Four reasons to start building an email list, STAT
By Dwain Jeworski
I'm continually surprised by how often people ask us if email marketing still "works."
... Especially when the answer is such a huge, unequivocal "YES!"
Without a doubt, email is definitely one of the major benefits of selling online. It allows you to offer FAR more personalized service than you're normally capable of providing in a purely offline setting.
"WHAT? How can you be more personal through email as opposed to when you're selling to people face to face?"
... Is that what you're thinking?
Here's what I mean... When you have an offline business -- without any sort of online presence to back it up -- your only chance to connect with your visitors is when they come into your store.
But when you sell online, you can use email to communicate with your customers regularly -- whether they're at work, in a coffee shop with their laptop, or in the comfort of their own home.
Here are just a few reasons why you need to start building an opt-in email list, if you're serious about making money online:
Email Advantage #1:
You can help would-be customers get over the "buying hurdle"
Research shows it takes an average of FOUR TO SEVEN points of contact to make a sale - and chances are good you'll never make it to the second point of contact if you don't have a way to reach your visitors after they've left your site.
Think about how many web sites you visit in an hour of surfing the Internet...
Do you remember the salescopy and products from each of those sites? Could you find a particular site again if you wanted to re-check their information?
Even if you Googled it, there's no guarantee that exact URL would show up in your keyword results.
In most cases, visitors come to your site, they look around, then they leave, and they're gone forever.
But simply by collecting their first name, last name, and email address, you can stay firmly on their radar and expose them to your products time and time again - all at nearly no cost to you!
Email Advantage #2:
Your email list is made of people who WANT to hear from you
When someone gives you their email address, they understand that you'll be using it to send them information they actually WANT to receive.
These are highly targeted leads!
They've visited your site, or they've gone into your offline shop, and they've decided that they like what they see enough to give you their email address. They're actually inviting you to sell to them.
Email Advantage #3:
You can turn one-time customers into lifelong repeat buyers
Email allows you to contact the people on your list over and over again, so you can build genuine relationships with them.
Why is this so important?
... Because studies show that
36% of your customers will buy from you AGAIN if you present them with a good follow-up offer!
Imagine how your bank account will grow if you use email to turn one-time customers into lifelong repeat buyers.
Not only that, by forming a strong relationship with your customers, you can get to know their needs and wants extremely well, so you can give them first-class service.
Plus, you can discover what OTHER products they're looking for, so you know you're presenting them with follow-up offers they're sure to act on!
Email Advantage #4:
You can track your marketing efforts, so you know exactly what works -- and what doesn't
Unlike other forms of marketing and advertising, email allows you to evaluate the success of your campaigns within just a few hours of launching them.
If there's a weak link in the chain, you can find out EXACTLY where it is. Maybe your subject line didn't compel people to open your email. Or maybe the email itself didn't persuade people to click through to the sales page. Or maybe the subject line and email worked fine, but the sales page failed to convert.
With the right email software, you can test ALL of these different elements -- so you can capitalize on the ones that are successful, while working on the ones that need improvement.
100% of the guesswork is eliminated!
... Of course, in order to get meaningful test results, you need to be using good email software that offers advanced tracking features -- but makes it easy for you to use them.
A great email marketing service you should check out is
iContact.com.
This online service provider provides all the advanced tracking features you need -- plus, it's dead easy to use and costs only $10 a month, which is super cheap for this kind of service.
Not only that, when you use iContact, you have access to...
- Automatic whitelisting, so your messages are always guaranteed to land in your subscribers' inboxes.
- A built-in WYSIWIG editor, so you don't have to mess around with raw HTML code
- More than 300 templates, so your emails look professional AND original -- even if you don't know the first thing about design
- Spamchecking -- to make sure your emails won't get accidentally blocked by spam filters
- A public newsletter archive -- so you can build a library of past issues and invite your subscribers to check them out
- Over 25 email marketing articles and resources, so you know how to maximize the effectiveness of your emails
... And that's just scratching the surface.
If you're thinking about getting started with email, then definitely give iContact a try.
And -- great news -- we got in touch with the good people at iContact and worked out a deal in which you can use their email marketing service for a FREE 15-day test drive, simply
by clicking here:
http://imc.icontact.com
Be sure to check it out!
In closing, I just wanted to say that regardless of whether you run an online business OR an offline one, email is one of the easiest ways to build a genuine relationship with your customers.
So if you're not taking advantage of it, what are you waiting for?
Note: Dwain Jeworski is IMC's VP of Marketing 
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