Effective List Building Part 3
List Building Doesn’t Have to be Difficult
New and intermediate marketers operate under a false impression that the only way to build a list is to have a visitor opt into a subscriber form on your website or blog. Unfortunately this leads to a lack of action because they get stuck either because they don’t know how to put a web form on their site or they put the form on their site and do nothing more.
The long-term impact on the business of these marketers is a lack of sales. The longer you go without an organized and consistent list building strategy, the more difficult it will be for you to begin making real money online. If you read this blog post carefully and take immediate action, you will be on your way to building a responsive list with relative ease.
Subscription Opt In Forms an Obvious Place to Start
I believe that every serious online marketer should have a blog which services as the hub for their primary online activity. That being said, placing a web form on your blog that offers a free item of extreme value to your visitors for subscribing to your mailing list is the obvious place to start, so this is your first assignment.
Here are a few bullet points detailing how you establish a high converting subscription magnet to encourage your visitors to (join) opt in to your list.
1. Offer a valuable ethical bribe, which can be any item that creates desire from your visitor.
2. Make your form attractive using a template or custom web form. These forms can easily be created using an auto responder service such as Aweber. Refer to this blog post: Aweber Web Form Generator
3. Ensure that your subscriber form (or a subscriber form) appears on every page of your site. Depending on how a page viewer finds your site they may arrive at a page other than your home page. Most standard blog templates present a static sidebar that appears on every page. I would suggest placing your opt in form on the sidebar or in the header of your site.
4. Keep it simple to encourage an opt in by your visitors. It is best to ask for a fist name and email address only – asking for more information will lower your conversion rates with each additional question on the form.
5. Deliver the opt in gift immediate to reward your new subscriber and begin to build your credibility and trust.
Gain Organic Traffic by Creating Content
Dynamic content creation is such a big topic that it requires an entire series of post and cannot be covered here. The bottom line is that you should be posting to your blog weekly, writing articles, bookmark your site, become active in social networks, and re-purpose your content in a variety of ways.
Buying Traffic is a Solution if Your Budget Allows
If you have a sufficient budget, you can purchase traffic or subscribers from a variety of resources. I will cover this specifically in future post, but here are a few ideas. You can use pay per click, e-zine ads, solo ads, classified ads, advertise on other blogs, and purchase subscribers from list providers.
Build Your List with Your Funded Proposal
One of the most powerful ways to build a list is through a self-funded proposal. I use the Prosperity Marketing System as one of my automated funnel in addition to hosted sales pages offering a free e-book or audio mp3 files. In my opinion, having a series of self-funded proposals posted across the internet is the best free or low cost method for building a quality list.
In addition to building your list, a self-funded proposal also develops buyer among your list members allowing you to identify segments within your list most likely to purchase your products and services in the future.
Here is a Golden Nugget
You have likely heard it said that “the money is in the list,” the truth is that the money is in the buyers within your list. So providing your list members with extreme value for free in the beginning builds your trust and credibility. Once established you must convert free opt in subscribers to buyers, even for a small monetary amount such as a seven dollar special report or a paid membership to your site.
Build a Targeted List
It is critical in all aspects of your business to be very specific about your market and develop an effective message to market match. Once a visitor opts into your list, you should consistently provide them with content, products and services within their targeted areas of interest. If your subscribers suddenly find that your content and recommendations no longer fit their needs, they will simply (unsubscribe) opt out.
Recognize the Lifetime value of Your List
Having a large responsive list of loyal subscribers allows you to effectively market on a continual basis as long as you do not abuse the privilege. If you use care to market relevant products and services while consistently rewarding the loyalty of your subscribers with free reports and other bonuses, you will secure the long term viability of your business.
Be sure to provide me with feedback concerning this post and your own thoughts on effective list building. Be sure to follow this entire series and share you have discovered with your friends.
I am here to help you succeed!
(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.
*************************
James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com
*************************
Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.
*************************
