Some people say to use a contest for building your lists. And while that is a great idea, it isn’t always necessary. You can quickly put together a tool to start building your lists today in just an hour. This tool also double duty, it gets you important information!

1. Go to www.SurveyMonkey.com and choose their FREE service. Make a 5-10 question survey about your product or service. Make the questions things you absolutely do want/need to know. Things you want to ask people who don’t use your product or service. For example, you have a salon or spa? Ask what is most important in their choice of where to go…price, proximity, quality of service. Ask what they think of your services…put in a rating, ask if they have heard of you. Ask where the last service they received was from. Realtor? Ask how they choose their agent. Ask fun questions too (remember the Cosmo Quiz?) Gather information. It is important. Make sure to include a comment field on your questions. In the survey, make sure you ask for their email address and ask them to follow you on Facebook or Twitter. My survey looks like this: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F9DYLC3 .

2. Send this survey to 10 friends/colleagues/coworkers/people who like you and ask them to forward it to 2-3 other people who will take the survey seriously (this is important). Make sure to include an introductory paragraph about how much you value the insight and opinion of those who take the time to answer. Have a one-time gift or discount ready for those who respond and let folks know they will receive a special thank you in return for their time. Twitter the link to your survey. Put it in your Facebook Status. Do this once a day, every day for 3-5 days. Once a day is not annoying. Repetitive yes, annoying …no. People need to see things more than once. Put different messages to the link each time and make them funny so people will be interested enough to click. You can also ask other people to send out the survey for you more than once, but ask different people!

3. Follow up with those who have given you their contact info. Say thanks and also ask for sales. Here is my secret mystical Toad sales mantra, “Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

You use this phrase because if the person you are following up with is interested, then they will say so. But you’re not being pushy. If they are not interested then they might really truly want to help you still and might give you a contact to follow up with. Be sure to discover if they are really truly thinking that their lead is interested or not, don’t be afraid to ask for a hot-warm-cold rating or why they might be interested, because you really don’t want to waste anyone’s time.

Now remember, if you make the survey public, you will get folks who do not answer truthfully, or take it seriously. Watch for that. But this can be a fun way to get some feedback and interaction and help build your lists.

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bounce. bounce. bounce. Really excited about this new email marketing service we have just rolled out today….

1. It’s EASY – anyone can use it. Really. It is so stinking easy to build a great email blast. My Dad could even do it.

2. It’s CHEAP – We’re not going to have to charge a minimum fee monthly. So if you do not use it, you do not pay. Is that not cool? You get charged by volume. And even that is real reasonable.

3. It’s EFFECTIVE – Okay, people have to click an email, not call, not write. They can respond easily, minimum effort. And guess what? It works. You stay in front of prospective buyers eyeballs long enough, they act. It maintains the relationship and that is what sales is all about. Ask me how many email newsletters I buy from! Really!!

4. WE GOT STATS – Just stats? no…. metrics! You can compare and contrast effectiveness of different campaigns, measure clickthroughs, all kindsa widgets and gizzmos to give you data. That data is pure gold because then you can refine what you’re doing to target the people and hone your message to get ….cha-ching.

5. WE GOT SURVEYS – Free, did I mention that? Free surveys that you drag and drop right into the campaign. You need to know who is coming to that event you’re planning? Cool. Use a survey. You need a quick marketing cool? Cool. Use a survey. So many uses, so little time…

6. WE GOT TRIGGERS – Triggers mean if someone clicks on that special link going to the product description of the Whizzbang Gizzmo, an email can automatically be sent to follow up, telling them about related Gizzmos. You can -automate- followup. But it doesn’t look automated, you just look really on the ball.

7. WE GOT PERSONALIZATION – want to send an email to Stacey? and Freddie? and Sparky Snozzbot? You can do that. The program will send a “Dear Sparky” …a personalized greeting to each recipient.

8. THEY WILL GET THERE – My helper elves have made secret deals with all the big ISPs. I think they sold their souls, really. I do not know. But you will not be blacklisted. Even by AOL. The email will arrive in the inbox as long as it is valid. This is big. Huge. Trust me, having managed email blasts by hand, I promise you it is not easy to do this.

9. THEY WILL BE PRETTY – The design is just gonna pop. We do that, nuff said.

10. WE HAVE TIPS/TRAINING – There is a whole library of help, tips and training right at your fingertips, just waiting for you to use it. Isn’t this just amazing?

are you going to go check it out now?

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1. Go to “lists”
Hit add a list (at the bottom)
Name it, check the box to make it active, in the order box put the next number, so if you have 2 lists, put in 3. This is no big deal if you get the number wrong, it is just the order the lists are put in. Hit save

2.Go to “manage users”
Your import file needs to be a .csv file. You can save an Excel file as a comma delimited or csv file. Do that and save it to your Documents. Make sure the email column in the file is named “email” not e-mail or agentemail or anything else.

3. Click import users
Choose the first option, import with different values as attributes. Check the list name you’re importing to. In the field delimiter box put a comma. Check omit invalid. Click make confirmed immediately. Hit import.

and that is it!

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