Home Business Online: Part 2
Is it necessary to have a website to conduct business online? Yes and no. A website allows you to present a large amount of information to your customers, 24 hours a day, without the need for individual contact. But, if you do not want to build a website, your business can be conducted by just using e-mail. Some online marketers describe electronic mail as the most powerful marketing tool ever conceived.
E-mail is a very inexpensive way to reach thousands of people in a few seconds. Your message can be interactive, allowing your prospects instant access to your business. You will know almost immediately if your ad was effective.
One way to market with e-mail is by using what is called an opt-in list. This list consists of e-mail addresses for people who have chosen (or opted) to receive advertising messages.
Never send unsolicited e-mail. It is tempting to send to a list of 1 million e-mail addresses in just a few minutes, but only a fraction of that list will respond favorably. You risk losing your ISP account, your e-mail account, and you may face prosecution. Thousands of those recipients will be angry enough about the spam, that they will never do business with you. Unsolicited e-mail is not worth this risk.
It may be blasphemy to suggest that not everything on the internet is free, but it will cost money to use a commercial opt-in e-mail list. Of course, you can compile your own opt-in list, for little or no cost, which is preferable to using a commercial service. More on this later.
Several companies offer opt-in list rentals, with lists in many different categories. These companies will even do the mailing for you, so that your only responsibility (besides paying them) is to provide them with the copy that you want sent. See the resources at the end of this article for the URLs of some of the list rental companies.
Building your own opt-in list is always better than using a mailing list compiled by a third party. Your own list is comprised of people who have already shown an interest in your business. They have responded to one of your ads or visited your website. These are ideal prospects and you should cultivate the relationship. It is not difficult to do and it is surprising that more online marketers are not taking advantage of this resource.
If you have a website, then put a form on your site asking visitors to leave their e-mail address. Make it clear to them what they will receive in when they sign up for your list. If you plan on sending advertisements, say so. Do not slip in a few ads when you promised to only send updates. You will lose subscribers and credibility.
A few of things you can send to your visitors are new product announcements, the changes to the website, the latest news in your field, or any other interesting information that you may have. Including an advertisement, along with your news, is perfectly acceptable because the main purpose of you e-mail is to inform. It does not seem like such an intrusion this way.
If you do not have a website, use an autoresponder to deliver more information to interested people. In your ads, include the address of the autoresponder and a phrase such as: "for more information e-mail: autoresponeraddress." Be sure to follow up on any reponse that you receive to this address. It often takes more than one contact to make a sale. Some studies suggest that it takes up to five contacts before the customer is ready to buy. Do not let your prospects drift away, when it is so easy to remain in contact.
It is true that the internet has "leveled the playing field" for businesses. A direct mail campaign off line could cost thousands of dollars, but the same campaign using e-mail will cost just a fraction of that. This does not mean that the amount of effort has been reduced along with the costs. It will still take determination and perseverance to succeed in an online business.
OPT-IN LIST COMPANIES
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