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.

No!!! Don’t do it! Stop right there! Here is why you do not want to buy leads for your network marketing business!

If you are reading this, then you have been told that you should buy leads or you are thinking of buying leads for your business.

I realise that there is a little bit of a misunderstanding when it comes to this topic.

So let me be clear! 

There is a right way and a wrong way to “buy leads”.

There is also a difference between paying for advertising and simply buying leads.

The latter is what you DO NOT want to do.

So let us start from the very beginning so you understand exactly what I am speaking about.

What Is A Lead?

A lead is an individual who expresses an interest in what you have to offer. They are otherwise known as a prospect or potential sales contact.

When a lead expresses an interest, it is likely that they can become a customer of yours and so it is your duty, as the marketer to engage and add value to the lead’s lifetime.

So what do you really do when you “buy leads”?

You are either buying the contact details of a person in your niche or you are advertising your business with the intention of getting persons who are interested in what you are promoting.

It can be tempting to buy the contact details of persons who are interested in your niche over paying for advertising as really and truly there is no guarantee that you will get any leads when you advertise.

You see the thing is, whether or not you get leads using advertising, depends on whether you have an offer that is irresistible and attractive. Check out my article, How To Choose Affiliate Products That Sell.

But for any business, I would not advise that you buy leads.

Here Are Three Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Leads For Your Business

Reason #1 

It is unethical to buy leads for your business.

Buying leads is like buying email addresses, phone contacts and names of people. These people do not even know who you are!

Why do you think you have the right to contact these people?

Can we say unsolicited contacts? According to the FCC, this is a top consumer complaint.

Furthermore when you buy leads you have to cold call or cold message them.

No one really wants to go through this daunting task of asking strangers if they may be interested in an offer or product.

Although on a side note, I still do see many network marketers taking this approach on social media.

I mean, just because someone likes a post does not give you the right to reach out to them and offer a product.

Ok rant over!

If you are using an email service like GetResponse or Aweber, then it may be impossible to import these contacts because of their own terms of service.

Reason #2 

Your leads are more than likely to be unresponsive.

After all, they never expressed an interest in your product or offer.

So it seems to be an automatic understanding that they may not respond well to you contacting them.

Especially if you are contacting them merely for a sale.

However this really is not the approach that you want to take when trying to sell your product.

The first thing that you must always do is build a relationship with your leads.

When you buy leads, who have no idea who you are, then it is almost impossible to do so.

Reason #3

Bought leads will be of a lower quality.

Frankly you have wasted your money.

Depending on your lead source, you really do not know how many times the lead has been sold on to other marketers.

It is a hard truth but people will do anything just for a sale.

Unless the vendor who you purchased from is as honest as can be (and these days you really do not know who you can trust), it is difficult to decipher how genuine your lead sale is.

When you buy leads, you may not get targeted leads. You do not know whether they are actually looking for your opportunity or product.

But do not worry my friend.

No your business is not going to suffer just because you do not buy leads.

And no, you are not a failure because you thought that buying leads was the answer but it is not.

The Right Way To “Buy” Leads

What you do want to do is advertise your business.

This allows you to generate your own leads for your business. Do not know how to generate leads as yet? No worries! Check out my article, 6 Ways The Power Lead System Can Grow Your Blog Or Online Business.

By advertising your business under your own brand, it allows you to:

• Pre-frame your prospects
• Get leads who are interested in you and your brand
• Get targeted leads who are interested in your offer or product
• Introduce yourself to your prospects
• Build relationships with your prospects
• Avoid anti-spam laws and legal complications

How To “Buy” Leads

There are many ways that you can “buy leads” legitimately.

On my Traffic Page, I discuss free and paid methods that you can use to surf different platforms for persons who may be interested in your offer.

It is the best thing to actually generate your own leads. When someone has given you permission to contact them, you can then send relevant information to that person about any product that you may promote.

For example, if you are in the photography niche and you are advertising a photography course, whilst you may get persons who are interested in this course, you can also promote other photography related products.

This is how you can monetise your leads and how you can make more money.

However when you buy leads that you have not generated yourself, you run into the difficulty of understanding exactly what they want.

If you ever thought about buying leads, one piece of advice – DO NOT!

First, invest in quality advertising using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Bing, etc and learn how to generate your own leads for your business.

Buying leads is not really the answer but advertising your business so that you acquire leads with a proper marketing system in place is even better.

If you are looking for more tips on network marketing or online marketing then check out my free ebook, Internet Marketing Success.

It outlines all the steps that I take to build a successful business online.

Click here to get access to my FREE e-book.

Cheers

P.S How do you get leads for your business? Leave me a comment or any questions below.

P.P.S Hey, have you subscribed to my You Tube Channel, where I give more online marketing tips? I am growing so be part of the community.

The post Should I Buy Leads For My Network Marketing Business? appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

The Nike Concept

So you have a business. Let us say that your business is the new Nike store. Brand new, just advertised its new Nike Air Max Jewell Women’s Sneakers.

There are big, bold flyers on the store’s windows.

The doors open at 8am and over 3000 people walk past Nike’s storefront.

Out of those 3000 people only 900 actually enter the store to take a look at the sneakers because they are interested in it.

Just like Nike’s store, those 3000 people represent the human eyeballs on your own business.

We call them traffic.

You must create a “store front” that presents an offer that is intriguing in order to draw people into your business.

This storefront is a lead capture page in your business.

You may hear other terms like landing page, capture page, lead magnet, squeeze page – they are all the same.  

Now although Nike shows its offer to 3000 people, notice how only 900 people enter the store.

Those 900 people are your leads and the doors of the Nike store is like your lead capture page opt-in fields.

So if you are promoting a direct sales or affiliate product, you must understand that only a few people who see your offer will be interested in it.

Not Everyone Will Buy From You On Day One!

Nike does not expect that all 900 of those people that entered the storefront will buy something on the first day.

So what do they do?

They continue to advertise their offer on television, on the internet or social media to remind their viewers about their offer.

If you think about it in your own business, do you follow up with people who express an interest the first time?

Exactly!

Even though people may opt-in to your lead capture page, not everyone is going to purchase your product on the first day.

You must follow up with them everyday until they become buyers or say “… hey I’m no longer interested”.

Now let us continue.

One hundred out of the nine hundred people that entered Nike’s store, purchases the Jewell sneakers on the first day. The other 800, Nike will continue to show their advertisements to them which will always remain fresh in their minds until they are ready to purchase.

The Importance Of Leads

Now let us get to the importance of leads.

When you have someone saying “hey, look at me. I’m interested in your offer”, he or she is called a lead.

Without people who may be interested in your product or opportunity, then your business is dead.

If Nike never had people entering their storefront, they would be out of business right?!

Because they are not making money from anyone.

This is the reason why you must have leads for your own business.

If you understand network or affiliate marketing by using the above scenario, then you will understand why it is important to always share your offer with as many people as possible on a daily basis.

The more people who sees your offer, the more people who are likely to ask for information about your offer and the more sales you will get.

If you want more sales, the simple answer is, show your offer to more people.

It is as simple as that.

So how exactly do you do that?

I wrote a special blog post covering this topic, 5 Ways To Boost Your Network Marketing Business With A Sales Funnel.

It can be applied to any type of business.

Check it out and these other useful tips and resources below:

• How To Get Referrals To Your Business With Attraction Marketing
• Why List Building Is Important In Your Business
• How To Get More Sales By Using A Bridge Page 

Got a question about your online business? Leave it in the comments below. I want to hear from you.

Cheers,

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

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