Network Marketing with Magnetic Sponsoring and The Renegade

Email Marketing Tools Saved My Sanity: A Review of iContact

 

Internet marketing tools are software programs designed to help you manage the process of internet marketing. Some are free. Most are reasonably priced. A couple are indispensible.

Email marketing tools developed to manage email marketing campaigns are the best investment and the best value for money when you are developing your internet marketing process.

When I learned to set up and incorporate an email marketing tool with an autoresponder feature in my internet network marketing business, I was amazed at how many hours of restful sleep were added to my day. I stopped tossing and turning, plagued by worries that I was not keeping track of my communication with prospects and customers. Before using an email marketing tool: Did I miss anyone really? YES. Did I lose money? YES. Did I pass up potential business team members? YES.

Read how I chose an email marketing tool with an autoresponder to:

• set up email marketing campaigns,
• make lists that grow by themselves,
• send batches of the same email to my customers and prospects without spamming, and
• send out regular tips and newsletters which I can set up in advance and schedule for delivery.

Oh, did I mention tracking? I’m able to keep track of which pieces are pending and which have been sent, which have been delivered and which have bounced, which have been opened. Amazing—and all automatic.

I Had a Job AND a Business: Contacts Growing Exponentially

 

(Please don’t comment on my lack of judgment and foresight. I know sigh, I know...)

When I first started my network marketing business, I was working at a University teaching business people who were instructors--and teaching students. Multiple groups of instructors and their faculty managers; multiple groups of students. New sets of groups added four times a year, every quarter.

For the first time in my working life, I had multiple lists of people and their contact data. Each list represented a group of 20-300 people, each group with different interests and needs. Over a 5-year period, I wrote and sent thousands of emails, hundreds of thousands, probably. Learning how to use Outlook’s features became a priority. Eventually, I had about 40 email lists in addition to the standard lists the University organized.

Each quarter I set up new lists and “retired” or updated the old lists. Eventually I learned to save emails as templates and for a long time my email Drafts folder was full of emails I knew I could re-purpose, use with slight modifications, over and over again.

When I left my University job, I began working as a management and leadership trainer and coach. I contract with a small, fast growing training company. I also market and sell the training products and services of the same company. Every couple of weeks, I receive a list of prospects to follow up with -- and begin a consultative relationship with – and I initiate and maintain contact with each of them by telephone and email. Multiple products, multiple prospects, multiple companies.

Okay, by now you are getting my drift here, right? I’ve got more than one list and more than one product line. Here are some examples:

1. Graduate psychology students who from quarter to quarter need similar information which I’m sending email-by-email as I answer their questions which come to me, you guessed it, email-by-email.

2. Teaching faculty, instructors who need to get answers to questions, get information about upcoming training, get teaching tips every week following their training courses, etc. Email-by-email for some; email out to lists for others. Many hours updating lists. Many bounced emails.

3. Prospective training product customers to send the same first email to, a batch every few weeks, and a sales manager who prefers we send individual emails, one-by-one, from our personal Outlook accounts. (His way to give individual service and avoid customers feeling “spammed”. A worthy goal but taking a good deal of mind numbing time and effort.)

A Day in the Life of an Internet Network Marketing “Newbie”: MLM Recruiting Insanity

 

(As before, no comments or advice, please. I’m over it.)

Now let’s really finish off the insane picture. I added network marketing to this mix, hoping to work my way out of my teaching “job” and my consulting and training “business”, and into a saner way of life, a home-based business with no commuting.

I started out spending my evenings communicating with customers and recruiting new team members. More lists. More messages. Different processes to manage. After awhile, it’s not only onerous to keep up-to-date contact information, all in one place and searchable so that you can find sub-groups (e.g. customers who are retail, customers who are members, customers who purchase “green” products, customers who purchase nutritional products, prospects from a purchased leads list, prospects from a landing page....)

Get the chaos in my mind? Get how this system is going to break down and cause a breakdown?!

I tried keeping track using spreadsheets to track which step of my many processes each person on each list was on. Had I sent Email #4 in Week 4 to my students? Had I sent Email #2 to my MLM prospect and was it time for a phone call? Of course, I had individual notes handwritten in forms that tracked more detail for each student, training prospect or MLM customer and prospect. How long do you think it was before there were too many individual pieces of paper to track and go through at the beginning of my work day?

Drum Roll, Please: iContact to the Rescue!

 

I heard about email marketing with auto-responders from an MLM colleague who just threw those terms into a presentation I heard at an annual meeting. I asked him which one he recommended before I even knew what an auto-responder is and what it could do for my business. I’m a gadget and software junkie, a tech toys fan, so I checked it out. Eureka! What a gold mine. Here is what I do with iContact that has saved my sanity:

• Create, send, and track email newsletters, surveys, and autoresponders. It’s easy to create permission-based email marketing campaigns (no spamming) in iContact.
• Set up an email campaign that is specific to a market. For example, I have a different campaign set up for my management training prospects and email goes out with a name, address/location and return email address that fits that campaign—my name, my training company email address, the Seattle location of the main office. I use a different company name, location address and email send/return address for my internet network marketing email campaign.
• Use email templates to design and send monthly newsletters to customers of my MLM and business builders in my team. I also send out a monthly newsletter to my training and business coaching clients. I can prepare newsletters in advance of their send-out date and schedule send out.
• Create sign up forms for web pages. Write, post and schedule the send out of a series of emails to people who sign up at my landing page. I usually have an information product they get for free and I deliver it to them by having a link in the first email that takes them to a web page where they can download the free report.

Sometimes I mail out (snail mail) something. The advantage of this method is that I ask for more contact information in my sign up form. I think the information I get is more likely to be the mailing address of a real person. Someone who is tempted to sign up with bogus information is less likely to take the trouble to fill out the sign up form.( My opinion.)

• As people are added to my list automatically, the email series is sent out to them automatically, one email after the other with no extra effort on my part.
• Create and send out surveys to find out what people want and need so that I can tailor my offers to my market. This is so cool. In one popular email marketing service, you pay extra for this feature. In iContact, the survey feature is included.
• Track which emails have been sent, which have been opened, which links have been clicked.

Email Marketing Tool Recommendations: Why I Choose iContact

Most of the teachers, trainers, sales people and new MLM people I work with already use a method of collecting and managing contacts. Most use Outlook. I teach them to become more efficient and effective using Outlook to collect, record and manage their contacts and schedule time using the Calendar and Tasks features. When people aren’t already using Outlook, I help them find and use free or very inexpensive contact management systems.

Easy to Learn & Best Features
When people are ready for incorporating email marketing using an autoresponder and internet marketing campaigns in their businesses, I recommend iContact because it is easy to learn how to set up a campaign and the create mailing lists. (This is partly because I am familiar with iContact and partly because the web-based training and customer support is so good.) I also like the combination of features that iContact offers:

• searchable email lists,
  
  
• autoresponders,
  
  
• surveys, and the
  
  
• tracking system.

Double Opt-In is Optional.
An important feature of iContact that I favor is the ability to add contacts and send email to them without a double opt-in. The double opt-in system is a strongly ethical feature of permission-based marketing. In iContact you set up an email to be delivered to someone who subscribed to your newsletter or signed up for your email list. This opt-in email has a link embedded and your new contact has to click the link to verify their desire to sign up and receive email from you. They opt in twice (double): first, when they fill in a web-based form and second, when they click in the link in the opt-in email.

However, for some contacts (my MLM member customers, for instance) this is an unnecessary and sometimes annoying step that will cause some to fail to click on the link—or to even understand the necessity of this step. iContact has a step that allows you to choose to add contacts who will not receive a double opt-in. Another example: my training prospects and their contact information are sent to me after they have opted in at a company web site, signed up for and attended a webinar and filled out a short survey. They expect to be contacted by someone associated with the company by both telephone and email. I don’t use a double opt-in system with these prospective customers.

It’s Free to Try Email Marketing with iContact

Sign up is easy for a 15-day trial of iContact. That is plenty of time to experience every feature of iContact and provide some valuable content to people on any list you set up. The directions for adding and importing data are clear and easy to follow.

If you want some step-by-step guidance I’m always available to get you started. Link to me from my bio below for a free consultation. Click-by-click email marketing tutorials are available through Renegade Pro. It’s a program I use to train all the members of my team. You'll find step-by-step tutorials to guide you through the process of setting up an iContact account and an email marketing campaign.

Email Marketing: Critical to Internet Marketing Success

To be successful in internet marketing and network marketing, automating lead capture and email marketing is a necessary step. There is no way to build a list and offer them value through information--and to stay in touch over time without an autoresponder. It’s a small monthly cost (starting at $9 a month) to use iContact and being able to utilize the newsletter templates and survey creation tool is an included bonus for my business marketing process.

 

 

Sign up now for your 15-day trial of iContact and a free email marketing course.





Kate Williams is a coach and consultant with a first career in education and health services. A former corporate trainer and team builder, Kate continues to contract with businesses to coach and train managers and supervisors.She's developing a home-based business as a women's health coach.

"I'm having more fun now that I work for myself from home. My internet marketing efforts are one
of the most challenging things I've done -- and highly satisfying. What could be better than communicating
and collaborating with people all over the world, living in the Land of AND? Let's do good work together AND enjoy life, help others AND help ourselves by making a living for our families.

Please let me know if there is any way I can be of service in your learning and application of attraction marketing principlesand internet marketing strategies."

Email: kate@simply-home-business.com
Skype: joyinhealth
Phone: 1-866-567-1587