Ahem, if you’re still reading this far and you haven’t caught on, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck. There will be no free list of email addresses for marketing given away here today. But since I have your attention and you’re here on the site, I might as well offer you something else, something far better.

Instead of giving you a list filled with thousands of worthless addresses and watching you flush your campaign down the drain, I’ll teach you how to create and manage your own natural email list growth. As the saying goes:

Give a man free spam lunch, and he’ll run an email campaign for a day. But teach him to circumvent spam altogether and he’ll be an email marketer for life. Or something like that.

Creating Natural Email List Growth

In this past I’ve offered up some tips for acquiring more email marketing leads, so be sure to check those at as well before your done here. Right now I wanted to take a fresh approach towards creating your own natural email list growth.

One of the best approaches towards SEO for your website is natural link building, which now has the far snazzier name of link baiting. Link baiting is just the process of creating valuable, interesting and worthwhile content that people naturally want to link to. In other words, your content is so interesting or informative that people just have to share the wealth and post a link up on their own website or blog.

When you’re looking to create natural email list growth for your campaigns, apply the concept of link baiting towards acquiring new email marketing leads. Basically, give people such a great reason to join your list that they’ll do so genuinely – and in large numbers – rather than being pressured, scammed or trickling in on their own.

How can you apply link building to natural email list growth? Here are some ways you can go “email baiting” to build up your list to be bigger and stronger than ever before.

• Contests
• Tip/Guide Newsletters
• eBook & Mini Report Giveaways
• Members Only Website Access
• Discounts & Deals
• Exclusive News or Information
• Limited Event Registrations

Instead of clicking on the next search result for that free list of email addresses for marketing, consider dropping the bulk email campaign and opting for natural email list growth. And please, put down the spam sandwiches.

More important than that is understanding the answer to the question “what is email marketing?” in the real world. We all receive plenty of email marketing messages each and every day, most of them we lump into the SPAM category. They are wastes of time and space, they slow down and infect our computers, they try to sell us enhancement creams or steal our bank account information and of course they give the rest of us a bad name.

Therefore email marketing in the real world has fast taken on the definition of SPAM.  Again from Wikipedia, SPAM is, “The abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.”

In other words, email marketing for consumers is fast becoming aligned with fraudulent garbage. For sketchy, illicit or downright illegal business operations, email marketing has taken on the definition of the cheapest way to exploit loads of money from the unsuspecting public at large by poking and prodding repeatedly ad nauseam until somebody purposely or inadvertently caves in.

Now, what should email marketing be? I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

Now that we know what email marketing really is, by the literal definition and by the interpretations of both consumers and spammers, we should take a look at what email marketing should be. Email marketing should be I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

• Insightful
• Marketing
• (that’s)
• Personalized
• Optimized
• Relevant
• Targeted
• And
• Never
• Tired

Let’s break this down piece by piece so we have as clear a definition as we can. Email marketing should be insightful marketing. In other words, we should be using all of our judgment, knowledge, expertise and experience to deliver quality, handcrafted messages that not only will produce results, but also speak to the desires of our audience.

Email marketing should be personalized. First, that means building a permission based list of people who really want to hear from you. From there, it means using your name and showing pictures of yourself so your audience knows who you are. It means segmenting your list so that different people receive messages containing what they are most interested in, rather than a generic message of no real value.

Email marketing should be optimized. You should be testing every aspect of your email campaigns to see what works the best. Try different subject lines, content, layouts, color schemes, delivery times and more.

Email marketing should be relevant and targeted. Once again, segment your list into groups and learn what your audience is really interested in. Make your messages timely and full of valuable information that people can really use. Don’t just send what you feel like talking about; send what people want to hear.

Finally, email marketing should never be tired. This means that you shouldn’t keep sending out the same retread emails over and over again and you shouldn’t keep using that same template you had from your first email campaign in 2002.

Refresh your campaigns…bring in guests from other websites or companies to write on special topics…change your layouts so that they are more visually appealing and convert better in the process…think of new, fresh ideas for every email and always be trying new things… stay ahead of the curve and integrate new technology, services and methods instead of playing catch-up down the road.

So how can I answer the question, “what is email marketing”? How about, I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

In this email marketing tip the point I’d like to drive home is that you can take this on from two approaches.

Starting with social media – If used correctly, your social media platform can serve as a great tool for producing email marketing leads, and drawing people into your overall campaign efforts.

Starting with email campaigns – For the email marketing lead you already have, you can effectively work on converting them into paying customers by including them in some of your more personal outreach efforts.

Let’s start with the second half of this equation, taking an email marketing lead and converting him or her with your more personalized approach on social networking sites. You have to remember that signing up for an account and creating a uniform, empty page doesn’t give you any “street cred”. If you are trying to send your prospects to your social media sites, you have to make it worth their time.

In other words, don’t make the mistake of saying the same things in the same ways on all of your different outlets. I like taking the approach of keeping email marketing campaigns personal, but focused on the task at hand, whether that’s selling a product or promoting an event. Then, I think it’s great to use social media sites for a softer approach, focusing on core values and missions.

I’d like you all to meet Bob from Bob’s Chicken Shack, he’s a small business owner and he’s delving into the world of email marketing and social media. Here’s how Bob can effectively tie together his email marketing campaigns with his social media platforms.

• Bob can focus his email messages on promoting next Friday’s buy one bucket, get one bucket free promotion.
• His Facebook page however can talk about how Bob always loved animals and therefore thinks they deserve proper treatment, which is why he only uses organic products and local produce and yadda yadda.
• His Twitter page can include quick blasts like, just talked with a customer about her stance on using eggs from caged chickens. I don’t do it, but what do you all think?

Throughout all of this he tied his business together and additionally, all of the outlets served a purpose rather than being repetitious, wasted rehashes. Well done, Bob.

Making the Connections

Now you’ve seen how you can differentiate your different strategies while still keeping them related and worthwhile, but how can you actually translate this into an effective strategy for cross-promotion?

Let’s go back to the two ways we looked at this in the beginning.

Starting with social media to find email marketing leads - On Bob’s Facebook page, instead of saying “Sign up for my email list,” Bob could talk about how if people in the local area are looking for a healthy food establishment that treats animals correctly, they should look you up and they can receive discounts if they receive your email updates.

Starting with email campaigns and converting an email marketing lead – Instead of just including a link on the bottom of his email saying “Visit Bob’s Chicken Shack on Facebook”, Bob could place a blurb at the top of the sidebar in his email inviting people to learn more about Bob’s passion for organic products and animal welfare on his Facebook page.

Hey, take the analogy for what it’s worth. The point I’m making with this email marketing tip of the week is that you can effectively tie together your different online promotional strategies, including email marketing and social media.

When you do it the right way, you’ll be successful at producing more email marketing leads while also more effectively converting the email marketing lead you already have in your pocket.

1. Be Polite – As in, participate in permission email marketing rather than harvesting addresses from the Internet or buying an email list for sale. Throw signup forms on your website, collect addresses from your physical store and generally find prospects and list members in any way that you can as long as you have the person’s permission to contact them.

2. Identify Yourself – All of your B2B email marketing messages have to be easily identifiable as coming from you. That means the “From” field should have the most recognizable name your business has. For some people that might be your personal name, but for most businesses it will be the name of the company itself, or the shortened version of the name that the company commonly goes by.

3. Be Descriptive – An overlooked piece of FTC CAN-SPAM compliance is the subject lines of your emails. You should be accurate, descriptive and concise so your recipients clearly understand what the email is about. Use proper punctuation and grammar and avoid all things SPAMMY: “Buy now!!! Free, free, free!!!”

4. Stay in Touch – Even prospects that were at one point highly interested in your business and your messages will forget about you or lose interest if you don’t stay in touch with them. That means you can’t be infrequent and random with your B2B email marketing messages. Send out your newsletters or other emails at regular intervals and inform your list members upon signup how often they can expect to hear from you.

5. Ask WWIDWTE? – When in doubt, ask yourself WWIDWTE? Or, what would I do with this email? Take an honest, objective view of your emails or have someone else do it for you. Does it look like SPAM? Can you clearly see who it’s from and what the message is about? If you can spot a problem with your messages, you can be sure that your list members will, which means you’re one step closer to the SPAM filter and trash bin.

6. Time for a Wash – As in, actively clean your list from time to time to keep it up to date and as targeted as possible. Remove email addresses that don’t exist or routinely show up as bounces for other reasons. This will help improve your deliverability rate and will leave you with a list that has much more quality, even if it’s smaller.

7. Rinse and Repeat – You just cleaned up but you aren’t done yet, it’s time to rinse and repeat. That means that FTC CAN-SPAM compliance is an ongoing process. You can’t ever stop. You always have to be following B2B email marketing best practices that will leave you and your company in compliance with both written legislation and unwritten rules.

Follow these 7 steps to FTC CAN-SPAM compliance and you and your company will be that much closer to B2B email marketing success.

6 Ways to Acquire More Email Marketing Leads

Above the fold placement – If you want to draw in every email marketing lead that you can, you need to ensure that all of your website visitors see your signup offer. This means placing it above the fold of your website, and it means placing it on every page of your site.

Make your offer compelling – Does your permission based email marketing signup say something like “Sign up now” or “Sign up for our newsletter” without anything else going along with that? How does that entice anybody to make the move? You need to offer something that provides a compelling reason for a person to signup onto your list. You can offer store discounts, exclusive sales, a free eBook or mini-report or anything else. Just be sure you offer something, and be sure visitors know what you’re offering.

Ask fewer questions – Studies show that for every additional question or text box you have on your form, you start losing a few email marketing leads. That means your signup form should include as little information as is necessary to begin building a successful relationship. Do you really need their full address, middle initial, phone number, fax number and all of that other junk you get from them and never use? Then why risk losing another email marketing lead because of it?

Send more traffic to you website – This one might seem obvious, but it’s often overlooked. If you’re looking for more email marketing leads then you should be driving more traffic to your website to begin with. Invest some time and effort into applying good SEO, social networking and link building techniques towards the development of traffic to your site. Every new visitor is another new potential email marketing lead.

Go offline – Just because you’re building a permission based email marketing list doesn’t mean you have to gather all of your list members from online methods. Step into the real world to start growing your list. If you have a brick and mortar business place a signup sheet at the counter. When you attend conferences or tradeshows, meet with colleagues, acquaintances or customers or go anywhere you may find a potential customer or prospect, be prepared to jot down their email address and add them manually to your list.

Let your list build your list – Encourage your list members to forward messages onto their friends, family and coworkers. You may even think about offering rewards to them for doing so, to the tune of refer 3 new list members to us and get an additional 10% off your next order, or something along those lines.

If you put some time and effort into your campaigns and follow these 6 tips, you’ll be able to see a great increase in the amount of email marketing leads you acquire.

Before you make the leap and acquire an email list for sale, consider these points.

• Reason to buy: You quickly get a huge email list.
• Reason not to buy: Having a large permission based email marketing list is one thing, but purchasing a large list is a completely different story. Yes, you have your hands on tons of email addresses, but how many of them are even active? More importantly, how many of them are even remotely interested in any of the products or services that you’re offering? But make it even simpler on yourself, how many unsolicited emails from unknown sources do you respond positively to?

• Reason to buy: People think all emails are SPAM anyway.
• Reason not to buy: This is a misconception, because highly targeted permission based email marketing lists are not mistaken for SPAM. It’s your job as the person in charge of your email campaigns to ensure that your messages are received by interested parties that can recognize you and your messages.

• Reason to buy: There’s no other effective way to build an email list.
• Reason not to buy: It’s true, there are hardly any other ways to gather email addresses besides using an email list for sale. Besides acquiring targeted prospects from your website by offering tips, coupons, promotions, guides, reviews and other useful content, from your physical storefront, from conferences and tradeshows, from local community events, from your colleagues and their acquaintances… and anywhere else you can think of. Besides all of those, you’re right, there is no other way.

• Reason to buy: Time is money, and purchasing an email list for sale is better than spending the time to build a list.
• Reason not to buy: Sure, time absolutely is money. But you know what else equals money? Money! As in, if your massive, untargeted and uninterested email list doesn’t buy anything, you made no money. As in, a small, highly qualified list of prospects can easily be converted into customers and sales, putting money straight into your pocket. Which sounds better to you?

This isn’t even touching on the legality or morality of the issue. Putting all of these hefty matters aside, it still hardly makes sense to purchase an email list for sale. Permission based email marketing is the only way to safely and effectively conduct your email campaigns, and that’s the bottom line.

Sheesh! That’s a lot of evil forces trying to hold you back. Even Batman only has two, maybe three, to deal with per movie. The good news is, it’s not too late to throw on your own cape and become a do it yourself email marketing hero!

Step 1 – Create your identity – Any good superhero needs to have an identity. What’s the image your company is trying to project? Why are you “one of the good guys”? How can you help those honest citizens out there be safe from what troubles them? Craft your identity and project a consistent image with your email campaigns about who you are and what you do.

Step 2 – Pick a fight – Whether you realize it or not, your company is always fighting against something and you have to figure out what that is. You might be fighting against high prices for your customers. You might be fighting against customer inconvenience, against poor customer service or against low quality products. You might be directly fighting against another competitor to win the hearts, minds (and dollars) of those you’re communicating with. Figure out what you’re fighting against and you’ll be able to more clearly construct your messages.

Step 3 – Make a difference – Great, you have an identity and you know what you’re fighting against. But it’s all a bunch of empty promises until you live up to your ideals and make a difference out there! You have to find list members by providing something of value to them to get them to signup. You have to convert those leads into customers by effectively creating clear and compelling calls to action and selling points. In other words, find the people that need to be saved from whatever you’re fighting against and convince them that you’re the one to do the saving!

Step 4 – Get some good PR – If you really want to be it a do it yourself email marketing hero you have to get some good PR, just like all superheroes enjoy. A superhero without good PR is just a crazy guy in a mask running around your city. How do you get good PR while sending out email campaigns? It’s easy, you get customer success stories and testimonials that you can share that serve as your front page headline that you are indeed a hero and not some costumed lunatic.

Step 5 – Never get complacent – It’s happened to every superhero… just when they are on top of the world they get complacent and stop caring/trying/wanting to help. And then that’s when somebody needs them the most! To be a do it yourself email marketing hero you have to always strive to stay ahead.

That means tracking your campaigns, comparing their successes and failures and making improvements. That means always finding new leads and list members that you can work on converting. That means consistently providing something of real value to your list members to make it worthwhile for them to be receiving your messages.

Guess what the best part about this whole plan is? You hardly need to spend any money to put it into action, and it won’t take up every second of your workday. Find a cheap email service provider, buy yourself a mask and a cape (completely optional) and get to work following this 5 step plan to becoming a do it yourself email marketing hero!

5 Ways to Differentiate Between Email Marketing Programs

1. Price: The price for different email service providers can be quite different. Many popular programs start plans for between $10 and $20. However, many other companies really target larger businesses and have services that start at $100 or more.

Additionally, your price may increase based on different factors. Some companies increase price based on total emails sent, while others increase price based on the size of the list you have, regardless of the number of emails you send.

2. Surveys: Many businesses today are turning to customer survey software to help them connect with their customers and clients and to further improve their own offerings. There are of course many separate providers that deal with surveys, however many email service providers also provide online survey solutions

The benefit to integrating the two services in one spot is that you can quickly send out a survey to your entire list or to particular segments of your list without having to export or recreate your list in a separate environment. Of course, housing both services under one roof can also lower costs and provide a level of convenience that two separate services couldn’t provide. If you’re also in the market for customer survey software, than you should seek out the email marketing programs that provide that as well.

3. Customer Support: When you encounter a problem or have a question, you need a company that is going to be responsive to your needs. With options such as forums and live chatting in addition to emails and phone calls, you should have plenty of ways to reach out to the staff of most email service providers. However, some take more pride than others in this area and you’ll quick see which businesses live up to your expectations.

4. Templates: You want to have a vast selection of templates to choose between. Only a handful, no matter how great they look, isn’t going to help you out very much. You need to stand out from your competition not blend in with them. Additionally, consider that email marketing programs often target different types of businesses and therefore will have more templates geared towards specific areas or styles than others.

5. List Management and Building: What are the options you have for building your list and managing it? You should be able to break down your list based on a wide range of variables. You should also have signup links and buttons for your websites as well as an autoresponder.

Finally, steer clear of any company that says they will provide your list for you and build your list instantly. Purchasing email lists is a great way to land yourself in legal trouble while you watch your campaigns flounder along without success.

As you can see, there are clearly plenty of ways to differentiate between different services and providers. These are just 5 ways that should help you spot which email marketing programs may be the best fit for your organization.

Email Marketing Opt In

Optin email marketing is basically the honest, legitimate way of email marketing wherein people sign up for your list willingly and manually. You may be offering something on your website to encourage them to sign up, they might do it without any pushing from you at all or you might hound them into it with pop ups across the screen every two minutes. Either way, the point is they manually opt into your email marketing list.

The only thing an email marketing opt in does is provide a link and a text box, so they can enter in their address and send it through the system. Your email service provider captures that information and adds the new user to your email marketing list. A basic optin email marketing service may redirect the person to a thank you page, show them a thank you or confirmation on screen or even in some cases send them a double opt-in or confirmation email.

Email Autoresponders

Autoresponders take things a step further than that. When somebody signs up for your email marketing list and you are using a full autoresponder service, your email service provider will immediately send out their first message at the time of your choosing.

Going forward from there, you can setup an entire string of emails to be sent in intervals so you can stay in contact with your new list members and quickly convert them into customers. This is a great service to have when you are providing an instructional series or eBook via email, when you provide a series of reviews or when you have planned messages that old list members already received but new ones have not.

An autoresponder does not necessarily have to be tied into your email marketing opt in either. You can set up this kind of service to kick in after somebody contacts you, or you can segment your existing list and begin attacking them with different, automatically sent campaigns.

So really, autoresponders can be put to use with a great optin email marketing strategy, but the two aren’t completely the same. Autoresponders represent a far larger picture of functionality and communication, which if used properly can do wonders for converting a prospect or email marketing lead into a paying customer. An email marketing opt in is designed purely to get people onto your list, and may or may not include any automatic responses.