How To Build An Email List The Smart Way

There’s a right and a wrong way to go about list building as there is with anything. These days, you need to know how to build an email list the smart way so that your efforts pay off rather than being a waste of time.

So, why should anyone join your particular email list?

Is it because you’re an expert in your field providing sage advice for those who seek your guidance?

Or are you a typical internet marketer simply trying to get people onto your list so that you can make money from them?

Let’s face it, 99% of us fit into that latter description.

The money is in the list after all!

So why should some random stranger who visits your site, someone who doesn’t know you from Adam, hand over their email address and maybe their name to you?

Put yourself in their shoes. How likely would you be to sign up to someone’s list?

And, if you do sign up, what motivated you to do so?

The most obvious reason is that your list offers them information about something they’re interested in.

But is that enough?

If you’re in a small niche, it probably is. If you’re in a large niche, then you need to appeal to your visitors more than your competition does.

And the best way to do that is to provide incentives for people to hand over their email addresses.

Using Incentives To Get Subscribers

These are usually in the form of free reports, ebooks and courses.

Once you do get someone to subscribe, you need to keep them on your list.

This is also somewhere you want to differentiate yourself from the competition.

You need to provide value to your subscribers.

Don’t just send them endless promotions for the latest and greatest products. Teach them. Educate them. Talk to them. Let them get to know you as a real person and not as some autobot that spews out one promotional email after another.

Your Squeeze Pages

I’ve already discussed how to create a lead capture page (also known as a squeeze page or landing page) in this post, so I won’t reiterate that here. Having quality pages plays a significant role in your conversion rates (how many people who visit your squeeze page who then actually subscribe).

The best lead capture page system you can start with is Landing Page Monkey. It’s inexpensive and lets you create a wide variety of pages. I have a review of it here.

If money is tight, you can use free lead capture pages instead. These are pre-designed templates usually designed to provide a fixed incentive for someone to subscribe. By “fixed”, I mean that you are not able to change what’s offered to potential subscribers.

You need to subscribe to these free services in order to promote your own lead capture pages. Still, it’s a zero-cost way of getting started with list building and there’s at least a half-decent offer attached to get subscribers to opt in.

What Is A Lead Magnet?

You may have heard the term lead magnet before. If not, it’s something you give away to subscribers to incentivize them to join your list.

Obviously, you’ll get a far better sign-up rate if you offer something that’s related to your niche. There’s no point in offering an ebook about Bass Fishing if your list is aimed at internet marketers or golf enthusiasts.

The lead magnet should always be appropriate to the audience you’re targeting.

You don’t have to limit yourself to just one lead magnet per lead capture page. You can offer more if you like. Though don’t overdo it. It can lead to a false expectation with your subscribers expecting you’ll be giving them lots of free stuff. And when they don’t get it, they end up unsubscribing.

You’ve probably come across Private Label Rights products before. These are products you buy the rights to use so you can give them away as bonuses or optin incentives or even sell.

The problem is that a huge number of people use these same products and your subscribers have possibly seen them before, or already own them.

You want your optin incentives to be as unique and exclusive as possible. That improves your chances of pulling in subscribers.

But creating unique products like this takes time, effort and energy. And that’s if you’re intimately acquainted with your niche and know what you’re talking about.

What if you’re in a niche where you’re no expert?

That’s where Buzzinar comes in. Now you have to fill out a small questionnaire to see if you qualify to join it, but most people pass that initial test.

What it does is provide you with two fully fledged lead magnets each month.

Each includes a report, an ebook, and audio and video recordings of the ebook and report. You can edit the content if you wish. But what you do have are two products that you can promote each month.

Typical use of these is to use the report, or maybe the ebook to incentivize people to sign up to your email list and then offer them the audio or video presentations for a small fee once they join your list.

You also get the squeeze page template files so you have a professionally produced squeeze page right off the bat.

Products are in a variety of niches, so you can test the waters in niches you never considered before. If your list associated with that product and niche does well, you could always expand further into that niche.

These products are created by marketers for marketers and are top quality. It’s a great way to leapfrog all the hard work in creating your own products and being able to start building lists in different niches while offering relevant, quality incentives for people to sign up.

Conclusion

That’s how to build an email list the smart way. Now it’s all down to the traffic you drive to your pages. That’s where you should put your energy!

If you found this post useful or you have anything to say about building a list, please sound off in the comments below 🙂

My Bonuses

Buzzinar provides 2 fully-fledged lead magnets per month and training in how to promote them so you’re far more successful in getting subscribers.

But I want you to have even more opportunities and lead magnets to use to build your lists. So I’m offering 18 additional bonuses that will help you with your conversions and driving traffic from different sources.

This includes 1 year of free membership in Surefire Wealth which gives you a huge number of products that you can also use as lead magnets to sweeten the deal for your subscribers.

Resources

• Buzzinar – use this to build a big and profitable list super fast
• Get a Free Squeeze Page – start building your list for free
• Landing Page Monkey – what I use to create my squeeze pages (my review is here)

All the best,

Gary Nugent

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P.S.: Don't forget, if you want to create an internet income of your own, here's one of my recommended ways to do that: