5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Listbuilding E-mail Campaign

Listbuilding is the lifeblood of the Internet marketer. In order to sell products, it’s essential that you build lists of targeted prospects and keep them close at hand by staying in contact with them. Don’t fall prey to the critical errors that will kill your affiliate marketing business.

Many newbie marketers assume that once someone joins their lists, the work is complete. Not so. Listbuilding is an ongoing process and does not end once a prospect provides his name and e-mail to you. Sending autoresponders is one of the most popular ways to build lists and keep prospects interested in your offering.

Here are 5 critical mistakes to avoid as you build your lists:

1.    Don’t buy email lists. Listbuilding is not just a numbers game. Novice marketers often think that the bigger their lists, the more sales they’ll make. Don’t be fooled by the numbers. You want to build qualified lists, not lists that are full of uninterested prospects. Successful Internet marketers will tell you that a smaller list of qualified prospects often outsells a much larger list of random prospects.

2.    Don’t send spam to recipients. First of all, spamming is illegal. Unless you’re willing to turn off potential customers and face harsh legal penalties, you need to steer clear of spam and anything that can be misconstrued as spam. To avoid confusion, send e-mail only to people who have voluntarily joined your list.

3.    Don’t write subject lines that sound as if your English teacher wrote them. If the subject line sounds too formal and business-like, the recipient may decide not to open your e-mail because it sounds too “salesy”. Don’t capitalize all the main words in the subject when lowercase words will work just as well. Keep subject lines personal to grab the recipient’s attention.

4.    Don’t deceive the recipient of your e-mails. Never use a deceptive subject line that implies the e-mail is about one thing only to fool the reader who opens it with something else. Prospects will unsubscribe when they feel tricked by an Internet marketer. Prospects are offended by deception, and marketers who make this mistake often find their lists shrinking in numbers.

5.    Don’t overdo it when it comes to sending e-mails. Less is often more when it comes to sending e-mails to prospects. If you send too many, you risk inundating readers with too many useless e-mails. If you don’t send enough, prospects may forget that they have signed up for your list. When you send an e-mail, provide quality content that is engaging to the reader on an as-needed basis. You can tell a story that ties into your product or offer solutions to your prospects’ problems. Prospects also appreciate how-to tips and tricks.

When listbuilding for your affiliate marketing business, it’s important to know what not to do so you can avoid some of the pitfalls that new marketers fall prey to. By avoiding novice mistakes, you can shorten your learning curve and, hopefully, shorten your path to Internet marketing success.