Email Marketing Strategy - A 'How To' Course

...This is page 3 of the email marketing strategy course. This lesson is about how to define a target market - an email marketing strategy that allows you to make more money with your online business. A complete list of topics and pages are in the sidebar at right.

Define, Focus On, and Target Your Niche Tightly

Everyone has at least one area of expertise. If not, then one area of intense interest. This can be a topic that is technical in nature, professional (such as the stock market), career related, or a hobby interest ( sports, crafts, wine, video games). It could be a personal interest - women's rights, raising or educating children, law reformation, and so on.

Email newsletters, as I stated earlier on, are great marketing tools to promote not only your own business, but other business' products. This is where an email marketing strategy first enters the scene.

Defining Your Target Market

So, you've got a website, or an idea for a website. And you know that 'the money is in the list' so you've decided to publish an email newsletter...
Where to next? Well first, you'll want to do a little preliminary work on defining your target market. In this case that's the average metrics of a subscriber.

Defining your market may be a matter of a best guess to start - if you're new to marketing or promotion adding an email newsletter is best done targeting a market that you are a part of - not a market that your own interests and strengths don't lie.

So define that 'average person'....Are they male or female? Single moms? Empty nesters? Income level? Age? Basic personality type? Hungry for information? Willing to take risks?

Serving Your Target Market

This is a science, in effect a balance you'll need to strive toward and I have no hard and fast rules for you to follow because every single market is different. 

Website owners on your list may want to hear about new products every day.

Vegetable gardeners - if that's the focus of your list - want frequent content in the spring and summer, but less in the fall or winter. 

It's all about your personality, the personality of your average subscriber, and the content that you have to share with them. Just understand that your email newsletter is a living part of your business and as such has a pulse. Find it and flow with it and everything you provide or write to your subscribers will be natural and never 'read' "I just want to get you to buy something."

The key to big profits with email marketing is to grow your subscriber base - the best way to accomplish this is by providing great content.

The number of active readers multiplies quickly if you deliver useful, top quality content to your readers. You can't simply send them out any old advertisement, some other writer's material, or a few sparse sentences with a link to an affiliate product. 

Your subscribers will demand that you give them something of value, that you earn their trust, and that you establish rapport or a relationship with them. The more honest, helpful and credible your content is, the easier it becomes for your readers to appreciate your work.

Finding Subscribers that Fit Your Market Ideal

Once you've defined the market, you'll next need to determine what will attract them, where can they be found online, and how to get them to sign up for your email newsletter.

Many people may tell you different, but this is one of the easiest ways to grab an interested list, building it slowly, for zero investment.

Furthermore, this technique will also assist your search engine ranks!

You need to write 2 or 3 articles about your industry that will pique your average reader's interest. You're going to then submit these articles to article sites where a number of webmasters will pick up and use your articles on their websites. The beauty of this is that at the bottom of every article you can 'pitch' your website, your email newsletter, and your name.

If people are interested in your content, they will click through to your site. When they click through, it's now your job to convince them to sign up to your newsletter. This isn't the fastest way to get subscribers, nor is it the way to build a large list fast, but it will get you started!

Once you have a small list and are used to marketing to, and writing for them, you'll be making money, your skills will have grown stronger and you can look at other avenues and techniques for growing your list. You'll know when you're ready to attract and maintain a large list of subscribers. Don't take on too much too soon or you could quickly kill your online reputation.

Okay, so we've discussed why you should publish an email newsletter, how to talk to your list, how to find the people who will want to be on your list, and defining your target market.

That's enough for today wouldn't you agree?

What? You want more? Okay then, turn the page, let's move on to discussing advertising and affiliate links in email newsletters...