List Building – What’s It All About?
List building is an integral part of any online business. Just as how brick and mortar businesses keep record of their previous customers, the online entrepreneur has to collect the information of his visitors so that he can contact them again later on.
Therefore, huge focus must be placed on learning how to build a powerful mailing list so that you can continuously provide value to your prospects or customers at the same time monetize from them.
What is a list, exactly? Basically, it’s short for email marketing list or email autoresponder list. These emails are the contact information of visitors who come to your site who are looking for specific information on your niche topic.
In order to build a list, you will need to have an email autoresponder set up. The two most common autoresponders in the market are Aweber and GetResponse.
It is compulsory for anyone who wishes to start an online business to get an autoresponder account. This will be used to manage your subscribers and mass email your list with offers and information of interest.
Fortunately, these autoresponders come in different packages for big and small entrepreneurs, so choose your desired package wisely.
Once you have an autoresponder account set up, you’ll have to set up a business system for collecting leads or subscribers.
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Why Do I Have to Build a List?
One of the most common question asked by new online marketers is “Do I Have To Build A List?”
The truth is, there are many ways to make money online. Some make money through blogging, which involves getting readers hooked onto your blog content and wanting to come back everyday to read new stuff. While others dabble with e-commerce or drop-shipping.
However, if you are in the business of information marketing, it is highly recommended that you build an email list.
Why is that?
With an email list, not only can you continuously build rapport with your subscribers, you can also offer them products of interest. Traffic that comes and is not captured is a waste. People are looking for specific information and they will leave forever once they have found out.
However, if you manage to capture their emails, you can continue to provide value and turn them into your loyal customers or followers.
One more good reason – With an email autoresponder, you can automate emails so that new subscribers will automatically be funneled through a series of emails which will lead to a sale eventually. Can you say passive income?
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How Do You Build a List Exactly?
So how do you start building a list, exactly?
You will first need to set up your list funnel. It typically consists of 3 components:
1) Landing page or Squeeze Page
2) Free Gift or “Bribe”
3) Opt in box
The landing page is a simple one page website which consists of a headline, sub headline, pitch & benefits and call to action.
The headline has to be eye-catching and bolded to immediately get your reader’s attention. The sub headline will reinforce the message of the headline.
The purpose of the page is to “bribe” a visitor to enter his name and email in exchange for a free gift. This could be an e-book, e-course or weekly newsletter.
The benefits are meant to explain what the reader would get from this free gift and to improve sign up rates.
Finally, in the call to action, you inform the reader that they must enter their name and email to get the free gift.
The place where the reader enters his contact information is known as the “opt in box”, which can be obtained from to email autoresponder host website. Autoresponders like Getresponse offer easy customizations for opt-in boxes to make boxes suit your site layout easier.
Alternatively, you can choose to put your opt in box in your blog or website to collect subscribers. The choice is entirely yours but landing pages often have higher opt in rates because visitors only have less choices – Opt in or don’t as compared to blogs.
Voila! You’ve just set up your list building system!
Want to build your list but struggle with the technical stuff? Then get everything installed and done for you…
