The Marketing Golden Ticket!

Oh, if only it were so easy. If I could ask Willy Wonka to provide me with an email list of customers, prospects and referral sources, he could take the whole damn chocolate factory for all I care. And, that’s saying a lot coming from this truffle hoarder. Facebook followers are awesome. Twitter followers are grand.

I adore the Instagram peeps. But, nothing do I covet more than the email list. When you collect an email, you are essentially getting a personal invitation to communicate with customers and prospects. It is essentially THE GOLDEN TICKET of marketing.

So, now that the secret is out. How the hell are you supposed to collect emails?

If you have ever opened your email in the morning and did a 45 second eye roll, then you understand just how protective people are of the email address. So, be sure that you treat those emails like the precious gems they are. For heaven’s sake, don’t SPAM, don’t over-email and don’t share it with third parties.

So, let’s get to it.

  1. If you don’t have a subscribe feature on your website – turn off your computer, unplug it and throw it right in the garbage. Yes, that’s harsh, but if you aren’t giving your website visitors the option to opt in, you are shooting your business right in the foot. And, that’s painful.
  2. Collect email addresses from every single customer. No matter how your customers purchase from you (online, in a store, over the phone)… GET THE EMAIL. Your customers are your FIRST line of contact for email marketing and if you can’t even reach the people who already love you, good luck reaching those that don’t even know you.
  3. Try a pop up window on your website. While they can be annoying, if it pops up while people leave your site, it’s actually pretty efficient. It can ask them to sign up for your offers or news, which many of your visitors are likely to do on their way out.
  4. Add an opt-in form on your Facebook page. If you are using some of the popular email marketing programs like Constant Contact or Mailchimp, they’ve got the tools do add it right there on their site. Easy. If you use another program or your own, have your marketer or web developer add the opt in form for you.
  5. Attend or exhibit at a trade show or networking event and bring an email sign up clipboard or book (or go high tech and bring an iPad or mobile device) with you. Or, simply ask for permission to send an email for any business cards you may receive.
  6. Give something away like samples, a tour, a coupon, a free how-to guide, infographic, how-to video, etc. Have people sign up for your email list to qualify. **But, whatever you do… do not offer or brag about your free consultation. These days – they are all free and it has become expected.
  7. Add a link to you and your employees’ email signatures that leads people to a landing page where they can sign up for your mailing list.
  8. Text to subscribe! Wherever you are marketing (online, print, social media) have an easy text to subscribe option. Most email marketing programs offer this option for free and it is super easy to set up.

I’m sure this list could be triple in size, but the message here is to make sure that it is a top priority. And, whatever you do… make sure that opting in is easy to do. In the social, smart phone world we live in, attention spans are getting shorter, so don’t make your customers and prospects have to work hard.

Now, what to do with those emails – that’s a whole other subject for another blog post so stay tuned. If you are impatient (like me), contact me and we can figure out a strategy to utilize the email addresses you have.

There are more options than ever for reaching your customers via the email address, thus making it the golden ticket of marketing. Like, seriously… GOLDEN. TICKET. And, we all know the more tickets you have, the better your chances of winning.

~Tammi