07.10.07
A great list building technique
There are many ways to build an email list and I have tried quite a few myself. In this post, I want the discuss one of my favorite ways to build a responsive list fast. It’s a simple two-step process:
1) Create a good, meaningful report and give it away for free to anyone who subscribes to your list
2) Give a strong incentive to existing subscribers to refer new people to your free report
Let’s look at these two steps in detail. Your free report should address an important issue in the market that you are targeting. Keep it simple and meaningful. Only if your subscribers like the report will they recommend it to someone else.
The report can be as small as 5 pages, it doesn’t matter. But the content should be good and it should deliver what you promised in your sales/squeeze page. Unless you are honest, your list members will either unsubscribe or never respond to your offers.
The second step is trickier. To grow your list on auto-pilot, you need to give a strong enough incentive to your exisiting subscribers to refer new ones. And this incentive has to be monetary. Your exisiting members should be able to earn handsome returns if they refer new people to your list.
Let’s look at some of the incentives that are being used successfully in the market:
1) One Time Offer - Hit your subscribers with an attractive OTO as soon as they sign on to your list. The product you offer as an OTO must be closely related to your free report, and it should offer good value. Create an affiliate program for this product (through Clickbank or similar networks) and offer a high affiliate commission (75% is what I recommend). This will give your existing list members an incentive to promote your free report.
2) Pay Per Subscriber - Some marketers (very few) have build huge lists by paying affiliates as much as 50 cents per referred subscriber. This is an expensive proposition and you should not try it unless you know what you’re doing
3) Run a Contest - An affiliate contest can boost your list building exercise. You can run a contest for a limited time or on a weekly/monthly basis where you reward the top referrers. However, a contest works best in conjunction with other monetary incentives. I have never seen anyone use this on a stand alone basis.
These are some of the most common techniques used to put the list building exercise on auto pilot. There are some more advanced tricks being used by established marketers, but they require the use of high end scripts. I will talk about them in the future posts.
Always keep this in mind - if your free report is not good, then the entire exercise is a waste. Also, be honest in your sales letter/sqeeze page. It won’t do you any good if you make flase promises and then don’t deliver on them.
Happy list building! And please share your comments below.
