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You must allocate X amount of your
advertising budget, and the necessary labor, to tracking &
testing the list building methods you're now using.
Additionally, search for new methods and start tracking &
testing those.
Rather than reinventing the wheel,
you'd be wise to start your list building efforts using methods
that have already worked well for many years:
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Signature Files:
Including a short list building promo in your outgoing emails.
-
Forum Postings:
Posting messages to forums relevant to your market with a sig
file at the end of your message.
-
Classified Ads:
Buying list-building promo ads in online ezines.
-
Writing Articles:
You can get subscribers by writing and submitting articles to
ezines and to web sites.
-
Ad swaps: You can
get subscribers from trading ads with other ezine publishers.
-
Recommendations: You
can get subscribers when you're recommended by other list
owners.
-
Pay-Per-Click
advertising: In most cases, PPC equals instant traffic and
with some sort of lead capture process, immediate leads.
-
Testimonies: You can
get subscribers by giving out testimonies to people whose work
you admire.
-
Viral marketing: You
can get subscribers by giving away free ebooks, free
reports and free videos, free audios, free software... etc, etc.
Each of the above list building strategies do
work, and you should be using them. But, they're fairly labor
intensive and they do take some time to build momentum.
Tip: While you're
building your email lists, keep in mind the people who are
opting into your lists are only leads, and not necessarily
prospects.
It's your job to build a
business relationship with the leads & turn them into prospect.
Here's one method I've had
success with:
To begin the relationship building process with
your new leads, you set up and send them a
series of pre-written email messages designed to let them get to
know you. Your intention is to let your frequent contact get
some of the leads to raise their hand as being interested in
getting more information about one of your promotions.
Your
first goal then, is to turn a lead into a prospect. Then you let
your follow up marketing processes turn prospects into
customers.
Personally, I consider most
online leads as pure junk.
On the other hand, because
I've done it, I know you can gradually build a decent customer
list from these junks leads when you run enough of them
through your relationship building process.
That's the good news, right?
For the bad news...
To test, track and fine-tune
your relationship building processes, and to test, track and
improve your conversion of some of your leads into prospects and
then to test your way into a system that converts some of your prospects into customers, you must
meet the following two prerequisites:
-
Get a lot of stinkin' leads
at the least possible cost.
-
Send out many, many email
messages using an affordable, and dependable email list
management services company whose management understands the nature of the
email marketing game...
After 9+ years of email
marketing, I can testify it's getting harder every day to
fulfill the 2 requirements I've listed above.
While I don't know of one
simple, all-purpose solution, I can provide you with
some help. For over 5 years I tested
how to use low-cost, opt-in co-registration leads as a source of online
leads.
Quite frankly,
co-registration leads (co-reg leads)
are even lower than junk. Furthermore, the co-reg leads lists are
populated with some of the nastiest people you'll have the
misfortune to meet online.
So why bother with them?
If you know how, you can make
co-registration leads worth your time. For example, I know how to get co-reg leads
for free. Plus, I know why co-reg leads act like they do and I know how to
use my knowledge to build trusting relationships with some of them.
After doing years of testing,
tracking results and changing my tactics to take advantage of what
I've learned from my testing, I know how to get suspects, prospects and
customers from 'meaner-than-a-junkyard-dog' co-registration junk lists.
I won't mislead you...
It may have taken 2 years of
regular contact, but some of my best customers have actually come
from a list of trashy co-registration leads. (I know because I keep track
of where different list members come from.)
Some of the ways I use opt-in
co-registration leads:
-
I like having the ability to
test different marketing strategies and different offers on co-reg
leads.
-
I don't mind if they un-subscribe
because I'm testing and improving my marketing message.
-
I mean, who cares if a co-reg
lead un-subscribes?
-
Co-reg leads are easily and
cheaply replaced.
You know, it just
makes good business sense to practice new marketing methods,
different strategies and your new offers on cheap, throw-away leads, before you take
them to your prospects and customers, doesn't it? Plus, when you know how, using
co-registration leads for testing is less expensive to use and
easier to track than pay-per-click web traffic or paid advertising.
I could go on, but I
don't need to. I've already put together a list building package
showing you how to use co-reg leads to quickly build your online lists.
You can see my 'Co-Registration List Building
Package' at:
Co-Reg-Leads
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