How tricky is that?
Are you ready for some shockingly simple warp speed email list building secrets?
Then you’re in luck because I’ve got a couple of clever marketing tricks up my sleeve that are bound to give you great results. Plus I have a fantastic free email list building gift for you at the end of this post!
I’m going to cut right to the chase: Ana asked me to write this for you, sharing some ideas I had early on in my blogging journey for monetizing your email list building.
While those ideas were great, I’ve also learned some new strategies along the way.
So today, you are going to get the skinny on how to use your most important piece of email list building real estate–your “Thank You” page– in not one, but two very powerful ways!
But, first things first:
What’s your email list building plan?
If you don’t have one, your first step should be to figure out what your ultimate goal is for building your email list.
a. Is your email list building goal to generate leads for your home based business?
b. Do you want to build a list and monetize it with affiliate offers?
c. Do you want to build an email list to sell your own products or services?
d. All of the above?
e. None of the above?
Everything you offer to your email list, starting from your blog content, irresistible offer, and everything else in your marketing funnel need to be RELEVANT to your ultimate email list building goal.
It must also be a message to market match, meaning that what you offer has to be something your market is hungry for.
Three Email List Building Steps:
Step 1: Your Free Offer
Your email list building system needs to start with your irresistible opt-in offer.
If you’ve not yet downloaded Ana’s irresistible offer, what are you waiting for?
It’s the perfect example of a valuable piece of content that solves a problem for her readers, and gives them actionable steps that will result in more targeted web traffic for their site.
The goal for your irresistible offer is to get your readers in the door, so you can absolutely blow them away with your brilliance and then follow up with more helpful products and services.
You must over deliver in your free opt-in offer, so that your subscribers will think, “Wow! If her free content is this great, I can only imagine what her paid content is like!”
Step 2: Your “Almost Free” Offer
Now it’s time to leverage the spellbinding power of your thank you page!
Your next step is to follow your free offer with an almost free offer on the thank you page after your readers subscribe.
It should be something that is related to your free offer, that compliments it, or something that will enhance your subscriber’s results.
The goal with this almost free offer is to leverage your subscriber’s momentum and help them to take that next step into doing business with you right when they’re super excited about getting your free offer.
Not everyone will take you up on this, but the ones that do are likely to become loyal customers. Especially if, once again, you over deliver on the value the offer contains.
I can hear some of you, clever marketers, asking, “How much should this almost free offer cost, Heather?”
While I can’t answer that for you exactly (that’s what split testing is for), I suggest you start somewhere between $7 and $47 for this initial offer, so that your subscribers are not having to take a big “risk” when they’re making their first purchase with you.
(BTW: There is magic in the number 7 for purchased made online. Study after study and split test after split test confirm this, so go with the flow and pick a number that ends in 7 for your almost free offer.)
Step 3: Follow Up with More Value
You will want to continue to deliver value through your follow up emails that is relevant to your free offer and that makes the case for the value of your almost free offer.
Show examples of the benefits it will give them, share what it has done for others, and don’t forget to tell them how to get it.
Almost Free Offer Ideas for Your Email List Building Funnel:
- You could offer a physical version of your free offer (great because you’ll get their physical mailing address too!)
- You could offer a free consultation or coaching session
- You could offer an eBook, audio, or training video
- You could offer a trial to your membership program (giving you possible continuity income)
- You could offer a bundle of your best blog posts or articles in one place so they don’t have to hunt for them
Two Things Your Free Offer and Almost Free Offer Must Do:
Your free opt-in offer has to overcome the fear of failure in your reader’s mind.
They’ve probably opted into many, many lists and we all know how cluttered our inboxes can get with offer after offer. (I bet you’ve had subscriber’s remorse a time or two yourself.)
- You can overcome this by providing social proof and testimonials from happy subscribers and customers.
- You must offer a rock solid, no risk, guarantee. (Even on your free offer!)
- You can pile on the value with great bonuses. (Yes again…even on your free offer!) These don’t have to be difficult; things like a transcript for an audio download, a checklist, or a list of resources will work great for bonuses.
You must also give people a reason to take action now on your free offer or your almost free offer.
People who click away from your site without subscribing are not likely to come back and subscribe later.
Make sure that you’re giving them incentive to take action NOW.
- Have a clear call to action and tell them exactly how to get what you’re offering
- Create some scarcity, like taking away some bonuses after a limited time, or only offering a free trial to your membership for a certain month, or offer some fast action bonuses for a certain number of people who subscribe or purchase first
Another Email List Building Strategy for Your Thank You Page:
If you are really wanting to focus on email list building in a big bold way, and you are willing to hold off on the monetizing of your list for your follow-up email autoresponder sequence, you are going to love this idea!
The viral “Tell a Friend” script, referral marketing at it’s finest, is something I’m sure you’ve seen other marketers use before. Gurus like Mike Filsaime and Frank Kern use them and you’ll see hundreds of other clever marketers using something similar.
Basically it is a program that takes the one-in/one-out process of opt ins and turns it into a one-in/many-out system. When someone opts in they get taken immediately to a tell a friend page where they are offered a special gift if they refer others to the opt in page!
“But Wait! I have another free gift I’d love to give you. You probably know others who would love _____! Enter their names and email addresses in the form below to send them a link and I will give you ________!”
Can you see how powerful this could be?
The downside to the email list building tell a friend script: It’s not allowed by biggies like Aweber because they see it as spam since the people receiving the email have not asked for it.
I so badly wanted to use it on my blog! For those of you who don’t use Aweber, and your email provider allows tell a friend forms, I’ll give you the links on my blog to both of the tell a friend scripts I have. They have awesome potential!
But if you’re an Aweber user like I am, fear not! I’ve shared on my blog another clever marketing email list building tip, very similar to the tell a friend script, that will give you way more exposure, more blog traffic, back links and subscribers, in the most perfect of win/win scenarios!
Please come say “Hi” to me on CleverMarketer.com and check this clever marketing idea out for yourself!
So tell me, new friends: what you think?
Please share in the comments below your email list building struggles or secrets, and of course, please share this on social media so we can help build Ana’s list, as a thank you for all the incredible value she shares with us!
Heather C Stephens
Heather C. Stephens is passionate about helping other business owners successfully market online! You can find her on her blog, Clever Marketer.
Image credit: http://www.123mycodes.com
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