It"s All In The List
When you visit the internet marketing forums and read all the blogs devoted to the subject, one common theme that keeps coming up is to build a list of subscribers. Many exclaim that the real money is in the follow up email campaigns with their lists.
Why is this?
Its no secret that having a targeted list of leads is great way to market a product, almost every company based in the real world pay huge amounts of money to generate these list. Now, they wouldn't spend the millions of dollars they do if it wasn't making them a substantial amount of profit.
One thing that many people seem to forget is that business practices that have been around for generation still apply when doing business on the internet. Such as, building a list of highly targeted potential customers and market your products to them.
How do you build a list on the internet?
Well the most common way is through an Opt In page or landing page. These pages are designed to do one thing, get people to give you their name and email that's it. I could go on and on about landing and opt in pages but for the purposes of this article I am going to keep it simple.
There are really two types of opt in pages that you will see, and no one seems to know which one works best. I believe that they are both good it just depends on what your product is and how you try and get your potential customers to give you their information.
The first one is the Simple opt in page. As the name suggests it is just that, simple. There are no images or fancy graphics. It's just text with and opt-in form. These work just fine when you want to convey a simple message like, "Sign up and receive our FREE report on the next best thing." This is usually accompanied by so sort of time sensitive offer, such as, "For a limited time only." And these pages work great because they're simple and direct to the point. Their is message is clear. "Fill out your name and email and I will send you the free report." Customers sign up because they are curious and they want to find out what it is all about.
This is the key factor in the any opt in page. You must be offering people the solution to their problem. For example, if you selling to customers that have acne then you could create an opt in page that has a message like, "Sign up now and receive my free e-book on how to clear your acne in 5 days or less." Customers will sign up because they want to know exactly the information your giving away.
This holds true for the second type of opt-in page as well.
The second type of opt-in page is the sales letter page. These are much longer and complex. They usually consist of some type of story whos main idea is that the product they are selling will change your life in some way. These are great if you are selling something like "How I made 1 million dollars in one year selling products online." Where the sales letter would tell the story of what they did and how you can learn how they did so you can copy them and do it too. These are not uncommon especially in that market, that's because they work.
The best thing to do is to figure out which way would work best for you. If you are just giving away a free report or e-book then the simple page would be best. But, if you are trying to convince people that you will change their live then the sales story would be your best choice.
So once you have this list what do you do with it?
The most common and most effective is to get your self an auto responder account and set up some follow up e-mails where you try and build a relationship with your list so they get to know you and recommend products to them to buy or try out.
Exactly how you do this is a subject all on its own and too much to go into here but remember one thing, you want to build trust with your list, give them some quality free information that will actually help them and then recommend a product for them to buy. They will be much more receptive to your recommendations if you have helped them before.
A quick recap.
If you do this your sales will increase dramatically and if you do it right you will get your self a highly targeted list of customers that trust your opinion and will buy from you multiple times.
Why is this?
Its no secret that having a targeted list of leads is great way to market a product, almost every company based in the real world pay huge amounts of money to generate these list. Now, they wouldn't spend the millions of dollars they do if it wasn't making them a substantial amount of profit.
One thing that many people seem to forget is that business practices that have been around for generation still apply when doing business on the internet. Such as, building a list of highly targeted potential customers and market your products to them.
How do you build a list on the internet?
Well the most common way is through an Opt In page or landing page. These pages are designed to do one thing, get people to give you their name and email that's it. I could go on and on about landing and opt in pages but for the purposes of this article I am going to keep it simple.
There are really two types of opt in pages that you will see, and no one seems to know which one works best. I believe that they are both good it just depends on what your product is and how you try and get your potential customers to give you their information.
The first one is the Simple opt in page. As the name suggests it is just that, simple. There are no images or fancy graphics. It's just text with and opt-in form. These work just fine when you want to convey a simple message like, "Sign up and receive our FREE report on the next best thing." This is usually accompanied by so sort of time sensitive offer, such as, "For a limited time only." And these pages work great because they're simple and direct to the point. Their is message is clear. "Fill out your name and email and I will send you the free report." Customers sign up because they are curious and they want to find out what it is all about.
This is the key factor in the any opt in page. You must be offering people the solution to their problem. For example, if you selling to customers that have acne then you could create an opt in page that has a message like, "Sign up now and receive my free e-book on how to clear your acne in 5 days or less." Customers will sign up because they want to know exactly the information your giving away.
This holds true for the second type of opt-in page as well.
The second type of opt-in page is the sales letter page. These are much longer and complex. They usually consist of some type of story whos main idea is that the product they are selling will change your life in some way. These are great if you are selling something like "How I made 1 million dollars in one year selling products online." Where the sales letter would tell the story of what they did and how you can learn how they did so you can copy them and do it too. These are not uncommon especially in that market, that's because they work.
The best thing to do is to figure out which way would work best for you. If you are just giving away a free report or e-book then the simple page would be best. But, if you are trying to convince people that you will change their live then the sales story would be your best choice.
So once you have this list what do you do with it?
The most common and most effective is to get your self an auto responder account and set up some follow up e-mails where you try and build a relationship with your list so they get to know you and recommend products to them to buy or try out.
Exactly how you do this is a subject all on its own and too much to go into here but remember one thing, you want to build trust with your list, give them some quality free information that will actually help them and then recommend a product for them to buy. They will be much more receptive to your recommendations if you have helped them before.
A quick recap.
- Build your self a highly targeted list of potential customers.
- Do this by sending people to an Opt-In page where they give you the name and email.
- Figure out what kind of opt-in page works best for your situation the simple page or sales letter page.
- Be sure your offering information that solves their problem.
- Get your self an auto responder account and create an email follow up series. Five or more emails.
- Build trust with your list give them some free helpful information, then recommend products for them to buy.
If you do this your sales will increase dramatically and if you do it right you will get your self a highly targeted list of customers that trust your opinion and will buy from you multiple times.
