An Ignoble Experiment: [Hints & Tips] How to build a top-notch email list

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Dear Indiana,

Growing your
permission-based email list is a top priority for your business. Each address
you add represents a new opportunity to build a relationship with someone who is
interested in what you have to offer.
This month's resources are designed to help you grow an excellent email list. Ellen
Siegel's article, An Email List that Sparkles, will walk you through the best practices
of building and maintaining a quality list. In addition, my article, 8 List Growth
Ideas from the Field, will give you some tactical ideas for list growth.
We also feature three email marketers who've had success growing their lists. They'll
tell you how, in their own words. Do you have a creative way that you've grown your
list or a question to ask? Speak your mind in our Hints & Tips [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAqBe787gI6_6NtXyr4f_2ePXsGPKv12-uMJBa8XWoA33wERX9tmwkXz4dT5KTQ4KDlVZVsk0siPDuP7IPq6DJqXDwL1YznGuB-t3T1PAoJMe-fIDnRy9zSzdLhSkSzDgE-3BozIWxQA7F7mgBvzHWu94EKoXpMhOR66YMq9VwS94BFzlokryIC1]
forum [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAqBe787gI6_6NtXyr4f_2ePXsGPKv12-uMJBa8XWoA33wERX9tmwkXz4dT5KTQ4KDlVZVsk0siPDuP7IPq6DJqXDwL1YznGuB-t3T1PAoJMe-fIDnRy9zSzdLhSkSzDgE-3BozIWxQA7F7mgBvzHWu94EKoXpMhOR66YMq9VwS94BFzlokryIC1].
And when you are done reading, please let me know if you found this issue helpful
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNApextU1NcExApeiZBZ5AnHfb_Ie1NWzfk_JDMWRVJ8afPS5WkA_pTTxcbTyY_bHO9HdjmUExVJVPWd7bqBjUMicR63QbRphuSJB6vPLA09WtmvTMNb_jhPrpDB1SkqUq9kRrKOmM5vr3Opub0HEV6uAD0vkIDBvjIbjubC0uQUTs3D8zDjazgrfj1ZJGmTPR81SgXObQd-b2mDI6as5-bCG].

All the best,

Amy Black
Editor, Hints & Tipse-Newsletters

P.S.
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get a sign-up sheet you can print out (pdf).

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In This Issue of Hints & Tips

* An Email List that Sparkles by Ellen Siegel
* 8 List Growth Ideas from the Field by Amy Black
* Success Stories: How three companies grew their lists
* "How to" Tips: List building, maintenance, and more
* What's New with Constant Contact: Anchor Links & more
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An Email List that Sparkles
10 tips for building and maintaining a quality email list
By Ellen Siegel, Director of Technology and Standards
Your email list is one of the most important assets you have, and a high-quality
list is worth its weight in gold. What exactly is a quality list? It's made up
of valid email addresses to which you have clear permission to send specific content.
Why does the quality of your list matter? For starters, it can have a direct impact
the deliverability of your emails. When you continue to mail to addresses that have
bounced, ISPs take notice. They take even more notice when you get spam complaints
from your recipients (their customers). Remember that these days, most ISPs define
spam as any email their customers have indicated
they don't want to receive.
A low-quality list can also have a direct impact on the success of your emails.
You're sending emails because you want to communicate with your contacts. If they
don't receive your email because it is either blocked or delivered to their spam
folder, you aren't reaching them. And if they are annoyed at your content or your
frequency, they are likely to delete your message or file a spam complaint. Either
way, you won't get the opens, click-throughs, and other results you are seeking.
So your deliverability and reputation with your subscribers are deeply intertwined,
and building and maintaining a clean list is critical to keeping both on the right
track!
Get the 10 tips [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAqFdWIGTuQ_cTEqSdOPWAin_tf2wvgkpAjyvqh0YyCw-9NbPc7IKG307-GowotFD2vHm-vqTmWwy061XulQ1oJIJkxwAogoYSvCHMxBegiQZwHmK6saI2iHlLHlItYuYVaUcUCp_uKSKHB31Bz7xhWj5C57ahrD9-mreLzhv67MtVqmGNsgpStoee7ELdQMum40ZBCToPaLLunDuDylZO0WontBQTQ_mBeBfmWnQZJRqg==]
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8 List Growth Ideas from the Field
Constant Contact's regional directors share list growth tactics
By Amy Black, Editor, Hints & Tips e-Newsletters
Looking for ways to grow your list? To give you some ideas, I spoke with a few of
Constant Contact's regional development directors. These email marketing experts
provide training to small businesses and organizations across the country every
day. They have some great ideas to share and some real life examples for you to
learn from.
Here are some tactics, from the simple to the creative, that will help you capture
more email addresses.
Get the 8 ideas [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNArKVWS27SkMreXbDDwU9F8a1GnVQ6fHb1Ns6QOJSb9B-I-0NmsYEiz_XH5wnSont1sTmp5pYwBs5L5MYKyD27RY8HNCYEQyI0Q_Cm63hZ7z-86P7aoq7YoUUoVWD6JmrbJG2nQ2h7sCOCfvXBZSFAJgOGcnkMDm9Dk5nL45D9c2IGSrqONhbvqNCklj-HCCAtfaLTb0FjTUtknEpLc6I2KI99KyXLJeuhA=]
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July 2008
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Free Webinar: Building Better Lists

Learn why an opt-in list is the way to go and discover
best practices for building and maintaining yours.

Register to attend a live webinar [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNArMXMwPKjHSkuHKHEpKifngeaNrL23hBKwldwYwK5c4ahPmpi1KfBnc17rpGSp3EanMiFJT-N7TXpX-72Dft62r7rNukPLBSf1ypomwxLcybfoJVKNMNRez5cZ4_PvGavY96OEAuOdpyTm7WsoJPdxZkMT-YSEeym2UNDHo-aBxxkA_HiRBG-VfZvgFQKPJcX_97_Zn7BlgT4Dj-yeBacfx]

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Serious List Growth: How Did They Do It?
Three email marketers share the secrets to their list growth success
Massachusetts For Sale By Owner
www.ma4salebyowner.com [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNApvUNrEMLJrJXJd1wVRfkbrvn-s9SnSwInmwihhxDcwDo6C50zTAnc205do24NeFRWFj-VBge5PZC2sACAdyVA7f7SFlteUSYLcHeiZ8orlhFgjrLtit9vk]
Blog sign-up box example [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNApvUNrEMLJrJXJd1wVRfkbrvn-s9SnSwInmwihhxDcwDo6C50zTAnc205do24NeFRWFj-VBge5PZC2sACAdyVA7f7SFlteUSYLcHeiZ8orlhFgjrLtit9vk]Massachusetts
For Sale By Owner has been sending email newsletters for more than six years. Over
those years, they grew their email list from 50 to more than 2,000. Here's how owner,
Liz Provo, did it:
Our sign-up box is featured prominently on our homepage, but we also place it on
a separate page that describes why one should receive our newsletters. We reaffirm
that they can unsubscribe at anytime and that we do not solicit. We link to this
page from both our buying and selling sections. Additionally, we promote the newsletter
on many pages of both our main website and our blog. When buyers sign up for property
alerts we offer them a complimentary subscription to the newsletter. We also sign
many of our one-on-one emails with a lead-in to the newsletter.
Basketball Success
www.basketballsuccess.com [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNArFBiCUxMsuEUHyQBFDS1xh9t_dpn25BPKrTF7Y8TRtt8_2gMuXt-URbl1XTe0ALhbEI7mULviL3T5z2kcfksWgOAqFCW3VCXoK6zr8aqfJ-faLhdfrQW0E]
web site sign up example [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAr5yxUK41pW4lKx4yW4RvysUeIdO1ICl0eflmZc_j4QX29axYgjyoo8KMdChTxu7LGA75_Q2jrPOXQDbQ4kvkHkxwYqU-6xKq75CkgoGSUlbY58trM-QyXP]Patrick
Chylinski of Basketball Success has been successfully email marketing for eight
years. He's come a long way; after starting out with no list at all, he now boasts
a strong following of more than 7,000. In the beginning, he was getting 8 to 10
sign ups per day. He made some changes and lifted the daily sign-up number to 25
to 30 per day. Patrick tells us how:
First, I placed the sign-up box in a more visible spot, above the fold on my homepage.
I used to have my sign-up box near the bottom of the homepage because I thought
that people who came to my website didn't want to be bothered by something like
a newsletter sign-up box. But after doing reading and research on website owners
who had been successful at building large email lists, I realized I had to move
my sign-up box to a more prominent place on my website. So I moved it above the
fold, towards the left-hand side of the page, so it's one of the first things site
visitors see.
Second, I started offering a free "special report" to those who signed up for my
newsletter. It was an in-depth article I'd put together that I emailed only to
those who joined my list. Providing my site visitors with an incentive to sign
up increased the rate tremendously.
Vox Ama Deus
www.voxamadeus.org [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAodDSJKOsI5JoHR6nOCEDjS9EhKCxE55Y5xiGV5eQV_E-CaljBVB49TmfWyqCYgjBGrJ-xLqcT-Q_vO9lWMY6UcpzLAsOEaXP9VSOV6YvdwZA==]
web site sign up example [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAodDSJKOsI5JoHR6nOCEDjS9EhKCxE55Y5xiGV5eQV_E-CaljBVB49TmfWyqCYgjBGrJ-xLqcT-Q_vO9lWMY6UcpzLAsOEaXP9VSOV6YvdwZA==]Vox
Ama Deus, a nonprofit organization that brings the music of the Renaissance, Baroque,
and Classical periods to audiences, has more than doubled their email list in three
years of email marketing. Starting out with about 350 contacts, they've now surpassed
700. According to Director of Marketing and Publicity Inna Heasley, this is how
they've done it:
The sign-up box is a constant on our website. And at our events, we invite people
to join the list and give away free tickets to our next concert. To encourage people
to sign up, we let them know that once on the list they will receive incentives
and ticket promotions to our concerts. This benefit is exclusively for members of
the list. Lastly, all employees' email signatures have a sign-up link.

Do you have an email marketing success story?
Has email marketing helped your business or organization to be successful?
We want to hear about it.

Share your success story! [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAruVTEPKqUEdVf1DWLNxj_UAjxFwjqgxA5Y9jfCPj_UPix425rBxB4tbnJnZgBKBVrZQWiEVSZgoR49aAMZQBfvNN55jM0R1e6-87_zrVK-jFtFx4HVsD31YaBxysrCxwosLl_tltOoUVs4_LPg63srvnIhSF0JXLMr3KqKyNgWYttQaxFbSecEmL4vnAoGeRHXlXurH4CNMBbl63bwy2dD]

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"How to" Tips for SpeakUp!SM Email Marketing

What's New with Constant Contact

Anchor Links, Default "From" name, Unsubscribe Comment Box

New! Anchor Links- Now you can easily
add Anchor Links to your emails. Your readers can quickly review and link to the
articles that interest them, without scrolling!
Improved!Changing your "From"
name- Now you can easily
set your business' name as the default "From" name in all your emails. Simply go
to the "My Settings" tab to update.
Improved!Unsubscribe Comment
Box- Sure, it's
disappointing when someone unsubscribes from your email list. But wouldn't it be
helpful to know why they unsubscribed? The
Unsubscribe Comment Box - now automatically turned on for you - gives them a
chance to tell you why, so you can make improvements that will help keep more
people on your list.
Learn about additional updates [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zbKOnH4NNAq01YJaMGw30bcvEkxqW8xEvVO1PjZ45Vyz0CZYi9wdf84FUfV80cINpNNBm636hns-Y7vvnAD_T1VLsO6zOJfWoH-FMDhbOmIzuHJjI-aMsHZesxBnd4F46QIEri-1q6-17LO4V_2w404XJn114flPzMzUHF92bnbA02uxWaFeMrYSZ6IM3WqMTAp2u5qyuyQ=],
including those made to ListenUp!SMSurvey.
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