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The Power Of List Building

by nicholasb
26 replies
There is not a day that goes by that one of my students ask's me why they should build a list.

They always say why can't I just direct link to my offer?

Well the answer is simple, a list makes all the difference between a long term business and fly by night sales.

So lets say you spend countless hours sending 1,000 visitors to a blog. With a 1% conversion rate you will make 10 sales, congrats, but you have lost them forever after that.

Send that same 1,000 visitors to a squeeze page to collect names and emails, by offering a really valuable free video or report.

With a 20% conversion rate you will have a list of 200 people. The combination of a good follow up series, copywriting, and value you can easily convert 10% of that list.

So right there that is 20 sales, you have automatically doubled your sales. And not only that you can market to that list again and again.

Really work hard and get that list up to 1,000 people, at a minimum statistics says that you should make 1 dollar per subscriber per month, But in all reality from my experience it is much higher.

So even if you decide to go on vacation for two weeks, and not send any new traffic, you could just send an email to that list and convert sales.

A list is the only real way to build push button sales. With a list you are not a slave to your business. Your business can truly run it's self.

I sent out an affiliate offer a few months ago to a list of 500 people and brought in $2,400 in commissions during a 3 day period. With only 3 emails!

To get the most out of your list you need to master a few basic principles of persuasion and copywriting.

Learn some psychological triggers, like urgency and social proof. Use the magic words.


What do I have

How will it help you

And what to do next


Always use benefits and a clear call to action when sending out emails.

Use them in your follow up and any other email you send,

Read books from, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, and Robert Cialdini pick up a few basics from them and use them in your marketing.

This will ensure you get high conversion rates, and sell more products.
#building #list #power
  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    Agreed. This is something we should all start doing from the very beginning.

    I think there are two ways to do it.

    Develop a list from giving away something free, a freebie list. As you said they can still convert and it's a good way to build a list.

    Or, develop a buying list by selling something, even at a cheap price, and you will have a list that is buying from you at the very beginning, making them more likely to buy from you in the future.

    I would say everyone should try both ways of building lists and see what works best for them. I think there is a place for both in my business and am starting to do both.

    All in all, quite good advice you have here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    Great stuff, Nicolas! A well maintained list is the difference between living off of one-time customers and building a long-term business with lots of loyal, repeat "regulars." You are 100% correct about that.

    Thanks for the reminder to keep this a top priority in my own business!

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author OrganicSeoGuru
    The Lists are my Number 1 Assets,

    I have been an Seo for almost 10 years now, and I can assure you that Google and the Gang dont owe any of us anything, and would not hesitate to kick any of us to the curb if we didn't tow the Google Line...

    Regardless a targeted and well taken care of list of the only real asset of internet marketing that has true valuation in any business format.

    Anyways, I think Frank Kern List Control was a very important product for once again proving the power of the list, and the importance of building it with effort and quality content....

    Every Internet Marketing Guru Would Be Broke Today If They Had Not Built Their List of Raving Fans, LOL.. :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author 4d-media.ca
    I am curious what kind of product you made that $2,400 off of
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    That's a wicked post and very motivational too.

    ... and a reminder that our most profitable and important asset (not to burn) is our list.

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author ShaunAllen
      nicholasb,

      First of all, great post.

      But do you really convert 10% of people on your list to buyers?

      Maybe for a $10 short report but not a $97 product.

      Also, how long does it take you to convert that many people? Surely it can't be done over a 7-day ecourse.

      Anyway, I loved your post and I don't want to take anything away from it. I just don't want to add in some other variables to selling to your list.
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      • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
        Originally Posted by DaveJ13 View Post

        nicholasb,

        First of all, great post.

        But do you really convert 10% of people on your list to buyers?

        Maybe for a $10 short report but not a $97 product.

        Also, how long does it take you to convert that many people? Surely it can't be done over a 7-day ecourse.

        Anyway, I loved your post and I don't want to take anything away from it. I just don't want to add in some other variables to selling to your list.
        Yes 10% is average their have been some cases where I have converted a much higher percent of the list.

        It does take the combination of Value, Copywriting, and persuasion skills. Which are the most valuable skills you can learn as a marketer.

        I use the same tactics, as politicians,hollywood, and multi billion dollar corporations in my campaigns. Learn from the sources mentioned in the original post and your basically guaranteed sales, no matter what niche you are in.

        "Maybe for a $10 short report but not a $97 product."

        Quite the opposite is true. It comes down to the 80/20 rule.

        80% of your list will prefer cheap products cause that's all they can afford. But 20% of your list will prefer more expensive products $2,000 or more simply because of the fact of a higher perceived value. (that's Dan Kennedy/Frank Kern 101)

        It is a horrible mindset to think that everyone is broke, if in your mind everyone is broke than in fact everyone is broke.

        But you see everyday, big name marketers converting 10k coaching seminars on a regular basis.

        Regardless of what CNN tells you the whole world is not broke and we are not in a depression.

        Say you have a list of 100 people, and you have a $10 product and a $1,000 product.

        10 people may buy the $10 product, but the one person who buys the $1,000 product trumps the 10 $10 sales by 10 times.

        So in that case you need less traffic, less visitors, and less subscribes to reach 10k a month in sales selling a $1,000 product than you would with a $10 product.

        Yes you will get the good majority of your sales within the first 7 days, but the beauty of a list is, that you have them to market to over and over.

        So you do not lose your lead, when they are on your list they are basically giving you permission to present them with offers.

        Some people buy the one time offer as son as they opt in, some people buy within 7 days, and others take 6 months to a year to make a purchase.

        That is why building a list is so crucial.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Wise
    agreed, wise words indeed
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  • Profile picture of the author Martynas Saikus
    Hi,
    It's Martynas. I'm a neebie in this forum, but at least 7 years - in internet marketing. I work with Lithuanian market.
    And speaking about converting - recently i've marketed a huge sales seminar, and got 900 attendees from a small 4000 list. So this is almost 22,5% conversion. It's really huge to me.
    I just wanted to say that 10 or even 15% conversion is POSSIBLE, but of course, i've found out some new tactics how to do that.

    Martynas
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  • Profile picture of the author davidkimball
    This is the exact information I came searching for tonight. Do you have any links to email converting examples? I have a list of 2,000 people I can email through an association and want to have an email that will have them click on to my website and join my list.

    So far, conversion rate is .7% and would love to have it at 10%.
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  • Profile picture of the author sitefurnace
    Everyone says that you can sell to your list over and over but what do you sell them?

    Let's take the dog training niche. Once you have sold the first training course, why would anyone buy a second?

    I can understand being able to make multiple sales in the IM niche as there's always the 'new' method but i am stuggling to see this working in other niches.
    If the bulk of the money/conversions are made with the fresh subscribers entering your funel, surely the true ongoing value is a source of new subscribers, the TRAFFIC to your list.
    With the dog training list, the value is in the 100 new subscribers that have signed up this week that are going to convert at 10% and buy the training course and not the existing list that already have it.

    I can see all the benefits that are being talked about but for the bulk of niches out there, I don't agree that it's the ultimate, hands free, push button model that it's made out to be. The value is in hands free, autopilot traffic that keeps hitting your list and making you sales
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Antoni
      Great message OP. For me, there's no other way to build a business. Anything else is just temporary in my opinion.

      A list is an asset that you can leverage for years to come. I'm doing it right now. I've got people buying from me still, over 4 years later. It's crazy (and awesome).

      Of course, you've got to provide value to them as well. It's a trade off. I always tell people to contact their list at least once a week and say "hi and buy". It depends on your niche how often you want to contact them.

      Originally Posted by sitefurnace View Post

      Everyone says that you can sell to your list over and over but what do you sell them?

      Let's take the dog training niche. Once you have sold the first training course, why would anyone buy a second?
      Great question. The first thing is that believe it or not...people will buy the same type product from different people. They may buy your dog training ebook, but then you could sell them someone elses dog training ebook (with a different spin, etc).

      Beyond that, you really should focus on expanding your funnel out over time. The initial sale is just the start of the relationship. If you really wanted to increase profit you could add in video training (dvd's), seminars, live Q and A sessions, etc.

      You build out your funnel and use email to autmoate selling all your different products. Also, many people choose to create lots of smaller products that help fix a certain problem.

      In your example, here's a few ideas (I have a dog so I know these too well lol):

      How to get my dog to stop barking
      How to teach my dog cool tricks
      How to walk my dog without a leash and without fear
      How to house break my dog

      And so on. It's true your original ebook could cover these topics, but maybe not to the extent that someone with a "bad" dog would have to deal with.

      Oh, and besides selling more of your own products, you could also sell related products that your list might be interested in. Like dog vitamins, dog insurance, dog bedding, leashes, etc, etc, etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author UnleashReality
        don't make a "this is all you'll ever need to buy ever in order to be taken up with the aliens when the earth ends and get ice cream in hell" product.

        1 problem 1 solution. touch on other topics if you like but you can't sell something to somebody who you've already sold the fix-all solution. obv.

        1 prob 1 soln
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    • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
      Originally Posted by sitefurnace View Post


      Let's take the dog training niche. Once you have sold the first training course, why would anyone buy a second?
      This mindset will prevent you from ever being able to create anything long term online. People will buy multiple products in any niche.

      If you want solid proof of this go to your local bookstore and sit by the checkout counter. And watch people walk out with stacks of books on the same topic.

      People are always chasing the magic bullet whether it's make money online or dog training.
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      • Profile picture of the author sitefurnace
        You know what, you're right. I see now.
        This is a penny dropped moment for me. Thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author onefreekiwinz
    It's about gaining new customers and then retaining them. NEVER stop looking for new customers to join your list, but make sure you keep them happy and retain them. Do this and you will start to see your bank account to fill up.
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    I know most of you like to attend the church of Frank Kern and others, but list building was far more critical 10 years ago than it is today. Email as a form of online communication just isn't as dominant as it once was.

    I'm certainly not saying don't mail, but the atmosphere of this thread that lists are a silver bullet is really pushing it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author Ryback
        List building is still very powerful. The ones that are saying that its not effective are probably not even building a list. If you know how to work your lists right they will give you constant pay days.
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      • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
        Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

        Bull****

        List building/email marketing is directly responsible for over 100k in revenue in less than 3 months for me.

        And that is just with lists no larger than 50,000.

        Sorry, but you are WAY WAY wrong.
        Nowhere in my post did I state that there was no money in list building. I merely alluded to the fact that lists are not paramount to marketing online here in 2010.

        Although in fairness of the argument that list building should be the centerpiece of one's business efforts, it is probably the lowest cost method of retaining eyes. "Cost" being $, time, skills required, etc...
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  • Profile picture of the author Derwin
    I am agree with you that a list makes all the difference between a long term business and fly by night sales.There can be two ways to build a list.First is free which you can build for free and the second one you can create for selling something.But it is not so good method.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dr Livingston
    List building will never die. Seth Godin wrote about this idea in tribes... create your community. If you give valuable stuff that people want, you are genuine and don't spam them to death, they will follow you. Plus, all the major internet guru's make their money from their lists. To say that isn't as valid any more is ludicrous.
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  • Profile picture of the author 3genter
    How often do you hit your list?
    Are the emails all sales pitches, of do you offer some value too?
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    Tim Somers

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  • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
    Absolutely true. It took me a while for this to really sink in, but the money really is in the list. My biggest regret is not starting to build my list earlier.
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