What's in a list?
Well if you have a list of present, past or potential customers, there is 'gold in them there hills'.

At Reverb, I often say that the money is in your list. What I mean by that is that when you have a list of contacts, that include name, phone and email at minimum, there are potential paying customers there that you can now market to over and over.

Why do you think everywhere you go in retail, online, events, etc. they alway ask you for your email address, to 'sign up' for a newsletter, special offer, updates, and so on. Not because the company just likes giving stuff away, but because they are wanting to trade you for your information. There offer for your contact information. And many are willing to hand it over, understanding that they will receive this information, offers, emails, helpful content, etc. on a regular basis.

There is gold in them there hills...

So what? Well, this means as a small business, you can have the same approach. And why not? If you have valuable information to share or information and offers that can help people, your potential customer, then take advantage of a 'trade'.

How do you get started?

1. Easy. Put a form on your website that says 'Get Offers & Updates' for example. (If you are using the Reverb Pipeline, ask us to set it up for you.) Then offer a special discount code, or 15% your next purchase, or free e-book, etc.

2. Use the leads your are currently generating. If you are a business that is regularly generating leads, there is your list. You are already capturing them. Read below for what to do with them.

3. Past leads- do you have a list of your past customers? I hope that you would have some kind of list that you can look back to. If so, there you go.

Ok, so you have a list, now what?

Send them an email and text blast with a special offer, announcement, update, discount, etc. That's it. Then next month, quarter, week, whatever your frequency is, although don't abuse the contact or you will see your opt out rate go up, send then a short message letting them know how awesome you are and that they really need to know about this specific offer.

Here is the beautiful thing. For email, most people are not going to unsubscribe. You could literally, email them daily and many will not unsubscribe. Now, I am not saying to do that and wouldn't generally suggest it for small businesses. Additionally, if you send to many, the effectiveness, open rate will definitely good down. So make sure you have thought through the message before hitting send.

Save that message now for anyone that opts in to future campaigns and have it go out in one week, or one month, automatically. Then each time you send a new message, just add it to the mix. Pretty soon you will have a long list of email nurtures.

The same can be said for texts. Although I recommend using short, personal text messages when doing a blast. Personal SMS text messages seem to have a much higher engagement rate than robotic or corporate written sms. And engagement, replies and calls with customers wanting what you have is the name of the game.

Remember that many of these contacts have opted in to receive messages from you. And many of these will buyt what you are offering, from someone, so it might a well be your business.

Would you pick up a $100 bill you found laying on the ground? Of course. Your list has $100 bills sprinkled throughout it. You just have to reach out to them in a coordinated manner.

So what's in a list? Your list has gold in it friend... Gold I tell you... Gold.

A Couple of points to consider:

• When sending to large list, consider using a 'drip' tactic or campaign and only send during business hours, in case someone calls.

• Keep it short and sweet. Don't get long winded.

• Don't be overly sellsy. Be informative.

• Have a clear call to action- what action do they need to take (i.e. call to claim, fill out the form, send a text,etc.)

• Be creative with your offers and creative

• Don't be stingy with your offer (If it goes wild, just pause the campaign and re-group)

• Monitor the campaign; if it doesn't start converting, pause a re-group on offer and messaging.

• Test your message on yourself and others that are involved (Don't make the mistake of sending it to 10K people without testing).

• Don't spam... Be respectful of your customers.

• If you get a good response from one specific campaign, make a note, and save it for a future date

Now there are other ways to use your list, such as in targeted ads. So be on the lookout for future blogs on this and other ideas.

If you need help with nurture marketing, lead generation or text blasts, contact us.