Email List Building Strategies

July 30th, 2010 by admin

If you’re going to be successful in internet marketing, you need to build a list. This is the most important factor in your long-term success. After it’s built, it’s yours to use any time you want. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

OK, but how?

There are 3 factors in list building you need to consider:

Your Landing Page
Your Bribe
Your Confirmation Page

The Squeeze Page – Your opt-in page is the page you send visitors to to build your list. This is where they will enter their email address. So, obviously it has to be well designed. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And your call to action must be clear!

If you fail to make a strong close, you’re wasting your efforts. This “close” tells your visitors what you want them to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. The funny thing is that people just don’t know what to do unless you tell them.

You can take your opt-in page to the next level if you add a compelling video to the page. You only have a few second to get your visitors attention – video helps! It also allows you to tell them what to do several times. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

It’s OK, if you’ve never made a video before. Hiring out-sourced help to do it for you only costs $150 – $250. Or you can get email list tools that include video squeeze pages.

Your Bribe – Next, you’ve got to figure out what your bribe is. People need a good reason to part with their email address. Nobody likes spam, so most people guard their email closely. This means your bribe needs to be very attractive.

The key to a good bribe is that is has value. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And can benefit from. Here’s some examples:

A PDF report
Software
Videos
An email series

It all boils down to content. Something that’s useful and helpful to your visitors. And nothing sells like “free”. Bottom line is it’s got to be worth more to them than their email address.

Once again, don’t worry if you don’t know how to create the freebie. It’s super easy to hire someone to create it for you. Simply tell them what the topic is and they can write the content. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. And you can get emails ghost written for about $20 – $25 each. So, a great premium will cost you around $100 – $150.

You can also get email list building tools that include the premium. Two critical aspects of using a follow up series. First, it must provide value to your subscribers. And it’s nice if it earns you some money, too. One very easy way to make some money from your list is with affiliate marketing. Affiliate products are easy because you don’t have to do anything at all. And you can earn some commissions immediately from your emails.

Your Confirmation Page – Finally, you need to consider your opt-in confirmation page. This is where your visitor goes after opting into your list. A great thing to do here is provide some immediate value. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. It also sets the foundation for your relationship with them. So when they get your email, they’re happy to hear from you.

Again, a simple solution to this is to get an email marketing package that includes everything. Or you can do it yourself. You can either write the content pages on your own. Or have someone ghost write for you.

Summing it up

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or pay a freelancer to write produce it all for you. Or go with a complete package. The key is to start building your list. Because once its built… You’ve got a license to print money!