What is a List?

Unlike grocery lists or spare parts lists, in the marketing sense of the term, a ‘list’ refers to a list of customers . More specifica lly, in regards to internet marketing, it refers to a list of emails through which potential customers can be contacted .

If you’ve ever faced a situation where you needed to enter your details (especiall y your email) before you download something, then chances are that you are, or have been, part of a someone else’s list.

Even large companies that are already very establish ed use email lists of their own to keep track of their customers, and alert them to new developme nts, offers, and so forth. Of course, this ties in to yet another question at hand…
Why Build and Use a List?

Commonly, not having a list is said to be ‘leaving money on the table’, and that much is certainly true.

Take the example of a conventio nal clothes store. Customers come, browse around, maybe buy something, and then leave. Once they’ve left, the store has no way of getting in touch with them, and maybe convincin g them to come back again.

On the other hand, if the store had their contact details, they could notify them when they have a new stock of clothes on the rack, or special discounts, and so on. By doing so, the customer would then feel compelled to perhaps come back, or at very least would consider doing so.

Similarly, in whatever niche that you’re into, if you had a list of previous customers then whenever you have a new product, or some other offer, you’d just be able to shoot out emails and see if anyone is intereste d. Simple as it sounds, this is amazingly effective .

Think about it in terms of figures, if that helps. Let’s say you have an 8,000 strong list, and you send out an email regarding your latest product that costs $20. Even if only 10% of your list buys your product, that is 800 instant customers and you would have made $16,000.

To sum it up, the reason to build and use a list is to establish a firm base of regular customers to which you can market your products and offers too with great ease.
How to Get Started Building a List

Merely inserting someplace where email addresses can be gathered and collected is already a first step towards building a list. In general, there are two choices that you’ll be faced with when deciding exactly how and where you’re going to be gathering emails:

1.   Creating an Opt-in Page

Amongst those who are honestly going all-out to build up a list, this is the most commonly employed method, simply because of its effective ness. By creating a separate opt-in page, all the attention on that page can be focused completel y on the singular goal of getting a customer to subscribe to the list.

Essential ly, the best opt-in pages are those that have no ‘extras’ that may distract from the goal, and so normal advertise ments and other links (except at least one leading back to the main website) are removed.

Really, it is sort of like plugging up all the ‘leaks’ so that everythin g just flows towards gathering up emails.

Also, having a distinct opt-in page would allow traffic to be channeled directly to it, maybe even bypassing the main website entirely. By doing so, the possibili ty that visitors will be distracte d on the way to the opt-in page is removed as well.

Thus, the opt-in page gives the customer a two-way decision: to subscribe or not to subscribe (with everythin g possible being done to ensure that the former option is picked!).

Remember: With an opt-in page, your form should always be ‘above the fold’ (so that visitors will not need to scroll down to see it).

2.   Adding an Opt-in Form to the Main Website

Definitel y less effective under normal circumsta nces, it is still an option that could be considere d. In more some websites, especiall y blogs, which may not want to have their traffic leaving the main website to go off to a separate opt-in page, having the form as part of an easily located sidebar could even work just as well.

Of course, doing so does not have the added benefits of removing all other distracti ons from the equation, but it is still better than nothing.

Regardles s of which option is chosen in order to build up a list, there’s one other key ingredien t that should not be overlooke d:

Autorespo nders

Firstly, it is actually possible to build and maintain a list without using autorespo nders at all. That said, it would be monumenta lly difficult, inconveni encing, and get close to being downright impossibl e when the list reached a large size.

Today’s generatio n of top-of-the-line autorespo nders deal with a variety of functions . Not only do they store email addresses, but they also have the ability to send out scheduled automated emails.

Most autorespo nders track a variety of statistic s based not only on sign-up rates, but also on the click-through rates and open rates of emails. In short, they can do pretty much everythin g that you’d ever need done to help manage your list.

Just to get you started, here are the two best autorespo nder services that are currently available:

1.   Aweber – By far the most establish ed autorespo nder; it has a huge list of features, and also claims to be able to avoid junk mail filters the best.
2.   GetRespon se – Aweber’s main rival, it is almost as good in terms of the number of features on offer, and a lot cheaper, especiall y for large lists.

Of course, seeing as you’re just starting out with list building, you may not want to invest too much money right from the start. If this is the case, then go ahead and try AutoBot. Unlike other free autorespo nders, it does not include its own advertise ments to emails that you may send out, making it a decent option.

Eventuall y though, you’re definitel y going to want to go with a paid option such as Aweber or GetRespon se, just because they have so many additiona l features that will end up saving you a lot of time.

Reputatio n and Authority

Throughou t this section, we’ve also touched on reputatio n, but why is that important?

When you’re marketing online, your most valuable asset, prized possessio n, and biggest selling point can often be your reputatio n. Think about it, if Mr. X released a ‘Killer Article Submissio n Software’ and Mr. Y released a ‘Super Article Submissio n Software’, which would you choose?

As far as reputatio n goes, Mr. X is a fairly unknown marketer, but there do seem to be several complaint s about him overly hyping up poor quality software before. On the other hand, Mr. Y is an upstandin g marketer with a long track record of going out of his way to help people, and providing the highest of quality in any software that he attaches his name to.

Who would you buy from?

See, reputatio n is one of those things that can really make the differenc e, and everythin g that you send out to your list is part of that reputatio n. Admittedl y, even the most reputable of marketers have some bad things said about them, but the trick is to have the good outweigh the bad considera bly.

Being honest, clear, and helpful to your list is often enough. Also, be sure never to mislead, misguide, or be so engaged looking for a quick buck or two that you forget to think about the bigger picture.

Testing Out What Your List Responds To

More than anything else, testing and comparing the response from your list to various approache s should let you know what you should be doing, and what you should be avoiding.

Basically, just learn from your mistakes, and if something works – keep doing it (just not too much!). Some lists respond very well to reviews of products already in the market. Others simply would rather concentra te on what action can be taken within their niche, and then have a plan outlined.

There is no “one size fits all” as far as lists are concerned, and your testing could reveal what the ‘best fit’ for your niche is.

Maintenan ce, Pruning, and Sorting a List

As your list grows in size, it is going to need some work to be kept ship shape. Some of this is the kind of things that a good autorespo nder could even take care of automatic ally, but it is worth the mention nonethele ss.

One simple thing to keep doing is ensuring that ‘bouncing’ emails are removed from your list. At some time or other you must have encounter ed the ‘Failure to deliver…’ type response that you get right after you send an email, and can mean one of two things.

Either the email that you’re sending to is full, or it no longer exists. Whichever the case, if after a few emails the problem keeps repeating, then there’s no point keeping that email on your list. After all, why have a list of 10,000 people if 8,000 of the email addresses are outdated?

Yet another fairly simple step to help increase your lists responsiv eness is to ‘sort’ subscribe rs based on their past buying patterns. For instance, if you have 2,000 or so subscribe rs that buy high-ticket items fairly regularly, then put them in one group and maybe even give them extra ‘perks’ for being the fantastic customers that they are.

But at the same time, every list surely has its fair share of people that have never bought anything advertise d on the list. Some marketers just eventuall y exclude these people from their lists entirely, but instead, putting them in a separate group and targeting them with the cheapest items would maybe allow you to get some profit out of them.

All you need to decide is if the effort is worth it to market to this group.

Really, there are countless other ways in which to sort, or even subgroup your list. For example, if you have a very general ‘make money through internet marketing’ niche list, then you could sort them by subgroups according to their spending habits as far as products related to ‘blogging’, ‘article marketing’, ‘list building’, and so on.

Divide, and conquer.
Few Final Words…

Properly used, lists can truly be powerful tools of marketing . No matter that a good list can take time, and a little effort, in order to maintain – at the end of the day the profit that it would be able to obtain would make it all worthwhil e.

Forging a strong relations hip with your list will give you benefits in every area of marketing . Once your list is thriving, there is no reason whatsoeve r why the profits should not be rolling in as well.

Remember though, never take your list for granted, and be sure to keep investing enough time in it to keep things active, even if they aren’t for a few months.

yes i believe it is.