When you are building a list it is all about quality and not quantity. Sure, you can send out a newsletter every day, but soon people are simply going to begin deleting your emails. This is because they are being solicited everyday and they get tired of that very quickly. What you accomplish by doing this is you create a list that is unresponsive and that is not how you are going to make any money. Plus, you will eventually have a list with no emails on it!
The key is responsiveness. It is much better to have a list that has 2,000 responsive customers than a list with 20,000 names and no responses. Once you begin building your list, you will begin making sales if they are responsive and that will begin to earn you money on a weekly basis. Now, you may be wondering how you are supposed to get these responsive people. The answer is leads. No lead is a bad lead, although several Internet marketing gurus will deny that. They do agree, however, that the money is in the list.
Why Do You Need Leads?
You need leads to make money! You need people on your list to buy your products! Now, there are several different types of leads and we will explore those here.
Low Grade Leads
These are leads that you purchase through a company. You can pay $35 and receive 20,000 names. Now, the chances of those emails being good and those people being interested in your services are pretty slim. Also, even if you are spam compliant, you are probably going to get spam complaints on your emails. What does this mean? This means you need to avoid these companies the same way you avoid a can of spam. They do nothing but spell trouble for your list.
Now, there are good lead companies that you may consider. You may get a few spam complaints, but nothing that is going to put you out of business. Besides, if they’re not interested, you do provide them an out. These companies get leads from running networks of free sites and classified sites. In order to place free ads, they have to provide their email address. These people are usually interested in some sort of product you have to sell if they are in your niche.
Good Leads
These are leads those that you can get through Free Ad Programs, Co-Opt Programs and Giveaway sites. These are better than those that you get from companies because they have signed up through your squeeze page. Usually, you offer some sort of free gift if they sign up. The bad thing is that they usually unsubscribe from your list after they receive the free gift. But, you will still usually retain some interested folk.
The Best Leads
These leads are those that you receive through paid advertising websites. You can use sites such as Google AdWords or Overture to obtain these leads. They are targeted leads and they are usually in response to your advertisements, which means that there is some interest in your products there. These are also the most expensive leads you will get because these services are not cheap and you will need to be prepared to invest in this type of advertising. However, they are the best leads that you can get and worth their weight in gold.
Landing Pages and Squeeze Pages
Now, you have probably heard of these things, but you may not have the slightest idea what they are exactly. These are perhaps some of the most important pages you can have on your website. These are the pages that help to generate your good leads. This where you get the contact information of interested parties and add them to your autoresponder.
These are sales pages, so you have to sell yourself. This is very important and there are two different categories that these fall under.
Gift Pages
These are pages where you offer a gift to sign up on your newsletter or mailing list. You will provide some sort of free item. For example, if you are selling an eBook you may provide them with a free chapter. If you are selling software, you may provide them with a trial version. The key is that they have to sign up for your newsletter in order to receive this free gift. Now, some of these people will only use you for your free gift and then unsubscribe, but if your gift is really good then they are more than likely going to stay on your list. Now, in order to keep people on your list, you need to keep selling yourself in all of your newsletters.
The Benefits Page
With this type of sales page you will sell the benefits of being a subscriber to your newsletter. You will tell your potential customers what exactly they will receive for joining your list. This is also where you will want to sell yourself. You are going to want to tell people two things on this type of sales page:
- What you can provide the reader
- Why they should listen to you
On this type of page you have to bring out all the stops and really sell. This is one of the hardest pages to produce because you have to be salesy. However, if they are done right they will bring you the best prospects.
Combining the Two
Now, there are some people who are able to successfully combine these two types of pages. You really sell yourself and get people to sign up and for signing up they also receive your free gift.
When you are setting up your pages and sending out your newsletters, don’t be afraid to get personal with them. Let them know who you are, what your qualifications are and how you got involved in your business. You can even tell them what your goals are and people are really going to eat it up. The more that you are able to build trust in your list members, the more money you will be able to make. They will feel as though they are buying from a friend rather than just some stranger who owns the list.
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