How to build a massive list...

Hey everyone,

This forum already rocks, but I agree with Mike that we need to step it up a bit... if we all start posting what we know so that others can become top affiliates, we will not only have their trust, but they will have bigger lists to promote to -- it's a no brainer...

So I'm going to start off with a few tips on how to build your opt-in list and I ask that others add information as to what has worked for them also. I will stop back periodically and add content to this, but I'd rather here what others have to say :-)

What's the single best way I've found to build a list if you're not purchasing leads and don't have your own viral report?

You NEED a squeeze page. If you're not familiar with a squeeze page go to www.thinktwoproductsahead.com ... that's also a phenomenal squeeze page to study from because it pull an astounding 64%. Within a month we built an opt-in list of nearly 8,000 people.

Everyone needs to be capturing leads on their product launches. Period.

If you don't already have an aweber account you need to get one. It makes life so much easier and your deliverability rate is far better than anything you could ever do yourself.

A lot of people complain that it takes away from their sales page, but think about it like this: your squeeze page copy should be "pre-selling" your sales copy and your offer to come... if you have done this correctly then if people aren't going to give you their name and email address, you think there's any way in hell they're going to give you their credit card number?

So set it up...

Ok, now that I've drilled that in hard enough, I want to talk a little bit about conditioning your list... this is something that has costed me thousands of opt-ins, and tons in lost profit to realize...

Don't ONLY give your list quality content... I know that sounds bad and I'm not one to send offers 24/7, but you need a good combination of both...

What I do is set up an auto-series of a few months or so (you can do it for only a week if you'd like, doesn't matter)... but I set up the autoresponder series to give good content mixed in with some offers. When you only give people offers they get conditioned to have their "buyers guard" up on every email you send them ... but if you only give them good content they HARDLY ever buy when you send them offers.

RECAP:

1. Set up a squeeze page and build your list off of all your affiliates that promote your products.

2. Condition your list to buy BUT also give them good content so that you ARE the expert.

That's a few pointers... I will make this like a newsletter and make weekly updates to it LOL... if you have ANYTHING to add about list building please do so, or if you have questions don't be shy to posting them ;-)

Have a great day!

Sam

P.S. I'm also coming out with a free list-building product that I will tell you about shortly ... I'm putting the finishing touches on it right now, but I'll give you a hint: you've probably seen it before because I big name marketer created it (I'm just putting it on steroids).

I had one more thing that anyone can do to build their list even if they don't have a product...

Start building relationships with the gurus and get teleseminar calls with them. When you're starting off you can record it, but start making them live as soon as you can...

All you need to do is get the call and make people input their name and email to get access to it... or if you're doing it live, have the guru send an email to his list promoting the call (minus the call in details) and everyone who wants to be on that call needs to enter their name and email to get the access details...

This works really well if you can get a big name marketer on the line... with a simple blast you can build a list of 1,000 or more.

Joe Lavery and I talk about a way you can do this for absolutely free in our up and coming course Backend Secrets - I'll keep you informed on this, but we have a ton of huge list building methods we reveal in that.

To your success,
Sam

Sam said:

You NEED a squeeze page. If you're not familiar with a squeeze page go to www.thinktwoproductsahead.com ... that's also a phenomenal squeeze page to study from because it pull an astounding 64%. Within a month we built an opt-in list of nearly 8,000 people.

I say:

HOLY MOLY!!! 64%??? You should get in touch with Jonathon Mizel ... :)

Seriously Sam, that's a fantastic opt-in rate ... can I ask, is your sales conversion rate higher from having a namesqueeze than a normal-straight-to-sales page path or didn't you test this ...?

Cheers

Nick :)

Looks like the template Tellman uses and since you've been talking with Joe Lavery he does as well. I need to give joe a call I talked with hung out with him in orlando last month, actually I think I owe him 20$ still. LOL

64% sounds like a new record but thats opt in so it's a lot more possible..

Hey Eric,

Yea we all swap templates for our best performers...

Nick - I'd like to meet Jonathon Mizel soon (and maybe will with this next product launch we're doing), but just haven't had the time... I continually pull 60% or greater ... and looking back on that squeeze page I probably could have increased that conversion to over 70% if I had added a testimonial right below the signup form...

The thing with squeeze pages compared to straight to sales copy is this... you have less people seeing your sales copy when you have a squeeze page, but your sales conversion rate is higher -- my theory on this is, if your squeeze page does it job (pre-sells your copy) then you have even more targeted traffic viewing your sales copy and people are eager to see what it is you're "offering" as opposed to landing on your page from a search engine and seeing a "sales" page and clicking off...

There's a huge psychological perspective with a sales page with how you frame your customer on your squeeze page...

But psychology aside, it's all about numbers... our stats for Think Two Products Ahead were a 64% conversion rate on the squeeze page and a 2.6% conversion rate ... we knew that every person that viewed our sales page was worth $7.41 (now that's unheard of)...

On this launch we didn't test without the squeeze page because we've done it in the past... and here is my thought on it if you know you're going to have a decent size launch with a lot of traffic:

Use a squeeze page regardless... I would use it even if it was losing me money on selling my product because you're building a list that you can make money off of in the future. You need to ask yourself how much that list will be worth to you in time to come... think of that squeeze page as a loss-leader opposed to "killing your sales"...

With that said, I would yank a squeeze page if I couldn't get it pulling better than 50% (take my template and model it and I'm sure you will get close to 50%)...

I hope that answered your questions... talk soon!

Sam

If I can add my two cents...

I've created a free squeeze page maker that will quickly create fast loading squeeze pages that you can use with any autoresponder. It's a web based tool so there's nothing to download.


http://www.squeezepagemaker.com

Nice, Jack ... building a list with a squeeze page by enabling others to build a list with a squeeze page. ;)

A great example of how to build a list quickly and ongoing by providing a free resource of major interest ... I notice you've done the same with legal jargon generation on another site ... smart.

Best,

Mike

Thank you for the kudos.

It's acutally more than what meets the eye... My affiliate partners can promote my free tools and they get a commission check if their referral(s) buy a product after receiving follow up emails from me.

My apologies, Jack ... I wasn't even bringing affiliates, upsells, or backends into the picture (which I would have if it were a longer post) ... simply the initial attraction factor. Excellent.

Best,

MIke

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jack Born

It's acutally more than what meets the eye... My affiliate partners can promote my free tools and they get a commission check if their referral(s) buy a product after receiving follow up emails from me.

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I LIKE that win-win idea! Not many do that for their affiliates.

BTW ... Thanx for the link to your "slick" squeeze page generator. Nice and simple is how I like it! ;D


Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel 8)

You're very welcome. I'm actually considering a tweak to the free-ness of the squeeze page generator that will hopefully turn it into a more viral list builder. Stay tuned.

Here's something no one has mentioned:

Use the power of JVs...its not just for selling your products.

If you are in the IM market, and willing to create a product with value, one great way to build a list is through giveaway jv's. These are always going on and you can give away a product and build quite a list.

The other side of this that is overlooked by the average marketer is through bonuses in other peoples jv product. Go to people that are releasing products and let them know you have a related product you would like to offer their customers as a bonus. When they buy, to get your bonus, they optin to your list to recieve. This is a triple win for you, the product owner, and the customer, because everyone gets something out of it.

The key on all of this is that you must seek out the giveaways or owners of soon to be released products, and have a product of value that you can give away for free.