Tips for Building and Monetizing an E-mail List

Email lists remain one of the most powerful assets for any online business. Carefully curated lists allow direct communication with potential customers who have opted-in to receive your messages. It is worth understanding that getting someone to giving you an email is a big deal. Develop your offers with the idea that those emails are privileged information given to you by people who have instilled some level of trust in you. Respect that privilege!!

So the question becomes, "How do you entice the right people to fork over their precious email and actually anticipate your messages?" We have put together some best practices for putting together a list-building strategy and monetization tips to help you nurture an eager audience.

Craft an Irresistible Lead Magnet

The best way to motivate signups is offering an irresistible "freebie" showcasing your expertise. Things like related checklists, templates, eBooks, webinar replays, exclusive interviews, mini video courses etc... are some of the more powerful and proven ways to build trust and value with potential clients. Keep it educational and entertaining.

Spend time developing a flagship lead magnet hyper-targeted to your ideal customer's key pain points, hopes and habits. This does require you to make a definitive determination about who you want your target audience to be. This will help you to develop a no-brainer offer through clear copy and design to deliver instant access and remove friction points to entering their email info.

Strategic Content Upgrades

Standing out in a sea of entrepreneurs requires getting comfortable with going the extra mile. The environment has changed sufficiently so as to necessitate offering more than just one generic lead magnet. By embedding multiple topic-specific "content upgrades" across your website and social presence organically you expand your there perception of your expertise. Be sure that your bonus resources relate to the specific post or video topic to keep the flow organic

For instance you mention a full case study on a subject matter, special discount code on a specific product, or bonus interview footage readers can access by opting in. Sprinkle these contextual treats liberally wherever you publish to make every piece of content an on-ramp to your list.

Tap Into Paid Ads

Organic traffic is great for those first steps as they help to build a community around your brand/products and will compounds over time. At some point, however you will need to explore the possibility of jump-starting a new marketing campaign with targeted paid ads on social media. Doing this in a place where most of the worlds eyes can be found like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter will accelerate growth when and provide key analytics for future ad spending.

Develop thumb-stopping graphics and punchy copy selling the benefits of your lead magnets through researching what other in your niche are doing and what your dream client are looking for. This interest-based audience targeting allows you to efficiently reach people who fit the description of you ideal customers.

Remember that it is OK to start modestly by split-testing with a small budgets. Using the available analytics you will find those winning combos to iterate. Then you can start to gradually scale your targeted spending while tracking its ROI.

The Power of Partnership

Cross-promoting your lead magnets to another entrepreneurs' list/s can expose you to a fresh audiences in a very short period of time. Spend a little time identifying some non-competitive peers whose target markets align with yours. In so doing, be aware that this is a 2 way street which while require you to mention their offerings to your tribe with the same zeal and passion that you expect them to use when highlighting your offer to their tribe. It is incredibly important to vet any potential partner to make sure that you are both going to get value out of the partnership that can be extended to your respective audiences.

Get creative in the process by structuring content-based partnerships like joint webinars, guest interviews, giveaway bundles etc. If you can successfully co-create value that makes your combined lists more than the sum of parts you stand a much greater chance of building a reciprocal relationship with potential partners.

Maximize Offline Contacts

Don't overlook the idea of turning real-world interactions into subscribers too. This can be done myriad of ways including bringing a signup clipboard to live events, classes or meetings. Create a scannable QR codes and/or text-to-join numbers for printed materials. Ask friends and family. You have a phone full of contacts and 300 friends on Facebook. Why wouldn't you ask them for a little help. It is the oldest and among the most reliable ways to build a client list in the game. It requires a bit more finesse but the return is well worth the effort.

Systematizing face-to-face data collection both on and offline covers all bases. Now you're ready to activate that hard-earned list!

Check back next week for Part 2!!!!