Some people seem to think of marketers as nothing but spammers, and it’s easy to understand why. It seems that we all get mountains of spam emails on a daily basis – regardless of whether or not we gave out our email address.
In order to avoid being labeled as a spammer, you’ll want to take precautions to be careful about who you email and why. Spam is basically defined as sending unsolicited commercial email messages to people without their prior explicit permission to do so.
Smart online marketers don’t even get near spamming because it hurts their credibility, risks their reputation, and doesn’t convert as well as targeted, welcomed email does, anyway. You can even have your ISP ban you for sending spam, and you can lose your autoresponder account, too.
A rule all professional marketers should follow is to use an opt-in form where subscribers can willingly enter their first name and email address. In fact, it’s best to utilize the double opt in option most autoresponders provide you
A single opt in is when you just let the person enter their information once. But what’s to stop one person from going around entering another person’s contact information for unethical reasons? There’s no way to verify who made the request with a single opt in system, so it’s preferable to use double opt in to protect yourself.
In a double opt in situation, the user lands on your website and sees an opt in box, asking for their first name and email address. They enter their details, usually in exchange for a free download or the promise of information at a later date.
Then the autoresponder tool automatically sends out a verification email. The end user gets the email alerting them that they’ve signed up to be on your list, but it asks them to verify their subscription by clicking on a link in the email before they are sent their requested information or download.
This means if someone goes to your site and signs someone else up, that person who was signed up will get a notification and have the option to decline if they weren’t the one who really opted into the list.
Make sure you follow permission marketing standards and give people a choice. Your subscribers trust you enough to hand over their important details, so don’t abuse the privilege. If you respect the people on your list, it will grow and you’ll have a ready-made pool of prospects that can help you earn more money over time.
Stay tuned for another marketing tip real soon, and good luck with your online marketing efforts!
To your online success,
Bill Brine
Home Small Business Coach
P.S. Here’s another great resource I created to help you build your
business:
