“The money is in the list” – This is a common phrase online.
And the reason it’s common is that the Money is truly in the List.
Having a list of subscribers is a very essential part of every online business – could be an email list, messenger list or social media group.
A list of subscribers who opted to be in your list willingly and are loyal to your brand.
The truth is,
Building an email list of subscribers is not always EASY. It’s quite difficult cajoling people and getting them to subscribe and join your list, especially when your brand is new in the market… But like I said, it’s IMPORTANT to have a list of subscribers if you want to scale your business.
The good thing is – inside this article, I’ll give you a step by guide on how I built an email list of almost 10K subscribers in 30days.
By the end of this case study, you would have learned and understood the steps involved in building an email list and should be able to grow an email list for your business.
[TABLE OF CONTENT]
- What Email Marketing Is & Why you Need An Email List
- Email List Building Funnel
- Lead Magnet
- How to write a Report in 7 days?
- What is a Squeeze Page?
- How to Build a Squeeze Page?
- What’s an Autoresponder
- Thank-you/Download Pages
- How to Build a Thank-you Page
- Follow-up Email Sequence
What’s Email Marketing?
Because you’re reading this, I take it that you’re not new to online business. You’re familiar with receiving email messages in your inbox.
Email marketing is simply the act of sending a commercial message to a group of people through email.
When you receive email messages from an organization or an individual, it’s simply because you are among their email subscribers or part of their email list
In this case, an Email List is simply a collection of email addresses.
Why is Email Marketing Important?
With the inception of chatbots, artificial intelligence & virtual reality, Is email marketing truly dead?
Well, the truth is – Email Marketing is not dead and it’s still a very profitable marketing channel.
According to marketing statistics;
- 99% of consumers check their email account once every day
- In 2017 alone, 269 billion emails were sent and received each day. This figure is expected to increase to over 333 billion daily emails in 2022.
- 73% of millennials prefer communication to be done via email
All of these points to the fact that email marketing is far from being dead. Email marketing is an essential tool for attracting and retaining customers.
About 75% of people check their email every day. Which means, no matter what age group you are targeting or where they are located, email remains a great way to reach your audience.
Here are a few reasons why email marketing is important in every online business;
It’s Cost Effective.
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies that you can use to reach and engage your target audience.
Traditional marketing tactics like TV or print ads and direct mail can become quite costly with all the fees involved, but in the case of email marketing, the very little cost is involved – for small business owners on a budget, this makes it a better choice.
Apart from having a low cost, email marketing also provides a high return on investment. According to campaign monitor, for every $1 spend on email marketing, the ROI is typical $38 – $40. This further shows how cost-effective email marketing is for businesses.
Easily Reach People on Mobile Via Email Marketing
According to Statista, the number of worldwide mobile phone users is expected to surpass 5 billion this year.
Mobile devices have become very common, and people now use them to check emails all the time – at the doctor’s office, at the grocery store, everywhere…
A study in 2014, reported that 91% of people use smartphones to access their emails. This is compared to the 75% of people who used smartphones for social networking.
Email marketing is an effective tactic for helping businesses reach and engage customers who use mobile phones. So, for any business – Not using email as part of your marketing strategy means you’re missing out on reaching the target audience.
Email Marketing Makes Content Personalization Easy Thereby Improving Engagement.
You write a post for one of your social media channels, you address your audience as a whole (“Hello Dear Friends, I would like to…”). But Email marketing allows you to address people individually by name, split certain topics only for certain members of your list and eventually arrive privately in their inbox.
Consumers want marketing to be more personal & tailored to their needs & preferences.
A study by Davidson & company showed that learning what your audience wants is a key factor in making it big in your email marketing.
Email marketing makes it easy to personalize the messaging and content you deliver to subscribers. This will greatly improve your open & click rates, as well as your overall conversion rates.
Building an email list starts from a simple funnel that reveals that different stages that visitors will go through before they get in your email list – This funnel is called the List Building Funnel.
Before I tell you what a list-building funnel is and what It looks like, let’s start from knowing what a funnel is.
What is a funnel?
According to Neil Patel – A funnel is the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they can reach the conversion.
Conversion in this definition refers to what the marketer(You) considers as a result in your marketing campaign – it could product purchase, signups call, etc…
Let’s assume that you’re selling a product on Amazon, there are few steps every visitor has to go through before they finally purchase a product from you…
The funnel will look this way;
- Visitors first visit Amazon.com
- They move to view a product
- They add a product to cart
- They go to the checkout page to complete purchase
This illustration explains the series of steps that a visitor goes through before the final purchase on Amazon is made… this is what we call Funnel.
Now, in the same vein, a List building funnel refers to the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they reach the end goal, which is to subscribe to an email list.
Here’s a typical example of a list building funnel;
Components of a Funnel
Several components make up every funnel, but our focus is that of the list building funnel… So here are the components that make up a list-building funnel;
- Lead Magnets
- Opt/in or Squeeze page
- Autoresponder
- Download/Confirmation Page
- Follow-up sequence.
Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is an incentive that marketers offer to potential buyers in exchange for their email address or other contact information. It could be a free PDF, checklist, video, audio, software etc.
Having a lead magnet is very essential in list building. People won’t just give you their email address because they consider it to be very confidential. So it’s your job as a marketer to compel them to give you their email address using something they will find valuable.
Now, there are several ways you can create a lead magnet for your list building campaign;
? One of them is to create it yourself. If it’s a PDF, you can go to your notepad and write a short report on any topic that’s relevant to your target niche. If you work on the PDF report actively, you should be done writing within a week. (Here’s a quick guide for you on how to write an eBook report in 7 days)
? Another way to create a lead magnet for your list building campaign is to outsource it to freelancers. A freelancer is someone you pay to help you carry out a service… If you do not have the time to create your lead magnet yourself or you don’t have the right skill set, a better option is to hire someone to do it. And there are a lot of online platforms where you can find someone to outsource your lead magnet creation too.
some examples of such platforms are – Fiverr, Freelancer, Up work etc…
? Another way to get a magnet without outsourcing or creating it yourself is to purchase one that has been done already. There are online platforms where you can purchase done for you(DFY) digital products & resell or use it as a magnet to build your list.
These digital products come in the form of PLRs – which means that they are other people’s product but you have the right to use them… You can customize these digital products to whatever you want, rebrand it to your own & offer it to your audience as a lead magnet.
Some examples of platforms to get PLR products are – idplr.com, plrassassin.com,
What is a Squeeze Page?
A squeeze page is a landing page that is specifically designed to collect email addresses from visitors & potential customers. The lead magnet is meant to be on the Squeeze page, while other elements like headline & body content are working to persuade visitors to leave their email address & grab the lead magnet for FREE.
The purpose of the Squeeze page is to do only one thing – collect email address… This is why it’s important to limit distractions on the squeeze page by all means. Visitors can only do two things on the squeeze page – either they are dropping their email address or they are leaving the Squeeze page. Hence, your squeeze page should not have unrelated page links on it.
A squeeze page can be long or short (most squeeze pages are short), but what matters is that it includes these elements;
- Attention-grabbing headline
- Body/main copy
- Call to action
- Opt-in form
- Scarcity/Testimonial
Example of a Squeeze Pages;
When a visitor who’s interested in your lead magnet lands on your Squeeze Page, the visitor is required to enter an email address in your opt-in form. After this is done, the email address goes to an email autoresponder, while the visitor is directed to a different page – thank you page, where the lead magnet can be downloaded.
With the help of the squeeze page & autoresponder, you’ll be able to collect visitor’s email address & follow-up with them…
What is Autoresponder?
An autoresponder is a service which allows you to automatically send out emails to a group, or several different groups of people.
After a subscriber signs up to join your email list, the email address is automatically sent to your email autoresponder to enable you follow-up with subscribers.
Some examples of autoresponders are – Aweber, ActiveCampaign, MailChimp etc…
How to Build a Squeeze Page?
Now you know what a Squeeze Page is & how it works, but the question is – How do you create a squeeze page?
… Here are a few different methods you can use;
? DIY – This involves you doing it yourself manually, using tools like Thrive Themes, ClickFunnels, etc…
? Outsourcing – If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, and you have money to invest, this is a good option. What you need do is get a freelance digital marketer to help you create your squeeze page and you pay for the service.
You can find freelancers easily on Fiverr, Upwork etc.. who can help you with this.
? Squeeze Page Generator Tools – The problem with outsourcing your squeeze page project is that the freelancer could delay, which will result in a delay of your list building project. This is why Squeeze Page Generator tools are a better choice.
Squeeze page generators are tools that generate squeeze pages automatically – Inside these tools, you already have different squeeze pages created alongside the content, so you can choose a template that fits your project & work with it.
Thank You/Download Pages
After a subscriber signs up to join an email list, the next page they are redirected to is the Thank-You Page… It’s a simple one-page web page containing information on how subscribers should get their gift or incentive.
Here’s what your thank-you page should have;
- Thank subscribers for signing up
- Provide instructions on what happens.
Other elements like requesting for referrals & social share button can be added too.
The thank-you page can also be a download page, where subscribers download their promised incentive or gift OR in other cases.
Here are typical examples of thank-you pages (these are thank-you pages we use for our list building campaigns).
How to Build a Thank-You Page?
Similar to the squeeze page, your thank-you page can be created following the same methods for creating a squeeze page;
? DIY – This involves you doing it yourself manually, using tools like Thrive Themes, ClickFunnels, etc…
? Outsourcing – If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, but you have money, this is a good option. What you need do is get a freelance digital marketer to help you create your squeeze page while you pay for the service.
You can find freelancers easily on Fiverr, Upwork etc.. who can help you with this.
The thank-you page is the last stage in your list building funnel – Now, you’ve collected visitors email address, which makes them subscribers plus you’ve delivered the gift or incentive,
However, it doesn’t stop there…
Your subscribers are cold and still don’t know you yet, even though they opted to join your email list… The next step is to engage with them & qualify them to happy/warm subscribers, which is where the follow-up email sequence comes in.
Follow-Up Email Sequence.
This is the next phase of your list building campaign. Your subscribers have shown interest in what you offer by opting in to be in your mailing list, but it doesn’t stop there. If you don’t follow-up and engage with them, they will ignore your emails & you’ll end up not making a dime from them.
So what do you do?
The answer is to engage & warm them up with your Email Follow-up Sequence.
A follow-up email sequence can have a different purpose… In the case of building a list, the purpose of a follow-up sequence is simply to get your new subscribers to know you and trust your brand – this will make them receive your emails happily and take action.
Here’s an example of Pat Flynn’s email follow-up sequence;
From the chart, the bulk of your email follow-up sequence should be targeted at delivering value in the form of educational content – could be tips, tricks, how-to’s, guides, case studies, resources.
While engaging subscribers, you should always try to get them to reply to your emails, So you’ll be able to know if they are enjoying your emails & if there are other better ways you can engage & give them value.
Once in a while, you can promote a special offer – like something they can buy from or through you at a special rate or get a special bonus, and after that, you go back immediately to providing free valuable content.
Doing this consistently will earn you the attention & trust of your subscribers PLUS when you get to such a high level of engagement with your emails, your list becomes a true asset for promotion.
Final Thought:
The truth is – building an email list is a lot of work. With the different parts associated with it, one could easily get discouraged and give up.
And this affects whatever method you employ to build your list. Whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re outsourcing it.
Things like creating a lead magnet, building a squeeze page, writing follow-up emails, requires a serious amount of time, If you’re doing it yourself. Even if you’re outsourcing, You would spend a lot of money paying different freelancers to create these things for you.
But here’s a better method, and it will save you all that time & money,
This method puts the different parts involved in building an email list into one action that can be done in 1 minute using software called Listgrow.
Listgrow is a breakthrough app that generates lead funnels fast and grows your list with 100% free traffic.
Inside this tool you have;
- Done for You’ Lead Magnets
- Done for You’ FREE Traffic Automation from Social Media
- Done for You’ Landing Pages
- DFY Facebook Ads Creatives for Paid Traffic
- Done for You’ Thank You Pages
- Done for You’ Email Swipes for Solo Ads
