There are no more excuses.
Today is the day to spend your cup-of-coffee time gathering, assembling and organizing your shiny new email list. You’ve got about a half hour, depending on how fast you drink your joe, to pull together the following:
- The shoebox of business cards you’ve accumulated over the past 5 years
- Email contacts from your personal email account, along with any past and present business emails
- Email contacts from your LinkedIn account
- Email contacts you may have from your Twitter account
- Your subscribers’ list, if you have a blog
- Emails of past customers, prospects, partners, clients, and other relevant individuals
- For specific influential people you want to target, research their company website or blog—you may just find what you need
This is the beginning of something big. Why?
Because your future success lies in this list. It will become the core of the majority of your marketing efforts going forward, so build it with thought and vigor, and remember it is a foundation on which you’ll build.
Okay, now go. Go!
Why the sense of urgency?
Because there are now two incredible – and free! – email campaign/marketing automation options for individuals and/or small businesses.
Genius.com and Loopfuse have both announced free versions of their comprehensive marketing automation systems.
Loopfuse allows for unlimited users, 5,000 emails/month, 2,500 contacts and 100,000 pageviews. Genius.com allows for 5 users, 2,500 emails/months, 3,000 contacts and unlimited pageviews. Support for both is community-driven.
Of course, the purpose of the “freemium” eventually entices growing businesses to upgrade to an enhanced package as their need for more users and emails increases. But for now, these are great options to dip your toe into the marketing automation pond and set yourself apart, differentiate from the competition, and eagle-eye target your list of future customers.
Why Marketing Automation? See A Cup of Coffee to Your Personalized Email Campaign
