{"id":64,"date":"2009-10-02T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/?p=64"},"modified":"2019-10-23T07:55:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T14:55:45","slug":"list-building-is-it-really-that-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/2009\/10\/02\/list-building-is-it-really-that-important\/","title":{"rendered":"List Building – Is It Really That Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

…….
\nContents:
\n
\no List Building – Is It Really That Important?<\/b><\/p>\n

…….<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Except for the whole concept of Internet Marketing, no issue
\nhas taken up more of my time and interest than list building.
\nSince the very beginning, list building has been one of those
\nsubjects that I am constantly coming back to and redefining.<\/p>\n

So much so, that it seems to have taken on a life of its own.<\/p>\n

At first, I didn’t really understand list building and why it
\nwas so important. So you put out a newsletter and you built up
\na list of contacts or subscribers that give you permission to
\nemail them – big deal!
\n
\nPeople can actually make money doing this?<\/b><\/p>\n

That was my main question at the time, I just didn’t understand
\nhow someone could actually make money from sending emails to a list
\nof contacts? And at first, I didn’t make any sales from my list,
\nno matter how attractive the products I was pitching.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, I made a crucial mistake, one that many
\nbeginning list builders often make, I didn’t realize it is
\nnot getting subscribers which is important, but rather it’s
\nthe whole process of building meaningful relationships with
\nthose contacts that’s the crucial factor.
\n
\nIt’s a lesson I am still learning.<\/b><\/p>\n

You have to build a connection with your subscribers, you
\nhave to build some kind of meaningful relationship with
\nsomeone who is basically a total stranger. You have to first
\nconvince them you’re someone worth listening to so you have
\nto try and build\/have credibility in the eyes of your reader.<\/p>\n

Traditionally credibility has two key components: trustworthiness
\nand expertise. You must use these two things to build a relationship
\nwith your subscribers. Show your readers tangible examples or
\nsuccesses from your online marketing or sites… if you have
\nachieved top 10 rankings in Google – show them. Showing
\nrecommendations and testimonials from ordinary people who
\nhave used your site or products is very effective. Video
\ntestimonials are even more effective.<\/p>\n

Only when you build that relationship and credibility will you
\ntruly see why list building is so important. Unfortunately,
\nbuilding that relationship is often the most difficult part
\nof list building.<\/p>\n

To tell you the truth, I didn’t get anywhere with building my list
\nof contacts until my main site started ranking high in Google and
\nthe other search engines. Which is only logical, someone searching
\nfor information in Google and your site pops up, it is a simple way
\nof building instant credibility in the eyes of the surfer. Well, up
\nto a point, your content has to be of high quality and further capture
\nyour potential subscriber’s attention.<\/p>\n

Then you must follow-up with informative emails or information which
\nthat subscriber is truly searching for.
\n
\nAlways remember…<\/b><\/p>\n

Your subscribers are looking for information – first and foremost.
\nThey are not looking for a sales pitch and if you keep trying to
\nconstantly sell to your subscribers – they won’t be on your list
\nfor long.<\/p>\n

Put the emphasis on giving helpful quality information first and do
\nany selling as an afterthought.<\/p>\n

Let’s take one of my actual examples of how this list building technique
\nworks so effectively for me. One section of my site deals with laptops
\nand computers. Visitors can sign-up to my laptop guide to find out more
\nabout business laptops, student laptops… and so on. Just informative
\ninformation on laptop computers… included in those mailings I give links
\nto some pages containing online laptop deals, coupons and offers from
\nmajor computer makers such as HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo… where
\nconsumers can get $100 – $300 or more off their laptop purchases if they
\nuse these online links or coupons.<\/p>\n

Those are my most lucrative lists that I have and they have really
\nshown me why building lists are so important. They can be a simple way
\nof gathering prospective customers for your own products or for the
\naffiliate products you’re promoting.<\/p>\n

List building is a very effective way of increasing your sales numbers.<\/p>\n

Moreover, since I mainly do affiliate marketing, I have surprisingly
\nlearned another somewhat hidden aspect of list building that I knew
\nnothing about when I first started marketing online.
\n
\nIt has everything to do with the simple “cookie!”<\/b><\/p>\n

With most affiliate programs when you send a customer to them, these
\ncustomers are “cookied” with your affiliate IDs. If that customer makes
\na sale in the following days, you get credit and a commission. Now these
\ncookies can have different lengths – anywhere from a few days up to a
\nlifetime – however, most are around 30 to 90 days.<\/p>\n

Basically, what this means is that you’re building a whole list of
\ncustomers cookied with your affiliate IDs. I realize the power of this
\na few years back when my main site went down for over a week – but I
\nwas still making daily sales, I couldn’t figure out where these sales
\nwere coming from until I checked and found it had to do with these
\ncookied customers who had clicked on my affiliate links weeks, even
\nmonths before.<\/p>\n

This has proven to be such an effective selling technique, I do
\ncertain things to take full advantage of cookies. First, I usually only
\njoin affiliate programs that have 90 day cookies or more, some even
\nhave lifetime cookies. Second, I make sure I cookie my list by sending
\nthem to my affiliate links… this can be done with free videos, ebooks,
\ninformative articles that the affiliate programs supply to you for your
\nmarketing. In the case of my laptop newsletter a direct link to special
\nonline coupons and discounts will cookie these potential customers with
\nmy affiliate IDs.<\/p>\n

In the Internet Marketing field, a common marketing tactic is to
\nproduce a valuable report or video which affiliates can use to “cookie”
\ntheir customers. That’s why you will often be bombarded with these
\noffers if an important marketer is launching a major product – everyone
\nis trying to cookie any potential customers out there. That’s one of
\nthe reasons, Internet Marketing has a handful of heavy hitters who
\nusually make all the sales… they reach those customers first because
\nthey have enormous lists in the millions. The larger the list numbers,
\nthe larger the number of cookied customers, the more sales they make.
\nSimple arithmetic.<\/p>\n

And it is also another reason why list building is very important,
\nsometimes it is just a matter of working the numbers. If you have
\nlists with hundreds of thousands of subscribers… there will always
\nbe a certain percentage who will buy ANY product.<\/p>\n

But don’t get fooled by the numbers… you can have very small
\nnumbers and still make plenty of sales. If you have a list of
\nproven buyers who always buy from you then a small list can be
\njust as important. If you have built up a solid relationship with
\nthese buyers and they totally trust you, then you can sell to them
\ntime and time again, because they know your recommended products are
\nworth buying. Moreover, they will recommend their friends and your
\nlist building can take on a life of its own.<\/p>\n

These are just a few examples of list building and there thousands
\nof ways to use lists in your marketing. I just hope the information
\ncovered here has convinced you the importance of building your own lists.
\nHow effective they can be in promoting and selling your site or product
\nto your potential customers. Most of all, I hope you never ever
\nunderestimate how powerful list building can be to your online marketing.
\nThe money is certainly in your lists.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on building your own lists try here:
\nList Building<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Kind Regards,
\nTitus<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And it is also another reason why list building is very important,
\nsometimes it is just a matter of working the numbers. If you have
\nlists with hundreds of thousands of subscribers… there will always
\nbe a certain percentage who will buy ANY product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115,114,646,648],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-list-building","tag-email-lists","tag-ezine-marketing","tag-internet-marketing","tag-list-building"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bizwaremagic.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}