Build a Quality Email List- Do a Little Bit Everyday

In order to build a quality email list, or even an online business you need to do a little bit each and every day. This does not mean that you must spend hours and hours and hours working on your new project.  In fact once you figure out the basics it is quite easy to spend less than an hour a day on your email list.

“The Future depends on what you do today” ~Ghandi

 

Why Build an Email List?

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When you work on any online campaign you need to acquire traffic.  There are of course several kinds of traffic.  Organic, Direct, Social Media, and Referrals are the kinds that Google Analytics tracks and breaks down.  Obviously Social Media and Organic searches are free, they just require time and building a website that has some authority to it to get higher rankings.  There are traffic methods that you pay for such as Pay Per Click or PPC.

Many people don’t like to spend money at first because it can be a slippery slope when entering the world of PPC.  The bonus with PPC is you get targeted traffic to your site.  The negative aspect is that you pay for it and if you don’t attempt to build a profitable email list that money is gone forever.  Okay, take a deep breath and I will walk you through what I mean here.

When you spend money on a pay per click campaign, if you send them directly to your offer you have about 2 seconds before they decide if they are going to buy the product or not, if not they are gone forever.  However, if you create a proper landing page (more on that later) you still have 2 seconds but instead you just want to get them to give you their email address.  It won’t cost them anything and this increases the chances of conversion.

Once they give you an email address then you can start to build a relationship with them.  Instead of them being gone as soon as the 2 seconds are over, now you build the trust and can send them offers over time more than once.  You only paid for them once but as long as you build the trust and they see value in what you give them, you will continue to have them as a customer.  Normally people don’t buy something the first time they see it.  So a responsive email list gives you the advantage of presenting information to a group of people for no additional cost, other than your email responder.

 

What are the Basics Building an Opt in Email Lists

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When you start in email marketing you hear terms like landing pages, squeeze pages, conversion, opt in and more.  Landing pages are just the page you send traffic to when you buy traffic.  It can be a sales page or a squeeze page.

A squeeze page is a simple page with one goal: To “squeeze” information from your visitor.  Typically you want an email, I like a name and Email address, although the less you ask to have the higher rate you will get in a sign up.

Conversions are the visitors that actually give you the information you request.  The conversion rate is the percentage of people who go to your squeeze page and sign up vs the amount of sessions.  So if you have 100 sessions and you get 37 visitors to give you their email you have a 37% conversion rate.  Every squeeze page has a different conversion rate.  You will need to test your conversion rates and make changes to optimize it.  In the past I have had terrible conversion rates, even as low as 0% but I have also had them as high as 56%.  The conversion depends on a number of factors.  Split testing is the best way to see what is working and what is not working.

A split test is a landing page that rotates though several versions of your squeeze page.  Each visitor sees a different page.  Over time you can see what works best and cut out the ones that are not working.  This refinement is essential to build a good email list.

Important note: NEVER send anyone a promotional email that did not opt into your service.  If you do so you are in violation of Anti Spam Laws and can get fined for each email sent.

 

What should be on a Squeeze Page?

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There are just three simple components of a Squeeze page:

1. The Headline. (H1 tag)
2. The Offer.
3. The Opt in Form.

That is all there is too it as you can see from the simple example above.

The Headline, just like any other headline needs to be captivating.  It should be emotional and speak to an issue that your potential customer has.  This is why you must know your customer and their needs.  What are/were they looking for when they found your site? I like to use the exact keywords they would have searched for when clicked on your ad in the headline. For example if they searched for “How to make Money Online”, I might make my headline “How To Make Money Online in Ten Easy Steps”.  You get the point

The offer is something of value.  It can be anything from a free video, to an eBook, to a report and more.  Each one of these things have to have a real perceived value.  If they don’t believe it has a value to them they will not opt in.  If they feel it is worth giving you their email because they want the report, video, newsletter, or eBook because it will solve their problem then the chances of getting a conversion increase.

The Opt in Form is where you collect their name and email.  You can ask for more information than just that, but you will have a much lower conversion rate with more fields for them to fill out.  Keep it simple after all you want them to give you their email.  Without it you will not make money.  Make it easy for them and with a good offer you will increase your chances of building that relationship with them.

 

After You Have an Email.

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Once you have those all-important conversions, your list starts to grow, but what do you do now.  Well it is not that difficult really.  You just need to build a set of emails to go out at set times.  This is where your auto responder comes in.  You build trust with your reader; first email should be a thank you email as well as the offer you told them you would give them if they filled out the form.  This should be sent the second they opt in.  Of course if you did this manually it would be almost impossible to send that instantly.

Then you schedule other emails at set intervals.  You don’t want to send people emails every day all the time.  This will quickly have those subscribers (conversions) that you paid for, unsubscribe and you have lost them forever.  Instead I like to give them something like this schedule:

Day one- Introduction Email and bonus.

Day two-Some valuable information

Day five- More personal information about you

Day Eight- Bonus, another video, eBook or something that is free.

Day Eleven-Promotional offer

Day Twelve- Industry insight followed by promotional offer

Day Nineteen-Connect on a personal level with Valuable Information

Day Thirty-Industry insight with promotional offer.

You can see I don’t bombard people with sales pitches nor do I try to sell them something on every email.  Instead I work on building rapport with them.  This is important to be successful in email marketing.  After 30 days you can do a cycle of every 14 to 21 days or even up to once a month. Another option is you can send out a blast email or one that goes out to everyone at the same time.  If it is successful then add it to the auto responder series of emails.

I don’t like getting bombarded with emails as most people don’t.  If you provide quality information that people are interested in they will continue to follow you and be happy to do what you ask.  It really is about building that relationship and trust.  You are building a long term relationship with these people.  Make them happy and you will get repaid in full.

 

How Much Time

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Remember it does not take long it just takes a little bit of time.  Once you get it all set up and running it is simple to continue to make money with the responsive list.  The first step is making a commitment and doing something about it.  Theory is just that but until you practice it, it is just theory and nothing will happen.  Remember that quote at the beginning of the post from Ghandi, “The future depends on what you do today”. So make that commitment and get started today.

If you want to learn more about email marketing and building an online business please see my top recommendation.

Please leave your comments, suggestions, questions or personal experiences below.   Thank you!