If you do not have an email list then you better get to it.

The biggest mistake that I see online entrepreneurs make is having a healthy social media account but no email list to back it up.

Why is that a mistake?

Because you do not OWN your social media account.

All you can do is manage it.

The only people that own your social media accounts are the providers.

Your account can be terminated at any time. The social media algorithm can be affected at any time preventing you from reaching your audience whenever you want to.

A great example is the biggest change in the Facebook algorithm, notoriously called Facebook’s Great Organic Reach Decline of 2014.

Facebook has been changing its algorithm so that Facebook fan pages’ organic reach is on the decline.

If you own a Facebook fan page, you would have noticed over a period of time that the number of people who can see your post for free is significantly lower.

According to Facebook’s VP of Advertising Technology, Brian Boland, businesses can still succeed on Facebook even though there has been a decline in organic reach.

He outlines that several businesses have done so by using Facebook ads.

So in a nutshell, you now have to pay for your audience to see your post.

This is counteractive because if you paid for a Like campaign to attract followers to your page, you also have to pay to reach those people with your post.

This is the reason why it is so paramount that you start building an email list.

What Is An Email List?

An email list is a list of people whose email addresses you have, that you can from time to time send an email about a product or service you offer.

You may also commonly hear the term, email subscriber.

Just like you will send your social media followers offers or products on their newsfeed, with an email list the offer is notified via email.

An email list belongs to you.

No one can take it away from you.

You can backup your email list using an Excel spreadsheet and use it across multiple email marketing software.

Companies that have something to sell also refer to their email list as online leads.

Leads are people who can potentially become your customer.

An email list is also a source of income for some people. If an email list is engaged to their owner’s content and regularly opens that content, then the owner can make multiple sales with one email sent.

How To Get Subscribers Fast

If your goal is to build an email list as fast as you can then there are a few key pieces of equipment that you need to start:

• An email autoresponder
• Traffic

What is an email autoresponder?

An email autoresponder is a software that automatically sends emails to your subscribers.

You collect email addresses with an opt-in form or lead page which is then connected to an autoresponder and it does the work for you by sending emails to those addresses.

What is traffic?

No one really cares about you.

Unless you already have an audience, no one is searching for you.

Traffic refers to people.

Therefore you have to go out and find people.

The easiest way to find people is to target those places where people hang out online.

People usually hang out on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – that is where you want to be and that is where you want to share your content.

To start getting subscribers I would recommend the following email autoresponders:

GetResponse create beautiful opt in forms and you will be provided with a URL that you can share on the internet or code that you can embed in your website or blog.

MailChimp create simple sign up forms that you can customise and share to Facebook, a website or blog using a URL

Aweber create a simple sign up form that you can customise and integrate with several third party applications like Facebook or WordPress. This is useful if you already have a blog or website as you will be able to embed your sign up form. You can also use a URL directly to the sign up form if you prefer not to use a website.

What content should you write? 

Everyone wants people to read their content so when sharing your sign up form and to ensure you can make the most noise you need to start by creating valuable content that people want to read.

Next you want to get your content in front of the most people.

If you do not know what people want to read then you need to find out.

An easy place to start is by doing keyword research using Google.

In whatever niche you are in, go to Google and type in a key word or phrase.

Google then gives you six to nine other key phrases that people are also searching for.

You can then use these key phrases which will form the content of your sign up form.

On your sign up form give people a reason to provide their name and email address to you.

No one will willy nilly give over their deets so you want to be sure that you are offering something that will entice them to hand over their information.

Some examples can be a free e-book, a free mini email course, a free video series or tutorial.

Where to find people?

Once you have created your content it is time to find the people.

Head on over to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.

Search for those same key phrases on these sites and look for posts that have a lot of engagement on it.

Engagement will include people responding to the post with their own views.

Check out major influencers as well.

Here is where you will stick your little sign up form with the URL you are provided by the email autoresponders.

Essentially what you are doing here is marketing yourself. You did not think it was going to blow up by itself did you?

Now put the work into it over and over and have fun.

The key to growing your email list fast is to produce tons of relevant content to your niche and sharing that content online.

It will take work but just one piece of content shared with the right person can cause it to go viral leading you to a huge influx in subscribers.

How To Build Your Email List For Free

GetResponse and Aweber give you a free 30 day trial where you can test out their service.

MailChimp is a free platform which allows you to create an email list up to 2000 contacts. Anything more than 2000 contacts require a paid subscription.

Getting people to your sign up form is a free option however you have to pay for this with time.

There are other ways that you can get people to your sign up form a lot quicker and more effortlessly however these methods will include paid advertising.

How to set up an email list step-by-step using GetResponse

Sign up for GetResponse’s free 30 day trial.

Once you have logged in, your first email list will already be created and you will see this listed in Your Current Campaign.

Click on the Create Form button where you will be taken to the List Builder Wizard

Select the form template that you want to use.

Using the drag and drop features design your sign up form the way you want it.

When you are finished click on the blue Save & Publish button located in the top right hand corner of the page and select Save & Publish from the drop down menu.

When you are asked Who will publish this form to your website select GetResponse will host my form if you want to be provided with a URL to share your content.

If you already have a website and want to embed it there, select I will install the form myself.

Now that your form is complete you want to create the content that your email subscribers will receive once they opt in.

To do that click Messages from the menu on the black bar then Create Autoresponder.

Where it says On Day enter a zero so that when the subscriber opts in they will immediately receive your freebie if you are offering one to them.

Scroll down and click Create New Email

In the Autoresponder Settings complete your Message Name, Subject and From fields.

In order to use mass email software like Getresponse or MailChimp you must use a private email address.

Therefore public email addresses from yahoo.com, hotmail.com or gmail.com are not recommended as this can affect email deliverability.

Sign up for a private email using Namecheap where you must purchase a domain to start.

Once you have a private email, enter this in GetResponse and ensure that it is selected as your From email address.

Click Next Step.

Select a Pre-designed Template or Start From Scratch

Enter your content on the template then select Next Step.

Select Save & Publish on the final page.

You will notice that your first autoresponder message is displayed on a numbered grid.

You can repeat the process to add more autoresponders by selecting Create New so as the days roll by each of your subscribers will receive emails on the allocated days.

How to set up an email list step-by-step using Aweber

Sign up for Aweber’s free 30 day trial.

Once you have logged in, create your first email list by selecting Manage List then Create A List.

Set up your list by entering the required information.

Like GetResponse it is recommended that a private email is used in the Sender Email field.

Click Next Step.

Describe your list and click Next Step.

Customise your Confirmation Message.

This is where you will tell Aweber whether you want your list members to confirm their subscription before they are added to your list.

The benefit of this is that your list has higher quality subscribers who must confirm that their email address exists.

This avoids the potential for any fake email addresses to be provided and can increase open email rates.

Click Approve Message And Create List.

You must now create a sign up form within Aweber so that people can opt in.

Click Sign Up Forms then Create Your First Sign Up Form

Design your form using the form builder.

When you are finished click Save Your Form and then Go To Step 2.

Change your form settings if you wish.

Click Save Your Form and then Go To Step 3.

When you are asked Who will publish this form to your website select Aweber will host my form if you want to be provided with a URL to share your content.

If you already have a website and want to embed it there, select I will install the form myself.

Now that your form is complete you want to create the content that your email subscribers will receive once they opt in.

To do that hover over Messages then select Legacy Follow Up Series.

Select Drag And Drop Email Builder and start adding your content. Click Save & Exit when you are finished.

Your message will be added to the Drafts folder.

Click Send Options then Add To Followup Series.

Confirm that you want your message to be added to the follow up series.

Who Should Create An Email List?

I think that all online entrepreneurs, business owners and bloggers should start building an email list.

However if you never intend to sell anything, then you do not need to build an email list.

Cheers

P.S Do you have any questions about building an email list? Do you have your own? Tell me in the comments. What do you like or don’t like about this process?

P.P.S You can also subscribe to my email list below for more internet marketing tidbits to help you in your online marketing and network marketing journey.

The post How To Build Your First Email List From Scratch appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

A lead capture page in my view is a paramount piece of equipment and if you are not building an email list yet, then you need to check out my article, Why List Building Is Important In Your Business .

Lead capture pages have other aliases such as squeeze page, capture page, lead page, lead magnet.

When I was introduced to this marketing tool, it completely changed the course of my business.

I got introduced to automation and that was when I started getting more prospects and sales into my business without putting a lot of effort into it.

I previously spoke about the uses of capture pages and have trialled a few builders in the past year which influenced me to create this post to help you decide which of these builders is best for you.

When considering lead capture page builders you should consider the ones that will create the best conversions for you.

Most of these builders are very popular across the internet so you may have had a run in or two with them already.

My list is based on my own personal use having tried ALL of these builders throughout my online journey.

If you are just getting started then perhaps my post can help you, so let us get right to it.

In No Particular Order, The Top 4 Best Lead Capture Page Builders With Free Trial Offers That You Can Start Using Today 

1. GetResponse

GetResponse was the first lead capture page builder that I used in my business.

I actually found GetResponse for email marketing, then realised that they also had lead capture page builders so I thought – “Great! Kill two birds with one stone.”

Design

What I liked about GetResponse was its drag and drop feature and how easy it was to create the lead capture pages in a matter of minutes.

For example, you could select any template and merely customise the text to your liking or you could create a capture page from scratch with the easy-to-use drag and drop elements.

This is the most important thing that I seek out when using any piece of equipment.

Anything that causes too much overwhelm, goes out the door, in my opinion.

GetResponse had many beautiful; and I mean MANY beautiful templates that I could choose from. In fact they have over 1000 iStock free images that you can use on your own pages.

Email Marketing

I also liked the fact that I did not have to use another email marketing software to begin my autoresponder sequence. So I was able to save a few bucks here.

Mobile Responsiveness

With so many people now using their phones to access the internet, GetResponse has mobile responsive landing pages. It also allowed me to go between the desktop and mobile previews to see how my capture pages looked in real time.

Split-testing

There is a split-testing feature for lead capture pages, but I hardly used it because I remember not being able to understand how to integrate it into my marketing campaigns.

But looking at it again, you can easily set the lead capture pages you would like to test and measure the results by using the split test tool that GetResponse provides.

Sales Funnel

GetResponse loses in that it is not a sales funnel builder but then again this post is not about that. But for those marketers who wanted something for sales funnel, GetResponse is not it.

Pricing

It is a reasonably priced option starting at $15/month for a list size of 1000 contacts. They do also have a generous 30 day free trial.

Now I must say that I gave up GetResponse in my second month because the downfall of this tool was its inability to deliver emails to my leads’ inbox.

I tested emails to different email providers (Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail) and all my emails went into the spam folder.

At the time I had a list size of over 300 and not one of my emails were opened.

GetResponse’s response to my complaint was that maybe the emails were being opened but the HTML was not being loaded properly.

According to GetResponse, their software only tracks opened emails where the HTML was loaded. I was not very confident with this because it hindered my ability to properly track how well my subject lines were and how engaged my list was.

2. Clickfunnels

Clickfunnels took a little bit of time for me to get used to.

The interface was almost like “building blocks”.

So if I decided to build a capture page from scratch, I first of all had to “lay down my foundation” so to speak.

I had to place my sections first, then add my rows or columns then my elements.

This is not a drag and drop software and to be honest, was the hardest part of figuring out how to use Clickfunnels.

Once I built my capture page, connecting it to my autoresponder (I switched to Aweber) was another battle.

I had to figure out whether I should be using a submit the form, URL action or go to next page as my settings for my call to action button so that my contact could be added to my autoresponder.

Why make it so difficult for the average user hey?!

I would say, I took use of Clickfunnels Help Guide most of the time to figure things out.

If you do not like overwhelm, then Clickfunnels may not be for you.

Design

As to the design of their capture page, they are very basic and not as beautiful, or should I say, sexy as GetResponse.

Whilst there are many templates that you can use, imagery was not one of their best points.

But at the end of the day, all that matters is the conversions (number of opt-ins) that you get into your business.

Email Marketing

At their basic package level you must use another email marketing software such as GetResponse, Aweber or MailChimp, etc but at their Etison Suite premium level there is an integrated autoresponder.

So I have not opened my review of Clickfunnels with the best comments.

So why do I mark them as an awesome capture page builder?

Mobile Responsiveness

Clickfunnels is mobile responsive which is always a plus.

Split-testing 

They also have a super great split testing feature that was very easy to use. What I loved about this was that they selected the best variable to test and made it easy for you to implement. Also it was very easy to determine my winning lead capture page.

Sales Funnel

I also loved the fact that I could build out a complete website page and sales funnel with it.

Sometimes you may want to create a longer lead capture page with a bit more info.

You may also want to sell your own product and capture payment details easily.

Clickfunnels does a pretty good job at creating smooth and professional funnels and sales pages.

For your capture pages they also have features that help to create better conversions such as timer countdowns, pop ups and video input.

Pricing

Clickfunnels is on the pricier side starting at $97/month for just the basic package. With this you get 20 landing pages and 20k visits to your website. After that you will need to upgrade to the Etison Suite premium level which is $297/month.  There is however a free 14 day trial.

3. Power Lead System

I realise that the Power Lead System is not as popular as the ones I mentioned before but I found this gem by accident.

I was actually looking for an affiliate program that I could invest in, to promote.

It was only until I started looking into its full capabilities that I understood the huge potential of this system.

There are a few things that I think could be improved but for what it does, it is a pretty neat tool.

Design

The Power Lead System is like GetResponse in that you can easily create capture pages from their many templates and simply change the text. However they do not have as many templates as GetResponse. I would say about 80+ templates which is a decent number to ensure that you have variety.

The downside is that there is no drag and drop feature. If you want to keep things simple then the best way to build your capture pages will be to copy them from the existing templates.

Any editing of the capture pages, for example the images, will require editing of the HTML code. For someone who is not familiar with HTML and is not willing to learn, then this may not be for you.

Editing of the text to different fonts can be a challenge with some capture page templates. Sometimes I have had to abandon editing the capture pages and use different templates.

Email Marketing

One of the best things about the Power Lead System is that it offers you 100k contacts with an inbuilt Gmail autoresponder so you do not have to use a private email address if you do not want to. I must admit that there are issues with deliverability especially since you will not be using a private email address.

If you do not want to use their Gmail autoresponder, you can integrate GetResponse and Aweber into its platform.

Mobile Responsiveness

The Power Lead System is a mobile responsive software. Sadly it does not give you the ability to preview the mobile option from within their system.

Split-testing

There is a tracking element and you are able to use this to split test different versions of capture pages. There is no true split testing feature that allows you to easily implement this strategy.

To actually split test you will have to create two lead capture pages and then use some type of link rotator to activate this feature.

This will be at an additional cost if you use Clickmagick’s link rotator or you may use a free link rotator.

Sales Funnel

The Power Lead System allows you to build unlimited sales funnels for a smooth sales process.

You can also promote any business that you want with the Power Lead System as the backbone.

Even though there are minor hiccups, it is still a simple to use machine that gets the job done with a lot of functionality.

Pricing

The Power Lead System has a 7 day trial. Very short in my opinion and has a price tag of $53.97/month.

For all the valuable features that you get I consider that $53.97 is a great price point.

4. Leadpages

When I started using Leadpages, I did not get very far with it because I was testing out different builders and Clickfunnels caught my eye.

Design

But for the time that I used Leadpages, I can say that it offers great capture page designs but truthfully not as good as GetResponse.

They do have drag and drop features so these capture pages are quite easy to build.

And anything with drag and drop is pretty much my best friend now.

I was able to build my lead capture pages in just five minutes once I got over the hurdle of understanding what each feature stood for.

If you do not want to build a lead capture page from scratch then there are tons of templates available that you can customise to your liking.

One of my favourite things about this awesome piece of software was the “lead box” feature.

This allowed me to place a lead capture form anywhere on my website as a pop open feature so I did not have to use the lead capture page builder.

The only thing about the lead capture box is that you cannot embed it onto your website! I do not know why they do not have this since it’s really beautiful and would work well for content upgrades.

I really like the design of the lead box though. It effortlessly fit into my blog posts and having the Leadpages plugin, made it super easier to install.

If you do not want to use the plugin then you can always insert the Javascript code onto any website but remember it does not embed but pops open (actually I am still trying to find a way to embed it so if anyone knows drop me a comment below).

Email Marketing

Leadpages is not an email marketing tool, so you must integrate additional software to have regular emails going out to your list. UPDATE: They just released their Drip email marketing software which integrates with LeadPages. 

The only thing that Leadpages does however is send one automatic email to your lead once they have subscribed through the lead capture page.

A bonus is that you get unlimited traffic to your page and leads contacts.

Mobile Responsiveness

Everything about Leadpages is mobile responsive which is great.

Split-testing

At the time that I used Leadpages, there was not a split test feature so I cannot comment on the effectiveness and usability of it.

But I can see now that they have implemented this so that makes Leadpages a winner.

Sales Funnel

You can create a sales funnel builder with LeadPages. You can also create some awesome sales pages with it.

Pricing

There is a 14 day free trial and your price to use Leadpages starts at $25/month when paid annually.

Final Thoughts On All Four Builders

So let us see how all four stack up against each other.

Had GetResponse been a sales funnel builder it would have been my number one choice only because of their sexy design.

Between Clickfunnels and LeadPages, I would choose Clickfunnels because of the ease of building your sales funnel once you get the hang of how to use it.

If your sole purpose is to create lead capture pages and have an email marketing software then GetResponse may be an option for you.

Remember the downside with deliverability of their emails. I am not the only one who has had this problem. Some of my marketing friends did complain that they had issues as well.

Are there any other builders that you are using which you think should be included in this post? Drop me a comment down below and let me know your thoughts. 

Cheers,

P.S Still stuck on internet marketing? Then check out my free ebook, Mastering Your Home Based Business, which condenses everything you need to know and join the THOUSANDS who are already talking about it.

P.P.S Wait a minute! Have you subscribed to my You Tube Channel, where I give more free internet marketing training? I am growing so be part of the community.

The post 4 Best Lead Capture Page Builders With Free Trial Offers appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.