Home Business for Women - Inspiration and Advice

Build your Mailing List (Bonus gift at the end of this chapter)

When it comes to creating your mailing list, there are significant factors you have to put into consideration to ensure you do not waste your advertising time on people who have no potential for translating from prospects to clients anytime. Your primary target should be building an email list made up of targeted leads - people who have a problem your product can solve or a need it can meet. Do you already have a Mailing List? Please comment on this.

How are some ideas on how to start:

· Offer free weekly tips to your site visitors

We already talked about the importance of having your business website or blog. This blog/website will help you build your mailing list even before your product launches on the market.

Therefore, create a hot topic your site visitors and blog followers are likely to find useful and offer to give away free weekly tips via email. They will willingly subscribe to your weekly newsletter and drop their email addresses.

Note: You must ensure you do not get them pissed off with lots of meaningless emails and promotional letters as they already have lots of these emails flooding their junk folder daily.

· Get Email List Software

You will need a good email marketing list software. I know you might be wondering; why do you need email list marketing software - isn't your email enough? Here are some reasons why you need a software:

* The software does most of the work once you have your content ready.

* Keeps things organized.

* Generates automated welcome messages for new signups

* Allows you to preview and send test emails

* Helps you store, track, segment and manage your email lists

* Provides email templates you can use

While choosing your Email list software, it is essential to pick one that will not complicate issues for you. You can do a quick search for best Email list software on Google for options you can choose. You will find many options.

· Attract the right audience and keep the list growing

Once you get reliable email marketing software, you need to figure out how best to expand your email list. For me, the best technique for improving an email list is to give some inducement - you can call it a bribe if you like. Most people will sign up for your email list once you promise them some freebie in return.

Here are some ideas I use:

· Offer them a coupon or a discount code: Online stores use this most of the time. And you should use it too if your home-based business in an online store. Even if you do not like discounts, you cannot deny the fact that the results are always massive.

· Offer them some free relevant content. People won't join your email list unless you give them a reason to do so. If you have no discount to give out, giving away some free content is your next best bet. However, ensure the material you are about to give out meets the following standards:

1) You must write so that you attract targeted leads and generate traffic.

2) The content should address an essential part of the problem your product aims at solving.

3) It should be something they can't quickly get by searching the keyword on any search engine.

· Place the email list form on your site or blog

Once you have decided on what to give away, make sure the subscription form is on a strategic area on your website or blog where no visitor can ignore it for long. You can have your email opt-in form popping up at different angles of your site, and this will serve as a reminder to any visitor who has forgotten to sign up. Also, make sure there is a reminder to this effect on every page on your site. Once people start signing up, the primary task of building the list begins.

· Send an email to everyone who signs up

Once your signup forms are in place, and the signups are rolling in, it is time to think of the right format for your email messages. The first thing you should do is to send a welcome email to everyone on your mailing list. Your email software will help you do this. Your welcome email should be both friendly and personal. Mention their names and thank them for joining your mailing list. Your welcome email can read something like this:

"Hello <Name of subscriber>,

Welcome to<Name of your company>

Thank you for joining our mailing list

I'm<Your Name>. I'm the founder of<Name of your organization>.

Here is the link to<The gift you promised to give>

You can end the message by asking each person what they are struggling with at the moment in line with what you offer. Doing so will help you know what issues people would love you to talk about in your email messages.

Tell them you will keep in touch

<Your Name>

· Create viral content that is relevant to your immediate audience

When I say viral content, I do not mean any funny articles, audios or videos that are not relevant to what you do and what you offer. Your content should be specific to your audience.

For instance, if your home based business focusses on event planning, you can share a video of a couple whose wedding did not go as expected because of a lousy wedding planner and how your intervention saved the day. Such videos will go viral within your community, and the more people share it, the more people who need a good wedding planner finds your sign up link and join.

What we've covered above will very instrumental in determining your success in any home-based business. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you refer to the above section after reading the following article as well because as you are well aware, planning is the first step to success - and failing to plan is synonymous to planning to fail. The above section serves as the blueprint for all manner of home-based businesses.

Bonus Gift

Now you have read so many tips on how to start and run a business from home. If you like suggestions of this kind, you may be interested in downloading an entire eBook for free, which is all about how you get your home-based business to grow. Click on the "External Link" at the bottom of this chapter to get your free book.

In the next chapter, we will narrow down everything and see how you can make money working at home.

See you there next Wednesday.

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