Why Start Building An Email List?
No matter what type of online business you run, you have to start building an email list from day one.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an affiliate marketer, info product creator, freelancer, business consultant, business owner, coach, or Kindle publisher, email list building strategies are one of your most important business requirements. That’s because it’s your own targeted list of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
So how do you start building an email list?
FREE Checklist: Create An Effective Sales Funnel
How To Start Building An Email List
Really, all you need to get started is an account with an email list builder company like AWeber. There are other fancy tools out there that can help you easily develop subscriber opt-in forms (also called squeeze pages) and things like that, but start with the basics.
Then, figure out where you’re going to put your opt in forms and squeeze pages. Remember that people won’t sign up just for the heck of it, you’ll need to do something to entice them. In many cases, this means giving something away for free on your website or blog, such as a report, ebook or video that they would otherwise pay for.
With everything you do, you should be thinking about how to grow your email list. If you’re on social media, for example, you should be using it to build a list. If you have a website, you should be using it to build a list. If you pay for ads, you should be sending them to a squeeze page to build a list.
How To Get Email Addresses For Marketing
You should work to drive traffic to your squeeze page or opt-in form with free methods and paid methods. With every product you release, attach it to your list. With every affiliate promotion you do, make sure you get people to opt-in first. Consider the lifetime value of a website visitor. Each person is worth so much more than a single click, product sale, or affiliate sale.
It can be as simple as putting up a squeeze page today, giving visitors some kind of freebie or incentive, and driving traffic to that squeeze page with everything you have in you, using paid and free methods. You can get this all started today, and it will set you up for success for any of the other business models you eventually want to attach yourself to.
Your Marketing Funnel
Eventually, you’ll have great marketing funnels set up and making sales for you day and night, even if you aren’t actively working. Having a list means having a real business. You can schedule autoresponder emails to go out to new subscribers to give them great information and promote products, earning you money day and night even if you’re not actively working.
That’s what the successful marketers are referring to when they say they make money while they sleep, or while they’re on vacation.
Consider what you should promote and how you want to make money as you decide on your path. Many online marketers promote affiliate products to start out with since it’s often easier to promote something that already exists. But eventually you’ll also want to create your own products to market.
Free And Paid Traffic
Consider which traffic method you want to use. If you want to focus on free methods of driving traffic, consider releasing helpful, related videos on YouTube, writing helpful articles and distributing them on the web, and creating a blog that has a high chance of ranking as you write and release more content. You can also record podcast episodes so that people can find you via iTunes or in a similar way. Get known in related niche communities and social media. Be present everywhere the people in your niche are present.
Consider paid methods of driving traffic to your squeeze page or opt-in form, such as using pay per click advertising. You can quickly test the conversions of your squeeze page when you drive paid ads. That can help you figure out where you want to put your efforts when you work on free, automated traffic methods as well.
Don’t Start Tomorrow
Remember that if you want to scale up quickly, start building an email list today, not tomorrow. Do everything you can to get names on that list that you can market to, no matter what your niche, products or services. Your email list is one of your most important business assets. It’s your insurance for your success.
Focus on providing quality at every turn. You’re building a brand here and you want to become known as someone people can trust. You want to become known as the go-to person in your niche. Provide quality and really help people and you’ll stand apart from most of the other marketers out there. You have a relationship (or you will over time) with these people and you have control over what and when you email them.
You can quickly become a heavy hitter in your niche if you have a responsive list that trusts you, your products, and your recommendations. As your subscribers comes to know, like and trust you, you can scale up to high ticket items. You can start to go for the higher end offers in your niche—as a product creator, affiliate, freelancer, or consultant. You’ll need fewer customers to earn more.
Free Checklist For Building An Email List
Build a list with everything you do, and you can literally write your own paycheck. Email marketing can achieve awesome results for the smart marketer. On average, a prospect needs to see your messages 7 to 8 times before they trust you enough to buy something. Email is the perfect way to deliver these messages in a sales funnel.
To learn more, my free Sales Funnel Checklist outlines the best practices for building an email list so you achieve the intended result with lots of prospects and lots of sales.
