts will give you:
- an email address for subscribing
- an HTML form for subscribing
- seven or more follow-up messages
- a confirmation email to you every
time someone joins
- the ability to broadcast messages
to your list
- the ability to personalize your
messages
- database of your prospects
- online stats
Here are some sites that offer
autoresponder accounts:
http://www.aweber.com/
http://www.getresponse.com/
http://www.responders.com/
http://www.proautoresponder.com/
http://www.www.roibot.com/
http://www.infogeneratorpro.com/
http://www.replypro.net/
http://www.auto-responder.co.uk/
Now, autoresponder accounts cost
between $17 and $20 per month. And with most autoresponder services you
can only manage one list per account. So if you are managing 5 lists, that
quickly adds up to a hefty monthly bill.
But there are a few services that
allow you to manage multiple lists with one account. Here are some of
them:
http://www.rapidreply.net/
http://www.ezmailpro.com/
http://www.autorespond-it.com/
http://www.1automationwiz.com/
http://www.royal-responder.com/
(2) Capturing Email Addresses
The most popular way to get new
subscribers to your list is a 'subscribe form' that pops up when your
website loads. I get 25 to 30 new subscribers a day using this technique.
The HTML code for the subscribe form usually comes with your autoresponder
account.
Another way to invite visitors to
join your list is an 'alert box'. An alert box is a small gray dialogue
box that pops up when someone visits your website. It usually says
something like: "Please subscribe to my Newsletter. 5 Free eBooks when you
join". It's impossible to ignore an alert box - you have to either close
it or click OK to continue.
Alert boxes have two advantages over
subscribe forms. Firstly, there's no form to fill in, so it's much easier
for people to join your list. People who have switched from a subscribe
form to an alert box report 3 to 5 times as many subscribers.
Secondly, alert boxes capture only
"real" email addresses - the email address from the visitor's client
browser. You end up with very few Hotmail and Yahoo addresses, which means
you'll have a much more responsive list. For more information about alert
boxes, visit: http://www.optinlightning.com/
So to sum up, use your website to
build several opt in mailing lists and you'll have a private audience of
people you can market to over and over again - it's the key to running a
successful online business.
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Michael Southon - Copyright 2003
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Traffic?
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