Table of Contents About the author 3 Why I created this book... 3 Getting you up to speed quickly... 4 How are we going to start build a list in 78 minutes? 5 The big problem facing most business owners... 5 Step 1 - Creating your ethical bribe (45 minutes) 6 Step 2 - Create your list for your potential customers (10 minutes) 7 Step 3 - Create your page to convince your visitors to sign up (23 minutes) 8 Step 4 - Get some visitors to your page (5 minutes) 10 What s next? 10
About the author Dan Harrison started out as a web developer and now runs a successful web development agency specialising in creating lists of customer databases through bespoke WordPress-based websites. The WordPress Doctors (WP Doctors Ltd - http://www.wpdoctors.co.uk) provide solutions for businesses all over the world who are keen to build their business through lead generation. In 2013, Dan released the Squeeze Page Toolkit (http://www.squeezepagetoolkit.com) which is a piece of software designed for non-technical business owners who just want to build their lists without all of the hassle created by other similar tools. Dan is renown for his cheeky presentation style when speaking at conferences and training events, as well as his love of somehow incorporating chocolate and sweets into the event. Dan lives in Hampshire, in the UK, with his wife, kids and 3 cats. When not creating squeeze pages or WordPress websites, Dan enjoys creating curries, cakes and chocolate treats for his friends and family. Why I created this book... When I released the Squeeze Page Toolkit, something that I kept hearing when I spoke about it to others about building a list was: oh yeah, I must get around to that, or I just don t know where to start..., or I ve got an idea for a lead magnet, but I ve not started it yet... This ebook sidesteps these excuses, as a customer list is incredibly valuable to any business. I m on a mission to get every business owner doing it! Life and business is extremely busy (I know, because I m a business owner too!)... With this ebook, I hope that I can convince you to just start on building your list with a pragamatic just get it done approach. I m willing to bet that once you start building your database of future customers (and got your first sale from it), you ll be addicted. Let s get you addicted started.
Getting you up to speed quickly... So that we can help you start building your list in 78 minutes, I m going to be really quick and summarise the essential facts you need to know about building a list. I know that you re busy, so this is a very concise summary of the core facts. Being a concise summary, there will be some details and explanations that are missing. We can fill in those gaps another day. The key here is to get going quickly. A customer list is a collection of contact details for potential customers who match your ideal target market. Those contact details are usually a name and email address, and sometimes a postal address too. The customers have chosen to be on your list. That list is not constructed from scraping or buying any email addresses. Customers choose to be on your list because you offer them an ethical bribe (a.k.a lead magnet, lead bait, freebie, etc). They give you their details in return for the freebie. The ethical bribe needs to be created/designed/written to attract the right customer for you, otherwise you ll be wasting your limited time on the wrong customers. Once the potential customer is on your list, you can send sales offers. Customers rarely buy from you on first contact, particularly if you offer a service. You ll need to convince them that you re worth buying from by sending them frequent communication (usually by way of emails). However, be wary of overselling to your list, otherwise they become immune to your emails and start ignoring you. You can build rapport and avoid overselling by sending emails that contain additional information or advice. These emails are also called value emails or nurture emails. Invariably, you ll have a Customer Relations Manager (CRM) software tool or an Email Marketing tool that will allow you to capture details and send emails automatically. This is so that a sequence of emails can be scheduled automatically to be sent to your potential customer. This is called an autoresponder. Autoresponders are very clever and will send a sequence of emails to a potential customer based on when they were added to your list. This saves you having to send out emails manually. If you ve not heard of autoresponders before, do 10 minutes research to find out more. If you do not already send emails to your existing customers, you should be. Start with www.mailchimp.com - it s free for up to 2000 customers, very easy to use, and extremely powerful. Your list of potential customers is fundamentally a list of customers who may eventually buy from you. The bigger the list, the more customers who may buy from you. It doesn t matter if you already have the customers you need. Having a high quality list of potential customers that you are always building will either allow you to earn more money, or to work fewer hours. So that s a crash course into why a list is a really good idea. Let s get into how you do it.
How are we going to start build a list in 78 minutes? Let s divide the 78 minutes into the components that will get you started. Clearly you can spend more time on each step if you want to, but I d strongly recommend that you don t. The key thing to remember whilst you read this book. Just get it done, and polish it later. # What are we doing? Time Needed 1 Create our ethical bribe to get people on to our list. 45 mins 2 Create a simple list where we can store our potential customers 5 mins 3 Create a page where we can encourage visitors to join our list 23 mins 4 Push out the page so that we can start getting visitors on to your page Total 5 mins 78 mins The big problem facing most business owners... 1. There s never enough time to do anything. 2. You want to do things perfectly 3. You re not sure if you re doing it right 4. There s always something else to do. As a business owner, I understand these issues perfectly! Therefore this ebook has been created to bypass all of the above issues to help you get started with building your list. Block out 1 hour and 20 minutes in your diary (ok, that s 80 minutes), and make it happen. You ll surprise yourself!
Step 1 - Creating your ethical bribe (45 minutes) There are literally whole books on this topic (I know, because I m writing one!). However, there are 3 simple rules to follow for creating an ethical bribe that will build your list. 1. It s really useful (ideally, your best tips or secrets) 2. It s fast and easy to implement (it boosts your credibility once it works) 3. It needs to appeal to your target customer Now this sounds really difficult, but it s not. Just try something and see what happens. To ensure you can produce a full ethical bribe in 45 minutes, I recommend you create: 1. A 1-3 page report, which is basically a very short ebook 2. Give it a very compelling title or headline 3. Create the ebook in your favourite word processor, and export it as a PDF. Then it s easy to read. To help you create your report, here are some fill-in-the-blank headline ideas for you to use: # Title / Headline 1 The (3/4/5) (Secrets/Commandments) of a (successful/popular/healthy/ profitable) that nobody tells you 2 How to (do/have more) in just (5/10/15) (minutes/hours) a (day/week/ month) 3 Discover your (secret/ideal) in just 10 minutes 4 The 6 mistakes that you re making with your 5 The 60 second to (more/less/better) Once you ve got your title, then create your report. Do spell-check and grammar-check the report. It s also worth ending the report with your business contact details, and perhaps even put your business details in the footer of each page.
Step 2 - Create your list for your potential customers (10 minutes) Depending on how experienced you are with your email list tool will depend on how long this takes. You ll definitely need an email address field, and you can get away with asking for first name too. If you re not using a list already, sign up for a free MailChimp (http://www.mailchimp.com) account. You might need another 5 minutes to get started, but it doesn t take too long if you follow their setup wizard. Some systems force you to have a name on the form, and some systems combine first name and last name into a single name field. That s fine, don t worry too much about that for now. Do not waste any time messing around with designs or templates. Just keep it extremely simple and straightforward. As a bare minimum, you ll need to: 1. Create a list for the customer details to go on to. This varies from system to system, but I d recommend creating a fresh list even if you have other lists. 2. If it s an option, do require visitors to confirm their email address (otherwise known as a double opt-in). 3. Send the ethical bribe via email. Once visitors have confirmed their email address, send them a copy of your ethical bribe PDF. Most systems allow you to attach a file to emails in their final thank you email. 4. Test that it all works by using your own details. 5. Don t worry about autoresponder emails for now, you can add those later. You may be tempted to refine the emails or design at this stage. We re aiming for functional, so tease yourself away and move on to the next step.
Step 3 - Create your page to convince your visitors to sign up (23 minutes) You might already know (or have guessed) but a page where you encourage a visitor to give you their details is called a squeeze page. If you ve heard of marketing funnels, basically you are squeezing that visitor into your marketing funnel. All they can do on that web page is: a) sign up for your ethical bribe b) or leave There are loads of different software products that allow you to create squeeze pages. I should know, I tested most of them before the concept for the Squeeze Page Toolkit even entered my mind! None of them are built for business owners who are short on time. With these products, they were either: a) extremely limited in what you could produce b) or really difficult to set up, particularly if you re not technical c) or provided little integration with email lists and CRM systems d) or offered no help or advice on what actually works If you ever want to achieve something in business, you need to shorten the time between an idea and execution. I d rather spend my spare time with family. Not hitting my head against a brick wall! What would you rather spend your spare time on? Bearing in mind that I am a techie, I found these other solutions were driving me nuts. Hence that s why I created something that was fast to set up, and allowed me to create a squeeze page quickly. This is not meant to be a pitch for the Squeeze Page Toolkit. However, using the toolkit will help you get your first page knocked up very quickly. With only 23 minutes to get your page up and working, you do not want to be wasting hours testing out lots of different squeeze page software tools. The 30 day free trial will allow you to create up to 2 squeeze pages - which is everything you need for getting your first page up and running. Get your account here: http://www.squeezepagetoolkit.com/trial
What s the bare minimum that works? Clearly you can have as much content as you want on a web page to convince someone to sign up to your list to get your ethical bribe. To get started, you just need to keep it very simple. Your page needs to focus on selling them the ethical bribe. That s it. You re not trying to sell your products or services. Keep it ultra-focussed on persuading them to enter their details to get their freebie. You ll need: a) An eye-catching title - this is just to encourage them to read the rest of the page. b) The opt-in form itself - so that the visitors details can be captured c) Text and information - that explains the benefits of your freebie and why they MUST sign up to get a copy When you get your trial account for the toolkit (http://www.squeezepagetoolkit.com/trial) you ll be able to use one of the templates to allow you to just fill in the blanks. Quick, isn t it!?! Page 9 of 11 - Building Your List in 78 minutes or less... - 2014 Dan Harrison - www.squeezepagetoolkit.com
Step 4 - Get some visitors to your page (5 minutes) This is the fun bit. This is where you get to test your idea and start building your list. There are lots of different ways to get visitors to your page. For now, I m going to focus on the fastest and easiest methods to do this. 1. Put a message out on your LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter social media profiles with a link to your squeeze page. 2. Ask a few friends to share/retweet your message (so you get some additional exposure) 3. Experiment with a few different messages to see if certain messages get better reactions with clicking on your link. That s it! Depending on the size of your following on social media, you ll probably have a few potential customers within easy reach. You might not get 100s of signups, but it should be fairly easy to get between 1 to 20 signups within a few minutes or hours. What s next? Once you ve got some visitors on your page, you ll want to do a few things: Send a few sales offers Send them some further advice, tips or tricks (this is the additional value or nurturing) Offer a free 10 minute telephone consultation (this is selling, but giving value first. You can also work out if they are a good customer for you). Only after you ve created your first page and started getting people signing up to your list, you can think about these aspects: Creating a swanky cover for your report. A good place to start is getting one designed for $5 ( 3-ish) on www.fiverr.com - I ve had quite a few great designs from Fiverr.com now. Improve your squeeze page so that you get more signups, such as adding testimonials written about your ethical bribe itself. Experiment with other sources of visitors, such as Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, other people s email lists, etc. Please let me know how you get on. Drop me an email to support@squeezepagetoolkit.com with a subject line of My first attempt at list building, and I ll respond to you personally! Have fun! Dan
Copyright Notices Version 1.0. Copyright 2014 by Daniel J. Harrison No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Publishers. Published by: WP Doctors Ltd, Wessex House, Upper Market Street, Eastleigh SO50 9FD Legal Notices Whilst all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the authors nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. All users are advised to seek competent professional advice. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes complete and total responsibility for the use of these materials and information. The Author and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials, or the application or non-application of the information contained herein. We do not guarantee any results that you may or may not experience as a result of following the advice or recommendations or suggestions contained herein. You must test everything for yourself. Any perceived slights of specific people or organisations is unintentional.