Imagine potential clients actually demanding you keep sending them materials promoting your services, products, and programs. Imagine people calling and emailing you asking why they haven’t heard from you for a while and if you could continue sending them your info!
This is not a pipe dream. It actually happens to me frequently. And when you build your own opt-in database (list) of current and potential clients it will happen to you too.
To this day I get occasional messages from my subscribers that say something like this: “Hey, I’m not getting your newsletters; did you take me off your list? What happened? Please make sure you have my right email…”
It would have never happened have I not put in the time and effort to build my list. Now the newsletters give me a way to demonstrate my expertise and regularly tell potential customers about different products and programs I offer. And since the marketing tips I send provide a lot of value people love reading them!
Now, let me give you a five step fast track guide how to get started (or improve) your own list building:
Step 1: Develop a stand-alone opt-in page and put an opt-in box on every page on your website.
Most people over-complicate their websites. In an effort to create something “perfect” from the get-go they delay launching it for weeks or even months.
In reality, the best way to get started with promoting your services online is a simple, two page site. First page offering something virtually all your potential clients want and giving them a way to opt-in (subscribe) to receive what you offer. And the second page – thanking your new subscribers for choosing to give you their contact information.
Now, let’s back up for just a second. I just said your first page (opt-in page) must have a place for people to subscribe. It needs an opt-in box. What’s an opt-in box? It’s a place where visitors can put their name and email, as well as maybe their phone number and full address and then click a button that says, “Yes, I want to subscribe.” That’s it.
Single opt-in pages work better (for building your list) than massive websites with multiple links. An opt-in page gives people one choice: opt in or leave. Navigating through multiple pages of a big website can be very confusing. And even if you have a well developed website with lots of great information, most people will never see it more than once if you aren’t capturing their contact information and inviting them back.
Step 2: Use a list management system to make your list-building easier.
When your list is small it’s easy to manage it. But as it grows, you will need to have a tool to automate your list management. Even with only a few hundred subscribers, handling simple things like “subscribe” and “unsubscribe” requests can quickly turn into a full time job.
That’s why you will want to use a list management system instead.
There are two systems I still use in my business today that are great for getting started. One is Ogando Cart. It’s a solution that comes with a shopping cart and I recommend it because of it’s low cost and ease of use. And sooner or later you will want to offer your visitors a way to buy from you online.
Another system I use is called Aweber. It will also automate your list management and make sending email newsletters simple and easy. The biggest difference is that it doesn’t have a shopping cart – so it will require yet another tool when you are ready to sell something online.
And both these systems will walk you through creating an opt-in box you can then quickly add to your one-page website.
Step 3: Create an Irresistible Free Offer.
The third component you must have in place is what you may have heard referred to as “an irresistible free offer”. Building your list is like fishing. While it may not be the most ideal picture to paint in your mind, but it truly is like that. The online world is a giant pond. People are “swimming around” looking for whatever interests them or helps them solve their problems. They are “hungry” and ready to “nibble” on things that look attractive to them and cost nothing to try.
Now, when they come to your website, and they are an ideal potential client for you, and you don’t have your “bait” ready, they will leave and never come back.
That’s why preparing great “bait” – your valuable “irresistible free offer” is so important. You can start by offering valuable, relevant information like special reports, short ebooks, or downloadable audio programs.
You can simply record an audio program by hosting a teleseminar. You can then have it transcribed and with some minor editing turn it into an ebook or a special report.
Only a few years ago it was enough to simply say “subscribe to my email newsletter”, but today you must provide a much greater value to convince people to give you their contact information. That’s why a great Attraction Tool should be so good you’d be willing to even pay some money for it, but all that’s required to get it is their name and email address. It’s low risk, provides instant gratification, and it works like a charm!
Step 4: Drive traffic to your site and track your results.
Once you have your opt-in page with a list management system connected to it and a nice “bait” displayed on it, you’re ready for your visitors. Now you need to drive TARGETED traffic to your site. How do you do that?
You can have people looking at your website in just minutes using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. I’m sure you’re familiar with ads placed on your Google search page, right? Well, they are there because someone is paying to have them displayed there – and it costs them a few cents (to a few dollars) every time people click on those links.
While PPC can be a source of instant traffic, it can also be very confusing and – if you don’t know what you’re doing – a costly way to attract visitors.
Slower, but less costly options are submitting articles to and simple press releases to article and press-release directories.
And don’t overlook the traffic-generating power of social media and social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others.
I will give you more specific tips for driving traffic to your website in a future article, but I wanted to mention just one more thing about it now.
One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to generating traffic is that using things like article marketing or optimizing your site for high placement in search engine is a way to get free traffic. It’s not true!
While you won’t be paying for each visitor, and it may appear that writing and submitting an article is free, it really isn’t, because it takes your time and effort – which has to be factored in.
Finally, always track your results to know which of your efforts pay off and which ones are a waste of time. Tracking is another area that most business owners find confusing. I will devote one of my upcoming marketing tips to explain it better.
Step 5: Continue to give good information and follow up.
There are only three reasons to ever quit following up with people that have requested information from you. The first reason is that you are dead or out of business.
The second reason is that the person who opted in to your list is dead or out of business. That means their contact information expired. They moved away and you lost touch. That’s it. You can’t connect with them. For all you know they’re dead to your business.
The third reason is that they opted out or told you to buzz off. That reason is always negotiable. They may come back. You may be able to entice them back to your list.
Other than those reasons, you should always follow up, follow up, follow up…
Just the other day, we had a person call to register for our program. This person has been following me and reading our articles and tips for three or four years. It happens every single day. People come to us and invest in one of our products or programs, then tell us they’ve been looking at our information for years.
Some subscribers become clients immediately. For others it takes a long time to warm up to our ideas. Some will unsubscribe and leave our “tribe”. Point is, building your list will provide you with a steady, efficient, and easy way to promote your business. And for your subscribers it will be a low-risk way to learn what you offer and sample it before making the final decision to buy from you or hire you.
Master the art of building your list and long-term follow up and you will watch your profits soar!
WendyY
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