Easy Ways To Build an Massive Email Lists | How To Avoid List Building Mistakes

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Easy Strategies to Gain Lot More Subscribers

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• Once you have your squeeze page in place with your opt-in form and incentive, you should start to notice a fairly good turnover of people signing up to your mailing list – especially if it is attached to a popular blog with a lot of footfall.

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• But don’t rest on your laurels! It is folly to take the “build it and they will come approach,” so in order to really capitalize on your good work so far, you need to look into ways you can get more exposure for your opt-in form and encourage people to find it and to want to sign up.

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• There are several ways you can do this…

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Pop-Overs

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• The first is to use what’s known as a “pop-over.” This is basically a dialog box that will appear over the top of your content when people load up your page and promote your mailing list. They’ll be able to then either sign up, or close the dialog to keep reading.

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• This is a technique employed by the vast majority of digital marketers and bloggers today, which suggests that it is a highly effective method and one that’s worth trying. Indeed, many marketers report that it helps to drive their conversions up significantly – such that it is worth the slight irritation that it incurs for the users.

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Talking About the Mailing List

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• Another tip is to make sure you actually speak about your mailing list in your blog posts and articles. Never miss an opportunity to point out how your readers can get more information from the mailing list, or how your subscribers have already had access to some of your top deals and offers.

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• You can even look for ways to put your opt-in form on other blogs. You can do this for instance by writing “guest posts.” These are posts you write specifically for other blogs in order to provide them and their readership with value.

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• You give them away for free and in exchange you ask for a by-line that could also include your opt-in form.

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• You can also think about asking people right in the content of your emails to share the messages with their friends who they think will be interested. This can even lead to a viral email!

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Add a Quiz

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• Finally, here’s one more less common strategy: add a quiz or questionnaire to your website and then provide the answers via email. This works particularly well if the quiz tells people something about themselves. We’re all naturally narcissists!

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Great Incentives to Use to Drive People to Your Mailing List

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• Incentives are used by email marketers in order to encourage more people to sign up to their list. Often these will be things like free eBooks, e-mail courses or ‘reports’ and these can then help to motivate anyone who was otherwise sitting on the fence about signing up.

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• Incentives work well but they aren’t always the best strategy depending on your goals and the incentives you use. For instance, if you’re giving away a free eBook, you may be unintentionally devaluing the eBooks you later intend to sell. Worse, you might get people signing up just because they want the freebies, which means they’re unlikely to ever engage with your messages.

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• Of course the other slight problem with an eBook is that you have to actually write it yourself or pay someone else to.

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• So what could you do instead?

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• One option that works very well is to make the e-mail itself the incentive. In other words, you broadcast the value inherent in the e-mails so strongly that people will want to sign up just to receive them. This way, they’ll be actively looking out for your messages and far more likely to want to open them.

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• To go about doing this you can sell the mailing list as being a newsletter rather than just ‘e-mails’. Alternatively, you could create an e-course and actively teach your subscribers through the messages.
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• If you’re really smart, you can even make sure your recipients are interested in potentially buying from you – by talking about the deals and offers you’ll be promoting.
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• If you’re really clever, you can even get your audience psyched about a product you’re going to be launching, and then say they can sign up to get more information when it becomes available. This works extremely well because you now have a list of people who actually want you to send them marketing material!
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• That’s what we call ‘jackpot’ in the industry!

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• Running competitions, creating an eZine or giving away regular free gifts are all more ways to encourage people to sign up and then keep their eyes on their inbox.

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• And this is one more point – you should also be thinking of the best ways to keep people engaged with your emails once they’ve already signed up. Giving away more freebies, running contests, and surveying your readers are all particularly great options.

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How Much Does Running an Email Marketing Campaign Cost?

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• There are lots of reasons that email marketing is one of the best investments any business can make for its marketing. Email marketing means you aren’t reliant on third parties like Facebook or Google, and it means you have direct access to your audience, right inside their inboxes!

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• But while all this is true, it’s also true that email marketing is extremely affordable. With a low barrier to entry and very few overheads, there are few reasons that a business might not be able to start collecting a list and sending messages. This is the internet marketing strategy with perhaps the best ROI of all!

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• But just how much does email marketing cost precisely?

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• On average it is estimated that companies spend anywhere between $9 to $1,000 on their email marketing campaigns. This is thought to take up roughly 16% of their marketing budget.

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• As you can see, this is a very small percentage of the total marketing spend! But it will still likely bring in a large amount of money.

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• The question you might now be asking, is where that money is being spent? What is the expense?

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• There are a few things. The first is an autoresponder. This is the tool you will use in order to build your opt-in form, as well as to collect emails, manage contacts, and send messages. You need an autoresponder of some kind to run a mailing list, and typically this will set you back anywhere between $15 to $200 per month (depending on the size of your list). Free alternatives do exist, but they are typically inferior products.

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• The next is a list cleaning tool. You’ll likely need to pay to use this on a few one-off occasions in order to remove faulty addresses from your list. It’s not an astronomical amount, but it will add up for a big list over time.

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• Finally, a lot of companies will use an email marketing agency – or they will pay for the service alongside other marketing services. This can be significantly more expensive, though if the company is good at its job, then the service should pay for itself!

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• As you can see then, a mailing list should never be an expensive proposition but it can incur a few different expenses. By being savvy, you can minimize even those and enjoy a massive ROI from this essential tool.

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How to Write a Great Subject Line for an Email 

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• Let’s imagine for a moment that this is not a blog you’re reading, but an email. What subject line might I use to get you to read this specific piece of content?

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• One option I would consider is:

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• “[NAME], can I get you to open this email?”

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• So what works about this?

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• While it is potentially a little in-your-face (and it certainly won’t work every time), there are a few psychological tricks involved here that work very well in order to get someone to click.

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• The problem is that most of us are simply inundated with emails and that makes standing out incredibly difficult. If you want your emails to actually get read, you need to think hard about using the right subject line.

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• Here are some things you need to think about…

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• First of all, notice that my subject line was short. This is very important because most email clients will truncate any subject heading that is longer than 50 characters. This can result in your headings making very little sense and is a surefire way to get relegated to the recycle bin.

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• Another thin you might notice is that I used lower case and there was no marketing talk in there. I didn’t say ‘Click Here for This Great Deal!’ because that looks like spam/marketing and very few people are interested in that. Those are the kinds of messages that end up in the spam bin or not getting opened at all. By using lower case, I ensured my subject would look a lot more natural and as though it was written by a human.

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• Another key point? I used your name. That probably got you to look as well and is what is known by psychologists as the ‘cocktail effect’.

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• I used a little bit of curiosity to get you in here though, which is somewhat cheating. What I actually recommend more of the time is that you simply think of your emails as blog posts and then try to use the subject line as you would do a title – make sure that it sells the subject matter of your email while making it sound interesting and engaging.

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• The question mark helps with this, but it also has the added bonus of getting you to reflect on what you’ve read. Using questions means that a person will engage at least a little with what they’re reading, which in turn helps to encourage open rates and clickthroughs!

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Should You Use a Pop-Over?

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• A pop-over is a window that opens up over the top of a website. In that regard it’s similar to a ‘pop-up’, except this message appears inside the browser rather than as a separate window.

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• While pop-ups are generally frowned upon these days, pop-overs are currently all the rage – especially when it comes to e-mail marketing.

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• That’s because a pop-over gives you the perfect means to grab attention from your audience and to show them a message, which may be an opt-in form for a mailing list for instance. This then means that you can make sure that it will get noticed by your visitors – and many bloggers say it increases their sign-up rate by several hundred percent.

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• But should you use this technique? Unfortunately, pop-overs are also highly frustrating for visitors, especially if they’ve seen the same message before.

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• The trick is just to make sure that your opt-in form is as unobtrusive as possible while at the same time making it attention grabbing.

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• One way to do this is to make absolutely certain that your pop-over is mobile friendly. This is a big mistake that some bloggers make, resulting in pop-ups that are impossible to close or see past on mobile devices. Likewise, make sure that the ‘no thanks’ button is clearly visible.

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• And while we’re on that topic, don’t use the emotionally manipulative strategy of making your ‘no thanks’ button into a ‘no thanks, I’m happy being overweight’ button. That just rubs people up the wrong way and it’s not a good start to your relationship with a new subscriber.

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• Finally, use a good piece of software to include some more advanced rules dictating the behaviour of your pop-overs. These should open up only once and preferably only once the visitor has spent some time reading the site or scrolling down.

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• Of course, the other issue is that pop-overs are not free! While this can be a drawback if your aim is to build a completely free list, there is one other option: build the pop-over yourself! With a little bit of code, this is relatively simple to implement. There are also free WordPress plugins that you can use in this way, which will help you to achieve the same effect.

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• You can even just use a redirect! 

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• There are plenty of options, but however you go about it – just make sure you aren’t being any more of a nuisance than necessary. 
  
  

The Importance of Good Headlines for Squeeze Pages

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• A squeeze page is a single page on a website that is designed solely to promote a mailing list opt-in form. As long as a website owner directs enough traffic toward this page, they should then be able to maximize their number of sign-ups.

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• This of course though is dependent on the effectiveness of said squeeze page – on its “conversion rate.”

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• One element that is going to greatly impact on the ability of your page to convert, is the choice of headline. Your headline is what will make people on your link in the first place and it is what will provide the context for your landing page.

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• So what does a good landing page (another term for squeeze page) headline look like?

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• Again, the main key objective is to demonstrate value – both for the page itself and for the mailing list. Ask yourself why people would want to visit this page and why they’d want to be a subscriber?

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• What is the value proposition you are promoting? How are you improving the lives of your visitors?

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• For example, if your mailing list is about business then your title might be something like:

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• A FREE Report on How I Increased My Visitors by 200% in Just One Week!

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• Or alternatively, it might be:

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• Stay IN THE LOOP and Here all the Latest From the World of Digital Marketing, Completely FREE!

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• If your niche is fitness on the other hand, then you might make your title:

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• Join My VIP List for Tips and tricks That Will Help You Feel Confident With Your New, Sexy, POWERFUL Body!

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• In each scenario, you are looking at the value you’re offering and focusing on that. This should create an emotional response for your visitors which in turn should create the impulse to sign up.

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• Creating your perfect headline won’t always be easy but thankfully there are some things you can do to really optimize the title you end up selecting.

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• One tip is to try writing 10 titles and then choosing your favorite. This tends to result in something much more effective than just going with the first thing you think of.

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• Another tip is to try split testing different titles. This means you will create two identical squeeze pages where only the titles are different and then see which one performs best. This way you can gradually learn what your audience responds to and how you can get them to read and to sign up!

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• Split testing can also be used to test and optimize other aspects of your squeeze page
  

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The Social Power of an Email List

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• Email marketing is one of the most powerful and essential forms of internet marketing available. Slowly, it is being recognized as this as more and more bloggers shout about the power of email marketing.

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• But while it’s true that more people are waking up to the potential of list building, it’s also true that many of those same people are failing to make full use of its potential. That’s because they don’t recognize that email is not just a means for you to communicate with an audience, but also a means for them to communicate with you AND with each other!

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A Quick Example of the Social Power of Email

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• Most email marketing broadcasts are written as newsletters. These are info dumps not intended to elicit a response. 

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• But what if you invite your readers to respond? What if you say they can get in touch if they have any questions and then actually answer the emails they send back?

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• Suddenly, you are now having direct conversations with the people who love your brand and who want to hear more from you – which is an ideal way to build trust and authority. If someone feels like they know you, then they will be much more likely to buy from you – especially as they know they can get in touch if they ever have a problem!

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• Better yet, is that this casual conversation could easily lead to a sale of a bigger ticket item. If you are a coach for instance, then this conversation could lead to someone signing up!

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• You can even use a survey conducted via email in order to carry out market research! This way, you could get an idea of the kinds of things people want to see from you, such that your next product or service launch will almost be a guaranteed hit!

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Sharing Posts

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• Finally, why not ask people to share your content if they enjoyed it? People forget how easy it is forward on an email. If you include a call to action at the bottom of your message inviting people to sign up, then those new readers could very easily become new subscribers!

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• Of course, this will only work if the content you provide is high enough quality, and if people think others they know will enjoy it too. This is a good incentive then to keep putting out your very best work!
  

Top List Building Mistakes

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• List building is one of the single most valuable marketing activities but unfortunately it’s also one of the things that a lot of businesses aren’t using to its fullest – or don’t know how to use.

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• People will invest a lot more into social media or SEO typically, despite the fact that e-mail marketing is what most bloggers and gurus say makes them the most money. The problem is, a lot of us just don’t know how to go about it. Thus they make mistakes, and thus they don’t view email marketing as such an important part of their strategy.

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• Here are a few things to avoid then if you want to get the most from your list building:

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• Incentivizing too much – If you make too much out of your ‘incentive’ then people will sign up to your mailing list just to get ‘free stuff’. This then means they may not be particularly interested in what you’re actually saying in your messages!

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• Not promoting your list enough – If you don’t tell anyone about your mailing list then you can’t expect people to sign up. You want to ensure that you mention your mailing list in the body of your text, in your videos and at every opportunity!

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• Not providing value – If your mailing lists are just sales pitches then people will quickly get bored and unsubscribe from your list. Building the list in the first place is only half of the story!

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• Not providing a ‘free taste’ – Your blog and your articles should essentially serve as a ‘free taster’ for the kind of value you’ll be providing within your e-mails. People have to read your content and decide they want more of that. So make sure that what you publish is also really good or you won’t get sign ups!

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• Not doing any list hygiene – List hygiene is the process of removing broken emails, spam, and readers who aren’t engaged. Too many people are focussed purely on numbers and on trying to get the “biggest” list possible. Far more important than size though, is engagement. Seek to build a list filled with highly engaged readers that want to hear more from you and take the time to remove those that don’t. Otherwise, you risk your email being blacklisted.

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• Not communicating – Email is a form of communication. Instead of sending out ads and infomercials, instead consider asking your audience a question once in a while. This is a fantastic way to increased engagement and trust!

What is Your Email List Worth?

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• If you are collecting emails for an email marketing strategy, then you might well have been attracted partly by just how affordable the process is. This is a marketing method with an extremely high ROI, meaning that you barely have to spend anything in order to start really profiting.

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• But exactly how much is your email list worth? Can you really get “something for nothing” in this way? 

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• Let’s take a look!

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Selling a List

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• If you were to sell your list, or to sell it as part of an exit strategy along with your business, then you would often be expected to charge roughly $1 per subscriber. This is a very rough average, but it is a fairly consistent and reliable method of valuing a list. That means that a list with 1,000 subscribers will usually fetch you around $1,000.

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• The True Value

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• Of course the actual value of your list is very different. For instance, a list filled with highly engaged subscribers who read every single email will be extremely valuable compared to one filled with addresses scraped from the web!

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• That’s why most people will want to check things like bounce rates and CTR when they consider buying your list – it’s also why list hygiene is so important.

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• But what’s perhaps even more important, is how much the list is worth to you at any given point.

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• To calculate this, you need to work out your CLV for each subscriber. This is your “customer lifetime value,” which means the amount that you will earn on average from a single person during the entire time you have their details.

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• How might you calculate this? Well, take a look at your list as it currently stands, and then work out how many people on that list have purchased from you. How many purchases do you get on average for every 100 subscribers? How many of those people purchase more than once?

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• Now ask what the average profit you get from each sale is.  Get the total number based on all of your subscribers, and then divide this by the number of subscribers you have.

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• What you will be left with, is a number that represents the average value of each subscriber. Now, not everyone will be likely to buy from you! But based on average performance, this is what the average subscriber is “worth.” You’ll likely find it’s much higher than you thought!

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Why Branding is Crucial for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

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• Branding is a critical aspect of any business and certainly when it comes to marketing. But what a lot of people don’t realize, is just how directly something like branding can actually affect things like email marketing. How can your brand possible affect your ability to get people to sign up for a mailing list?

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• To answer that question, I want you to take a moment and think of the email lists that you have ever signed up for in your own life. What did they have in common?

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• In almost every case, you likely enjoyed the brand!

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• You may have been a regular reader of a particular website for example, or you might have been a customer who had bought lots of products. Either way, you had positive experience with the company and wanted to deal with them again in future.

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• This is true in 99% of cases when it comes to getting emails. Even the very best squeeze page, with the very best incentive, will struggle to encourage people to sign up if they aren’t already interested in the brand! We just don’t want to hear from another brand that we don’t care at all about!

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• How likely are you to sign up to the mailing list for a soap company? Unlikely!

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• This is why it’s important that your brand be memorable, that it evoke an emotional response in the reader, and that it be something that caters to a very specific market. Your brand should immediately communicate what your business is all about, and focus on the lifestyle and the value proposition that you want to emphasize.

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• When you do this, you can create a brand that is exciting and memorable and that makes your audience feel the way they want to feel. Think not just about who your audience is, but about who they want to be. What do they enjoy, and why do they enjoy it? How can you help them to feel that way when they read your content?

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• The same goes for products. Any product you create should be high quality, such that when someone orders it, they will be have a great experience and want to experience something similar in future. Get this really right, and you can create a situation where people sign up to your mailing list simply because of how much they want to know about what is coming next!