As marketers you’ve probably heard just how important it is to build your own email list.
I’m sure you’ve probably heard the familiar saying:
“The money is in the list”
This saying is as true today as when it was first spoken, the money is in the list. But why is that?
Your list is your most valuable asset
When you have a significant list of people who have expressed interest in your products, services, or your niche – what you really have is instant highly targeted access to people who are most likely to buy from you and benefit from what you’re offering.
If you want to build a sustainable business then you have to start building your list.
I’ve seen so many people build huge followings on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and also on YouTube. Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, the most important thing you need to realise is that you don’t own those subscribers – Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube do.
Let’s say you have a successful YouTube channel with millions of followers. What would happen if YouTube decided to suspend your account tomorrow? You would lose your channel along with your millions of subscribers, and your business would go down the drain – UNLESS you had grown your own email list.
If you were smart enough to grow your own email list of these subscribers then it wouldn’t matter if Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube suspended you; you would be able to send out an email to your list and continue to communicate with them without those platforms.
This is why any sustainable online business is built upon the foundation of growing and owning your own email lists of followers, subscribers, leads, and customers.
When you own your list it is yours to keep forever, and you will not be at the mercy of Mark Zuckerberg or the ever-changing Google search algorithms!
Your list is traffic you own – it is yours and you get to choose how and when you communicate with your list.
Now that you understand the importance of building a list lets talk about four key things you need to start building your email list fast.
1. You need to understand your target audience
The first thing all good marketers need to understand is who their target audience is.
- Who are you trying to serve?
- What are their pain points and problems they want to solve?
- What are they interested in?
You need to have a good understanding of exactly who your target audience is. The best way to do this is to create a customer avatar or a fictional persona of your ideal customer.
Check out the example below:
When you truly understand your ideal customer you will be able to target them more effectively.
You will be able to create the content that they are looking for, and you’ll know what social media platforms they use, what forums they are a part of, what YouTube channels they are subscribed to, etc.
You’ll also know what sort of language to use and how to communicate with them when you write your sales copy, create your calls-to-action, and create your lead magnet.
“People like people who are like them” – when you can demonstrate that you understand them your target audience will be more reciprocal to you.
Create your customer avatar and add as many details as possible. Once you’ve done that you’re ready for the next step.
2. You need a lead magnet or “ethical bribe”
In order to get someone to give you their email address you will need to give them something in exchange – this will normally take the form of a lead magnet, which some digital marketers also call an “ethical bribe”.
A lead magnet is something you give away for free. It could be an ebook, report, free trial, webinar, cheat sheet, etc. In order to get the free lead magnet they will need to give you their email address and therefore join your list.
What sort of lead magnet can you offer that people in your target audience will find valuable enough for them to enter their email address in exchange for it?
If you have followed step number one and fleshed out your customer avatar you will have a good idea of what sort of lead magnet your target audience would benefit from. You will need to create the lead magnet, or alternatively, you can outsource the creation to a freelancer.
Once you have a completed lead magnet you now have something that you can offer your audience in exchange for their email address. When they enter their email address they are added to your list and they will be able to access the lead magnet via their email. But first, in order to capture their email address you will need a website or landing page.
This takes us to step number 3.
3. You need a website or landing page
Once you understand your target audience you will know where they “hang out” online, then you can target them with your ads or content to advertise your lead magnet to them.
When they click on your ads for your lead magnet they should be taken to your website or squeeze page. For those that don’t know, a squeeze page is like a simple one-page website that has one function – to capture someone’s email address.
Even if you’ve never heard of a sueez page, I’m sure you will have seen loads of squeeze pages before. They are also known as landing pages, opt-in pages, or lead-capture pages.
Check out this example of a squeeze page below:
When someone lands on your squeeze page they have two options – give you their email address or click off. If they really want your lead magnet they will opt in, if they don’t they will click off.
There are dedicated software platforms like LeadPages and ClickFunnels that allow you to create beautiful squeeze pages even if you don’t know anything about coding or design. Many of them are simple to use drag and drop programs which make the process easy for anyone.
Using these types of platforms is beneficial if you don’t have your own website. If you do have your own website then you can create dedicated squeeze pages directly on your site and drive your ad traffic to that page.
On your website you can also have different opt-in forms for different purposes e.g. you may have an option for someone to subscribe to your newsletter- this is another way to add people to your list in addition to your lead magnet.
Lead magnets are more effective in helping to build your list when compared to a standard newsletter, but if you have a website then you should definitely give visitors the option to subscribe to your newsletter and capture their email address.
4. Email autoresponder
When someone enters their email address they should then receive an automated email from you which will allow them to download the free lead magnet you promised them.
In order to do this you will need to use an email autoresponder, which is a software or platform that allows you to send out automated emails to your list. An email autoresponder will allow you to send out emails to people who opt-in for your lead magnet, send out daily emails, or send out emails to specific segments of your list – such as those who have recently purchased one of your products, or those who have viewed a webinar.
Effective email list segmentation is important – it will allow you to send out the right communications to the right people at the right time.
Once you have started to build your list and have been communicating with them for some time, you will be able to start segmenting them according to a number of different variables such as engagement (how often they open and read your emails) or buyers (people who have purchased one of your offers or a specific product) etc.
There are a number of different email autoresponder options out there to suit different budgets and business types, but they are all mostly SAAS companies (software as a service) which means you will have to pay for a subscription on a monthly or yearly basis. Prices will vary depending on the size of your list and the number of emails you send out each day/week/month.
The larger your list the more you can expect to pay, but overall they are all priced quite reasonably and there is an option out there to suit all budgets.
Aweber, MailChimp, and Send In Blue are just a few examples of well-known providers.
Conclusion
So those are the four things you need in order to start building your list fast.
These 4 things are:
- You need to understand your target audience so you know exactly who they are, where they congregate online, what their pain points are, and how you can serve them.
- You need to create an “ethical bribe” or lead magnet that you can offer your target audience in exchange for their email address. This should be something with high perceived value that will benefit your target audience.
- You create ads that target your audience with your lead magnet offer, and you drive those clicks to your website or squeeze page where they can enter their email address.
- You use an email autoresponder which will send out the automated email containing the lead magnet, and which you use to send out daily or weekly email communications, further drip campaigns, special offers, or purchase confirmation emails.
Those are the key tools you need. You may need further tools such as design software, or video editing suits if you want to create your lead magnet yourself, or you can just outsource those to a freelancer on sites like Fiverr or UpWork.
When you have the tools in place you need to know the strategy of how to target your audience with your ads, how to write effective ad copy, how to structure your email sequences, and how to create offers so that you keep your list engaged and are able to send out relevant offers that lead to sales.
