Growing your email contact list is one of the most critical components of building your online brand. Sounds easy, but exactly how do you get people to join your list?
Number one, you MUST offer the all important “Freebie” on your website (I like to call it the ethical bribe) in exchange for your visitor’s email. For example, offer a free report, CD, audio or video about the main problem you solve for your clients as a free download.
In addition to the mandatory ethical bribe, here are my top 3 suggestions for quick and easy list building:
- JV and Affiliate Partners: When you are promoting a specific event or product launch, one of the best ways to build your list is to utilize your connections and develop partnerships with others who share the same target market. You can then tap into their lists, as they recommend your product or service to their email subscribers. Of course, this works best if your partners have large email lists, but don’t discount those with smaller lists. It’s more about the quality of the subscribers than the size of the list (i.e. do they fit your target market profile?)
- Host a Tele-Summit: A tele-summit is a virtual event that showcases several speakers in one big teleconference. This can be done during one day or spread out over several days. Your tele-summit can be free or paid, but should be a low-barrier to enter. You can record the sessions and then sell them as a separate product later. It helps to get your speakers to send the announcement out to their lists to promote the event. You can increase your email subscribers significantly using this method, especially if your speakers have big lists already.
For an example, check out www.socialmediaexaminer.com who host regular summits such as the Facebook marketing summit, blog summit, etc.
- Social Media: Social media can be used effectively to grow your following and your list. You can add an opt-in form for your email list directly into your Facebook page or provide links back to your website or blog with each post (using a link tracker like Bit.ly to track your success).
If you are looking to create a branded opt-in form as an app on your Facebook business page, I recommend looking at TabSite.com or Lujure.com. Both sites provide business building apps that you can add to your Facebook page, for a small monthly fee. You can get really creative with apps like contests, opt-in forms, importing WordPress pages and more!
Growing your email list takes time and consistent effort. Hang in there and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t grow as quickly as you dream about. Stick with a consistent list-building strategy and your efforts will pay off. Happy list building!