Mailing Lists for Network Marketers

Think mailing lists are only for other people? Think again. As a network marketer, your mailing list is an important asset. It can allow you to generate sales on demand, encourage customers to become team members, and expose your customers and your team to other offers you may have, so build it with care and treat it well, and it will reward you well in the future.

To begin your mailing list, you need three things:

1. A mailing list provider
2. An incentive
3. An opt-in form

Mailing List Providers

You’ll find dozens of options for building your list, and while they all allow you to collect email addresses and send mail, they can vary widely in features and price. Do your research before choosing, and keep these points in mind:

• Read the terms of service or you may end up in trouble later. For example, everyone’s favorite free mailing list, MailChimp, will cancel your account and delete your addresses without warning if they feel you’re engaging in affiliate marketing, which they consider to be scammy.
• If you’re in the US, you must comply with the CAN-SPAM act, which requires a way for email recipients to unsubscribe from your mailing list. In addition, you must provide a physical address. For most of us, that means renting a PO box so as not to have to use our real address. CAN-SPAM also means you cannot use your personal email account to send mass unsolicited emails.
• Make sure your email service has an easy way to create an opt-in form, because you’ll need to add that to your website. One of the best is AWeber’s form builder, which comes with dozens of pre-loaded forms to choose from.
• Don’t make the all-too-common mistake of choosing a cheap/free provider now, thinking you’ll upgrade later, when you can afford it. Moving a mailing list is nearly impossible. You’ll be far better off to find the money to pay for your list up front. AWeber is less than $20 per month to get started, so it’s not too much of a stretch for most people.

Your Opt-In Incentive

While it would be nice if you could simply add a form to your sidebar and people would opt-in, you generally have to give them a little more encouragement than that. One way is to offer a “gift” in exchange for their email address.

Your gift might be a short report, a video, an audio recording, or even a coupon they can use toward your services. If you choose to create a report or other information product, make sure it is of interest to your ideal client. After all, those are the people you want on your mailing list, right?

Once you’ve created your incentive, all that remains is to add a form to your site. Most mailing list providers offer the option to create a simple form within their interface. From there it’s generally just a matter of copying the HTML or javascript code from your provider into your sidebar. In WordPress, that means just dragging a text widget to the appropriate place and pasting your code inside it.

Staying in Touch

While proper email frequency and etiquette is a bit outside the scope of this report, we should note here that it’s important to actually email your list from time to time. Tell them about things of interest to them. Share what’s happening in your industry. Let them know about updates to services and software they might be using.

And of course, tell them about your products, services, and business opportunity and how you can help them.

Remember, they opted in. They are expecting to hear from you.

Pssst.....if you think you need a HUGE email list to make money online, you're in for a shock.  If you can build a list of 100 subscribers, you can make money.  Learn how here.