Just look at some of these stats 66% of online consumers in the US, ages 15+, made a purchase as a result of marketing emails. Why list building is useless List building itself has no value for your business. They are the ones you need to attract, and they’ll make your email list a real business asset. Use your freebie as a sample of your paid offer I’ve seen travel bloggers offer SEO eBooks as giveaways. For example, if you’re offering SEO and link building services, you can create a freebie that demonstrates your authority and expertise in link building, and at the same time get your potential customers interested in it. Both these freebies are actually samples of your paid services. Here’s the other freebie he offers – a free SEO analysis of your website. 3) The Sales Email – This email also relates a story with your product/service as the solution. Its free version gives you up to 9000 emails per month, which should be enough for most bloggers. Building an email list is one of the first steps in building an online business.
And it’s true.
Email list subscribers are the biggest asset for any blog or online business. They’re your qualified sales leads. It’s much easier to build relationships, generate regular returning traffic and make repeat sales to your list subscribers as compared to normal visitors. It is a high priority to know how to grow an email list.
Despite the emergence of social media and other marketing channels, email marketing is still an extremely effective way of reaching your prospects.
Just look at some of these stats
- 66% of online consumers in the US, ages 15+, made a purchase as a result of marketing emails.
- 91% of consumers check their emails at least once a day.
- Over 70% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by promotional emails.
So how do you take advantage of this?
If your answer is email list building, you’re only partially correct.
Why list building is useless
List building itself has no value for your business. It is the kind of subscribers in your list that’ll determine if you can make any profits. An email list with irrelevant and uninterested subscribers is completely useless, in fact a burden, for your business.
And this is the mistake that many bloggers make.
They focus so much on list building that they lose sight of their actual objective, which is to make money from the list.
You don’t want people subscribing to your list just for the sake of it. You need subscribers who are potential customers. People who join your list with the buying intention. They are the ones you need to attract, and they’ll make your email list a real business asset.
Don’t forget mobile email
As mobile and smartphone adoption has increased so has it’s importance to deliver email. Making sure that emails are easy to read on a mobile is becoming vital.
Here are some facts about mobile email from an excerpt from an infographic from Visual.ly.
Some interesting email facts
Email is a technology that has been with us for over 44 years. The first email was sent in 1971 but the concept was explored at MIT as early as 1965 which is 50 years ago!
Here are some other email facts in another excerpt from an infographic at sociallystacked.com.
So they are some interesting facts but where do you start to build that quality list?
Create the Right freebie for the Right subscribers
The most common way to attract subscribers is by offering a freebie like an eBook, a checklist, a cheat sheet or something else that holds value.
To attract the right subscribers, the ones who come with a buying intention, you need to create a freebie that actually inducts them into your sales process.
Don’t treat your freebie as just a list building magnet. Make it the first part of your sales cycle. Use it to qualify subscribers and generate business leads.
For this, you need to design your freebie intelligently because it will determine the kind of subscribers you attract.
Use your freebie as a sample of your paid offer
I’ve seen travel bloggers offer SEO eBooks as giveaways. It increases their subscriber count, but adds no value to their business. Because their subscribers are irrelevant and have no interest in the actual paid offers.
The secret to attracting potential customers, not just subscribers, to your email list is to give them a taste of your paid offer. Lure them into your list by offering a limited version of your premium services and then work on them using a series of auto-responder emails.
For example, if you’re offering SEO and link building services, you can create a freebie that demonstrates your authority and expertise in link building, and at the same time get your potential customers interested in it.
It can be an eBook like “10 Link Building Mistakes That 90% Blogs Make” or a checklist “SEO Checklist: 25 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Publishing Your Next Guest Post”.
Both these freebies are actually samples of your paid services. Your ideal customers want to know about them. But instead of giving them everything for free, give them a taste of what you have to offer. Just make them think. This will establish your authority on the subject and immediately get your subscribers interested in your paid services.
Neil Patel does this…
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