If you want to grow your in-house email list, use blogs as marketing tools. Huh?
Hold on, let me explain…
Think from the end: People sign up for your email newsletter or email marketing when they are at your Web site, right? So one way to grow your email list is to drive more traffic to your site.
People go to search engines like Google and Yahoo because they have a problem to solve. You want them to find your Web site when searching, right?
That’s why I suggest you use blogs as marketing tools. Done right, a blog helps with search engine optimization so you get found online when people are searching for solutions to a problem. That’s because search engines like fresh, up-to-date content, which blogs are assumed to have, so search engines rank blog content faster than static web sites. And because blogs are by their very nature more targeted in subject matter, making them naturally keyword rich
Blogs as marketing tools are not ends in themselves though. You use your blog to drive people to your Web site: They search online, they find your blogs, they then find your Web site by clicking on a link in the blog. Once they are at your site, you sell them on the idea of signing up to get emails from you. That’s how you build your in-house email list using blogs as marketing tools.
Then your email marketing is for continuing and building the relationship. Ideally once they are at the site, they sign up for your email newsletter or email promotions. They are opening the door to hearing from you by doing so, giving you permission to market to them.
Think of it as a three-step process involving a series of yeses:
- Yes, it looks like this blog is relevant, I will click on this search result
- Yes, I like what I see in the blog, I will click on a link to this web site to learn more
- Yes, I like what I see at this web site so I want to sign up for emails and hear from this company again in the futu
The customer has found you and engaged with you, and you’ve grown your in-house email list. All because you blogged.
And this use of blogs as marketing tools works no matter the size of your business. In fact, it might just be the most effective way to go about small business blogging and small business email marketing!
