Over the past few months I’ve talked about the importance of building a mailing list. There is no doubt that if you’re in the business of internet marketing then you’re going to want a mailing list.
Broadly speaking there are two types of online businesses. Those that solve major problems and those that educate.
The type that you see most people talking about in forums are those that educate. These types of businesses can be run by a small amount of people and grown into a force to be reckoned with. Profit can get as high as a million dollars a year or more.
The types of businesses that solve major problems usually require a larger team to develop, grow and manage. Because these companies focus on solving a major issue that their customers have, they have the potential to grow to turnover hundreds of millions of dollars.
This article is focusing on the first type, the type of business that is in the market to educate. The area where most people start out online.
Without a doubt building a responsive mailing list can be tough. The first 500 responsive subscribers are probably the hardest, and it gets easier from then on in.
But… one of the most effective ways to build your responsive mailing list is using low level launches.
Alex Jeffries is a well known internet marketer who specialises in this particular kind of approach.
Over the next few hundred words I’m going to lay out a plan that will allow you to go away and build your list using launches starting today.
You must put this plan into action and you will need to rinse and repeat it to continue the growth of your list.
Of course, you will need to put in some effort. But the more you do it then the bigger your mailing list grows. The bigger your mailing list grows then the more profit you can make and that will allow you to start to employ others to do the work on your behalf.
So the first thing is your product. If you’re going to be building your mailing list from product launches then you’re going to need a product to launch.
These products should be low priced, between $7 and $17. They’re what Ryan Deiss calls a tripwire.
The purpose of them isn’t to make money. The purpose is to build a mailing list of people who are responsive, want to learn and are happy to spend money to do so.
The product should only tackle one issue. Nothing more.
You aren’t trying to give an all-encompassing product for just $7. You want something that is easy to sell and does what it says.
Keep it simple and you will be most effective. It will also allow you to build a bigger product that takes the education further and sell it as an upsell and a later point.
Start by writing down a list of the biggest problems that customers in your market face. What are their worst fears.
Next write multiple solutions to their problems and, in brackets underneath, the solutions that they think they need.
It is key to do both here because you will need to create a product that they’re looking for but achieves what they need.
These are the most successful products because they sell easily because the customer is getting what they think they need and the product is then showing them what they actually need in order to achieve their desire.
There is almost always a difference between what a customer thinks they need to achieve their desires or overcome their problem and what they actually need. You want to use this to your advantage.
So far you’re going to:
- Keep your product simple and focused on one thing
- Write a list of problems and fears your customers have
- For each problem or fear you will write a list of solutions and the solutions the customer thinks they need
Next… choose one.
Don’t worry about this decision. You can take the first from the list or stick a pin in. It doesn’t matter. This decision point is a prime area for inaction to take place.
There is no right or wrong here. You just choose one and start working on it.
Some of the products you develop won’t be effective. But it doesn’t matter because the whole point of this is to build them quickly and move on.
Once you’ve chosen your product get started making it.
Quite often you’ll find that it can be made in just 48 hours. However I would recommend that you give yourself a deadline of one week.
After having completed the product give it to somebody else to go through and check for mistakes and quality. It is best to get someone else to do this because you are expecting certain things to be there and, because you’ve made it, you will understand it inherently whereas someone else may not.
While it is being check by someone else write your sales page. It doesn’t have to be a super long sales page, it just needs to be long enough to sell the product.
The whole point of this is to make quick and easy products that can be used to build your mailing list.
Finally put up a sales page or list it for sale on one of the various forums and then… start sending traffic.
But where do you get that from?
Well, there are two main places. Affiliates being the easiest and the first one to approach. You should be giving away 100% of the sale price. In fact you can even give away more if you have a bit of a budget.
If a good lead is worth up to $4 to you, then a customer must be worth at least $25 to get on your list. That means if your product is $7 you could pay $10 for every sale. That’s a 143% commission.
To be honest 100% is also fine, but paying more than 100% can be a booster to get affiliate partners on board.
Your other way is to buy traffic and send it straight to the sales page. Sending paid traffic straight to a sales page is a lot easier than sending it to a squeeze page.
Why?
Because it either converts and makes a positive ROI or it doesn’t.
Yes, you can make more profit in the long run by sending them to a squeeze page first. But… most of the leads you’re going to get will be useless. Any traffic that converts means your getting high quality paying customers onto your mailing list. Making it an absolutely killer mailing list.
It doesn’t matter if you get 10 sales or 100 sales. If you get ten new paying customers on your mailing list then it was worth the work.
Don’t forget, the best leads are those who have proven they are prepared to make a purchase.
All you need to do now is rinse and repeat this process. Not only will you be building your mailing list, you’ll be doing it for little to no expense and building one of the most hyper-responsive customer mailing lists possible.
What do you think?