List Marketing Guide for Beginners

They make it sound so easy. You offer a free report or video or something of valuable to your visitor in exchange for your email address. Then, once you have the email, you interact with your newly followed subscriber, offering them tips of “value” and selling them stuff that you think they want. Build a large enough list, they tell you, and you will be able to make a full time income solely from email marketing. But is it that easy?

List Marketing, permission marketing, or email marketing is alive and well in this millennium and those that do it well, do reap the rewards of having responsive lists. But, while it isn’t very hard to build a list (after all, all you have to do is offer something of value for free and get enough traffic to the page of your offer), getting your list to respond is a complete different story.

Regardless of what you have heard, been told, or even believe, building a responsive list is not about writing that killer headline in your subject. It isn’t about “how long your email should be” or how many links you should have in your email. Many try to break it down to a watered down formula like it is something that can be measured. How many emails should you send to your list before you start selling stuff? How often should you sell? How often should you correspond with your list? None of this stuff matters…..

In essence, a responsive list is generally built on how well you can relate to your list and your list can relate to you.

It is a relationship and there are very few differences between the relationships you build off line in the real world and online in the virtual world.

This guide is about permission marketing but I won’t focus on “ad copy” and all the other geeky copywriting stuff that you have probably read throughout the internet on other websites. Instead, I will focus on the key ingredient that the list marketing gurus seem to leave out;

How to forge a relationship with your reader.

THAT, dear reader, is the proverbial cherry on top of your e-mail marketing sundae and in effect, will decide how successful you are as a marketer.

Many want to debate whether there is money in building a list. Many who have failed to attract a responsive market would like to place the blame on the fact that people simply aren’t reading their emails anymore…that there is an influx of competitors that they have to compete with.

The reality is that failing to relate is the ultimate way to NOT make money with your list.

What is List Marketing Anyway?

I am not sure who penned the term first but marketer Seth Godin made it popular when he released his book on permission marketing. The premise was simple….

1. Offer something of value to the visitor in exchange for their email address- This could be a white paper, exclusive newsletter, video on a hot tip, ect…
2. Give the visitor a ton of value and earn credibility to the visitor by building a relationship with them
3. Sell them stuff that may interest them

That is unpolluted permission marketing at its finest. And 10 years ago, it worked like a charm primarily because those doing list marketing were fewer and the playing field was smaller. Fast forward 10 years to today and depending on the market, there are many,many more marketers vying for the attention of the email recipient.

As the emails pile up, the chances of grabbing someone and actually getting them to open it up, are smaller and smaller.

I could be like every other marketer out there and simply tell you that you need to create a value proposition and relate to your readers and then set you off on your own…..

And if I did, most of you would simply fall on your face. Instead, I want to offer some insight into how to build your list by first knowing yourself. In other words, how to build not only an identity but the right identity for your potential market.

First Step-Who are you and what do you hope to accomplish?…

First things first. Simply going out there and building a list shouldn’t be your first endeavor. Instead, you should focus on what you are hoping to accomplish for your business. Depending on where your business is, there are several reasons why someone would start a list….

• To generate direct sales through your own products- Most of the very successful list marketers create their own products. They simply use their list of subscribers to sell them to. Although case studies vary, the average amount of “views” that a prospect has to take before committing to buying is 4-7 times. With list marketing, depending on your relationship with your list, this can be seriously knocked down to 1-2 times, based simply on the trust you have built between yourself and your subscribers.
• To Acquire new customers- While this is most marketers aim, the reality is that it isn’t the ONLY reason why you would want to start a list.
• Establishing credibility for your brand- Perhaps you aren’t selling anything at the moment. For many of the bigger companies, it is all about building their brand so that when they do offer something, their market recognizes them as the most viable source.
• Building a long term relationship with your subscribers for multiple sales over the life cycle- Perhaps the biggest benefit to building a list is that a responsive list will generate more backend sales than a website that is focused exclusively on search engine traffic. Why would you want to have a list for this reason? Amazon and other big brand names have figured out that once someone buys from you, the chances are vastly increased that they will buy from you again.
• Upselling your readers to a paid membership site, such as a forum or “teleseminars”- You premise for building a list may be to offer enough value up front to give your subscribers the idea that a paid membership site will vastly increase their knowledge on whatever it is they are trying to accomplish. Marketers call this “salting” and the reason is simple; it is much easier to get someone in the door of a free item but selling a person a $1,000+ item or a continuity based membership is much, much harder.
• For educational purposes- Believe it or not, a lot of times, especially when you are coming in as a vertical market, you need to educate where your expertise or brand fits in with their current situation.
• Managing Affiliates and talking with partners- Sometimes a list is not really to “sell” things outright but to show others what you are selling and have them sell your products for you.
• Driving Traffic to your Website- You could also benefit from having a list if you want another medium to drive traffic to your site. If you are on a list that is from a major corporation such as tiger direct or backcountry (2 lists that I am on), you will notice that emails come often about the company’s current sales. From a blogging standpoint, you can encourage interaction and point them to your articles that you think will offer them some value.
• Make money by running sponsored ads- This is where you operate your list not to make direct sales but to sell spots to those who are looking to advertise. What you charge will be relevant to how responsive and large your list is.

Chances are very good that you are hoping to do a variety of things with your list. For instance, you may want to sell both your own products and other people’s products as an affiliate. You may want to brand yourself as the expert to turn to as well.

Step 2-Determine how you are hoping to Brand Yourself

The biggest problem with marketers who work as one man shows is that they don’t have an inkling of a clue how they want to be viewed by their audience. For instance, TigerDirect is known (at least to me) as a credible source to find computer gear and electronics at cheaper prices. Amazon is the place where I go to buy my books at discount prices AND to read unbiased views from people like me…. I subscribe to Frank Kern’s list because I know that whatever he sends my way will either entertain me or will make my marketing efforts better….or both.

Prevention.com is THE source of information for health and fitness (Rodale runs it and does an absolutely amazing job in terms of copy writing. If you ever want a free course on what moves people to read, simply peruse some of their Men’s Health Ads.

How You Brand Yourself will be a key determining factor in how valuable you are perceived…..

Notice how I said that tigerdirect is a place to find computer equipment at cheap prices….

Notice how I said that amazon.com was a great place to get unbiased reviews from people like me….

Now, that is just my opinion. Then again, it is likely the opinion of hundreds of thousands others out there. And for those who are like me, THAT is the value.

When you are building your brand, you should be able to state within a sentence or two as to what value you are giving others.

What I mean by this is that in order to sell things things to your subscribers, you first need to know who your audience is, what moves them and why they should care about you in the first place.

Understanding the Process

Think back when you first started dating; do you remember those awkward moments when you weren’t real sure if your date liked you? Can you remember any dates that went south pretty quickly when you realized that the person and yourself wasn’t relating very well? The same applies to list marketing. Chances are good, that every prospect you get won’t match up with you and your goals.

Chances are you won’t “speak” to everyone. The key is to not worry about who isn’t benefiting from your message. The key is to focus on those that do benefit.

Passive Salesmanship vs. Active Salesmanship…which is Better?

Most new marketers have their own biases as to what works best. Do you passively sell things with “sponsored ads” and stories as a soft sale or do you simply run offer after offer at your subscriber?

The reality is that both work. And it depends on a number of factors:

• How the subscriber feels about your brand
• What needs your subscriber has that need to be addressed right now?
• How aggressive your market is in terms of list marketing already

Next Article: List Building Strategies (coming soon)