6 counterintuitive strategies to put your list building efforts into overdrive

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2 6 counterintuitive strategies to put your list building efforts into overdrive Ant Carter is an online marketer, blogger and educator. Find out more about me, and the mission I have to free 1,000 people from their 9-5 jobs here If you want a successful online business (or if you already have one).. your biggest business asset is likely to be your list. This is potentially a direct line to people who have put their hands up and expressed an interest in your business. But customers are changing open rates and engagement are falling and the results traditional methods of list building get today are not what they used to be as a result. Use the 7 strategies in this report to buck the trend and kickstart a list of responsive and engaged subscribers..

3 Whatever your business (on or offline) the biggest thing you can do to improve your business results is to build an list of prospects and customers.. and communicate with them regularly. Doing this well is proven to get more leads into your business, convert many more of these into sales over time.. and it develops even small businesses to the stage where they can compete against much larger and established players. Ok, so right now you might be thinking one of three things: I know this already. But surely everyone s already doing this right? It s far too late for me to join the party I won t be able to compete. I want to prove that you are probably wrong and that right now is in fact the perfect time to start building an list. But more than that I want to explain why it is now easier to compete against the established players than at any point in the last 10 years. Because today, most businesses and online marketers are following a model of list building created in a world before social media, before information overload and before customers were wise to the tricks they pull.... and this gives those using a different strategy - a serious advantage. I will explain more in this micro-guide.. but take it from me, the world has changed and list building is too. This quick 7 step strategy guide explains what most people get wrong when they re building a list, and how to take advantage of this. Let s start with the most controversial suggestion of all..

4 You read that right.... if you want to build a responsive profitable list you need to give more valuable information away without requiring an opt in from your customer. This advice goes against most list building advice of the last 10 years.. and that is exactly the point. Customers in almost every niche are used to demands for their address in exchange for all sorts of things. It doesn t take long before their inboxes are full with communications from the lists they have signed up to. Once they realise this they unsubscribe, start creating addresses specifically to sign up to future lists.. and then don t read anything you send them. More and more customers are displaying this exact behaviour and many marketers are suffering as a result. But it gets worse... because there is a fundamental strategy problem here too.. The average customer sees a lead magnet they want, and signs up to get it not because they are interested in reading future mails. They have been persuaded to sign up to receive future mailings by a bribe rather than through a genuine connection with the person or company who is mailing them. Is it any wonder open and engagement rates over are going down every year? You can t trick or bribe customers onto your list, and expect results it just doesn t work. Imagine instead that you increase the amount of information and resources your customers can use without trading their address.... and that instead of bribing them onto a list many of them aren t interested in.. you use your free content to filter the customers who you DO want on your list.... and who join by choice - because they want to hear more from you. How would your open rates and engagement, increase in this situation?

5 Too many companies and marketers lack a deep knowledge of their customer.. and even those that think they do fall short in one crucial area: Understanding the REAL reason people buy their products, or join their list. Most marketers will tell you it s because of the benefits of what they offer, or because they help to remove a pain in their customers lives.... but they are only half right. To compete against businesses and marketers who are selling the benefits and tweaking the pain of their prospects.. you need to go one step further. You can do this by recognising that often the reason we buy or sign up to receive something, is that it takes us somewhere over the long term.... like a training course which might teach us something - and give us an immediate benefit.. but whose long term results will change our lives in a deeper way. We don t ONLY sign up to get a quick fix we also want solving an immediate problem to take us somewhere too. Connecting what you offer customers as lead magnets, and in the messages you send to where they ultimately want to go will help you stand out. The simplest way to do this is to use my flight of stairs model here This places your customer on a journey and will help you identify what motivates them.. and where they ultimately want to go. By looking at your business this way you will know how to talk to prospective customers in a language that will totally resonate with them.. and you will differentiate yourself and your business in a crowded marketplace. After all, when we choose which businesses to interact with we all look for those with an understanding of who we really are. Our aspirations are a big part of how we see ourselves connect with these and you will start seeing better results.

6 Many people and businesses trying to market to prospective customers today believe that social media is the new place where a list is built. While it is true that social media creates a WONDERFUL place to make first contact with a wide range of potential customers.... if you think that this is going to replace your list any time soon think again. The number and frequency of communications received on social media mean that the vast majority of these don t get read or acted on. When your communications arrive in someone s inbox, you have a chance to have an undisturbed personal conversation. Trying to talk to someone the same way on social media is like trying to chat someone up at a party with loud music blaring.... you really need to take them away from this environment to make a real connection. Their inbox is just the place for that quiet, undisturbed chat. On top of the problems created by the amount of noise on social media, the platforms themselves have evolving rules about what companies and marketers can and cannot do.... and it s easy to get your account blocked - losing any list you might have created on it instantly. Your list on the other hand is controllable by you.. and can be easily backed up (using crafty backup software like SaveMyList) So if you want to reach your potential customers in a place where they have time and space to absorb your message their inbox is still where you want to be.

7 How can making your list smaller possibly be a good thing? It s to do with deliverability or the rate at which your s land in someone s inbox (rather than the spam or promotions folders). The more mail you send that doesn t get opened, the greater your chance of future mails landing in the wasteland of the promotions folder or getting flagged as spam by the service provider. So how do you increase your deliverability rates and get more people reading your mails? The best way to do this is to send communications to people who are engaged with you and will open what you send them. So if you have a list, most of whom don t open your mails - you are damaging your deliverability to everyone else by continuing to send things to them. Trim your list regularly of the people who have disengaged from you to solve this problem. Because doing this will increase the open rates of what you send and mean that your communications are much more likely to land in the inbox of your recipients. It s a virtuous circle when you get it right more people reading your mails resulting in higher deliverability rates and therefore more people opening what you send..

8 If you ask yourself why do people join your list.. or why do YOU join anyone else s list what answer do you get? More often than not it is for a bribe or other short term benefit. But as we have seen, the problem with using this strategy is that often this gives subscribers no long term reason to read your s. So how do we get and keep our subscribers attention over the long term? The best way to do this is to tap into something deeper - and make our business into a movement. Human beings all want to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, like we are part of something meaningful and your customers are no different. Start looking at your business differently, and consider not just the solutions you offer to individuals but the potential result of EVERYONE on earth using them! In other words if everyone decided to buy into what your company or business provides how would this change the world? What would the benefit of everyone deciding to use solar panels to heat their water be? What would the world be like if everyone decided to start eating a healthy breakfast?.. taking their own development and learning more seriously? Or whatever your offer or business provides. Ask yourself what the ultimate benefit of customers interacting with your business or products is and create a cause people can believe in around your brand. There is very little else you can do in marketing which will encourage such loyalty, than define your own mission and then ask others to join you to change the world.... especially if you communicate this message throughout your interactions with them.

9 When most people talk about list growth, they mean getting more people onto their list. I hope I have demonstrated in this short report that it is many times more profitable to be focused on attracting the RIGHT customer. To get decent financial results from your list and to grow your business, you need to be connected to people who get you.... your perfect customer. The ones who you KNOW you can deliver massive value and results to.. and the ones who you know will pay you for follow up advice. You will find a list of engaged subscribers who are on your list for the right reasons outperforms by many times a more traditional list built with bribes. In marketing, it is a mistake to get obsessed by the size of your list.... when the responsiveness of those reading your mails is much more influential in achieving measurable results.

10 If you are just starting out Use the strategies you have learned to base your business on.. show an honest interest in people, and give your knowledge freely (while others require opt ins to their list for the same information). Really get to know the customers in your niche, provide them solutions to the problems that face them and speak to their highest aspirations when talking to them. Reserve something special for those that choose to join your list. If you have an unresponsive list Write an series which gives massive value without asking for anything in return send subscribers your best content.. things they would usually pay for. If you are wondering what your subscribers will value most use my flight of stairs model to connect with subscribers ultimate aspirations. Filter those that reconnect with you onto a separate list and keep trying with the rest. If you want to accelerate your list growth Give more away for free the kinds of things which others charge for. By doing this you expose more people to your content and have the chance to influence their thinking. You touch not only those who might have signed up to receive something but the majority that wouldn t too. If your content is good, people will join your list out of choice. If you have low priced paid products, you will find these often build your list when people make the decision to engage. By implementing the strategies explained here, and swimming against the tide of your market you will stand out as a business which customers trust and want to connect with. Leaving that decision up to them is the most powerful conversion technique that NO ONE is talking about.. Good luck, and stay in touch I would love to hear how you get on. You can join my list by mailing me here: awlist @aweber.com

11 Click the links below to download my other free reports, or to find out more about me