Top 5 Tips To Building A Large, Responsive List

Regardless of which type of product or service you’re marketing
Online, building an in house list of prospects is absolutely
essential
One thing that is often not taken into consideration is
subscriber quality and retention
Having a big list won’t benefit you if it’s members are
unresponsive
Here are a few tips designed to help you maximize the
productivity of your ezine, newsletter, follow up, etc
1) Build a website, sub domain, or page off of your main site,
solely dedicated to collecting email addresses for follow up
Legendary Internet marketer Terry Dean of NetBreakthroughscom
fame < http://im4newbiescom/netbreakthroughshtm > goes on
record as saying that the email addresses he collects using the
aforementioned method are up to 5 times more responsive than
those collected by outside sources
These subscribers are ultra targeted, as they want,
specifically, what you have to offer
You may think building a website on your own is an enduring
task, but it’s really not
HTMLGoodiescom < http://htmlgoodiescom/ > is an excellent
resource for those wishing to learn how to build a website on
there own
I also recommend Shelley Lowery’s Web Design Mastery, which
comes jam packed with anything and everything it takes to build
a professional looking website, regardless of your past
experience < http://im4newbiescom/wdmhtm >
When designing this site/page, remember to include
- A subscribe form/link on every page – Detailed description of
your ezine/newsletter’s content (what you offer the subscriber
to satisfy their interests, etc ) – Testimonials, whenever
possible – Full contact info, subscriber options, related
associations that help solidify credibility and trust (iCop,
BBB, etc) – A sample of your work, archived editions, etc – A
reminder to bookmark your site, and allow the ability to
recommend it to others, in addition to giving subscribers
permission to forward your publication to a friend, associate,
etc (add this to every mailing) – Something of value for
signing up a freebie download (software, ebook, course,
), discount, or other bonuses
which brings us to tip number
2) Focus on your content, NOT the freebies!
In an effort to draw more subscribers, I’ve witnessed many
publishers promoting the freebies to a greater extent than the
follow up, itself
This may increase the number of subscribers, but the level of
responsiveness, and retention, will surely suffer
You’ll draw more of those interested in only receiving the
freebies, defeating the reason you’ve asked them to join in the
first place
Promote your content, and yourself, first and foremost,
following up with the freebies
Include reference to them as a PS (post script) to your
promotional copy
3) Offer them an article series, course, or additional bonuses
in each mailing
and end your send out with a sampling of what’s to come
This will keep your list members interested, and subscribed
4) Make it interactive
Give your subscribers the ability to provide feedback, in the
form of replies, advice, questions, etc
Allowing them to participate will greatly increase the level of
interest, not only in regards to the one providing the feedback,
but of those that are reading it, as well
Providing the ability to include a link in their response will
aid in increasing the level of interaction
You may choose to involve them in other ways, such as group
chats, forums, polls, etc
5) Maintain a clean list
If you do not have the ability to bulk remove repetitive soft
and hard bounces, it is very important that you stay on top of
eliminating them manually
This should be done for 2 major reasons
A) If your mailing does not reach it’s desired destination, it
will not do you any good, nor it’s intended recipient
If you have the ability to auto send an unsubscribe response
(HIGHLY recommended), include the invitation to re subscribe
using a new email address Even the most honest recipients of
your mailings will occasionally bounce, due to any of a number
of reasons, and they should be allowed back if they so desire
B) When your list becomes large enough to take on paid
advertisers, you’re going to want to give them the best
opportunity possible to achieve good results That means keeping
your list as close to 100% responsive as possible When you make
your advertisers happy, they will tell others
And not only will you be able to enjoy filling your quota of
paid ad spots
You’ll raise the response rate of your own promotional efforts,
in the process
A major problem you’ll face when trying to build your list to a
size that will generate significant income is time
It may take you YEARS to build a subscriber base large enough to
allow you to quit your day job
That’s were co-registration services come into play
These services utilize high level platforms to generate
subscribers for a fee, allowing you to build a list much faster
than you ever could on your own
But there is a downside
Many of the larger services will generate tons of subscribers
for you, BUT
1) They charge a relatively high rate per subscriber
Building a list of the size you desire may require big bucks, up
front
2) They DON”T filter out free email accounts (Yahoo, Excite,
Hotmail, etc)
Unfortunately, most people use free email accounts to subscribe
to things they will never read, like FFA postings, free
classifieds, etc, and even if their usage was for honest
reasons, the filters imposed, and the size of the mail boxes
allowed, will result in almost all of your unreachables
and you don’t want that
3) Many use untargeted means to acquire the addresses
Your best subscribers will be those they want what you have to
offer, specifically
Many of the large services, in an effort to meet subscriber
demands, use a VERY broad criteria when sending you subscribers
Quality over quantity remember that
One service that takes all of the aforementioned into
consideration is Optinfrenzy < http://optinfrenzyim4newbiescom
>
Optinfrenzy
- Allows visitors to subscribe to your ezine/newsletter upon
viewing copy that you, yourself, have offered, making it ultra
targeted
- Provides double optin, confirmed subscribers If they don’t
respond, you don’t get them, virtually eliminating
undeliverables
- They filter out free email accounts You’ll enjoy up to 100%
retention rate, and won’t be subjected to “over quotas”, or
“mail box full” messages Your money buys the best kind of
subscribers those that have a real interest in the info you
have to offer, AND will actually receive it!
Optinfrenzy will build your list faster than you can on your
own, deliver quality subscribers, and their prices are the best
available Highly recommended
Well, there you have it
Plug my top 5 tips into your list building strategy, and I’m
sure you’ll be happy with the results
To your success!
Mike Merz Internet Marketing For Newbies http://im4newbiescom
PS
For more great tips on building a big, responsive list, I
recommend Paul Myers’ Amazing List Machine <
http://im4newbiescom/almhtm >
Mr Myers’ is VERY highly respected in the field of Online
publishing, and this is his best work to date do check it
out
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————————————–
Mike Merz is a well known Internet Marketing consultant
specializing in Online newbie start up campaigns To find out
more, visit: http://im4newbiescom
©2002 Mike Merz – IM4Newbiescom (Top5News Group)

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