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Customers

5 Tips for a Successful Scrapbook Customer List

by BlondieWrites on October 13, 2009

Are you building your scrapbook customer list with success? If not, don’t give up! You can breathe new life into your scrapbooking list and at the same time have your list work for you instead of against you.

Although you may not be new to marketing your scrapbooking business on the internet, I want to revisit some tips that will get your list growing. Your list should help your scrapbooking business grow, not keep it stagnant. Your relationship between your opt-in list members and yourself must be one of trust. If don’t have trust, they probably won’t sign up. And if they do they may not stay subscribed. Here are a few strategies to help you build and maintain trust:

1. The customer must be able to unsubscribe from your list. Let each customer who signs up for your newsletter or ezine know they have the option to opt out quickly and easily whenever they like. Most autoresponder services include a link to unsubscribe at the end of the email. This is actually required by the CAN-SPAM Act.

2. Always offer interesting, relavent and valuable content. By providing your readers with informational articles and content, you are building trust with your customers. This initially takes time, but the benefit of having your customers trusting what you have to say is definitely worth your time. You’ll be viewed as an expert, which easily brings more prospects to you.

3. The popular 80/20 rule. People expect to be sold to when they receive an email. However if your emails include constant sales messages, they will likely click the unsubscribe button faster than you can say, “but wait, there’s more!” Try to include 80% valuable content and around 20% sales content. Of course, your marketing content needs to be relavant to your topic as well.

4. Get your customers involved. Breathe new life into your list by encouraging interaction. Create a survey, and post the results, ask questions and provide feedback. Remember, you’re building trust with your prosects and customers while building your business.

5. Balance the number of emails you send out. There’s a fine line between emailing too often and not emailing often enough. Find the balance that works with your customers and you. Track your click through and open rates. Most people who subscribe to your list expect emails from you on a regular basis. On the other hand they won’t be happy if you email them too often. When you create your opt-in box, specify how often you intend to contact them, letting them know their will be occasional extra mailings when you come across something that will be of interest to them.

Your list is how you communicate with your scrapbook customers. If you have no potential customers on your list, who will you communicate with to potentially sell your products? Provide good content and keep your customers anticipating your next mailing. Earn their trust, provide great content, show you are real and that you care, then your list will thrive!

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Dawn Stegall is dedicated to helping you succeed in your scrapbooking business. FREE report on a 6-step system that will show you how to grow your list, provide your readers with the content they crave and start making more money than you ever expected from your scrapbook customer list. Grab your free report at www.scrapventurereports.com/LPS-Free-Report.html

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Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

by BlondieWrites on September 20, 2009

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you are selling. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and it helps build credibility with your subscribers. As a result, you can generate more sales and profits.

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, responsive and permission-based email list. If you have a list of subscribers that trust you and consider you an expert, you’ve completed the first step and are on your way!

Below you will several list-building ideas that will help you make the most of your email marketing efforts:

1.Provide useful, relevant and unique content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be useful to your subscribers.

2.Add a subscription form to every page of your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If appropriate, you can also include it in more than one place. For instance, your opt-in form might always appear in the top-left corner of your site, while you also include an opt-in at the bottom of some of your popular articles.

3.Make it easy for your reader to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. (Note: If you don’t have a Privacy Policy, put the words “privacy policy generator” into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form for your readers to review.

4.Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form.

5.Show your first issue or other sample to your visitors. This lets potential subscribers review your newsletter before they sign up to determine if it is something they’d be interested in.

6.Archive past newsletter issues. A “library” of past newsletters is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can send additional traffic to your web site through good search engine positioning.

7.Contact other newsletter publishers. Introduce yourself and explore ways you may be able to help each other. Perhaps you can introduce other publisher’s newsletters or print articles they have written to your list, with a link to sign up. When you contact them, be sure to tell them why you think THEIR readers would like what you have to offer and why YOUR readers would benefit from their newsletters. This is a win-win scenario; both of you will build your lists faster!

8.Give away bonuses subscribers can use. Create an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list. You can write an ebook or PDF report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to only a gift for new opt-ins. Remind your readers that the next bonus is coming soon. People hate to miss out on things. If you systematically pass on “goodies” throughout the year, your subscribers are unlikely to leave.

9.Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find the content you share with them to be informative, they will pass your newsletter on to their friends. This can be a good source of new subscribers.

10.Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you will get new subscribers, traffic and links pointing to your site.

11.Include a “Sign Up” button in the newsletter. If you are using plain text instead of HTML, provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint it online. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe.

12.Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to get an opt-in and build your list. Think of it like a mini-sales letter for your subscription or opt-in bonus. It features a powerful headline and a couple of very important benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up to your list. Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and advertise there using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo.

13.Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put 1 or 2 strong testimonials from satisfied subscribers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video social proof) is more “believable”. To increase that believability, include full names, locations and/or urls; don’t use “Bob K, FL” as a testimonial name.

14.Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with your potential customers, and it creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or Wordpress.

15.Post on other blogs. Post great comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers.

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How to Handle Criticism

by BlondieWrites on June 22, 2008

Following is an article that I wrote back in 2002 pertaining to handling criticism from an author’s viewpoint. While the article itself is obviously about handling criticism as an author, the overall meaning can pertain to other work at home businesses.

If you have ever had someone that does not even know you to speak ill of you to other people, I am sure you will get the meaning of this article. It’s important to remember that if you have encountered this (I have over the years), it’s better and more professional to take the high road and not allow the jealously of another to bring you down. Remember, to lose your professionalism is to lose potential customers and their business.

How to Handle Criticism

The inevitable criticisms that come with the prestige of being called an author could very well be thought as an author’s worse nightmare. How can anyone not be negatively affected by comments and articles that seem to be so harshly written against an author? It’s easier than you might imagine.

The most famous authors have received terrible insults, have been ridiculed, talked badly of, had horrible articles written about them. How do they handle this? You might say that being an author and in the public, this type of thing is bound to happen, and they must deal with it. This is true. But how do they deal with it?

If you are hoping and planning to be published one day, to be an author, you must learn to deal with the critics. It’s easier than one might perceive it to be.

Let’s start with the nasty email and letters. You go to your mailbox or check your online mail. What do you see when you open the mail? Terrible words, from someone saying all sorts of bad things? Or do you see an angry, jealous person who wants what you have, yet has not attained it? Think about it. Does the person that has written such bad things know you? Or are they simply striking out in a jealous rage? When they down you, are they really downing YOU? Or would you say they are projecting they own inner feelings and lack of publishing success?

If you keep in your mind that the people that want to criticize you do not even know you, and that they are simply writing something due to their immense jealously at your success, then you can laugh the criticizers off. So they say bad things about you. Is it REALLY about YOU? No, it’s not. Remember it’s nothing more than jealousy at your success.

Handling criticism also builds your character. If you intend to be published in the “real world”, you absolutely must be able to handle the criticism. It will come! If you cannot handle it, you’ll never make it in the writing business. You will never be able to please everyone all of the time, so don’t waste your time trying. There will always be someone telling you that you cannot write, that you do not know what you are talking about, etc. Who is right? Those few that say you cannot and are aweful? Or those many that let you know that you can? Easy answer!

Allow those that critique you to offer you their gift of help. Much to their amazement, they are actually helping you a great deal with each bad criticism they give you! How? By getting you ready for the real world of publishing. By toughening you up, giving you the power you need to succeed!

How does getting bad comments and criticisms give you power? Easy! Each one you get is like another battery charge! To get more is actually better than getting none. While these people think they are hurting you and humiliating you, they are actually ENCOURAGING you to keep going, because their jealously only shows that you are on the right track, and that you CAN do it! It shows that you DO know what you are doing, and that it is GOOD!

When those inevitable criticisms come, take heart and thank the person that sent it or wrote the bad article about you. They have NO idea how much they are helping you, and NO idea how much encouragement they have given you.

If nothing else, remember this one thing. You MUST be able to handle criticism in order to make it in this business.

For those adoring “fans” that have helped me along, given me so much encouragement and help, I thank you. I could never have come as far as I have without them. They have indeed been my biggest and best help!

Handle criticism with your heart. Allow it to build you up and take you closer to your dream……being an author.

The graphic that is with this article is not what you look like, absolutely not! Rather it’s what those that criticize you look like because they cannot get to you. (Grin again here).

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Tips for Building a Profitable Opt-in Newsletter Subscriber Base

by BlondieWrites on June 19, 2008

Having a newsletter is a must for anyone doing business online. A newsletter is the main lifeline to the customer. It’s through the newsletter that businesses can let customers know about sales and discounts or updates to their website.

Online marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. Opt-in marketing can greatly increase repeat visitors to your site, and drastically increase sales of your services or products. The wonderful thing about an opt-in mailing list is that the subscriber is wanting to receive emails from you, meaning they are interested in hearing from you on a regular basis.

One of the goals for your website should be to gain subscribers to your newsletter. It’s important that your newsletter be an opt-in newsletter, and that you don’t just add people or email addresses to your mailing list on your own. The opt-in feature is to ensure that the person wants your emails so that you are not spamming them. Opt-in means that the subscriber has to sign up for our newsletter and then confirm that subscription via the email they signed up with. This prevents anyone from just adding them or subscribing them without their permission or knowledge.

Put a sign up form on every page of your website. Most of your visitors will come from to your site from a search engine, and they could land on any page. Give them the option of signing up for your newsletter no matter what page they land on.

Focus on a niche for your newsletter. Instead of trying to do a little of everything out there, focus on one main niche area of interest. For example, if your interest is teddy bears, your website and newsletter could focus on teddy bear clothing or designer made teddy bears. Instead of trying to do all things regarding teddy bears, focus in on a small niche.

Keep fresh content on your site and as you update the site, relay the news to your subscribers. Keeping interesting and fresh content will help keep from losing subscribers. Give subscribers something new to look forward to.

Pick a day that your newsletter goes out and keep on that schedule. Your readers will know when to expect to hear from you. Don’t send something out every day, because most likely readers will grow tired of an everyday mailing. Once a week is the best option, although some choose to send out only on a monthly basis.

When you are getting material ready for your newsletter, be honest in product descriptions, etc. Don’t give your readers a lot of hype about something that you know doesn’t work as well as you are saying it does. Don’t say you have tried something that you’ve in fact never tried or used. Be honest with your subscribers. They will appreciate the honesty and see that you can be trusted. Trust is important in business. Gain the trust of the readers and don’t lose it.

On occasion, ask subscribers their thoughts on what you can do to improve your newsletter. Ask them what they want to see more of or less of. Remember that the customer is the lifeline to you making a profit. For example, even though you might love the layout of your newsletter, your readers might find it less than appealing. Go with what works best for your mailing list. The subscribers are the ones reading it, so you want to please them overall.

Even in the internet age, word of mouth is still the biggest and best advertising. Word of mouth can still make or break a business, and word of mouth can bring in new subscribers. Keeping a friendly appearance and attending to the needs of your subscribers on your mailing list can cause a domino affect. People will take about your business, your website will get more hits, and your subscriber base will grow.

Never sell your mailing list. Never give away your mailing list, or share it. When a subscriber joins your opt-in mailing list, they are not joining for your to sell or share their personal and private information or email address. They are joining to receive updates and newsletters from you, and you alone. This comes back to the trust issue. Your subscribers trust that you will not sell them out.

Offer a potential subscriber a sample newsletter on your website. Be sure to keep the sample newsletter up to date so that the reader can see just what they will be getting when they opt-in to your newsletter. It’s also a good idea to keep back issues of newsletters archived on your site. This gives readers and visitors the opportunity to look at older issues they might have missed.

Avoid sending out newsletters that are too heavy in advertising. While the goal of a newsletter is often to make a profit, no subscriber wants to get newsletters that contain nothing but a constant barrage of ads wanting them to buy something on a continual basis.

Your good reputation and the trust of your readers will build your mailing list size and increase your subscriber base.

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