My Top 5 List Building Tips

Without an email list for your business, you severely hamper your chances of becoming successful. It would be akin to playing basketball while hopping on one leg. Yes, you can still score a few points, but you’re at a major disadvantage compared to everyone else running around on two legs.

What is often taught and sold to beginners is the idea that having an email list allows you to make hundreds, even thousands of dollars with the simple click of button and the sending of a single email.

But what is rarely taught are the actual factors required in order for you to build a responsive email list, recruit new reps and make money with but a click of a button!

Here are my five list building tips to help you build a responsive list for your business:

Tip #1. Offer something of value to your prospects in exchange for their name and email address.

Free reports or a free ebook are standard offerings online and still work like gangbusters. If, and only if, the report or ebook offers something of value to your prospects.

It’s important that you match your offer to your market’s desires. This means that if your target prospect is looking for information on how to start a home based business, don’t offer them an ebook of cooking recipes!

Also, here’s a great tip to help you endear your prospects to you:

On your download page, give your new subscriber an additional free bonus of some kind. This is called over-delivering and helps you bridge the cold void between your prospects and yourself.

Tip #2. Use the right auto-responder service.

Two of most well known auto-responder services online are Aweber and GetResponse (I use both, but am leaning towards Aweber as being my top choice).

For a nominal monthly fee, you get a user-friendly interface to craft your broadcast messages, to manage your subscribers, and the highest email deliverability rates – getting your message delivered is of obvious importance because if no one gets your email, then no one can respond to your offer!

If you are serious about marketing your business online, DO NOT skimp here, and definitely don’t settle for free auto-responders in order to cut your costs.

Tip #3. Be consistent, relevant and personal.

Once you make the leap to email marketing, it’s important you stay in front of your prospects on a regular basis. When you first get started, once a month is good enough because you will have so much other work to get done.

Then, after your business has matured a bit, you can increase the frequency of emails to once a week or more if you have lots to say.

Speaking of what to say … try and make your follow up and broadcast messages relevant. Remember, if your subscriber opted-in to get information on a certain topic, make sure you follow up with similar information or content.

Staying relevant will keep your subscribers interested and will help get your emails opened and read.

And finally, treat your prospects like humans!

Your prospects are regular people just like you, so skip the ‘hoity-toity’ fancy big words, and stick to being friendly and personal – that’s what they want. Speak to your prospects like they were old friends of yours and you will get much further ahead.

Tip #4. Don’t be shy in talking with your prospects.

One thing that frustrates prospects to no end occurs when their attempts to contact the list owner go unanswered.

When you respond promptly and courteously to emails, you are making a connection with the other person. If your subscribers start talking with you and as they start learning more about you, they will start to trust you and even respect you.

And that’s when they feel comfortable enough to join you in business, or give your products a try.

Tip #5. Focus on building a relationship with your list, not just building a list.

Don’t get caught up in trying to build the biggest list of prospects on the planet. While list size does matter, it’s only half of the equation. The other half is your relationship with the list — refer back to #3 & #4 above.

So be sure to actively look for ways to strengthen your relationship with your subscribers – it’ll pay off in spades in the future!

Finally, remember, building a list takes time, effort and a little bit of cash – but mostly it requires lots of elbow grease.

So if your list is growing slow at first, don’t despair, keep doing the things that are working and bringing you subscribers.

Hope this helps.

Please feel free to ask a question or leave a comment.

Yours for more profits.

Sincerely,

j.joshua
CEO & Founder

P.S. Got a list building tip? Please share it with us in the comment box below!