List Building - You Can't Always Get What You Want

Isn't the amount and variation of images, sound, and video available on the Internet incredible? I mean, this stuff has come a long way in the past few years alone, and if you're list building for the first time, you may wonder whether to take your list building efforts to the next level, too. Should you use HTML in the messages you load into your autoresponder series? Well, here are some things you should definitely consider before making a decision:

When people talk to one another, they don't hold up pictures of what they're talking about, do they? They use words to communicate, and whether you write in text only or HTML, words will still contain your offers. Do you really want potential buyers to be distracted away from the message?

I mean, the reason we personalize our messages with people's first names is so that they feel as if we're writing to them alone. When you send an HTML message, you're screaming, "This is from a company!" Do you use HTML to write emails to your friends? Of course not!

A lot of people online are paranoid about identify theft, viruses, and whatnot, and because of that don't allow images to be downloaded with the text in any email. In fact, some email clients just shut images off as the default option. Some people are pretty computer illiterate and have no idea how to turn them back on. So, what do they get? Your text. Congratulations, you've just wasted three hours putting graphics into your autoresponder series that nobody will see when you could have been making other adjustments to move your list building forward.

You may be wondering about using HTML because you'd like to include a "click here," instead of an http://www.longurl.com/oiyouil/oiuou09hl/ ?souohpuoi.html . OK, that's pretty ugly. So, go to a service like TinyURL or Short URL and make it pretty. Don't worry that you can't track a text link in the autoresponder, either. You should be using your own tracking system of some kind, so use that link in your email instead. If it's ugly, too, shorten it like I suggested earlier. No big deal. Just be sure to test your website's traffic.

One huge problem with HTML is that it just takes longer to download. Not everyone has broadband Internet access yet, remember. How long will it take to download your email with a humongous picture in it? If it's very long, you'll be losing subscribers. Then, you'll have just wasted a good chunk of the time and money you spent list building. Why let that happen?

HTML has some advantages, but it's not really up to you to decide what you send. Ask your customers. Should it be a one-question poll? Then, go to InternationalVoting.com and set one up. You can set up a whole survey there or at a place like Survey Monkey. Then, learn your audience's preferences.

There's no doubt that writing either a text email message or an HTML message each has its strengths and weaknesses. Figure out what is best for your list building goals, and then stick to that. In the long run, keeping your audience happy will produce better results.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his first project, List Crusade. Tellman teaches you his system for explosive list building at MyFirstList.com.