Monthly Drawings

Hold a monthly drawing for a gift certificate from among the new people who provide their email addresses to you that month.

Employee Contest

Want to get a lot of addresses fast? Start a contest for your employees, staff, or volunteers with a prize to the person who’s collected the most email addresses from customers, clients, or members. Reward them with a day off, a gift certificate, a free meal, or a cash bonus!

Here are some things you can do to build a permission-based list, wherever you go, however your organization interacts with the public.

At your office or place of business:

• Ask every caller if they want to receive your email newsletter.
• Request customer email addresses on your POS, online ordering, or checkout system.
• Add space to your comment cards or surveys for people to sign-up.
• Put tent cards, wall, or counter displays in your place of business. Use a teaser, if applicable, about getting the inside scoop or exclusive offers from you.
• Use a fishbowl on your counter to collect sign-up forms or business cards. Offer a weekly or monthly prize, like discounts or gifts from your establishment or other local vendors. Announce the winners in your newsletter, and add everyone in the bowl to your mailing list.

If you’re online and use social media:

• Add Constant Contact’s “Join My Mailing List” button to your website and your Facebook page so people can join your list.
• Ask your Twitter followers to sign up for your list by providing a link to your sign-up form on your website.

When you’re at events, in the field, or networking:

• Bring a sign-up sheet to every public event you exhibit at or participate in: fairs, open houses and fundraising events – any place where dozens of people will encounter you.
• Leave postage-paid sign-up cards behind when you visit clients so they can mail it back to you. Just write your address on the back and stamp it – it won’t cost them a penny to join.

When you already use email marketing or outgoing communications:

• Make it easy for recipients to tell their friends about you with a “forward to a friend” link.
• Staple a sign-up card to customers’ receipts, or include it in the envelope if you mail them bills.

This list has been slightly adapted from its original source, Constant Contact’s List Building Guide.

Have a Purpose

Whether it is selling more products or encouraging visitors to fill out your contact form, defining a purpose for your online ad campaign is arguably the most crucial step in starting your campaign off on the right foot. If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, you’re throwing your money away.

Relevancy is the Name of the Game

Just like with any advertising, determining the demographic is a key part of the success of your campaign. Choose a website who’s users match your demographic or, if you use a service like Google Adwords, select keywords that are relevant to your campaign and Google will handle the rest.

Have a Clear Message

Setting a clear message in your ad encourages users to click on your ad. Let them know why they should click on your ad and what’s in it for them if they do.

Make Users Want to Click

If you are creating a banner ad campaign, using graphics and photos that help to support the overall message of the ad will not only put a more professional touch on your ad, but gives the user more confidence in your business. Using keywords relevant to the website / web page you are advertising on gives the user a feeling of relevance to what you’re offering.

A Little Motion is Great, A Lot is Not Better

It is always a good idea to include some motion in your banner ad, but be careful, having too much motion in an ad can actually be seen as annoying and decrease the effectiveness of your ad.

Avoid Auto-Playing Sound

Sound that starts as soon as the ad loads is the quickest way to kill your ad. Don’t get me wrong, sound can be a great way to help get your message across; but let the user decide if they want to hear the sound or not. Adding a button to enable or disable sound increases the interaction with your ad while letting the user make the decision to hear your message or not.

Your Landing Page is More Important Than Your Ad

The overall idea behind your banner ad is to get the user to visit your website, but just dropping your potential customer off at the front door (your home page) and making them find the relevant information themselves is a bad idea. Link your ad to a page that is specifically designed to extend the message that your ad is providing.

Test Everything

And I mean everything! Try two different ads that convey the same message. Try one ad with a photo of a girl and one with a photo of a guy. Try two different landing pages. The great thing about online advertising is all of these differences are trackable (more on this in a moment).

Monitor Your Results

The days of judging an ad’s effectiveness by how many clicks it got are long gone. The more important measure is how many of those clicks actually turned into customers. Did they buy something? Did they fill out your contact form? Did they sign up for your newsletter? Remember your ad campaign’s purpose from above. Clicks don’t mean squat if you can’t either count the dollars or continue the conversation with your new potential customer. Using a stat tracking service like Google Analytics will help you realize how well (or poor) your campaign is doing so you can make adjustments.

Conclusion

Advertising online is an extremely effective and can be relatively inexpensive if done properly. As always, feel free to take advantage of my Free Website Consulting Offer and I’d be glad to look over your current campaign or give some insight on a campaign your considering.

Here’s the bullet points from the article:

• To Build Trust
• To Become Familiar
• To Get Repeat Business
• To Make More Sales
• To Build Your Authority
• To Save Money
• To Create an Opt-In Market
• To Save Time
• To Expand Your Reach
• To Create Multiple Buying Opportunities

A well planned out email marketing campaign has an average ROI of $45 for every $1 spent! That’s why I get so excited!

If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter (we promise not to spam you) or leave a comment below and let’s discuss this!