In Part 1 of this series, we defined List Building as email marketing. Providing valuable content to potential customers, via your autoresponder, is a great way to build your prospect list. In Part 2, we will discuss the “meat and potatoes” of list building, designating your list type and doing the actual work.
What Type of List?
For many people, deciding what type of list to build is the hardest part of the process. Before you can provide valuable content, you must decide what your information will be about. In my eyes, this is the most important part of the process. What do you have knowledge about? What is your passion? What is your favorite hobby? If nothing comes immediately to your mind, then what do you want to learn more about? What kind of content do you want to offer? Just because you don’t see yourself as an expert, doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable information to offer your subscribers. The important part is to offer first-hand information about something you are passionate about every day. When you tell your readers about your experiences, it brings more value to your content. You can build any type of list: marketing, gardening, cooking, boating, bowling, wine tasting, you name it, the possibilities are endless. But, before you purchase an autoresponder or a lead capture page builder, decide what kind of list you are going to build. The biggest mistake you can make it to start building your list without a specific focus. Think about it- to appeal to the cooking crowd you don’t want to build a list of boating enthusiast. When you eventually are marketing to your list, your success rate will be much higher if you are making recommendations to the right type of list of subscribers.
Start the Work
Once you have made the all important decision of what type of list you are going to build, then it is time to start the work. This is where you build a few email letters which you will schedule to send to your new subscribers. I suggest you start with 3 to 5 pre-written letters for every marketing series. Think of this as your way of introducing yourself to your new subscribers. Your first letter should be all about you. Let your subscribers know who you are, then tell them what kind of information they can expect to receive from you. If you have offered a free gift for new subscribers, you would provide that gift in the first email, as well. The next couple of emails should continue your introduction in order to establish a connection with your subscribers. Telling them more about your experiences will help build a bigger trust level. You may, also, provide them with bonus free gifts which are relevant to your subject matter. Somewhere in the first set of letters you should introduce your #1 product. As you introduce this product, you want to provide information about the product and why it is important to you. List the benefits it provides to you and give the reasons for your recommendation, make it as personal as possible.
After the first set of pre-written letters, your goal is to have your subscribers feel like they know you a little bit. You want them to start to trust your judgement. As you continue to market to your list, you want to be sure to provide good quality endorsements. I highly recommend you provide your personal experience with each product endorsement. If you can’t, then don’t recommend it to your list.
In this post, we discussed deciding what type of list you want to build and writing your first set of letters you are going to send to your subscribers. In our next post, we will discuss setting up your first campaign and the process of getting subscribers to your list.
For more information about list building, I recommend Jerry Iannucci’s Autoresponder Profit System:
