listbuilding 101: how to build a mailing list and connect with people

Online Marketing 101 Series

2. Building A Valuable Email List

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Online Marketing 101 Series: Building An Email List

LEGAL DECLARATION

The information in this ebook is copyrighted.

You may not reproduce it in any form without written permission.

The information provided is for guidance only and should notbe used in isolation. You should always undertake your ownfurther research and test multiple systems before going live

with your ideas.

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Table of ContentsIs The Money Really In The List?......................................................................................4An Email List Will Future-Proof Your Business.....................................................................4How To Build A Profitable Email List..................................................................................6Market To People............................................................................................................8How Do You Market To People Without Selling Them Anything?............................................9Here's The Real Purpose Of Email Marketing....................................................................11What Do I Send To My New Friends?...............................................................................12Amazing Tips On Structuring Your Emails........................................................................14Tell A Story And Link It To Their Own Story......................................................................15Don't Just Go For It......................................................................................................16


Is The Money Really In The List?

When you take your first steps into marketing any business online, you will read one piece of advice constantly:

"The money is in the list".

It doesn't matter what your niche or industry is, if you're intending to build sales through online channels then will read this advice and you need to take it.

The money is actually in the relationship you build with the people on your mailing list. You can have a mailing list of 1 million people, but if all you do is hammer them day after day, week after week with offer after offer, your sales will be low and your effort will be mostly wasted.

In this ebook we are going to cover the basics of starting a mailing list, and learning to build a long-lasting relationship with the people on your list.

By the end of it you will understand more about how to grow an email list and how to maximise the return you get from the time and effort you invest.

An Email List Will Future-Proof Your Business.


Compared to social media options, like building a strong Twitter following, an email list is unique for one powerful reason.

YOU CONTROL IT.

Twitter can't delete you email list. Facebook can't change your email delivery to change your message.

And most importantly, Google can't change your email lists algorithm to knock out 90% of your sales overnight.

What an email list does is give you control over your future. It connects with your visitors, your leads and customers directly. There is no third party who can put up a barrier and block you.

So although email is seen as “old hat” by some people, in this age of constantly changing rules online, a strong email list will guarantee you future traffic and sales in a way nothing else you have full control over can.

Always, always invest in a list. Right now.


How To Build A Profitable Email List

There are three key stages to turning someone into a customer:

1. Arouse interest through a highly targeted landing page.

2. Build their trust and desire through giving them a high quality lead generation report.

3. Increase their trust and desire to buy with an automated sequence of engaging follow-up emails.

Although setting up what is known as a “sales funnel” is relatively straightforward, there is real skill required to create the trust and desire to convert someone from a visitor to a prospect to a customer.

So you will need the skills to create great landing pages that will make somebody hand over that email address in return for a free e-book, special report or other content that expands on the reason for the landing on your website.

The free content you deliver them must be enticing enough to answer their questions without solving the problem, encouraging them to continue their journey with you.

And finally you will hope to convert them through a sequence of automated follow-up emails that will expand on the themes discussed in the free content they download.


The aim is to develop their trust in interest through this sequence of emails to the point where some stage they click to make a purchase, or further contact.

Once you have developed a sales funnel, you will need to refine it time after time in order to make it is highly converting as possible.

The better your landing page is, the more lead you will generate. This will build your email list.

The stronger your free content is, the more desire you will build on them to remain on your mailing list.

The better your ongoing follow-up email sequence is, the more likely they are to convert from a prospect to a customer.

The details of how to achieve maximum benefit from a sales funnel are beyond the scope of this basic guide to building an email list.

However, in the premium members area of the marketing freshman website you can access our advanced strategy guide on constructing a lead generation sales funnel that sends you leads effort free.


Market To People.

It's perfectly possible to get a greater return from a list of a few thousand than it is from a list of 1 million, if you understand and do two key things:

1. Understand the actual needs of your subscribers and build your relationship with them based solely on that.

2. Never directly sell them anything within the emails you send, always create a desire to find out more through information delivery.

In fact, you need to stop thinking of the people who subscribe to your emails as a "list" at all. You need to start thinking of them as people and potential clients.

Ask yourself this. If everyone on your email list was standing in front of you would you write your email to them in the same way?

Of course the answer to this question is “no”.

So the first key thing you must understand is that whenever you are writing to your subscribers, or attempting to build your list through other marketing channels such as social media, you need to write as if you were talking to them face-to-face.


How Do You Market To People Without Selling Them Anything?

It's all about building relationships.

You have to understand the reason why that person joined your mailing list in the first place.

Usually it's because they either like what they read on your site, or liked the prospect of what you are offering them as a freebie if they join your mailing list.

Or perhaps the reason they have joined your mailing list is because they see you as an expert in your field, someone informative and entertaining, or someone who can give them what they are looking for. Whatever the reason, you need to understand it and deliver.

They have taken the first step in building a relationship with you, or at least offered you the chance to build one with them. From the point you receive their email address, you need to see them as somebody to nurture trust with.

The way you build a relationship with the people on your mailing list is simple, though sometimes not obvious if you are new to marketing and online business.

You build their trust through demonstrating your expertise, and delivering great quality information that they will be delighted to read without exception.


TOP TIPYou can also build your email list campaign into a membership site. DIGITAL ACCESS PASS for example, allows you sign people up in the same was as a mailing list. It allows autoresponders to be set.

But the added bonus of a membership script is that you can upscale your site as your membership grows. The membership script can allow access to products and membership area's further down the line.

If you are intending to develop a site, I would always recommend you build your list on the back of a membership program to allow you to develop your offering instantly without infrastructure investment.

http://digitalaccesspass.com/dap/a/?a=24309


Here's The Real Purpose Of Email Marketing.

You may have already guessed from my banging on about building relationships, what I'm about to say.

The purpose of email marketing is actually not to sell. What you are doing is building trust for a future purchase.

You are pre-selling.

You are not trying to do viral marketing, or chuck free content at them. You're not expecting them to take major action on the basis of the email content alone.

All you are doing is building their trust in you. Nurturing a new relationship so that they are more likely to not only buy your products or services in the near future, but are also happy to then recommend you to other people.


What Do I Send To My New Friends?In exactly the same way as people will tell you about the difference between long copy and short copy on webpages, so you'll be told about ways to market through emails.

The first thing to do is ditch all that usual, and dated, selling advice. Remember the key purpose is to connect with and build trust with the people who have elected to receive communications from you.

So what you send and must be useful, friendly and straight to the point.

Think about it. How long you spend reading an email? Unless it's from a close friend, just like everyone else you will skim it and bin it. If it's got something interesting in it you may read all the way through, or it may stay in your inbox and so you can be bothered to read it later.

If your email is longer than a few hundred words then the number of people who actually bother to read it all will drop dramatically.

In fact, studies have shown that any email of more than about 300 words is skimmed through.

Give them a great piece of advice and then link to the rest of it. Tell them something massively useful, and to watch out for your next email which will tell more about it. Tease them but make sure you give them enough to desire learning the rest.

So get straight to the point and make sure you have a


point. Make it a damn good point.


Amazing Tips On Structuring Your Emails.

When I said keep it short I meant it. You are looking at a maximum of four paragraphs, each around 30 to 60 words.

This will give you 3 to 4 short, punchy paragraphs. These will be easy to read.

Exactly like the ones you're reading now.

If you're not sure how to structure it, keep it really simple by having only one sentence per paragraph.

Just like the one you have just read.

Finish with either a call to action, in the form of a link, or a promise of something to follow. Or if you want interaction, the call to action is to ask them to hit reply.

It's important to have a call to action, but not to make it one that screams "I want your money now!". Keep it subtle, informative and informal. All the time keep in mind your trying to connect with your prospect and get them to take action as soon as possible.


Tell A Story And Link It To Their Own Story.

You know the Star Wars films.

They are a great way of understanding how to tell a story in your emails.

The first trick is to tell a story in each email. A self-contained one that drives someone to click for more.

The second trick is to weave in one longer story throughout all the emails you send. This story is their reason for subscribing in the first place.

To explain, think of Star Wars.

Each film was a self-contained story. You could watch one and be entertained and have a resolution to the main story.

But there was an underlying story that drove through the heart of all the films. It was the battle in the Skywalker story, which lead to redemption and uniting.

That's how clever your email campaign sequence needs to be.

Can you feel the force?


Don't Just Go For It.

A rushed series of autoresponder emails will fail. Writing to your list by bashing something out in ten minutes will fail.

Take your time to write a series of short, intelligent, valuable pieces that on their own, or linked, deliver real value to your prospect.

Make sure each is part of a complete strategy you already have mapped out.

Treat the people on your list like valued friends. People you respect enough to share your best information with right now.

Build trust and rapport, deliver great information and watch your long term sales, through repeats and referrals, deliver long term, solid financial growth.

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