List Building 101

You’ve heard it before. In fact you heard it hear not too long ago. Owning a legit email list is a huge asset. An email list gives you power, when done correctly. Not all lists are created equal though.

Sure you could go out and buy a list of 1 million people if you wanted. But that’s not the kind of list building we’re talking about here.

Building a list of targeted people takes more work than that. You’ve got to put the time and work into generating targeted traffic and send it to a page or site that speaks directly to a specific niche of people.  That’s the key – speaking to a very specific “tribe” or niche.

Here are the basic steps to getting your list building going

• Identify the Tribe of People You Want to Speak to (German Shepard Owners, Female Body Builders, SEO Affiliates)
• Generate Targeted Traffic (PPC, Facebook, SEO, etc)
• Send Traffic to a Page with an Opt-In Form (Squeeze page, Content Page, Facebook Page)
• Create a Compelling Offer or Reason for Subscribing
• Create a Relationship With Your Subscribers
• Keep Your Subscribers Entertained / Engaged with Regular Emails

Yeah yeah… that sounds a little too easy. You’re right. It’s not an easy task but it is simple.

How to Capture Opt Ins

Autoresponder Service – You’re going to need an autoresponder. Aweber.com or Getresponse.com will work just fine. Aweber also has tools that will let you add forms to your website easily (I don’t use getresponse personally, but they most likely do too).

Opt-in Forms – This is the form where the visitor enters their name and email (and any other detail you want to collect like address, etc)

List Building Best Practices

#1 – The Offer

Offer a compelling reason for the visitor to opt-in. This may be something like a free resource that your targeted visitor would consider valuable (ex: “Ultimate Guide To WP SEO”, “How to Get Your Dog To Stop Barking” etc)

#2 – Call To Action

Be sure to have a very clear call to action button on your opt in form. Just using the words “sign up” have been shown to reduce opt-ins. Use a button and a phrase like “Yes, Send Me My Free Guide.”

#3 – Capture Opt-Ins Everywhere

Capturing opt-ins on your homepage is going to leave you with a much smaller list than you could have. Use opt in forms in as many places as you can (without distracting the visitor from the goal of the page). Some great places to place an optin form are:

• At the bottom of every page of your site
• Pop Over on every page
• Home Page
• Sidebar
• Slide In “Menu” Style Bar
• About Page

List Building Software

Here are a few list building tools that have proven to work in the past (not affiliated with any of these)

• http://www.exitsplash.com
• http://magiclistbot.com
• http://www.actioncomments.com (WordPress Plugin)
• http://www.virtualsmartagent.com
• http://maxblogpress.com/subscribersmagnet/

Are all of these tools right for you?

No, probably not. These are just tools. Some may work better than others. It’s up to you to test.

No matter what though you’re going to need to invest in an autoresponder. That will get you started on the right path. Once you’ve got a handle on that you can add in a tool here and there to see what improves your opt-in numbers.

Good luck and get started asap. It’s never too early or too late to start building a list of targeted subscribers.