7 Easy Ways to Grow and Manage Your Customer List

In order for your business to succeed on the internet, you need to convince your visitors that you are reliable, trustworthy and that you care about them. The best way to do this is to build a relationship with them. Provide your customers with lots of valuable information and they’ll never look at your competitor again!

But first things first. To start communicating with your potential customers on a regular basis, you need to know who they are. Most people are reluctant to give you more than their first name and email address, so initially that’s all you should be focussing on.

Collecting names and email addresses

There are several ways you can do this.

1. Subscribe form on your website

Include a “subscribe” form on your website, preferably on the homepage and on as many other pages as possible. Remember not all your visitors will come to your website via the homepage. Explain exactly what your visitors will receive and how often. You also need to assure them you will never sell their contact details.

2. Add a survey to your website.

Find out what people think about your products, services and your website. At the end of the survey ask for their name and email address, again reassuring them their details will remain confidential.

3. Run a contest.

Contests are a great way to collect details, as visitors will have to give you the right information in order to be notified if they’ve won.

4. Offer a giveaway.

The best things you can give away are free reports, ebooks or information that your customers will find helpful. If you don’t have anything to give away, you can easily find something on the internet. Visit the following websites:

http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://www.planetpdf.com

5. Pop-ups or Hover Ads

These are the little windows that pop up, when you arrive on somebody’s website or when you are leaving. Unfortunately many people now have pop-up blockers on their computers, so you may find hover ads much more effective. For more information about hover ads, go to:

http://www.marketingtips.com/hover/

To find out more about pop-ups, visit:

http://www.nowsell.com/pop-ups/

6. Ask in your offline correspondence.

Next time you are sending a postcard, letter, invoice or any other correspondence to your customers, ask them for their email address. Explain why you would like it and even offer them a bonus, such as a free report.

7. Purchase Leads

There are many companies who will provide leads or prospects for your business. For a fee, they will display your advertisement (similar to a classified ad) and when someone clicks on it, they will be taken to your website, where they can be encouraged to subscribe to your newsletter. Alternatively, instead of advertising your website, advertise your autoresponder address. This way you will capture everyone’s email addresses. You can then set up your autoresponder to automatically deliver your promotion to people that request it.

The great thing about these targeted leads is that you are only paying for the people who want to know about your business and products. If you work out the cost of a lead versus regular advertising, you will no doubt come out on top. Generally the cost per lead is between $0.50 - $1.00. If on the other hand you advertise in a newspaper or a magazine and pay $200 for the advertisement from which you get 20 enquiries, the cost per lead is $10.

Check out:

http://leadfactory.com/leads/
www.getresponse.com

WARNING: NEVER, EVER BUY EMAIL ADDRESSES UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE THE SUBSCRIBERS HAVE REQUESTED TO RECEIVE INFORMATION FROM BUSINESSES SUCH AS YOURS.

Managing Your Email List

There are 2 ways to manage your mailing list – manually and automatically.

1. Manually.

Whenever you receive a customer email address you can add it to your email program, such Outlook Express. Most email programs allow you to create mailing lists.

If you use Outlook Express, you can use your Address Book, where you can create groups of contacts to make it easy to send e-mail to a set of people, such as business associates, prospects or customers. Any time you want to send e-mail to everyone in the group, just use the group name instead of entering each contact individually. Creating groups is also a good way to organize a large Address Book.

First, you need add your contacts

(a) On the Outlook Express toolbar, click Tools, and then click Address Book.

(b) In the Address Book, select the folder to which you want to add a contact.

(c) On the Address Book toolbar, click New, and then click New Contact.

(d) On the Name tab, type at least the first and last name of the contact. This is the display name.

(e) A display name is required for each contact. If you enter a first, middle, or last name, it will automatically appear in the Display box. You can change the display name by typing in a different name or by selecting from the drop-down list. The drop-down list will contain variations of the first, middle, and last name, as well as anything you typed in the Nickname box or the Company box on the Business tab. On each of the other tabs, add any information you would like to include.

Second, create Groups or mailing categories

You can create a single group name (or alias) to use when sending a message to several contacts at once. Simply create a group name and add individual contacts to the group. Then, just type the group name in the To box when you send e-mail.

(a) In the Address Book, select the folder in which you want to create a group. Click New on the toolbar, and then click New Group.

(b) The Properties dialog box opens. In the Group Name box, type the name of the group.

(c) There are several ways to add people to the group:

- To add a person from your Address Book list, click Select Members, and then click a name from the Address Book list.

- To add a person directly to the group without adding the name to your Address Book, type the person's name and e-mail address in the lower half of the Properties dialog box, and then click Add.

- To add a person to both the group and your Address Book, click New Contact and fill in the appropriate information.

You can also store your contacts in a table in Microsoft Word, in a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel or in a database, such as Microsoft Access. Then when you are ready to send out your message, you simply “merge” the addresses with your newsletter and send the result to your email program. This is slightly more complex, but allows you to easily personalise your newsletter.

The advantage of managing your mailing list manually is that it won’t cost you anything, except for your time.

The disadvantage is that you may have to spend a lot of time maintaining your mailing list – managing the subscriptions, unsubscriptions, bounced messages etc

2. Automatically

Web-based software

There are many online services that allow you to manage your mailing list automatically. They handle the subscriptions, unsubscriptions and bounced emails without you having to lift a finger. When you wish to send out a message, it’s as simple as typing your message and pressing a “Send” button.

One of the best services I’ve come across is GetResponse – www.getresponse.com GetResponse is a complete email marketing service. It provides you with unlimited autoresponders, follow-ups, messages, lists, broadcasts and email marketing campaigns, 150+ professionally designed HTML templates, powerful, cost-effective newsletter hosting, unparalleled email deliverability, click-through, sales and revenue tracking, top-notch support and training. The cost of this service is less than a dollar a day and saves you hours of work each week.

Other reputable services include:

Constant Contact - http://www.constantcontact.com

Email Manager Pro - http://www.email-manager-pro.com

Software on your computer

You can also purchase software that will help you send out personalised email. The software works similarly to the web-based software, but the main difference is that it is installed on your computer.

So if you find:

- sending e-mail campaigns and newsletters,

- replying to HUNDREDS of e-mails, filled with questions from potential buyers,

- sending "customer service" e-mails to NEW customers and subscribers and
- keeping your e-mail list "clean"

a real challenge, this may be the ideal solution for you. One software that comes highly recommended to handle all of these tasks is Mailloop. To check it out visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/mailloop/t.x/875347

Remember staying in touch with your prospects and customers should be a number one priority in your marketing efforts. If you have a website and are not collecting visitor details and building relationships with them, you are committing online suicide. It’s that simple.

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About the Author: Ivana Katz, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of growing, small and home-based business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. info@web4business.com.au - http://www.web4business.com.au