If there’s one activity which will build you a healthy online business, it’s building an email address list of subscribers – but you need to become obsessive about it, so let's talk about why.
Why Build An Email Address List?
Well, let’s imagine your website ranks in the search listings on page one of Google, and you’ve got a massive list of fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. You’ve got all the traffic you need and hordes of raving fans.
Then Disaster Strikes!
Your website you’ve worked so hard to get ranked on page one of Google for a specific keyword search term is knocked off its pedestal by your competition.
Facebook goes out of business (what if they’d lost that copyright lawsuit?), and Twitter shuts your account down for spamming. Now What?
Hmmm… If you’d sent as much of that traffic as possible to an opt-in page for your mailing list, right now you’d be sitting pretty with a wonderful list of subscribers which no one can take away from you. But if you didn’t…
We're guessing you’re probably not a very happy bunny because you’ve just lost all your traffic sources through someone else’s actions and now you need a solution.
So, Get Obsessed
Right, well we don't mean spamming your list with offer after offer. That's a sure fire way to annoy people and get them to unsubscribe.
You’ll get a quick high when they buy something off you, but it’s a short sighted strategy. Before long, the people on your list will wise up to your constant offers, you’ll lose most of your subscribers, and your business will be in danger of going belly up.
It's better to be obsessed with helping others, by providing value to them. You’ve probably provided a free bonus or gift for signing up to your email address list, but what do we mean by providing value?
OK, your free gift is a small piece of value and a good start, and your subscribers have taken the trouble to sign up to your list – so now your main task is to keep them on it.
You can do that by building a positive relationship with those people, give them more and more valuable information, in the form of content. That means value in all your articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts and so on.
When they find your content outstanding, practical and useful, they’re a whole lot more likely to think your products or services will be outstanding too. And that’s easy to say, but how can you work out what’s important to them and then provide it?
Get Inside Their Heads
Happily you don’t need to be a psychiatrist to achieve this. Just do some research on the internet and work out where they hangout online. Is it in forums, on social media like Facebook and Twitter, on other people’s blogs, or even offline?
Then ask yourself what does your target audience think about? What pushes their buttons? What are their major problems and needs, and what questions do they ask in forums?
When you’ve got a list of those questions it’s your job to answer them. Answer some in your content for free, then also create products based on their questions and give them exactly what they’ve asked for.
The Herding Instinct
Imagine a herd of cows or sheep that congregate in large numbers for security. They just stand in the same place munching on grass all day until one of the herd decides to move and then they all follow. Like sheep.
People are no different.
Consider how popular Facebook and social media have become. People love to interact with each other and hang around in groups.
You see this every day…
Even people who think they’re different are probably in a group. There’s the corporate suit and tie group, the mothers and pushchairs group, the teenagers who hang around with other teenagers on the corner group, sporting groups, religious groups, in fact we’re surrounded by groups.
And the first thing someone is going to think about before they join your group, in this case your email address list is “Why should I join this group”?
Press that herding instinct button and give them social proof of what others in your group have said about it. No one likes being first to do something, so use some of the following to make them join the crowd.
If you’ve got testimonials put them on your opt-in page or your free content. If you’ve got comments on your blog make sure they’re obvious and invite people to make further comments. If you’ve got some great content encourage people to tweet it or share it on Facebook.
So, you should be convinced an email address list is essential for your business survival. However make certain your prospects know the list they’re joining is beneficial for them, and use social proof to satisfy the herding instinct. And whenyou give them great content they’re far more likely to want to buy your products as they already know the quality you give.
Become addicted to consistently providing proper value and you'll build a highly targeted and responsive email list.
Phew! Now you've got this far, consider share some of the ways you can give value to your prospects and subscribers.
Oh and leave a comment below.
Chat To Us: Find A Time When You're Free
If you like this post, SHARE IT using the buttons on the left.
Discover Practical Methods To Earn A Living Online And Enjoy A Laptop Lifestyle
Free On Demand Training Workshops