Is the Money in the List?
I am sure you have heard "The money is in the list" over and over again.When I started Internet marketing I didn't really understand this concept. What was a list? How do I make one? How do I use it? All questions I had.
I was making some income from people coming to my website and learning things then clicking to my products and buying one of them that they were interested in. It seemed simple. What was this list business.
Well if we step back a moment and think how we use the web. I use it for gathering information. I visit many websites in a day just to find a nugget of information on a particular topic. Most often I may have to go through dozens of sites until I find what I am after. I have no intention of ever going back to those websites since I didn't find what I wanted (that is not to say they didn't have what I wanted, I just did not find it).
These websites have no way to get in touch with me and tell me that they actually have what I want. I am a lost customer to them.
Now a few websites will give me enough information about a topic that I know they know what they are talking about. Then they hint that they have more hidden material that they will give me access to if I give them my email address.
I don't like giving out my email address and possibly be sent tons of spam. If it is a topic I am interested in and I am pretty sure I will learn what I need I will grudgingly give my email address, after all it is free to join!
Gotch Ya!
I am now on that websites list. This means that they can now email me with information that they think I would like. Some of the information (hopefully not all) will be products that I can buy that they think might help me. Admittedly I am a little sick of marketers only ever emailing me a list of products sometimes without descriptions that they think I should buy.
Instead include a piece of useful information with the email and then slip in the description of the product that you are trying to sell.
Once your name and email is on a list a website can use an Auto Responder to send you emails every couple of days. In its crudest form each day can be a sales pitch on their product with a different angle. The idea is to give a little more information each day to break down my resistance to buying the product.
Give the potential customer more and more information to convince them to buy. People usually handle small bites of information better than a huge long sales letter. It allows them to digest the information.
So the list allows me to keep in touch with my potential customers. I can send them information about products they are interested in. I can let them know about sales. I can let them know about new products I develop etc. It becomes more of a conversation instead of people reading endless sales letters.
So I started list building with a free auto responder. Trying to save money. Have you ever bought the cheapest tool to do a job and have been so frustrated with it when it broke, or stopped working, or when it just feel apart? That is how I felt with the free auto responder and list building tool.
Admittedly I was starting out and I tend to make a lot of mistakes when I start something. I ended up with a paid list building service and auto responder. The difference is night and day.
So now I can capture people's email and names and send them my newsletter, or updates, or suggestions for products. Very easily, I can tailor my broadcasts to all or part of my list depending on their interests.
If you set up an information capture and intend to market to your list remember to:
- Give information first, market second.
- Don't barrage people everyday with an email
- Don't hype things beyond belief.
- Do give a description of the product that you want me to click to for more information.
- Treat your list with respect. these people have given you a piece of their personal information their emaill address.
They really only want the information that they signed up for. If you try to sell to them too often it is like crying wolf. Eventually people just say oh its another offer from so and so. I'll just ignore it. If you add useful content to each email people will actually open them to see what you have to say.
So the paid auto responders that I recommend are:
My List building service is getresponse.com and I have been very satisfied. The cost is minimal compared to the service I have. Take a minute and check them out as they have some very good tutorials on what an auto responder can do for you.
