29 Ways to Attract Business with an Email List

Why do you need to build an email list and use it regularly? Because 90% of sales happen long after that first exposure to your product or visit to your website. There are 100 reasons someone might land on your site and then not take action--maybe the boss just came in the room (time to look busy!), maybe the baby just spit up all over the keyboard, maybe there was a power outage, maybe you had an interesting link and they followed it like you suggested (and they never came back)...people get distracted; things happen; but if you have their email address, it's not the end of the relationship.

But what do you do with the list? What kind of content will get them excited enough to take action and call you for a gig, or sign-up for a class? Here are some ideas:

For current and prospective students: Your goal here is to get people excited about taking class with you. So, all your content should reflect how fun, interesting, educational and exciting your classes are. Here are some content ideas to get you going.

1) Remind your current students to sign up for the next class session.

2) Let them know about nearby workshops, seminars and festivals (and see if anyone wants to carpool.)

3) List all the music you use in class with links for where they can purchase it.

4) Update them on sales going on at your favorite vendor's website.

5) Teach them how to make a trumpet skirt or make your world-famous hummus.

6) Spotlight a student-of-the-month and interview her about why she loves belly dance.

7) Spotlight a move-of-the-month.

8) Recommend a dvd, or a cd, or a book they might enjoy.

9) Interview a local (or not so local) celebrity.

10) Survey people on what they'd most like to learn.

11) Post an interesting You Tube video.

For your fans: With this list, you want to encourage people to attend your shows, festivals and restaurant gigs

1) Update your fans on your current appearances.

2) Recommend your favorite dishes at the various restaurants you dance at.

3) Interview the owner about how he/she got started in the restaurant biz.

4) Interview the head chef about his favorite dish to prepare (maybe he'll share a recipe!)

5) Attach a video of you teaching class (and invite them to come join you)

6) Work with the restaurants and offer a discount coupon for a certain dish once a month.

7) List other ethnic music and dance venues in the area.

8) Write a travel feature listing great venues across the country.

For your customers: Are you a vendor or have a boutique in your studio? Your list should communicate with your customers to keep them coming back for more.

1) Advertise new arrivals.

2) Interview some designers and ask them to forecast the coming trends in costumes and class wear.

3) Teach them how to accessorize your most popular styles.

4) Add video links to performances of customers wearing your costumes.

5) Advertise seasonal sales (not just Christmas--don't forget Mother's day, Valentine's day and other gift-giving holidays)

6) Set up a "wish list" on your store and make it easy for family and friends to access it when they want to give their favorite dancer a gift. (bonus points if you set up a reminder service for Valentine's day, birthdays and anniversaries)

7) Write an article explaining how to clean a beaded costume, polish zills, or otherwise take care of the products they buy from you.

8) Interview authors of books you're selling (heck, make a podcast so they can listen to it on the road.)

9) Invite them to an open house at your store.

10) Invite them to a workshop you're holding at your store.

Whatever you do, be sure to post a link or two back to some page on your website. People are programmed to click on links, and every single email will have an unsubscribe link at the very bottom (in order to comply with the CAN-SPAM laws.) It's amazing, but people will unsubscribe from your list without really thinking about it just because there was a link there to click on.

Coming Soon...Video Tutorials! (I'm going to take you behind the scenes and show you exactly how easy it is to build a list and produce an e-newsletter)