Leverage Permission Marketing

One of the most important tools to an online marketer is the ability to leverage the use of autoresponders and email marketing. You’ve all heard the saying, “the money is in the lists”. While that may be true, the lists can also be the downfall of your business if they are not managed properly and professionally.

Many online marketers are just happy to capture email addresses and names so they can increase their lists. They believe this gives them a great opportunity to continually market their products to potential customers and eventually convince them to buy something. But what if those people don’t care about your products or are annoyed by your invasion into their ‘inboxes’?

Just because you continually email them doesn’t mean they’ll finally make a purchase!

Permission marketing strategies prevail

The true beauty of email marketing is recognized when you deploy ‘permission marketing’ strategies. Permission marketing requires that customers and potential customer give you permission to send the information and updates through email. Some people refer to it as ‘opt-in’ email, but either way, it requires that the potential customer allows you to communicate directly with them through email.

People are constantly overloaded with emails, advertisements, and other promotional tools. The last thing they want to find in their inbox is unwanted solicitation from online marketers. They’ll quickly move you to the ‘junk email’ folder and your opportunity is lost forever. And with today’s technology, you probably won’t make it past the junk filters deployed by most all Internet service providers anyway.

So what do you do?

Give customers control

You give your customers and potential customers more control over what they want to receive. This makes them more likely to open your emails, read them, and react to them positively. It’s the way to increase your conversion rates because you are targeting people who are interested in your product, your information, and your updates.

When visitors come to your website, entice them to sign up for your product updates, newsletters, or other types of email. Encourage them to sign-up by reinforcing that they will only receive relevant emails, their personal information will not be shared or sold, and they can opt-out of the email at any point in time. And adhere to these policies too!

If people feel they have the control to accept emails, but also have the ability to cancel their permission at any time, they are likely to test out your services. Once they start receiving irrelevant emails or emails that do not provide valuable, interesting, and unique information, they may decide to opt-out. That’s why you must continually produce unique, high-quality, value-added content in every communication you initiate.

Strengthen customer relationships

Permission marketing is a great way to enhance and strengthen customer relationships. When customers give you permission to stay in touch with them, you can continually provide them with value-added information. They will trust what they receive from you and your integrity will be highly valued.  Customers will begin to rely on you for information and/or products and customer loyalty will increase.

Not only does permission marketing increase conversion rates, it also increases your ability to retain existing customers. You now have a two-way communication with your customers because you aren’t just sending out information to the masses. You’re sending information to people who want to see it, read it, and potentially buy it!

Always take advantage of every email to remind people how you got their information. Remind them that they wanted to receive the information, but also remind them that they can opt-out at any time. Give them an easy-to-find link to discontinue their permission in case they want to opt-out. Holding them hostage only frustrates them and does not help you with your marketing efforts!

Optimize email marketing

There are tons of ways that you can optimize permission marketing and emails to make your business more productive. You can even use it to learn what your customers value by soliciting their feedback. People love to be asked for their opinions and this is a great way to improve your products or promote the positive comments you receive.

Make sure you leverage permission marketing as a way to not only attract, but retain valuable customers.  Build long-term relationships based on integrity, trust, and high-quality products and content.

It’s a business investment you can’t afford to ignore!