As an online marketer, you may feel that the best way to build your email list is to use methods that revolve around the internet. Keep those type of feelings bottled up inside you, and it could cause you to miss out on a chance to grow your business. There is a big world out there away from the internet, one filled with opportunities for quality leads and legions of potential customers. If you thought online list building techniques were the holy grail, this article will explain why offline methods can be just as, if not more effective.
An Edge on the Competition
Building your list offline is a tactic that could give you a huge advantage over your competitors. How you may ask? Because there is a great chance that for at least some of them, using the internet as their marketing playground is the only tactic they know. It is no secret that the internet is tightly integrated into today’s society, but there are still a few stragglers as not everyone has jumped onboard. Believe it or not, there are people out there who would rather walk into a store and buy what they need, instead of browsing through an online catalog. These are the consumers who are the most likely to subscribe to your email mailings, and the ones the competition is most likely to miss out on.
Potential for Better Responses
Email is a highly effective medium used everyday by billions of people around the world. It works so well, that it has become the backbone for one of the most powerful marketing techniques available. However, having a list doesn’t guarantee that you will reach your target audience. There will always be people on it who use the internet everyday, but ignore your messages for whatever reason. For these prospects, the value of your offer means nothing because they will never even see it. Building your list offline gives you the opportunity to contact prospects through methods outside of electronic mail. Whether it is by direct mail, fax or phone, you can relay the value of your message and possibly receive better responses than you would have via email.
The Power of Variety
Perhaps the most notable advantage offline list building has over the online technique has to do with the fact that there are so many ways to engage potential subscribers. When it comes to the internet, several marketers limit themselves to putting an opt-in form on a website and merely rely on traffic to drive conversions. This is common and can be effective, but taking your list building strategy outside gives you many more opportunities. Savvy marketers have found that mingling at events, placing opt-in forms at the retail counter, and simply passing out business cards are among the effective ways to acquire new prospects.
Think Outside the Box
Offline marketing is alive and well, and list building is one of the key ingredients to its success. Utilizing a few tried and true methods will help you grow your email subscribers, and introduce some of the internet virgins to cyberspace in the process. Once you get them to climb onboard, it is your responsibility to engage and convert. Whether or not you succeed depends on various factors, but if you do not step out of your comfort zone with an offline strategy, then you might be doing nothing but restricting the potential of your business.
Author Bio
Fletcher Finn is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading Web and permission-based email marketing solutions