Tapping into the Power of List Building
In today’s economy and with current technology, whether you are meeting your clients face to face in a retail establishment, or working to effect business from your home office, the degree to which you can accelerate your business is dependent upon what you have heard probably too frequently to count… your list!
This is a six part discussion about how to tap into the power of list building. You will want to subscribe so that you will know when each successive part has been posted… they have cumulative value. These discussions will include:
- How to most effectively and efficiently build your list.
- What you have to do to generate opt-ins.
- How to retain your subscribers as valued members.
- What you must do to really get your readers’ attention.
- Who will convert from subscriber to purchaser, and how you make that happen.
- How the dark forces of the Internet will impact your list members.
Your Success is Driven by Your Willingness to Build a List
Although the phrase “The fortune is in the list” sounds a bit trite, it is a valid one. With a list you can:
- more quickly and easily communicate on a consistent basis with your client base,
- have the kind of connection with them where you can proactively determine their future needs and create a product or service that meets those needs before your competitor makes the offer, and
- maintain a “front of mind” presence with the people who can and will drive your business success – your clients, supportive power partners, peers, and loyal customers.
One of my most well-received books, Explode Your Profits with Effective Follow-up is not just about the power of developing and maintaining relationships with clients – it is about building into your system a process of gathering and managing your data, i.e., your “list.” It is not the easiest part of customer retention management, but it is certainly the most important!
List marketing can be perceived to be complex and complicated. You hear all the talk about auto-responders and click-thru rates – targeting, unique clicks and campaigns… and a long list of other terms that probably sound like Greek to you. It is easy to understand why many people never quite tap into the power of building and using a list as one of their key marketing tools. However, for those who do pass through this learning curve and gain the knowledge of how to grow and profit from opt-in lists… the reward is being able to take the lead over all their competitors.
Although there are many components to list building, it is safe to say that there is only one system; a system used by virtually everyone. It is a given that some are more successful with it than others. If you are to tap into the power of creating and using a system, it makes perfect sense to follow one that others have found success with. It is just a good business practice to use what works – and learn to use it effectively and efficiently. Each separate discussion is but one part of a detailed overview of the primary elements of a list building/list retention process (system) that works.
Growing Your List
I know of people who have a pretty sizable list, but they do nothing with it! What value is there in that? Then, there are others who have absolutely fabulous products and services, but no one knows anything about them because they don’t have anyone to tell their story to. Do you relate to either of those?
If you don’t have traffic – either to your office or to your website, if your primary marketing efforts are online – your most significant effort must be directed to building and promoting to a list. It must be your primary action unless you have a healthy list, or until you have achieved your goal of building a certain size client base (i.e., list.).
In traditional marketing, you would never think of opening any kind of store and not let the public know you had opened the doors. With traditional marketing, the only way you have to communicate with customers is through expensive ads, and the only way you have to maintain their loyalty is through good service and communication – the opt-in list represents that critical step toward continued communication – just within a new marketing model.
My job is to shake up your thinking, so these next tips may have you wondering if I am leading you astray, but if you think about it, with the keen sense of logic from which they are being given, you will see why they make perfect sense.
- When you are writing a blog or posting on a forum some late evening, don’t direct people to your website in general, or to the sales page of your favorite product – - send them to your opt-in page!
- If you are paying high dollar to purchase advertising media to promote your products and services, or some seasonal offer – - use that money instead on ads that will build your list.
- When you are creating pages on your website – give your visitors every opportunity to sign an opt-in before offering information or making a sale.
If you have limited time and resources… and not enough people in your list to allow you healthy business growth, take time to ask your self, “Is what I am doing right now instrumental in adding more contacts to one of my lists?”
Now that you understand how your ultimate success can be impacted by your work efforts in building a list, we need to discuss what has to happen in order to get readers to subscribe to your list. That won’t just happen naturally unless you are a celebrity – so let’s venture forward into the next topic – tips for increasing opt-ins.
Anna Weber 4-Dimensional Success Always, encouraging you to engage in positive, life-altering activities that will provide you long-term, sustainable benefit If you don’t want to wait for the balance of the six tips in upcoming posts… you might like to download the eBook – and easy-to-read digital publication of just under 20 pages. xxx
