Some time ago my internet marketing friend told me, “The money is in opt email lists.” What the heck was he babbling about? Was it some sort of zen aphorism? “Build a list. Dude, you absolutely have to build your opt email lists.” Build, as in construct? That sounded hard. Like I’d have to wear a hard hat and be involved in heavy lifting. “No, dude, I mean building opt email lists! You know, with an auto-responder.”
I wasn’t interested, but my friend is tenacious. More time went by but, eventually, he brought the matter up again. “Dude, you’re wasting all this time and stuff reinventing the wheel. You do all this stuff to get customers to your website, right? If they buy from you, what happens? They leave! They disappear! And then you have to start all over again and work hard to get another customer. If you build your opt email lists, you can send emails to the customer again and again. With, like, other offers and stuff.”
Then my friend quoted a statistic. Yes, he brought it up a third and final time. He said most of the time, customers don’t buy right away. They need to see what you’re selling on average 7 times before they’re ready to buy. Once a potential customer leaves your website without buying, they’re not likely to come back on their own. Even if they like what you’re selling and just want to take a little time to think about it, they’ll probably get busy and forget your websites URL. I admitted, begrudgingly, that he was right.
I decided to try my hand at building opt email lists. And you know, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But if my pesky friend had given me a few tips, it would have been better. So here they are.
*Make It Easy For them To Sign On The Dotted Line
You might have your opt-in sign up form on a newsletter or a blog or a website, it doesn’t really matter. But whatever you put your form on, don’t make your visitors have to hunt around to find it. Put the form above the fold and close to content. Then talk about the benefits of signing up. Make it alluring, something like “Here are secrets and tips you won’t find elsewhere!”
*Give People A Reason To Join Your Opt Email Lists By Giving Away Reports or eBooks
You don’t have to write a stinkin’ novel, you can write as little as 5 pages if you write report. What you’re going to do is give this report away on your website or landing page in exchange for your potential customer’s email address. For such a little bit of work, this strategy can have a big pay off in the form of a river of new email addresses flowing to you. Same with an eBook - it doesn’t need to be lengthy. However long it is, don’t use some free report or eBook that’s already been all over the web. Giving away junky recycled stuff will make people unsubscribe from your list. If you’re tempted to give away junk you picked up somewhere, just write your own stuff or pay someone.
*Visit Forums and Getting Involved Helps Build Your Opt Email Lists
Old news, right? But have you done it? Some forums let you post a signature link when you participate. Some allow you to post a link in your user profile. If you post a valuable answer, people might just come to your profile page to check you out. Once they see your URL in your signature or in your profile, they may follow it to your landing page or website where — you guessed it — they can sign up on one of your opt email lists.
*Try Article Marketing and Be Viewed As An Expert
If your article is useful, you’ll get a steady stream of new subscribers over time. Too, when you write an article, you’ll establish yourself as something of an expert. And that means, people will trust you. Trust means they’ll look to you for more information. If they trust you, there’s a very good chance they’ll end up on one of your opt email lists.
*Publishing An E-Newletter Is A Good Way To Brand Yourself As An Expert
If you decide to publish an electronic newsletter, don’t turn it into a time-sucking venture. You can get away with publishing your newsletter twice a month, even once a month. If you join an auto-responder service like Get Response, you’ll be provided with a sign-up form and your opt-in email chores will be handled for you. You can just focus on banging out your newsletter and hitting that publish button.
Heck, you can even buy a list if you can afford it. Do your homework - don’t end up buying opt email lists from some spammer. If you go this route, beware of spending a lot of money; I warn you, some lists are quite expensive. If you buy a list, make sure that it’s opt-in or even double opt-in.
Bottom line? Try one of the above-mentioned tips - you don’t have to try them all. So stop dreading it and start building your opt email lists.
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