You need a list. That’s a given. It’s the number one key to opening the success floodgates. Because you can market to your list whenever you want. Just push a button and print money – literally.

Now you now why. Here’s how:

There are 3 factors in list building you need to consider:

• The Squeeze Page
• Your Bribe
• Your Confirmation Page

The Squeeze Page – The landing page is the page that has your opt-in form on it. This page is the one that asks them for their email. So, obviously it has to be well designed. And it needs to be simple to see how to opt in. And have a clear call to action.

The biggest mistake you can make is not having a clear call to action. Your call to action tells the visitor what to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. Oddly, if you don’t make it clear, people will be confused and end up doing nothing.

One way to really spice up your squeeze page is to add a compelling video to the page. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. And you can repeat the call to action several times int he video. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

It’s OK, if you’ve never made a video before. You can hire freelancers to do this for you for a few hundred dollars. You can also find ready-made list building tools that give you squeeze page templates.

The Bribe – The next thing you need is an incentive to subscribe to your list. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Nobody likes spam, so most people guard their email closely. This means your bribe needs to be very attractive.

You have to provide value in your bribe for it to be good. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And something from which they can derive a benefit. A few ideas:

• A free report
• Software
• A video
• An email series

Basically, you just need some content. It’s got to be something helpful for your new subscribers. And of course it has to be free. If you make it good enough, they will give you their email in exchange.

Now, if you don’t know how to create the bribe don’t worry. It’s super easy to hire someone to create it for you. You just pick the topic and they create the training. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. You can have ghost writers create emails for under $25 an email. So, you’ll get the whole series written for under $150.

Or again, you can find complete list building packages for sale online that include an email series. Two things to keep in mind when writing (or buying) and email training series. First of all it has to give the subscriber what you promised – valuable information. And second, it needs to make you money. Mixing some affiliate products into your email series is a great way to do this. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And make money right away from your list.

The Opt-in Success Page – The “thank you” page is the final piece of the puzzle. This is where your visitor goes after opting into your list. It’s nice to give them some great content right away. This helps them feel they’ve made the right decision giving you their email. And it helps you establish the relationship. Then they’re more receptive when you email them.

Again, a simple solution to this is to get an email marketing package that includes everything. You can also put the whole thing together on your own. And do your own writing for this content. Or pay a freelancer to write the content for you.

Final thoughts

Whether you decide to build your email funnel yourself. Or hire someone else to do it for you. Or go with a complete package. It’s just important that you start today building your opt-in list. Once you’ve got it built. You can basically write your own meal ticket.

Technorati Tags: Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, list building

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