Have you ever wondered how the leading folks in affiliate marketing keep making big money while other affiliates like you remain on the low figures? You are not the only one and you will not be the last. The truth is, there is a lot involved in climbing up the affiliate marketing ladder.
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Part of what is required to make you a top affiliate is a email list. Ask any affiliate who makes huge money from online marketing, they will tell you that they use targeted email lists to take their affiliate business a step further than the most. You most probably have heard of email lists and you are probably subscribed to many email lists, but chances are, you have no idea how to build an email list. DO not worry though, in this piece we will go through everything you need to know about email lists including a short discussion on list building tools that can be used to advance your craft and make more money.
Why do you need an email list?
Email marketing is a high-impact cost-effective method of promoting goods and services directly to existing customers and prospective customers. If you want to boost your brand and increase sells without spending a lot of resources, then you should think about building an email list that you will use to keep in touch with both your current customers and future customers. It is an excellent method of promoting affiliate products for affiliate marketers.
The great thing about email lists is that anyone can build a list even without a website. It is not very difficult; the challenging part is conditioning the list to meet your objectives. You should know a couple of things before you even learn how to build an email list:
- Targeted email lists work better than generic lists
- A high-quality email list is one that has active subscribers that read and engage with your messages
- Email list subscribers need to be conditioned for your objectives and this happens over a while
- You need to keep in touch with your subscribers, always
- There is a fine line between spamming and remaining in touch with email list subscribers
With that being said, let us get one with the main objective of this article: Understanding email lists and learning how to build an email list.
The place of email lists in email marketing
Email marketing is just another form of marketing, it is basically the same as Social media marketing, content marketing etc. That is why email marketing fits in very well with affiliates. You see, unlike content marketing and social media marketing, email marketing provides direct contact between a
marketer and the email list subscribers. Further more, the subscribers in the email are put together through special selective methods in what is called targeted email lists. This simply means that the person who builds the email list applies certain tactics to capture emails of real people who are interested in a particular topic. Targeted email lists are made up of interested subscribers who are most likely to open and read emails and even respond or interact with the message. This is very useful in converting subscribers into buyers or clicks. That is why email marketing provides more conversions than other conventional methods of online marketing.
Because of the high conversion rate provided by email marketing, most leading affiliates often build targeted email lists to reach out to interested parties and promote their affiliate products.
Unlike back in the day when email marketing first started, these days the process of building targeted lists is much simpler, there are list building tools that can be used to build and manage a functional email list. We will talk about those later.
Your first steps in learning how to build an email list
The first thing you need to do when building an email list is to map out clear objectives for your list, answer the questions:
“Why do I need an email list?”
“what purpose will this email list serve?”
With answers to those questions, you will be better equipped to define your target audience for your list. One mistake most people make when building an email list is not to build a targeted list right from the beginning, they focus on growing the list with anyone who chooses to subscribe regardless of their interest. This makes it very difficult in the long run to promote products to the list and convert the subscribers into becoming customers. So, from the very beginning, make sure that you work to put together a targeted list that is geared towards meeting your marketing goals.
1. How to build an email list without a website
We will start from the basics, building an email list from scratch without a website. Its very simple:
Use a sign-up sheet
You have probably seen this before at shows, events and other gatherings. You can print out some sign-up sheets and collect email addresses in person at gatherings. You will probably need some form of posters or flyers with background information about your campaign, the people who sign-up their emails are usually the people who are interested in whatever it is that you are promoting. He most important part of collect emails this way is to send an email to those who signed up before they forget you. You can easily create and manage your list using excel, outlook and email clients like Gmail.
Use of business cards
This method is almost the same as using a sign-up sheet but different in the sense that you will rely on the people you give your business card to to email you first. The advantage with this method is that you immediately know when someone emails you that they are interested in your campaign and as such you stand a chance of converting them. Alternatively, you ask people who take your cards to give you theirs in return so you can contact them when they do not contact you.
Tip: you can add an incentive on your business card to encourage people to send you an email and subscribe to your list.
Use of incentives and giveaways
Speaking of incentives, you can giveaway gifts and freebies to anyone who subscribes to your list. The only disadvantage to this method is that it taints your targeted lists as some people will just sign up to get the giveaway and nothing else.
- How to build an email list with your website or blog
For those with websites and blogs, you can setup some structures and tactics to capture emails for your list, here is how:
Website opt-ins
If your website receives visitors, take advantage of these visitors it means that are somehow interested in whatever it is that you are about. Set up some email registration forms on your site with catchy call to actions to get them to subscribe to your list.
Pop ups
You can also set up pop ups with call to action message to get your readers or visitors to sign up to your list. Most people hate pop ups, so make sure your pop up catches their interest, give an incentive to subscribe.
Use your blog
If you post blog articles be sure to include a sign up option for anyone who is interested in notifications concerning your posts. This is a great organic way of building a list.
- Using social media to build your list
You can also take advantage of social media to build email lists that convert. Use posts within a call to action on your social media pages to attract highly targeted subscribers to your email list.
List building tools to get you started
Earlier we mentioned that there are list building tools that you can make use of to facilitate the growth of your list. Here are some of the leading list building tools that you can take a look at:
Sumo
Sumo is a free tool that is easy to use. It has a WordPress plug in for WordPress users and a simple HTML code that can be incorporated into any site. Sumo makes it easy to provide opt-in options for potential subscribers on your site
Opt In architect
This is a premium list building tool that allows you to set up and manage pop-ups on your site
Optinmonster
This is another powerful common pop-up tool that is easy to use. In addition to setting up sign-up forms, Optinmonster gives you insights on the behavior of your visitors throughout your site.
Unbounce
This is a useful tool that lets you create high converting landing pages from a list of customizable templates. On the landing pages, you can add a responsive call to actions that get visitors to sign up on your email list.
You probably have a lot more to learn about email list building, just go through the article again to get a good grasp on the basics of link building. There is everything you need to know to build lists that convert. Good luck in your email marketing campaign.
