Kim J. Walsh-Phillips: Three Ways to Build Your Email List Using Facebook

Ninety-three percent of businesses name “email” as their No. 1 marketing strategy. This of course makes sense, since it’s cheap, quick, track-able and easily measured.

If you are in this majority, then improving your email marketing results could be what is between you and growing your business. Perhaps you want to attract new customers, or bring in higher quality leads, or get your phone to ring without cold calling?

One very effective way I improve the results of my private clients’ email marketing is by leveraging the power of Facebook. By using this social network, I can utilize the power of the data behind this network of 1.1 billion people as fuel to email marketing. It is rather simple really.

Email marketing + Facebook = killer results.

To get you started, here are three of the strategies I use which you can apply to your own business.

1. Get more email subscribers: Create a very valuable giveaway that your audience would pay for if it weren’t free. Instead of charging, require the prospect to provide an email address. Whether a free report, video, ebook, audio program, gift certificate to your business or whatever the content might be, keep it focused on the pain points of your target market so it attracts those who would be most likely to be your next customer.
2. Get even more email subscribers: Hold a contest to engage your audience in a community-building activity and to collect a lot more email addresses. As opposed to running the contest on your Facebook timeline (which is now permitted by Facebook), use a third-party app, such as LikeThisLibrary, in order to collect email addresses from each participant.
3. Include social sharing: Provide incentives through posting and sharing of your email content on the social networks of your email subscribers. I give away free reports, ebooks and other goodies to those who share and you can do the same to create a team of ambassadors on behalf of your business. This strategy enables your current subscribers to recruit their friends and family to become your followers. (Another reason to treat your followers like gold…because they are.)