Building a responsive targeted list of potential customers for your home business is only half the battle; now you must turn this list into paying customers for your enterprise. How are you going to monetize your email list, or in other words, what are you going to use to entice them to open their wallets and pay for your product or service. There are several very effective strategies you can use to turn your list into a cash cow and here are four you can choose from:
1. Affiliate marketing or selling other people’s products or services for a commission on each sale is a great way to begin your Internet marketing career. When you’re just starting out online it’s not very likely you will have your own product or even know how to create your own merchandise to sell to your list of prospective buyers. Therefore, joining an affiliate program is usually the best way to go because it’s very inexpensive to begin and it can be very lucrative if you promote only the best products available which are tailored for your list.
For example, if your home business theme is Internet marketing and in particular information products to help marketers become successful online then these are the people you should have targeted when building your list. If your email directory is made up almost entirely of Internet marketers and home business people online then you should have no problem promoting this type of merchandise to them.
2. Membership sites are growing in popularity on the web for several reasons including the fact that it’s a great way to create a recurring income online. By providing your list with the use of your inventory of products for a monthly fee you can establish a regular income which you can count on each and every month and which you can continue to grow by adding more members on a regular basis. Your main objective when having a list of subscribers should be to keep them interested in your site and maintain their loyalty to your business.
You can accomplish this by providing excellent customer service and by updating your cache of merchandise regularly so your patrons don’t become bored with using the same tools over and over again for their business. If you allow this to occur you will soon see a decrease in your membership list as well as a reduction of your monthly income as your members leave to join other membership sites on the web.
3. If you ask any Internet marketer online worth his salt he or she will tell you that the most money made on the web via Internet marketing is done by creating and promoting your own product. Having merchandise you can call your own opens many doors to many other opportunities for your home business. For example, you can enter into joint venture agreements with some of the better established and more successful business people on the web.
This heightens your credibility because when people see you associating with and working with someone they know and respect online they begin to see you as a successful marketer who should be held in the same esteem as your JV partner. This of course makes it easier for people to do business with you and makes them more willing to buy your products.
4. If you aren’t comfortable with the notion of creating your own product just yet you can look into acquiring the private label rights to a piece of merchandise and then promote it as your own. You can inquire at various PLR sites online about purchasing the rights to a product which you know your list will respond to by purchasing. Acquiring the private label rights to a product allows you to make changes to the finished merchandise and then claim it as your own by placing your name on it as the creator.
For example, if you buy the rights to an e-book you can change the text any way you feel comfortable with and then sign the finished product to claim authorship of the work. By using PLR goods you can pick and choose the merchandise you know your list will be most interested in and are most likely to buy.
The process of monetizing your list shouldn’t be entered into lightly because choosing the wrong approach could spell financial disaster for your home business if your list isn’t interested in the route you have chosen. Of course to ensure your list will be interested in your product you should target them from the outset by focusing on a niche for your merchandise.