Start Building A Responsive, Laser-Targeted Buying List In 21 Days
You probably don’t purchase something from every store you walk into.
However, if one of the sales managers noted your preferences as you browsed and offered to send you a coupon of significant value in the mail next week, the chances that you would visit again would probably increase significantly.
Let’s say a visitor lands on your website and browses through your range of products or services. Shortly afterwards, that person exits your site. Since your visitor actually spent some time on your website, there’s a good chance they’re interested in what you have to offer, but they just didn’t make a decision to purchase.
Why let them leave empty-handed? Why not give yourself another opportunity to contact them? After all, they might become a potential customer down the road…
That’s why it makes sense to put up an opt-in form on your home page and collect email addresses – the easiest method you can use to stay in touch with your subscribers. This will give you the perfect opportunity to establish a relationship with the people on your list – and hopefully, turn them into customers.
The advantages of building a list are numerous; if done correctly, it can result in more leads, more customers and more profits for you.
Here are 5 simple, yet highly effective tips you can use to build a laser-targeted list in just 21 days:
List Building Tip 1: K.I.S.S.
You’ve heard it before: Keep It Short and Simple. And if you want to create an email list quickly and easily, you’ll need to make it easy for visitors to enter their email addresses. Try not to put more than three fields on the form, and don’t hide your email subscription form in some obscure corner of your site. Instead, the best place to insert it is right at the top of your site, above the fold.
List Building Tip 2: Offer a freebie
One of the single best ways to build a good list is to offer visitors a unique and high quality report, ebook, case study or white paper, for FREE. It does not have to be in text format either – podcasts, videos and webinars work extremely well too. Once the person has subscribed to your list and downloaded your freebie, you’ve then got to nurture them with a compelling and persuasive autoresponder, newsletter, or blog post series…and gradually win their trust.
List Building Tip 3: Giveaways Are Great!
A giveaway is an event where several business people come together to offer a wide variety of free goodies to targeted prospects in exchange for their email addresses. It’s important that every business owner involved heavily promotes the giveaway event to the public. This is probably one of the quickest methods of building a list.
List Building Tip 4: Psst! Tell A Friend
The ‘Tell A Friend’ concept can be very powerful when used correctly. There are at least two options; depending on whether you want to do a harder or a softer sell.
In the hard sell version, the person that wishes to download your report is encouraged to also enter the email addresses of anyone else they may know that would also like to receive your free offer. So instead of gaining a single subscriber, you might gain two, three or even five subscribers. (Sometimes you will get unsubscribes, however, and you definitely don’t want to get a lot of those.)
Another way this can work is by simply asking those who accept your offer to “Forward This to a Friend” by including a link that will allow them to immediately do that via email.
List Building Tip 5: Take It Offline
Networking offline can also be an unusual way of building a highly targeted list. For instance, you could attend workshops, trade shows and seminars and network with like-minded people. Once you’ve gotten to know them well, offer them your business card. The website address on your card should lead to an opt-in page to collect email addresses.
However, make sure you give them a good reason to visit your website – for instance, you could mention the fact that you’re giving away a free software/report/video series on a topic they’re interested in. If you phrase your offer in a compelling manner, you are much more likely to get the leads.
How To Create A Responsive List
While many businesses have large lists, not many can claim that they are responsive. Maintaining a well-targeted list that is responsive to your content is the key to online success. And the secret to building a highly responsive list is incredibly simple – develop a relationship with your readers based on trust and sincerity. You want to help as many subscribers as possible and treat them like you treat your own family or close friends.
If you learn of some new discovery related to your industry or area of specialty, or you uncover an helpful piece of news, share it with your list with no strings attached. You want to be honest and genuine – this is the only good way to build rapport with the people that have subscribed to your list. When you do your part, they will gradually trust you, and respond positively to the things you say.
Then the way is cleared for you to offer your product or service, as well as a steady stream of useful, valuable content. The word spreads, your list grows, and your bottom line increases.
Want help creating and implementing a strategy to build your email list? Wouldn’t it feel great to have fresh, knowledgeable staff on your team that can handle the tasks you don’t have time for? Contact Calvert Creative today and see just how we can help you build your list.
