7 Steps to Build an Online List Quickly

If you’ve been in internet marketing for a long time, you should know that one of the essentials for success is building your own list. Whether you’re selling your own products, selling on eBay, affiliate marketing, network marketing, or anything else online, you need to have your own list.

Because? Just like in the offline world, people buy based on relationships. They shop online at a specific store or get their hair cut by a specific stylist because of the relationship. The relationship contains a certain amount of trust that helps people feel comfortable buying.

Unless your client is simply desperate or has written the best sales letter in the whole world, you won’t sell to most visitors on their first visit to your website. But once they get to know you, and have seen your website a few times, and have read a few letters from you, they may buy from you.

As you, your name, and your product are exposed multiple times, their trust level increases. Once it’s high enough for them to buy from you, you need to be able to communicate with them again. Without a list, it’s hit or miss. Your PPC link might be clicked again, but then you pay for it again. But if they’re on your list, you can email them once a week or once a month, so they don’t forget who you are when they’re ready to buy.

So what are the seven steps to building an online list fast?

Step 1 – You need to create a landing page or landing page on your website where they can send you their contact information. Make this form really user friendly and give them some incentive to use it. For example, offer them a free newsletter, e-course, e-book, or sample if they sign up for your list.

Step 2 – You need to sign up for an autoresponder service in order to send them autoresponders and follow-up letters. You may think you can do it quite easily, but once you have a few hundred names on your list, it becomes a nightmare. A good autoresponder service can be purchased for about $20 a month, and it’s well worth it.

Step 3 – You need to drive traffic to your website. It should be good, quality traffic that has the same general demographics as your typical customer. PPC is good for this, just make sure you choose your keywords carefully. If you’re selling specialized ammo, you don’t want to pay for all types of clicks in the ammo field – bid on specialized words. Write articles about your area of ​​expertise and the subject of your website and submit them to online article directories. Partner with non-competing businesses that sell to a similar clientele. For example, if you are a dog trainer, you could partner with a veterinarian. You’re not competing with them directly, but you both can benefit from learning about each other’s customers.

Step 4 – You need to send subscribers strong, informative, and helpful emails. They won’t open your emails for long if they don’t get value from them. Don’t be afraid to give away nice things in your emails. You may be thinking that you usually charge for what you’re giving away for free, but if it brings you new business online, it’s worth it.

Step 5 – Make sure that every contact you have online with a potential customer gives them an opportunity to subscribe to your list. Your website, all your emails, anything you send through the postal service, all should have a way to get them on your list.

Step 6: Mail regularly — at least once a month, or twice a month. Always use the same return address or “from” name. Spam is such a nuisance these days, so people have to recognize it to open your mail. And by the way, never, ever send your spam list. If it doesn’t have immediate value to them in your area of ​​expertise, don’t submit it.

Step 7: Consider the big picture. You’re not building the list for the sake of building a huge list. You are building a list with the ultimate goal of creating new online relationships that can translate into future business. It’s much better to grow a small list and develop a strong relationship with the people on it than to grow a large list with no relationship at all.

Now get out there and start building a list!