The Three Pillars of List Building

It should come as no surprise to you that your own subscriber list is absolutely essential to market online effectively, but it can sometimes be confusing when it comes to actually building that list. Essentially, there are three basic ways to build your list of subscribers – squeeze pages, popups/popovers, and referred leads.

Squeeze pages are one of the most common ways of list building. Essentially it is a short (although sometimes a full length sales letter) web page that encourages people to join your email list, usually for a free gift or email course. Article marketing is most effective with this method, as visitors are already familiar with the type of content you offer. Conversion rates of up to 50% have been seen with this method, provided that your article and resource box are tightly linked to what is available on your squeeze page.

Popups & popovers are often used on pages that already contain content, such as a sales letter. A variation of this method is a subscription form on the page, either in the sidebar or in the copy. The intention here is to offer some content, and then ask for the subscription. Free offers are often used here, too, although sometimes the subscription is simply for an update. Subscribing for updates is seen more often with “gurus”, as their credibility has already been established, and subscribing to updates will hold some value in itself. If you are less established, it is best to use a free gift of some kind to tempt your visitors into subscribing.

Referred leads are a great way to build a large list quickly, although it may be less targeted and full of “freebie seekers” and “tire kickers”. The most common way of building a list using referred leads is through a giveaway of some kind, where you offer a free product on a site with many free products, and people subscribe in order to get your product. It is basically a collection of squeeze pages, organized together so that each item receives more traffic than it typically could on its own.

You can also get referred leads by joint venturing with another list owner, and having his subscribers sent to your squeeze page. This method is often more effective, because the leads are more targeted. The downside to this method is that you and your partner are sharing a lot of the same subscribers, and they may eventually get tired if they see the same thing from two people over and over again.

The bottom line with list building is to offer something of value at every turn. You don't just have to get your subscribers, you also have to keep them. As long as you continue to offer value, from beginning to end, your subscribers list should grow to a healthy size, with happy subscribers.