Photo credit: Live Clinic

There are many strategies to growing your business, one such strategy is list building. It provides the opportunity to:

Market your product/service exclusively to your audience

Create more targeted and personalized promotional messages through specific opt-ins

Build and develop greater relationships, thus increasing customer retention and lifetime customers

Create a list that is readily available to you to leverage forever (even if every social media platform shuts down tomorrow)

Knowing how to really implement an effective list building strategy can be difficult I know, especially if you are new to the whole idea of Content and Inbound Marketing.

To help let’s go through a list building strategy so effective and so powerful that it can literally skyrocket your marketing, lead generation, and sales conversions in a matter of weeks (though your competitors may not be using it).

Preparing the List Building Strategy to Skyrocket Your Business

The first thing to understand is this strategy will rely heavily on video, and this will be one of your most powerful tools. Why video? Well according to a research done by Hubspot in the first Quarter of 2016, more than half of consumers (55%) most preferred to consumer content in the form of video; even more than social media posts (think about that for a second). Consumers prefer to watch a video than to read a Facebook or Twitter post.

The platform used is irrelevant, it’s really a matter of personal preference, or the type of target audience you have. If it’s Business-to-Consumer then it would make more sense to use YouTube as the platform to host your videos. If your target audience is more professional, Business-to-Business, then it makes more sense to use Vimeo or Wistia for a more professional look and feel.

Next you’ll need an opt-in platform, this is what you will use to capture the contact information of your leads. Sumo is a great tool to use to be able to do this. It offers the ability to create customized opt-in forms that elevates your brand message, test different campaigns to see which are most effective through split testing, and integrates with several email marketing software such as Convertkit or Mailchimp.

Finally, you will need a landing page that will promote your special or offer once people register through your video content and opt-in form. This landing page can be on your own website, or you can use landing page platforms such as Leadpages or Unbounce, or Get Response which has both landing page and email marketing capabilities.

Executing Your List Building Strategy for Success

Now that you know what you need let’s get into the nuts and bolts of how to do it.

1. Create a video series speaking about something you know your target audience would be interested in or that’s entertaining to keep them engaged. A few ideas may be the step-by-step process of creating a product you have, and showcasing its benefits. Answering customer queries in the form of a video post. Give a behind-the-scenes look at the daily operations of the business and meeting the different personalities behind your brand

A personal case study that I love and I always go to when speaking about the power of video and Content Marketing is Blendtec. Blendtec is a company that sells blenders. There’s nothing particularly special or unique about a blender, more so selling it. They can pretty much be found in any store. So how do you create growth using video with really a boring and average product?

They saw the power of creating brand awareness and virality with a video series named Will It Blend. They take every day items we all use such as an iPad and blend them. The purpose is to show the power of their blenders, while creating significant awareness of their product. Result? Millions of views on YouTube per video.

The first video they released instantly got over six (6) Million views on YouTube within a matter of days. Subsequently, sales grew over 1000% within a matter of months (not bad).

2. Let’s say we are going with the product creation and showcasing benefits approach. Close to the end of that video you can let viewers know that they can sign up for a limited time offer of getting the product at a 20% discount. However, to be eligible for this discount they have to click a link (located on the page or in the video itself).

3. Once clicked it redirects them to a landing page where they now have to fill in whatever information you choose (such as Name, Email, Contact Number, etc.). Once they do that they can now access the discount in the form of a coupon code

4. As a really great final touch you can have a customer service rep get in touch with them within 24 hours via telephone call, just to thank them for claiming their discount, answer any questions they may have, and let them know you are here for them. This will definitely help you to stand out from your competitors, and win raving fans for your brand.

To Wrap Up

In closing there are many creative strategies that can be used to build your list with video, the only limitation is your imagination. One thing to ensure is that once you build your list it’s absolutely imperative to have an Email campaign dedicated to lead nurturing and customer retention separately already prepared.

Lead nurturing because not everyone who necessarily clicks the link will purchase then and there. Customer Retention for those who do purchase, you want to ensure that you can later upsell or cross-sell them if you choose to.

Also, keep in mind whatever you choose to do to build your list ensure that you are offering something that 1). People have a want or need for, and willing to pay for, and 2). Will offer value to their lives in some way.