7 ways to start your list today! Part 1

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Email has been on the verge of death for …  I think about 8-10 years now. SPAM was going to make people avoid their email, then RSS was going to make people move away from their email, and most recently social media was going to take the place of email. I’m fairly certain next month something else will come along that will tell us of the gloom and doom of email.

Yet, email lives on. And as email lives on, businesses need to take advantage of email to connect with their target audience.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing email in detail. By the end of this series you should be able to start up a list and keep it running. Here are the items we’ll be addressing:

  1. Build your list — define your target email audience.
  2. Create freebie offer
  3. Create your sign up form
  4. Remember CAN-Spam
  5. Set up your program
  6. Create your email
  7. Test and Track
Online Marketing Diagram Showing Blogs Websites Social Media And Email Lists

Let’s start with how to build a list. First, you’ll need to remember that you’ll have to INVITE people to your list, not ADD people to your list (we’ll discuss this in detail in Part 4). But who is going to be receiving your email?

  • Current clients
  • Past clients
  • Prospective clients
  • Strategic partners
  •  …

Basically, this includes anyone that is using your services, might use your services, or might recommend your services.

Your homework* for next week is to answer the following questions about your email prospects:

  • What are their key challenges, frustrations, and pain points?
  • What aspirations, hopes, and dreams do they have?
  • Which niche forums do they hang out in? What are the hot threads?
  • What social network posts are generating the most shares, likes, and comments?
Boy Concentrating On His Drawing

*HOMEWORK?? Yes, I’m giving you homework.  It will make sense next week.

FINAL QUESTION — do you have any specific questions about or challenges based on email? Leave a note in the comments.