Lead Generation

25 things that you can give away to build your Email Marketing List

24 May, 2016

If there’s one thing that makes it easier for you to grow your list quickly, then that is to give away something valuable in return for the opt-in. If you’re not sure what to give away, here are 25 ideas to get you started in building your email marketing list. These simple ideas will help to build your email marketing list and create a loyal following. These ideas can also be incorporated into your newsletters so that you can keep your email marketing list subscribers engaged.

A free PDF or report. Give them a report on something or a brief guide on something.
An audio content or video download. A lot of people prefer to listen to audio in their cars or on their lunch break, instead of read. Both videos and audio have a higher perceived value!
Access to a forum or discussion area. People will sign up just to get access to the advice and conversations in the private area.
Tips. Give away a giant list of tips. For example, “101 Tips for a Better ………………”
Tools. For example, if you run a graphic design site, give away Photoshop brushes for the opt-in.
A guide or toolkit, this could be educational, to buy something or a full detailed informational guide. For example, write a buyer’s guide for choosing the best ………….. to purchase.
A checklist. For instance, give people a checklist on what to look for when ………?.
A free preview. For example, give people the first chapter of your book for free.
Construct a course. For example, a 7-step course to …………… Deliver it in one email a day.
Do a screencast. Record your video screen and give away the video. Use it to teach something on your screen.
Do a Prezi or PowerPoint presentation. Prezi creates graphically stunning presentations that catch and keep attention.
Give away reference material. For example, for a copywriting course, give away 10 examples of the best copy ads in history.
Talk about mistakes to avoid. For example, “7 Mistakes Car Buyers Make When Shopping for a Car.”
Interview someone in your industry. If it’s a recognisable name, you’ll get a ton of opt-ins.
Access to a live webinar. They have to sign up now to get the time and phone number.
A recorded webinar. You can make it seem like a time-limited webinar.
A printable workbook. People fill as they learn. Writing down lessons helps boost retention.
A free iPhone or Android app. This is especially appealing if the app is paid by default, but they can get it free by signing up.
Give away a game. Make it educational so people learn as they play.
Access to a contest. People have to join your email list to participate in the contest.
Members-only events. If people want to come to the event, they have to sign up.
Give away something completely off the cuff, but something that people would want. It doesn’t always have to be in your industry to be interesting. This tends to work in “over gifted” industries like internet marketing or weight loss.
Give them something they’ll use every day. For example, a list of foods to eat and not to eat.
Your old content. Lock your old content so people have to sign up to get access to it.
Statistics. Who doesn’t love statistics! Give away a detailed report about little known statistics in your industry.

Work on one idea and then move onto new ones. The more valuable offers you have, the more new targeted subscribers you can bring into your email marketing list.

Tell us what your favourite tool is to build your email marketing list?

What is List Building?

15 Mar, 2016

List building is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: the process of building lists! Generally, though the term list building is used to describe a specific kind of list with the most common being email marketing lists.

Here the term list building refers to the creation of a list of email addresses or other contact details that can then be used as part of a marketing campaign. This is a big aspect of digital and content marketing and one of the more effective ways to reach a large audience, engage and build a relationship with them online.

Things to consider

The thing to be cautious of when list building, is that the lists need to consist of emails for people who have happily shared their details. These subscribers are granting you permission to contact them (double opt-in processes are great for this). It would be very easy to create an email list of a million emails long or to purchase a list. If you did not care in any way and added every email address you could find, this would do more harm than good and you would not be engaging your target market. – see Why You Shouldn’t Buy an Email Marketing List.

If you send out emails to people who haven’t given you their permission then not only will you potentially face some legal issues but you will also likely damage your reputation and not get any sales or newly engaged subscribers anyway. They will unsubscribe from your email straight away and then report your content as spam because they are not engaged in what you are saying, nor are they interested in the information that you are providing.

Effective marketing of any kind should be targeted so that your target market are receiving your messages. Otherwise, it is not worth putting the time and effort into collecting the contact details.

Methods of list building

So how do you go about list building?

The most popular method online is usually to have a sign up box on your website usually with an incentive. Using incentives to engage subscribers is a great way to build your list. The sign up box can go in your side bar, on the front page or sometimes in a ‘pop-up’ that will appear when you view the website. This will then give the visitor the opportunity to ‘opt-in’ to your messages and to receive communication from you. This is what you call an engaged subscriber.

Having an added incentive to try and encourage more people to subscribe themselves to the mailing list – either providing discounts, an ebook or other opt-in options can really boost your email marketing list to skyrocket. Sending relative content after can increase sales and engagement.

The Power of Pop-Ups

4 Mar, 2016

Is it a good or terrible idea?

Nobody likes pop-ups, they can be pretty annoying especially when you are halfway through reading that article. Fortunately we’ve come a long way from the internet of the past which used to open about fifty windows (remember that?) Now most pop-ups just bounce up as you enter or scroll down or go to click on the close of the page without opening a multitude of windows.

They are making a comeback though. And actually? You might want to join them and this is why?

Pop-ups for email collection

The perspective in which pop-ups seem to be making something of a comeback is in their use as a list building method. If you go onto many relatively big blogs (and some not so big – Adminaholics included) within a few minutes of being there, you’ll often be greeted by a pop-up window inviting you to hand over your email address, hopefully there is an amazing incentive to engage you to do so as well.

This includes the websites of some of the top bloggers who have an email form that either pops up or shows at some stage while you are reading the blog. With most of these pop-ups you won’t be able to continue reading until you add your details or hit cancel. Okay, so it’s not a separate window but it definitely has the potential to annoy and certainly makes you either subscribe or cancel. What do we realise from this?

Pop-ups for list building

Well to begin with, this should tell you just how important these highly successful bloggers, businesses and websites think it is to collect email addresses. Most bloggers know that these pop-ups are potentially annoying and essentially feel guilty in some cases for using them. Nevertheless, the benefits of having them drastically outweigh the cons/guilt! So is this something you should consider as well?

Are you really against pop-ups?

The answer to this question will depend on how you feel personally when your own reading is interrupted by such a pop-up. The key point to remember is that the bigger bloggers have millions of regular readers who aren’t going to be put off by such tactics, but pop-ups can still annoy so if you make them generally unobtrusive until you get more comfortable, it will allow you to build your list without driving away too many future visitors or put them off of revisiting your site.

An important tip!

The most important tip. If you do decide to use pop-ups, then don’t make them too irritating. Make sure they don’t keep popping up, make them easy to close and make them generally as simple and unobtrusive as possible.

Using Incentives to Engage Subscribers

1 Feb, 2016

Building a mailing list is a very important and highly effective way to increase your reach, engage subscribers and your sales from your website. By having a free incentive on your website which will then engage visitors to subscribe to your website, you will then gain direct access to engaged subscribers and raving fans. A raving fan is someone that is engaged in what you are saying and because they are so engaged they want to read the information that you send to them. You can then regularly but not too regularly keep them informed regarding updates or even just remind them you exist and keep your brand awareness up. Be consistent with what you are sending to your subscribers to keep them engaged and wanting more!

But how do you go about getting people to sign up and what free incentives should you have on your website? Here are some of the ways that you can engage subscribers to hand over their email address. For instance…

Ebook

Giving away a free informational product is a great way to get visitors to hand over their details. People love the idea of getting something for nothing and if you can make your ebook sound genuinely awesome then you will likely get a lot of subscribers signing up quickly! Remember: people will regularly spend hundreds of dollars on quality ebooks so it is a great incentive to get them to pass over an email address! You can get someone to write you an ebook on the topic of your choice at a good value. Make sure it is compelling to your subscribers.

Videos

Videos have one of the highest engagements on the web so you could provide a small video course or webinar on a topic that will get them subscribing for more. You can drip feed the video course via autoresponder emails or you can arrange the full mini course on your website ready for your subscribers viewing.

Discounts / specials

Another common bonus that site owners offer for members is promised discounts or specials. If you let your subscribers know that your newsletters are going to contain vouchers and codes that give them a discount off then you’ll again find that this encourages a lot more signups. As with free things, subscribers love getting a bargain!

Events

Of course anyone who signs up for a mailing list will essentially be getting information but you can make your form more enticing by pointing out specific information. A common option is to get someone to sign up to ‘be informed about our next event/webinar/workshop/training day/signing day’. This can provide engagement on where you will be so that they can receive further information and join you at the event.

Membership

Have you thought about a membership site that provides access to a VIP area or a subscription to a special area when they pass over their email address. If you have an online service, you can simplify this with an opt in or opt out or make it more exclusive by having them open an account on your website.

Book a free consultation

You can set up a free consultation appointment and engage subscribers to pass over an email address with an automated calendar service that they can book a mutually convenient time with you. Vcita is a fantastic online booking system for this and there are many more available too.

These are just a few simple ways in which you can leverage list building on your website and really engage subscribers to pass over their email addresses. By engaging them in your expertise first with one of the above they will be more inclined to hand over their email address. Now it’s up to you to keep them engaged once you receive their email address.

How to Get Customers to Sign up for your Mailing Lists

24 Jul, 2015

If you have a blog or email marketing newsletter, then having a marketing or mailing list is a very significant part of your approach and can go a long way towards assisting to turn your blog or website visitors into raving fans – and better yet, customers.

If you ever wanted to sell an ebook, how much more likely is somebody to be interested in in purchasing the ebook if they have previously given you their email address in order to sign up to your mailing list?

Mailing lists are very important, but if you have simply popped your generic sign-up form on the right hand side of your page with the hope that people will enter their names and e-mails and create a massive email list, then you’re likely to be disappointed.

Instead, try these tips…

Guarantee trust through great content

The first thing to confirm is that you are updating your site frequently with great value content. Your objective is to

Give your potential customers a snippet of the kind of content they’ll get if they sign up.
Get them to trust you and to respect what you have to say.
Show them what an expert you are by providing a special offer or a product that they can download.

Giving out an email address is quite a personal thing and many customers/clients safeguard their email address because they receive too many emails each day. If your website seems spammy they will not enter their email address. Instead, show that you know what you’re speaking about and highlight your expert content so that it speaks for itself.

Talk about your list

Many bloggers are a little cautious to be asking for email addresses and so they avoid mentioning their list directly. Don’t make this mistake though, as actually talking about your mailing list can lead to more customers being aware of it and interested in it. Ask people directly to sign up, talk about your objectives and explain the stimulating subjects that will only be coming to your newsletters. Get customers excited about your newsletters as though it were a product you were selling directly.

Show snippets

A great strategy you can use to boost more customers to sign up to your list is to actually share bits and pieces of content from your newsletters. This can be done by hosting a blog on your website. This way you can give people a taste and if it’s good and what they are wanting to read, they will want more!

If you would like some further information about Lead Generation and List Building, download our mini report.

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