Generating an email list is one of the most effective ways of earning an income by promoting your own products or through affiliate marketing. List building is a great way to directly interact with your potential customers and get their opinions on any improvements they expect 
from your products or even their experiences with the use of them.
Buyers feel honored and recognized for receiving personalized email messages hence prompting them to quickly respond by enquiring more information about the products and finally making an order. It is indeed an easy way but also an extremely powerful tool, to reach thousands of customers by simply sending out a single email to your list.
In case you are interested in generating an email list for your products or affiliate marketing programs (you definitely should be), but are unsure how to go about it, then this guide will have you covered. Here we’ll explore the various steps to building a targeted and responsive email list.
Product marketing through your email list
Marketing through your email lists basically involves sending information in a personalized manner to your subscribers while including your product link within your email. When the subscribers click on the link and purchase the products, you make a sale or earn a commission for promoting the sale (if you’re an affiliate). The people on your list will be far more likely to trust your product recommendations than if they just stumbled upon the product somewhere online. Since you’re communicating with them and providing them with valuable information that they are interested in, they are going to consider you an authority that is knowledgeable, honest and trustworthy.
The importance of generating an email list
As you can see, your email list consists of people who have already expressed an interest in the products that you are promoting, thus there is a greater chance that they will actually purchase the products that you are offering them. They subscribed to your list since they were interested in your product, and sending them personalized emails with content that provides real value to them, prompts them to make the purchase hence promoting more sales for you.
For this reason, building an email list becomes a more successful way of generating sales than other types of marketing, since you are targeting potential customers that already know, like and trust you.
So, how do you go about building an email list for marketing your products and services?
Generating an email list can be a simple process, however you need to commit yourself to the art of drafting valuable and convincing content for people to give you their email address. You need to provide them with a reason to subscribe. As I’ve already mentioned, on your signup-page, you have to provide a sufficient amount of value for your visitors to trust you enough to give you their email address. Other than the quality content that is generating traffic to your site, you need to offer your visitors something enticing enough to make them take action, a so-called “lead magnet”. This could be a free eBook, a video training or a webinar related to your product. You can also offer them coupon codes providing discounts on your products and services.
The entire process is all about getting people to sign up to your list in order to receive something that they are truly interested in, something that is able to solve a problem for them or in any way make their lives better.
Below are some of the best ways to build your email list:
1. Generate organic traffic through blogging
Blogging is most definitely a popular way of generating organic traffic to your optin page, simply because it attracts the exact right people who are very likely to become your future customers. For thia reason, running a blog, where you present yourself in a personal and professional manner, is a great way to get more people subscribing to your list. Your readers will become more and more interested in spending an increasing amount of time on your blog simply because you are providing them with a convincing reason to partner with you by subscribing to your list. Just place an enticing and apparent optin form in the sidebar of your blog to make it easy for your readers to sign up for your list.
Keep in mind, generating high quality blog posts is all about making your readers want to return to your blog on a consistent basis, because they are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Increasing your organic traffic, therefore, increases the number of subscribers on your list hence promoting more sales for you.
Below are some of the ways you can create more traffic to your blog through the content you are creating.
• Optimizing your readers by generating quality content
Creating quality content that provides a solution to a problem or deals with a difficult situation for your readers, gives them a reason to keep coming back for more, and chances are they will keep returning for more updates on your products and services. All you need to do, is to simply address the main issues or struggles that your readers are experiencing, and you will definitely get more traffic to your site.
• Create content on a regular basis
You will need to frequently interact with your blog visitors in order to remind them of your existence. Be sure to create content regularly and keep reminding them of your products and services as you give more updates.
Remember that it is essential to continously draft high quality and value driven content that keeps your readers on your site, as cheap content would only scare them away. Take the time to do your research, follow along with what other marketers in your niche are doing, by visiting their websites on a regular basis and subscribe to their newsletters.
•Use long-tail keywords when writing your content
Search engine optimization is essential when it comes to generating as much organic traffic to your blog as possible. Here you can take advantage of keyword tools, such as Wordtracker, in order to maximize your use of the keywords that are more specific to your particular niche. The search engines will identify your blog for that exact subject and will even boost your ranking, hence creating more traffic to your blog and ultimately an increasing amount of signups to your list.
Besides Wordtracker, there is a plethora of very useful keyword tools out there, that will help you identify exactly what your potential customers are looking for. The more targeted keyword terms you are able to identify through these keyword tools, the more you’re able to single out the people who are actually looking for what you have to offer. When these people sign up to your list, you’re able to keep providing them with content and at the same time market your products to them again and again.
2. Use social media
Also, consider building your presence on social media. Sharing your blog through social media platforms, is an excellent way of creating more traffic, which would, in turn, get more potential buyers subscribing to your list. You can use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms to build an audience that is interested in your products.
Again, providing quality information for free is key here. Simply tell people about a product that you’ve used yourself, that has helped you solve issues that you were facing. Tell them about the results you’ve achieved, and recommend them to try it out themselves to get the same results as you. Always point them to your your blog (where your optin form is placed) or directly to your optin page, where they can sign up to get more information, in addition to receiving their desired “lead magnet”.
3. Remarketing ads
Some people may not be interested in opting into your list right away. This, however, doesn’t mean that you have completely lost them. You can try remarketing the ads through social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram, by adding a retargeting pixel meant for new subscribers while excluding the audience who have already subscribed to your list.
A retargeting pixel is simply a snippet of java code that you can insert into your blog or website. This code creates a cookie on the visitor’s computer and enables your advertisement to “follow” them all over the web. So once they’ve visited your website, even though they didn’t sign up to your list, you’re able to keep marketing to them on every new website that they visit. Each marketing platform has its own pixels and instructions for placing them on your site. Be sure to familiarize yourself with how they work, because they can work wonders for your list building results.
4. Cross-promotion on other marketer’s lists
If you are aware of (I bet you are) other people promoting similar products as yourself, you can work out a deal with them to get access to their email list, which in turn will give you more subscribers. However, you need to ensure that the email list you acquire includes people interested in similar products or services that you are marketing. Simply contact the list owner and tell them about your product, and if they would be interested in promoting it to their subscribers, for a fee.
Another, perhaps easier way to get access to other marketers lists, is to use a solo ad network, such as Udimi. Here you are able to purchase a mailing that goes out to subscribers that are already interested in the product that you are promoting. The publisher (The solo ad seller) will take care of everything for you, even the ad text with a link to your opt in page, and send your message out to his or her subscribers.
These traffic generating methods are not free, however since they are working extremely well when it comes to building your list fast, they can turn out to be a really good investment for your online business.
5. Join forums and Facebook groups
Joining various forums that are related to your niche, gives you a chance to interact with your potential customers directly, and you can in time convince them to subscribe to your list for more quality information and also helpful products (your products). Again, always lead with quality content, and be focused on helping people solve their issues by offering them a solution that has already worked for you. Spamming forums is never going to help you in any way, simply because people hate spam. Be of assistanse to other people, and gradually introduce them to your ultimate solution (your optin page).
Once you have generated your email list, you need to build a deeper relationship with (cultivate) your subscribers and potential customers in order to promote more sales. Maintain regular updates on your products, in combination with educating your readers. This will convince your subscribers of your availability and reliability for availing quality products and services that are actually going to benefit them.
In conclusion, building an email list is indeed the most effective way to sell more of your products. You get a chance to build stronger relationships with your target audience and as a result promoting more sales and getting more profits.
Are you ready to jump-start your list building and grow your online business to the next level?
If so, I’d like to invite you to a free webinar-workshop by master marketer John Thornhill. In this workshop, he’ll teach you step-by-step how to set up your own automated sales machine that is able to generate income for you on total autopilot.
Author: Aaron Fahr
This is a guest post from Aaron Fahr, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
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