Building a List of Subscribers

Building a list of subscribers is without a doubt one of the most powerful ways of making money online and ultimately building a sustainable online business. The online world may change very quickly, but the one marketing tactic that will always deliver good performance is email marketing, and to do effective email marketing you need to build a list of email subscribers.

Research has shown that, online, you need to make seven points of contact with your prospect before they will buy something from you. By building a list, publishing an online newsletter, and sensibly marketing to that list, you can get to that seventh point of contact and beyond.

Take a look at our introduction to building a list video here. It is a really good introduction to the principles:

If you take a good look at some of the most successful online businesses – from finance companies to individual entrepreneurs selling ebooks, software and memberships you will see that ALL of them build a list of subscribers and use email marketing to some extent or another. In fact, for many, email marketing and their opt in lists account for 90% of their business income. This is why it is so important to pursue opt in list building, concentrate on building a list, and then develop a solid relationship with your subscribers through a newsletter.

On this website we will look at all things list building – from the very basic, to the advanced – so that whatever your stage and business niche, you will be able to build a large and targeted opt in list that listens to you and takes action on your recommendations.

Why Go About Building a List?

First, here’s why building a list and specifically email marketing is such a powerful tool for any business:

E-mail marketing is one of the fastest ways to leverage on the Internet. Because all you do is compose an E-mail, customize it to suit the reader (their first name or last name), and click the broadcast button to reach thousands of people instantly!

E-mail marketing is highly scalable. Unlike an ‘offline’ business where the more customers you have, the busier you are, in E-mail marketing, it is much easier because regardless of the size of your mailing list, whether it is 100 or 10,000, all you need to do is click broadcast and everyone on the list gets notified – all for the same effort!

E-mail marketing is highly targeted. One of the reasons why E-mail marketing is highly effective at getting sales is because the recipient of the E-mail gets a kind of ‘in your face’ promotion. You are marketing directly to the customer through their PERSONAL mailbox. Not only will you grab their attention firmly, they will tend to respond with the right buyers mindset because they are marketed to directly (unlike other advertising where the buyer might not be in the frame of mind to buy things).

E-mail marketing is personal. Autoresponders allow you to customize the E-mail in such a way that it allows you to connect with the subscriber individually. The more personalized your E-mail, the better the result (treat it as though you are writing to your best friend).

You can automate many tasks with your autoresponder. For every new opt-in subscriber, you can time your E-mails for you build a relationship with every new opt-in subscriber – what to send to them, when to send it to them and the frequency between each E-mail.

E-mail marketing acts as a good pre-sell. You might not be able to cram a sales letter into your E-mail, but at least you can pre-sell your subscriber and lead them to your blog, sales letter or website to check out what you have to offer and set them in the right frame of mind before they evaluate what you have to offer.

If you’re new at opt in list building….start building a list now

Then there are some simple steps that you can take in order to get started right away. Here are a few things that you’ll need:

You will need a way of capturing the email address of your site visitors. Usually, this is done by using an autoresponder service or script. It’s best to use a quality autoresponder, because your list is your biggest business asset, so you don’t want to risk losing it. This is the key tool when building a list and will stand you in good stead for the future

You’ll need to be aware of the Can-Spam Act relating to email marketing and list building. It’s important to understand the difference between legitimate opt in list building where your prospect wants to hear from you, and SPAM where they don’t. Never, ever spam! This is the important fact to remember when building a list of subscribers

You’ll need to be aware of the many effective ways of generating opt in subscribers to your opt in list. There are some highly effective tactics that we’ll discuss later that can help build you a large opt in list at very low cost (or even free).

If you’re reading this as someone looking to build your own small internet business from home, then you’ll need to learn how to find a topic for your newsletter and business. Build a list around your hobyy or interest or go about building a list around something you want to find out about

An understanding on how to write a powerful, response generating newsletter is also required –building an opt in list is the first part of a successful email marketing campaign. The next part is to build a solid relationship with them.