Email marketing. It’s not just for businesses. I mean, some people think that it is restricted to that group only. And they are not wrong. Wait a minute? What was that?

Email marketing can now be used by anyone – corporate entities and even individuals running their own blogs or websites. That’s a fact that’s as plain as the plainest of things.

Businesses can be email marketers. Individuals can be email marketers. You can be a successful email marketer.

But before you get deep into all this…

Be or think like a business

As mentioned in this article, many persons with blogs and websites take too long before they introduce an opt in form on their site and an incentive to get emails (from people interested in what they do or sale) and the permission to send more useful, and interesting updates to those who give their email addresses to them.

One can argue that they may be profitable that they don’t need to ask people to sign up to an email list once they land on their websites or blogs.

But even if that’s the case, how much trouble does one need to get into to add an email sign up form on their site and create an incentive? Not much if you ask me. And the trouble is always worth it.

Those with membership sites may be excused of course – because then they still get the name, the address and a chance to engage even more deeply with the members who sign up to their site. Same thing that happens with email subscribers.

WordPress sites can also be configured so that every time a new member signs up, they are automatically added to an email list.

Anyone who doesn’t take advantage of this affordable way of marketing (email) and owns no membership site is missing on something big. And they can quickly start taking advantage of it once they commit to build a list.

If you have done, or are willing to do that today, that’s good. You get the chance to read on, to learn about the main thing I want to share with you today.

There’s more involved in email marketing. A lot more than choosing the best software to help you create and send your campaigns and autoresponders.

Things don’t stop the moment you add your sign up forms to your site and start seeing your list attracting new subscribers every week either.

Create your own list and also subscribe to several other email lists

Several could be five or ten, a hundred, five hundred or a thousand. You get to decide how many lists you want to join – and yours should be among those you join.

Why join several lists? It’s akin to what businesses do online and offline. Watching their competitors. Taking time off their day to see what’s going on in the neighbours – the companies in their industry and other industries.

You have to subscribe to several email lists for the same reason. To learn about others who are marketing this way. To learn how they do their thing.

It’s free education – an education that can pay well if you are attentive and commit to the study long enough – learning and never stopping.

It’s an education that can also give you the chance to connect with the other marketers; an education that can give you the chance to learn about traditions and new trends that make email marketing even more powerful to you and your customers.

Where will you find the best email lists to join?

The first place to look?

Start with sites owned by businesses in the same industry you are in

Some are your competitors – after the same people you are after. In some cases they offer similar products or services to the same market (or a segment of it).

Some may be owned by people you know in real life. May be folks from your town or city.

The rule is, if they are in the same industry and have a place for their customers and prospects to join their mailing list (which can be on a website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter or their offline store via apps which can be installed on tablet PCs, QR code etc) and you are interested in learning how they engage with their subscribers, sign up – to learn.

The second place to look?

Sites owned by individuals blogging on topics related to the products or services you have in the market

Some blog, and blog really well, but they are not businesses yet. Turning their blog into a real business could be one of their main goals. In the meantime as they wait and work their way to that goal, some of them turn the traffic they get to their sites into subscribers.

They could pitch a little but spend more than 80% of the time they engage with their subscribers via email sending them useful information that the readers are glad to receive in their inbox.

You can be one of those readers.

Open their email campaigns and autoresponder series (email sequences) to:

• To learn how they use email to engage with you.
• To learn how they share their expertise.
• to learn how they sell you on their products and services
• To learn about the questions they ask.
• To learn why they send what they send to their subscribers.
• To learn about the different things they do to make their copy even more effective.
• To learn how they get you to take action.
• And most importantly, to learn what they do next once you take the action they want you to take.

What do you do once you sign up into those email lists?

It’s all about learning, learning by seeing what others do.

Learn how they craft their subject lines, headlines.

Learn more about their choice of words.

Learn about the many choices they make before they send their copy to their email subscribers.

Learn why you can’t wait to receive new updates from some of the lists you have subscribed to while you are tempted to unsubscribe from others.

Learn why you click the links on some emails and not others.

While doing all this, always remember that the number one reason you are dedicating a part of your time to do this every single day is because:

1. It can lead to a lot of meaningful connections with the marketers you join their lists and connect with by replying to their emails.
2. It is a good way to learn about other people’s thoughts, concerns, predictions, successes and failures. If those marketers happen to be in the same industry as you, that’s a plus. If they are in another niche, you can learn how to use what you already have to tap into the niche they are in as well.
3. It is free education that you can hardly get paying for any course. You will learn how some structure their offers and get you to buy whatever it is they are selling. The good thing is that most lists, owned by businesses and individuals making massive profits or losses, are and will always remain free.
4. You will learn more about your industry. One thing that most email marketers use a lot is stories. Why? Because they know it works really well. It keeps their subscribers reading further down and taking action. This can be a chance for you to learn about different studies, experiments, strategies, companies and even individuals you may have not known about before.
5. It will help you craft better emails for your subscribers, which means more people will open the emails they get from you. More of your subscribers will take action and share the emails they get from you with their friends by forwarding them and linking to them from their favourite social networking sites.

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I’d also like to read your thoughts on this. Have something you’d like to share concerning email marketers best practices or list building in general? The comments section is all yours.