Effective List Building Part 2
List building is largely a numbers game but many marketers forget that quality matters when it comes to earning revenue with your list. If you want to monetize your subscriber list you must first provide real value for your members for free and then within your funnel convert those subscribers to buyers.
The basic formula that I teach to achieve our objective is simply offering visitors to your websites and blogsites a high value item free as a reward for opting in, I refer to this as an ethical bribe. Keep in mind that this is a reflection on your brand and for your future customers it is their first sample of the quality and value you provide. As a result you want to give away some of your BEST information. If you give your new subscribers cheap or low value products and information, they have no reason to pay for what they will perceive to be more of the same.
When you provide high value information as a free gift and continue to provide quality content through your auto-responder messages, you begin to build trust by establishing your expertise and you create a desire in your subscriber to obtain more of your content and a willingness to pay for the value they receive.
To recap there are three steps in the funnel:
Step 1. Provide a high value opt in gift
Step 2. Use auto-responders to provide high value content through consistent communications with your list
Step 3. Convert subscribers to buyers based on the value you have provided (give them a reason to buy)
Nurturing Quality Leads
People are attracted to join a subscribers list for a variety of reasons, your online presence, perceived level of success, demonstrated expertise and other qualities you have successfully presented through your self promotion and marketing your sites are all valid reasons for a prospect to opt into your list.
Now that you have gotten the attention of your visitor give them value and trust that the most likely buyers will self select and purchase from you as a result of your actions.
Most professional marketers will tell you that their objective is to earn one dollar per month for every name on their list. So, if you have a 500 subscriber list, you would be earning $500 per month, a 5000 subscriber list would earn for you $5,000 per month and so forth. I have found that these number do tend to be valid as an average and you should make this your goal.
As you put together your front in reward (ethical bribe) and subsequent auto-responder messages be mindful of to attract targeted prospects, so your opt in offer must be focused on the products and services you intend to sell. In addition, your follow up messages must likewise be targeted on your niche and continue to offer high value content associated with a link that leads to an offer. It is essential to provide offers early in the process of your communication.
Maintaining your Subscribers list
When a visitor opts into your list they are giving you permission to communicate and market to them as your relationship evolves. However, be careful not to abuse this privilege by spamming your list. There is a delicate balance between communicating too much and not communicating enough to maintain there interest and evolve your relationship.
I recommend that you send a keyword targeted email to your list two or three times per week and include an offer in each of these communications. There are some marketers who email their list everyday, I think this is too frequent and those who market to me with this frequency tend to get their emails opened less often.
In addition to your weekly email messages, I would also recommend that you publish a monthly or bi-weekly e-zine or newsletter. This is were you can add additional value, make bigger ticket recommendations, author reviews, and summarize information previously sent during the preceding weeks. The e-zine format also lends itself to sharing non-business related aspects of your life to further build a relationship with your list.
Knowing What to Give Away
If you are a newer marketer and have not yet created your own products, there are a variety of ways to obtain high value items to give to your list. One of the best resources is membership in “Viral E-Book Explosion,” which will provide you with a large inventory of e-books and audio MP3 files that you can re-brand and give away to your subscribers.
I will share additional ideas concerning the use of private label rights (PLR) and master resell rights (MRR) later in this series, but for most leveraging Viral E-Book Explosion is a perfect solution.
Get Viral E-Book Free Here: Viral E-Book Explosion Offer
Knowing What Your Subscriber Needs
The most effective marketing always if focused on the needs of your subscribers and customers and your ability to provide solutions for those needs.
- What is your niche?
- Who are your customers?
- What do they need from you?
- Why do they need your products and services?
- What is their tipping point that will cause them to buy from you?
If you keep the needs of your subscribers in mind as your first priority and develop a funnel that addresses those needs effectively, you will build a responsive opt in list over time. Once you have received an opt in subscriber you should treat them like gold and recognize that there is a longterm value for every member of your list.
I am here to help you succeed!
(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.
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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: I am a Affiliate Marketer and it should be assumed that links provided within the content of this blog and individual blog post are affiliate links from which I may be compensated for sales made at the recommended sites. All products and service recommendations are made as a result of my personal experience with the product or service provider.
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