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Puddy in Glasgow, Scotland several years ago. Joint Ventures Click here
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The Fortune is NOT in the List – The Fortune is in How You Utilize the List You’ve heard
the marketer’s mantra a million times: “The money is in the list.” Listen, that’s NOT entirely
true. If it was true, then anyone could build up a big list and soon retire to a private island.
But it doesn’t work that way. People still believe it, however. You’ll see beginning marketers
focusing on building up big lists quickly – a few thousand in a just a week, tens of thousands
in a few months, 100,000 strong in a year. They start having visions of a $1 per subscriber
per month rolling in.
When the money doesn’t materialized, they’re baffled. Worse yet, sometimes new marketers
are shocked to discover that their conversion rate is at or near zero. You can see how
frustrating this is to folks who believe that all you have to do is build a list and watch the
money roll in.
Now, a list can be profitable. But in order to see those profits come in, you need to do two things…
1. Build a Targeted, Responsive List
If you’re selling dog collars, then you should be building a list of people who want to buy dog
collars. Building a list of cat owners, people who like rose gardening or people who want to
learn how to cook French food aren’t good candidates for your list.
Your subscribers need to all be interested in what you’re selling. Period.Secondly, your
subscribers must WANT to be on your list. If you offer a freebie (like an ebook) in exchange
for an email, your subscribers better know they’re going to get a newsletter from you. If they join
a contest, they better know their registration puts them on your list. And so on. Point is, use
whatever means you want to get them on your list – but make sure they’re equally as excited
to read your newsletter as they are to get your freebie.
2. Build Relationships With Your Subscribers
As mentioned, the first step in building a responsive list is to make sure you’re only attracting
targeted subscribers who want to join your list. The second step is to build relationships with
your subscribers. As they begin to know, like and trust you, they’ll start buying more and more
from you.
Here’s how to build those good relationships:
a) Communicate Regularly: Think about your personal relationships – how often do you
talk to your best friends? Chances are, the people you know, like and trust the most are also
the ones you talk to regularly. And likewise, the best way to build up a relationship with your
subscribers is to communicate regularly. If you’re only sending them emails once per month,
they’re going to forget about you in between emails – and they may even forget your name
and report your emails as spam. But send out emails regularly – about once a week – keeps
your name in front of subscribers and gives you a chance to share quality content and offers.
Which brings us to our next point…
b) Create Quality Content: Your subscribers signed up to your list to get solutions. And in
many cases, that means they want information. If you can solve their problems (by providing
quality content), you’ll earn their trust. And that makes it much easier for you to sell your offers.
c) Choose Solid Offers: The second way to provide solutions to your prospects’ problems is
by recommending products that solve their problems. However, just as you need to provide
quality content, you also need to recommend quality products – honestly. To do otherwise
means risking your reputation as an honest marketer.
Here are a couple guidelines:
If you wouldn’t recommend it to your best friend or your mother, don’t recommend it to
your list.
Review the product honestly, flaws and all. Indeed,revealing a flaw creates trust between
you and the prospects, and this trust spurs sales.
