Email List Building – The Basics

Every big time blogger and affiliate marketer will let you know at some point (or at least they should): The big-money is in the list with loyal clients down the line. So I’m going to share some fundamentals of email list building.

The hardest part of marketing online is getting fresh visitors to your webpages, then converting them into customers.

If the product you’re promoting is bought by a visitor, you’re able to market other products to them. And there is really a good chance they will purchase from you again.

Building a list is precious, keep that in your mindset.

If a visitor doesn’t buy on your first offer, you need start interacting and buidling a relationship. Give them value so they will continue to read your emails and posts. You might have several opportunities to convert this visitor into a loyal client.

Once you capture your visitors’ e-mail address, you can market to them again and again, with no added effort. Your potential revenue increases.

Autoresponder – Aweber

To begin building your email list you need to pick an autoresponder. It is the platform which will store and handle your subscribers emails once you start building your list.

I have tried many and have come to the conclusion that Aweber is the best for Email List Building. Period. I’m sure many others will tell you the same. Visit Aweber today, and check it out yourself.

Don’t get deceived by companies which will offer some email list software that is free to you like traffic exchanges. Although some may work, most views that you get are credit based so it’s likely your content won’t be payed attention to. They also use your down line for their own campaigns. I’m only speaking from my own experience. It just got really annoying getting hundreds of emails a day to gain credit to send emails. I’m sure many others feel the same. I’ll occassionally look at a couple emails just to see what they’re promoting but that’s about it.

Capturing E-Mail Addresses

As you can imagine, the hardest component to build an email list is to actually get folks to give you their e-mail address.

Obviously it is possible to setup a simple sort on your site and hope to find the best. The actual secret to getting individuals to sign up with you is to offer value or something that will help them take away some pain or conquer frustrating obstacles that are holding them back.

Now you might be asking yourself what kind of item you will offer to folks to make them signup. It all depends on your market, but the simplest is to provide is a free eBook or guide.

Take a look at what folks in your market are offering, and develop something with your own perspective. Write helpful tips that you can provide to potential subscribers, to entice them to get to sign up to your email list.

If you noticed, I’m currently offering the people 3 free eBooks to sign up to my list.

Make sure you have multiple e-mail capture forms on your site.

If you’re doing solo ads, PPC advertising you’ll need an optin page or landing page. I use Clickfunnels. They are both great products to use.

Placing your sign-up forms in the appropriate locations. I have had the best results with one on the top right sidebar and the bottom of posts.

Branding – About Page

Give your visitors an idea what you and your site is about? That builds the trust factor and can also prove to them that you’re an authority or make a connection to them. Maybe they are going through some similar obstacles that you have overcome.

I tell my story of my accomplishments and struggles I went through to get where I’m at now.

Follow up messages

An important part email list building is follow up. No point in having a list if you’re not following up. Followup emails are sent automatically once someone has subscribed. Whenever you generate a follow up, you specify an interval, that will be how long the autoresponder system should wait before delivering it.

Follow up communications are every email marketer’s backbone. You use these communications to setup a series of messages that may trigger interaction or a sale.

Followup communications are also an excellent means to provide “valuable” content to keep them reading and staying in tune. Make sure to answer any questions or comments they might have. Good or bad, you must always stay in contact.

Developing The Relationship

List-Building Solution: Making a Bond

The very first thing you must do is establish a connection with your customers.

Make sure to have your own email address from your own domain. Too many times I see emails from generic names like “Marketing List” or sent from a yahoo or gmail account. That just looks unprofessional and spammy.

Be accessible to anyone who subscribes to your list.

You must show your subscribers you are there for them and don’t look at them as just a possible commission.

There are a number of very easy methods to produce this connection with your customers.

A lot of online marketing novices believe it’s all about gathering as many e-mails as you can, then slamming them with offers repeatedly, till they get frustrated and unsubscribe from your list. You must include valuable information that will help ease some pain they are going through.

Think about what would make their life easier. Even it’s as simple as sending to another blog that provides great information.

You can ask them straight out to participate. Ask them what their biggest issues are and reply with advice. Real simple, send an e-mail asking them for a response. You’ll be surprised how many replies you get. Everyone is trying to learn something new.

That’s an easy way to start engagement and at the same time, makes them feel significant and will appreciate that you’re actually asking and responding.

That is the beginning of creating a bond with a loyal follower.

Choosing the right offers

Once you establish yourself as an authority and develop a connection with your subscribers, you can begin marketing goods.

When choosing what products you want to sell I recommend you try them first. There have been many instances where I asked simple questions about a product I was looking to purchase and the affiliate came back with some bogus answers, which ultimately helped me make a decision not to purchase.

If you can’t explain what the product does or how it will help then it’s completely useless to try to sell. You might get a few sales here and there without any questions, but from my experience most will ask before they buy.

That is the biggest error people make in affiliate marketing. Those are what you would call a hit n run marketer. They don’t care about a subscriber. They just sell and move on to the next product to sell.

Be very cautious with the products you’re promoting, make sure that they will actually help and do good for the customer. One bad sale and you lose potential sales for life. That can be thousands of dollars lost.

I only promote products that I actually use like, TTSI, Ultimate Dot Com Lifestyle, Aweber, ClickMagick, Click Funnels, Igor’s Solos, and In Motion Hosting.

Examples

I’ll give you a few examples of what I use for follow ups.

The first is an example of an email sent once someone has requested to download my free eBook found here.

Email #1

Hey Justin,

First of all, I want to thank you for downloading the eBook, The Dot Com Lifestyle. I hope you enjoy reading it and get great value from it. The information contained in the book is the exact business model I use to make consistent income on the Internet.

It has allowed me the freedom of time, money and location. It’s the ultimate lifestyle. I can be anywhere in the world spending time with my family, and the money keeps rolling in.

Towards the end of the eBook, I offered a bonus for you to check out one of the business models I use. To recap, I like to offer you the following for free.

Lifetime access to my private member’s site ($997 value)

The complete WP Blog Videos Library ($297 value)

Free WordPress Installation and setup ($150 value)

Free ticket a future Home Business Summit ($97 value)

Bonus software with resale license ($497 value)

That’s over $2,000 in bonuses, and it’s all yours for free! Read the eBook to find out how to claim your bonus. Yes, this is how I make you read my book! 🙂

Your feedback on my work is welcome. If you have any questions or comments, just hit reply on this email and let me know your thoughts. I read and answer all my emails personally.

Once again, thank you for downloading The Dot Com Lifestyle.

Richard Takemura

Now the above email was written to try to get a sale early on. I’m giving a lot of value in order to make the sale immediately. $2,000 worth of valuable bonuses I’m offering that will help out most people, even experienced marketers can use them.

Email #2 was crafted to give my subscribers some value. I’m even sending them to another blog that shows how to generate traffic. Showing them you’re not afraid to send them somewhere else let’s them know you genuinely want to help them. I also keep them wanting more by letting them know I’ll be sending another email going into detail about the last traffic method.

Email #2

Hey Steven,

Traffic is the lifeblood of any website.

It is essential.

But every so often I get emails asking me…. How can I generate more

traffic to my site?

So here I have for you 51 ways to drive traffic to your blog.

Simple and powerful 🙂

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/ultimate-guide-50-ways-increase-traffic

Even if you use just 3 – 5 of them you WILL see a really nice

uplift in traffic to your site.

More traffic means more sales and more money. Simple as that.

On that list of 51 there is one that is particularly important.

It is the absolute most powerful and BEST way to drive traffic to

your site.

Can you guess what it is?

Hint: everyone needs to know about it, and needs to do it right.

Next email I’m going to be going in depth about this exact

technique, so make sure you open it up to see if guessed it.

Enjoy,

Richard

Email #3 was written by someone I respect and do a lot of business with, Igor Kheifets. He has taught me how to properly build a relationship with subscribers. He has a very active list and has built up my list with quality subscribers. You should definitely try out his solos. This email is beautifully crafted to motivate you to break out and start achieving the Dot Com Lifestyle. He can write something like that without any hesitation. He has the credentials and testimonials to prove it.

Email #3

Hey there,

It’s not all about the money my friend… seriously.

It’s about the lifestyle… and truly living the Internet

Lifestyle, just like the way you would imagine it in

your mind.

Having freedom, security and the options go and

do anything you desire and be anybody you desire…

The problem is that there is so much out there and

so little time to consume and use… in order to get

where you know you can be.

This problem has been solved for you and a new

approach that takes less time and energy has been

created…

…and you can reap the rewards right now and go

from zero to 5 and then 6 figures online in very little

time, as a result.

Screw the average 9 to 5 and take back your life back today

I know for some of you, this would mean more time

with family, your fiancé, your spouse, or just to with

yourself…

…to be and do as you see fit, when you see fit for

as long as you see fit…

That being said, this WILL fit what you are seeking

To your unlimited success and prosperity,

Igor

Conclusion

Here it is again, the money is in the list. Build that relationship and when you are email list building. Respect every subscriber that you can get to optin, because without them you don’t have much of a chance. I hope this article helps you.

If you need some help building your business you need to check this course out, seriously this will help you big time.

Feel free to comment or ask questions. I’m here to help.