Guerrillas Need An Optin List

Guerrillas Need An Optin Listby John Botscharowhave such a narrow target market that your list will
The most important marketing weapon any businessnever grow to a sufficient size to be profitable.
needs is their own opt in mailing list. Why?Once you have defined your area of expertise and
To answer that, first we must define what opt inyour target market, then you can get a pretty fair
means. An opt in list as I use the term is a list ofidea of what your content should be, at least to
people and their addresses (can be either snail mailbegin with. It helps if you start subscribing to other
and/or e-mail addresses) that you built yourself.newsletters that target the same subscribers you do.
These are the contacts who have come to yourThis will give you a more specific idea of the kind of
web site and have requested information from you.content you need to develop. But, let me stress
Or they have responded to an ad you placed eitheragain, this is only the starting point.
on line or off line. The particular way they contactedA side bar here! If you've followed the seven steps
you is not really important for this article but the factof developing a guerrilla marketing plan that I laid out
that they requested your information is. They havein an earlier article, these three questions should
given you consent to send them information.already be pretty much answered in that plan.
Why is it important that they have requested thatNow that you have decided on the area of
information? The answer is NOT what most of youexpertise, the target market, and the type of
are probably thinking right now. I'm not talking aboutcontent you want to provide, the question becomes:
Spam here. The importance lies in the subscriber'sHow do I provide that content? The most obvious
receptivity. If I request information I will be muchanswer is through your own newsletter. But there
more inclined, first, to read it and, secondly, to followare other options as well.for instance, you could
through with it.publish a series of reports or a book. You could write
____________________________a column for someone else" s newsletter. You could
A side bar here! The fact that some governmentdo a radio or television show. You could do a series
agency or your ISP disapproves of my marketingof audio or video tapes. Or you could do the on line
tactics is not relevant. What is important is that,equivalents of any of these. But there is one
sending mail to someone who did not request it, thatimportant factor common to any and all of these
is, someone who did not show any interest in yourpossible tactics.
information, is counter-productive for YOU and aYour content must include original material written
waste of YOUR time, YOUR effort and YOURand developed by YOU! It certainly will not hurt to
money.have material by acknowledged experts in your field,
-----------------------------------------------------------------especially if their advice corroborates yours. But you
I want to stress the word "information" here. Yourmust include ORIGINAL material. The more original
subscribers did not request to be bombarded withmaterial you can develop, the better in the long run
nothing but blatant advertising. If you use your list tofor you.
send ONLY advertising, your list will disappear veryWhy is original material so important? It goes back to
quickly. Most people get enough pure advertising viathe question we raised at the beginning about what
their mail (and for this article "mail" includes both snailan opt in list is and why an opt in list is so important,
mail and e-mail) to last them a lifetime. They reallywhich we never finished answering.
are not asking for more.Having your own list of people who requested YOUR
What you need to provide for your list is important,information allows you to build credibility for yourself
valuable, and relevant content. The criteria you mustas an expert in your field. But that works only if your
use to determine if this content is valuable orcontent is your own ORIGINAL content. If you
important or relevant is not whether YOU think it is,provide too much content written by others, you
but whether your subscribers think so.only build THEIR credibility with your subscribers, not
How do you determine what your subscribers think isyours! It is YOUR reputation as an expert you want
important or valuable or relevant?to develop, not mine or anybody else's.
First of all, the demographics of your list will give youBesides, it was YOUR information they were
some general ideas. When you set up your list, yourequesting, not mine, not anybody else's. Give them
must define a "target market" Who do you want onYOUR information - information which is valuable,
your list? Not specific names, but you need to pickimportant and relevant and original. This will build their
some specific characteristics) you want all yourtrust and confidence in you!
subscribers to have in common. Perhaps, they shouldThat trust will be useful in two ways for you, but
all be dog owners or hot rod fanciers or people whothat's the subject of the next article!
raise bees.===========================
This target market is defined first of all by what areaThis article is copyrighted by 3R Marketing. All rights
of expertise you intend to specialize in. Are you goingreserved. You may use this article in your newsletter
to be an expert in martial arts or marital relationships?as long as the article is left intact and that the author
Once you have defined your area of expertise, theninformation and this disclaimer are included.
you ask yourself, "Who will be interested in thisPlease send me a courtesy copy of your newsletter
information?" Try to narrow this group down asif you do use this article.
much as possible. But do not overdo it or you will