Building your list – increasing the number of people who subscribe to your offer – is one of the most important steps in building a business online. Once someone takes the step to signing up for your ezine, free report or teleseminar, they are so much closer to becoming a customer than someone who comes to your site for the first time.
So many people know they need to build their list but aren’t quite sure how. They think it’s some mysterious secret that top online businesses know that they don’t. But there really isn’t a secret. The key is practicing a small number of strategies consistently. Here are a few strategies to try.
Ezine Advertising
Find ezines of people with similar target markets who offer complimentary products and services. Ask if you can have a line or two in their ezine promoting your free giveaway. If the publisher is someone you already have a relationship with, you might even get the advertisement for free, particularly if you have an affiliate program or can offer a reciprocal ad.
Online Articles
Even if you already publish a blog, repurpose your posts into articles at article directories such as ezinearticles.com. In the author’s bio at the end of the article include a pitch and link for your free giveaway.
I confess I have neglected this method after only a brief try. However, so many of my mentors swear by it that I’m once again giving it a try. Experts tell me the critical mass is 25 to 50 articles. Create short (300 to 500 words) articles around the same topic and you will begin to drive massive traffic to your site.
As I write this post I can’t swear by the results based on personal experience but enough people who know have been telling me to do it that I’ll be aiming for 25 articles by mid-February.
Tell-A-Friend
Once someone has signed up for your free offer or made an online purchase, give them the opportunity to “tell-a-friend”. On your thank you page, have a tell-a-friend link that lets the subscriber pass along your info. Alex Mandossian says he gets an average of 2.4 referrals per subscriber. That’s an awful lot of traffic that doesn’t cost anything.
To add the tell-a-friend script to your site, either get your techie to do it or try a Google search for “tell-a-friend scripts”. You should be able to find something for free.
Signature Files
In every email you send, be sure your signature includes a pitch and link to your free offer. You’re sending the emails anyway, it doesn’t cost anything to include a signature and you never know what you might get. Best of all, once you set up your signature, you can forget about it. It’s automatically includes.
Business Cards
When I first heard this tip I mentally kicked myself because I just had 1000 cards printed and I wish I had thought of it. Most people have business cards with just one side printed. Why not use the back of the card to sell people on your free offer. Include a compelling headline and a URL to a page where they can subscribe.
Social Media
At the very least, include an offer for your giveaway in your bio. From time to time mention your free giveaway in your posts: Tweet about it on Twitter, refer to it when answering a question in LinkedIn Answers, mention it in your Facebook status update.
Does this work? You bet. I often find someone starts following me on Twitter, then they connect via Facebook or LinkedIn. Next thing you know, I see them on my ezine list.
Press Releases
When creating a new free giveaway as an enticement to signing up for your list, send out a press release to traditional and online media. Pitch the problem your giveaway solves and that it’s available for free. Just one mention in the press can cause a spike in traffic.
Better yet, if you are giving a radio interview, don’t forget to mention your free offer and where to get it. You won’t be stepping on toes. Radio interviewers expect you to promote yourself as part of the deal
As you can see, there are many ways to build your list. Pick a couple of the tactics mentioned here and commit to using them regularly for the next three months. Then compare the size of your list to what it is today. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
Andrea J. Stenberg
