Saturday, August 22, 2009

Fresh MLM Leads Versus Aged Leads- The Verdict Is Still Out

You are excited! You just started up your networking business and you are ready to launch your business to the world by purchasing a list of mlm leads of people that are hopefully just as excited about a life without financial woes and time freedom as you are and then it hits you$4.00 a lead. Ouch!
You quickly calculate that it will cost you $400 to hopefully be able to talk to 100 people about your business. Ouch again!
Are these $4.00 leads worth the price? This is where the age-old debate of quality versus quantity begins.
Any industry veteran will tell you, the secret to being successful in networking is not selling people on your opportunity, rather it is sorting through enough people to find those right people for your opportunity. It is quite simple really. The more people you talk to, the more people you will find that are right for your business.
This is especially important when you are first starting out. It takes time, practice, and patience to earn the confidence that will be necessary to increase the number of people that are attracted to you.
Yes, I said attracted to you. Most often a prospect will be willing to join your company because they have connected with you and feel that you are the one that can help them become successful.
However, unless you are natural born leader with an instant knack for the phone, you might have to stumble through a few hundred calls before you get enough practice with your script to come across as confident and comfortable.
So what is the solution? Most likely, these same leads that are being sold for $4.00 as a live lead or phone interviewed lead will be sold again as an aged lead for a fraction of the cost. If you look around youll see them called aged leads, 7-14 day old, etc. Yes they have been contacted once, twice, or more, before you receive them, however for the fraction of the cost they can fit into anyones budget.
There are two main things you need to keep in mind:
1) Not every opportunity is right for everyone.
2) Not everyone is as charming as you!
Even if other people have called these leads before you, the opportunities they are representing may not have been a right fit for them. Or perhaps they may not have felt comfortable with the other people. When you first chose the company you are with now, did you look around first to see what your options were before joining? Most prospects will often want to evaluate different opportunities before making their life changing decision.
So are $4.00 leads worth it? Absolutely! But only after you are ready for them, so you can make the best of them.
But until then, why not start off with a lead that began as a high quality or premium lead that is aged slightly so that you can purchase substantially more. Remember, its about finding quality people, and the more people you talk to, the more quickly you will find them. The right people will be receptive to you, whether they filled out a form today, or a week ago.
As you get more experience and practice. Start combining the higher quality or fresher leads with your aged leads to experience both. You will figure out what balance of leads will work best for you and your budget.
Parting Tip: As you get better, your leads will get better, regardless of the age or quality of the lead.

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you are selling. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and it helps build credibility with your subscribers. As a result, you can generate more sales and profits.

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, responsive and permission-based email list. If you have a list of subscribers that trust you and consider you an expert, you've completed the first step and are on your way!

Below you will several list-building ideas that will help you make the most of your email marketing efforts:

  1. Provide useful, relevant and unique content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be useful to your subscribers.
  2. Add a subscription form to every page of your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If appropriate, you can also include it in more than one place. For instance, your opt-in form might always appear in the top-left corner of your site, while you also include an opt-in at the bottom of some of your popular articles.
  3. Make it easy for your reader to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it's not necessary, don't include it here. (Note: If you don't have a Privacy Policy, put the words "privacy policy generator" into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form for your readers to review.
  4. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form.
  5. Show your first issue or other sample to your visitors. This lets potential subscribers review your newsletter before they sign up to determine if it is something they'd be interested in.
  6. Archive past newsletter issues. A "library" of past newsletters is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can send additional traffic to your web site through good search engine positioning.
  7. Contact other newsletter publishers. Introduce yourself and explore ways you may be able to help each other. Perhaps you can introduce other publisher's newsletters or print articles they have written to your list, with a link to sign up. When you contact them, be sure to tell them why you think THEIR readers would like what you have to offer and why YOUR readers would benefit from their newsletters. This is a win-win scenario; both of you will build your lists faster!
  8. Give away bonuses subscribers can use. Create an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list. You can write an ebook or PDF report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don't limit yourself to only a gift for new opt-ins. Remind your readers that the next bonus is coming soon. People hate to miss out on things. If you systematically pass on "goodies" throughout the year, your subscribers are unlikely to leave.
  9. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find the content you share with them to be informative, they will pass your newsletter on to their friends. This can be a good source of new subscribers.
  10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you will get new subscribers, traffic and links pointing to your site.
  11. Include a "Sign Up" button in the newsletter. If you are using plain text instead of HTML, provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint it online. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe.
  12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal - to get an opt-in and build your list. Think of it like a mini-sales letter for your subscription or opt-in bonus. It features a powerful headline and a couple of very important benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up to your list. Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and advertise there using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo.
  13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put 1 or 2 strong testimonials from satisfied subscribers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video social proof) is more "believable". To increase that believability, include full names, locations and/or urls; don't use "Bob K, FL" as a testimonial name.
  14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with your potential customers, and it creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or Wordpress.
  15. Post on other blogs. Post great comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page. Also comment on others' blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers.

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