Quality not Quantity Matters in List Building

When it comes to getting leads for your list building and effectively keeping people joined up to your list, quality, not quantity is what counts. This matters in terms of the people on your mailing list, and also in the communication you send out to keep them there.

Quality Leads

It matters less about how many people are on your mailing list than whether the names on your mailing list are likely to buy things from you. If they aren’t, what is the point in them being on your mailing list?

For that reason, your list building attempts should focus on long tail keyword phrases rather than general keywords. This will enable you to get targeted prospects that are looking for what you are selling. That means you are more likely to get a sale because you are giving them what they want.

Keeping your Subscribers

List building is not the be all and end all of making a success of your online business. It is just a means to an end. The end is to keep a ‘captive audience’ of subscribers who are interested in what your business does so that you can drip feed information to them over time and encourage them to buy from you. This is the way to build up the trust of your potential customers in you. Until they trust you, they won’t give you their hard-earned money.

The key to creating an effective opt-in list is to provide your subscribers with quality information that will really help them. One of the best ways to do this is to provide them with a weekly, biweekly, or monthly e-zine. An e-zine is a newsletter or publication that is sent to subscribers who have chosen to receive your publication. You will learn more about this later in this book.

In order to build a database of potential customers and start collecting e-mail addresses, you'll first need to set up a mailing list. This mailing list must enable your visitors to submit their information and subscribe them to your list.

Freebies?

There are many free list building services that will enable you to set up a mailing list. However, they are not recommended. They will not allow you to personalize your messages with your subscribers' names and they require your visitor to reply to a confirmation message. That is where this book will help you!

There are many powerful ways to build your subscriber base. However, for this book, we will only focus on the "best" methods of list building.

Customers’ Needs

The best marketing always focuses on the needs of a business’ potential customers.

What do they need from you?

Why do they need your products or services?

What is going to induce them buy to buy from you?

In list building, don’t be trapped into merely marketing what your business does when you should be identifying the needs of your customers and working towards fulfilling these needs.

Create a Win-Win Situation to Improve Your List Building

For list building to be a win-win situation for you and your subscribers, and therefore have the best chance of making money from it, you should ensure you send your mailing list only useful information which is relevant to them. It’s like with those life Cover Plans for 50s, when you’re in your 20s and 30s – don’t you just hate getting those! Don’t commit such a faux pas with your own list building.

If you get your list building right and know who your subscribers are, you can use the mailing list to really boost your online marketing efforts. You can use it to warm up potential clients or pre-sell goods and services. If you’re not using your list building like this, your business marketing is not as successful as it could be. It’s as simple as that.

Offering free gifts is a great way to pre-sell and is a great inducement to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Let’s now turn our attention to choosing and creating the right free offer to achieve your business aims.

Freebies Build Trust

People love to get something for nothing. If they can get a useful free gift and all they have to do for that is to leave their email address with you, then they will be happy to do it.

The simple offer of a free newsletter from your website is very effective at building trust and building your mailing list. It will set you up as an expert, capable of passing on useful information. But, be sure to fill it with information that your subscribers will actually be interested in. also, a little humor always helps.

Quality Control

Your list building depends upon providing quality information to the people on your mailing list. If you have a website that is just chock full of good quality information that is useful to people, it will bring in more visitors and many of them will sign up for your mailing list.

A good way of proving your expertise at something is to write about it. Write articles, a book, an e-book etc. and give them away for free. Any type of publication that can get your material out in front of the public can be very effective. And don’t let the idea of a book overwhelm you. You can simply take articles, short stories, essays etc. that you’ve already done and “stitch” them together.

You’ll be surprised at how all these steps can work together to add prospects to your mailing list.

Here are the most effective ways to get mailing list subscribers using free offers: 

Offer a free subscription in relevant newsgroups

Offer a free subscription in related email discussion lists

Offer a free subscription in relevant emails

Offer a free subscription in classified ads

Offer a free subscription in relevant forums

Offer a free subscription in your email signature

Issue press releases to publicize your free newsletter

Offer a free subscription on ALL the pages of your website

Rent relevant opt-in e-mail lists to offer your free subscription

Offer a free subscription to members of relevant online clubs and organizations

Exchange sponsorships with other related, but not competitive newsletters

Offer “gift subscriptions” in your newsletters whereby someone can go to a webpage and give a subscription to a friend.