The Targeted Email List – And How to Get Your Targeted Email List

Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide

The Targeted Email List – And How to Get Yours

Once you’ve decided to embark on an email marketing campaign, it’s obvious that you need to already have or to build up a targeted email list. This is one of the most (some would argue THE most) important concept in your marketing plan. The bigger and more targeted your list, the more successful and profitable you will be.

Many people succumb to the pitfall of buying a “targeted” email list. There are many reasons that you don’t want to do that.

You’ve very likely seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost. If you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labeled as a ‘spammer’ almost as quickly as you send the email. Likely the vast majority of the messages you send will end up in ‘junk’ boxes, and you’ll reap zero benefit from your efforts. A good 70% of the addresses you purchase are, in fact, bogus or have been duplicated and the remaining 30% have not requested to receive your message. . .so they won’t.

Some people elect to rent a “targeted” email list from varying submission services, but this can end up costing anywhere from 20 to 30 cents per email.

Again, there is no reason that you should have to go out and buy your targeted email list.

You can use next 8 suggestions to get the ideas flowing and build your own targeted email list. Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who are actually expecting to hear from you.

How do you do that?

Your best bet is to start with diverse marketing methods and pay attention to your web traffic. Below you will find a list, contributed by an existing email marketing company, of things that will make sure your end up with a targeted email list.

1. Your Webpage/Blog – request that individuals sign up for your guestbook, your online electronic magazine, your newsletter, your offer for a free report or book and any contest that you have to offer. How do you do this? By making sure your website or blog is professional looking and offers good, valuable content which solves your visitors’ problems.

No one will ask for information from you if don’t have something that is of value to them.

Make sure that your contact information and your opt-in forms are easy to spot (no one should have to go looking for this – it should catch their eye immediately). Once your visitors have requested what they are interested in, you can start providing this information to them through your emails and that’s how you build your targeted email list. Of course, you’ll need to get lots of traffic to your website and blog to get the best results for this. There are several easy-to-implement ways to go about this.

2. Try Direct-Mail Marketing – mail out flyers or postcards to all potential customers. When you design your postcards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued information and relevant messages.

Most people are so tied up in their online marketing that they forget that offline marketing does work as well – give it a try.

3. Consider using telemarketers to build your targeted email list-- consider using a telemarketing service or telemarketing agent to make contact with your potential clients. Request that your telemarketers require e-mail addresses (it's a good idea to offer incentives for having clients give out their e-mail address (contest, free trials, etc.).

4. Consider using a broker to build your targeted email list -- request websites that reap heavy traffic and offer brokerage services to link to your service and offer sign up for information. Most brokers will provide this service for an average of $.10 to $.15 per email message.

5. Consider hosting an online contest to build your targeted email list -- open contests are extremely effective way to obtain a targeted email list. Just request e-mail addresses as method of approval for the contest entry.

There are many ways to build a targeted email list and these are just a few simple suggestions that you can start to implement right away. There are many good training programs available online where you can learn more.

And there is also a totally automated way to build your targeted email list if you are impatient to do the necessary training and interested in quick results. You can find more information about that at www.FreshLeadsForLife.com.

Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .http://www.My-Home-Business-Guide.org.