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When a newcomer to online marketing begins to ask questions about how others are seeing such big success, one common element they’ll see in replies is that the others have built a list of buyers.
This can be frustrating for someone who is new to the business, has no list and yet wants to start earning right away. Normally, organic list building can be very slow, where you might only see a dozen subscribers in a month if you’re lucky.
But there is a shortcut method that explodes the growth of your list in just four weeks. You have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get to work, because list building isn’t something that occurs without effort.
How to Get More Email Subscribers
Below, you’ll see a simple, yet effective 30-day plan where you implement a series of bite-sized steps and at the end of the month, have a list of your own to begin earning from as you serve their needs.
Day 1: Research Your Niche Audience’s Main Problems
There are many different types of content that you will be creating as a niche leader. However, the content that you create in an effort to convince strangers to hand over their personal contact information has to be top-tier, in-demand advice.
When they land on your lead magnet page, they don’t know you or trust you. So you have to take the time to research their most pressing problems and design a lead magnet built around what they feel is important, not what you feel they need to know.
You can conduct your research in a variety of ways, including spying on forum chatter, on social media posts where people have engaged with the person who posted it, in product reviews on Amazon, and even by looking at the results and keyword tools to see what they are searching for in a desperate attempt to get answers.
Day 2: Brainstorm Slants for a Lead Magnet
After you have taken some time to see what real consumers are discussing, you want to spend a day brainstorming slants for your lead magnet that will entice people to enter their name and email address in exchange for your freebie.
You don’t want a boring or overly common slant for your freebie. In fact, you can go against the grain. For example, instead of writing a free report titled, “How to Lose Weight,” you might title it, “7 Reasons You Keep Failing on Your Diet!”
This will pique the curiosity of the visitor because they will want to know if they are the root cause of what is sabotaging their efforts to lose weight. You can also go above and beyond with a title such as, “101 Easy Ways to Reduce Calories.”
Day 3: Decide on a Media Format for Your Free Offer
A lead magnet does not have to be a short report. It can be anything of value to your prospective subscribers. That might mean you give a free series of tips via email. Or, it could be a video series with a number of modules for them to watch.
It could even be an audio podcast or webinar they can absorb as your free gift. Whatever you choose, make sure that the finished product is well polished, even if it means hiring an editor to ensure top quality because this is your first impression with these people.
Day 4: Outline Your Opt-in Freebie
Once you have an idea and you know which format you plan to use, create an outline for the creation of your opt-in freebie. You want to make sure that this free gift is comprehensive and that the subscriber would have been happy to pay for such information.
Day 5: Spend a Day Creating Your Lead Magnet
Today, you are going to create the free gift that you will be sending out to new subscribers. The last thing you want to do is rush the process so that the content feels thin to the recipient.
You don’t want them to regret giving their contact details to you because they feel as if your free gift was a scam just to get them on your list. Instead, you want them to walk away in shock that you actually gave something of such value to them.
Day 6: Upload Your Freebie File So It’s Ready to Go to Subscribers
When the files have been completed and edited to perfection, upload them to your server so that the new subscriber can download them to their computer as soon as they sign up.
You want to test the download process to make sure everything goes smoothly. Give the file a short filename to prevent hiccups that sometimes cause file downloads to be interrupted.
Day 7: Design or Have an Image Made to Represent Your Offer
Today, you will be designing or outsourcing the task of graphic design to have an image made that will represent your free offer. There are many tools you can use to create eBook covers or video product images.
But you have to make sure that you are capable of creating something that looks professional. If you’re free offer image looks amateurish, even if it has nothing to do with the content, many people will click out of your lead magnet page without signing up.
Day 8: Write the Copy for Your Lead Magnet Page
When you are free offer has been completed, you want to take a day to write and perfect the copy for the lead magnet page. This is usually a shorter sales copy, all above the fold, which includes one or two headlines as well as a few bullet points and the form needed to technically get the visitor on your list.
You may think that because there are fewer words, the process would be quicker. However, the mere fact that you have less space to work with should make you spend more time ensuring that every word counts.
Day 9: Sign Up with an Email Autoresponder System
in order to build a list, you have to have an email autoresponder system. Spend today researching the various tools that are available, such as Aweber and GetResponse. Then get signed up to the one you feel most comfortable with.
You want to choose an autoresponder system that has a proven record for longevity, and that also has a database of helpful instructions and videos to walk you through any and all technical steps of their system.
Day 10: Create Your List
If you didn’t do it upon signup, you want to spend today creating a list for people to sign up to. Usually, the system will ask you to give a name to the list and to craft a sign up message to the subscriber, reiterating who you are and what they are signing up for.
Day 11: Write Your Welcome Email for New Subscribers
You’ll spend today writing your welcome email for those who get on your list. In this email, you want to thank the subscriber for signing up, and then present them with the links or access information they need to download the free gift.
Day 12: Create a Form to Capture Subscriber Data on Your Lead Magnet Page
On this day, you will be logging into your email autoresponder system and creating a form that will be used to capture subscriber data on the lead magnet page. every system is different, but you will typically go through a series of steps that has you select certain elements such as color, size, and wording.
Day 13: Create Your Lead Magnet Page with Copy and Form
This is the day that you will be creating your lead magnet page, and installing the copy that you wrote for it along with the code for the form you just created. Everyone will have a different way of creating their lead magnet page, depending on what kind of page builder you are using.
Make sure you visit the lead magnet page after pasting the copy into it, along with the graphic image you had created to represent your free gift, and the form used to collect the data. You want to make sure it appears right in a variety of browsers as well as on a mobile device.
Day 14: Create a Form to Capture Subscribers from Your Blog Sidebar
You have already created a form to use on your lead magnet page. But today, you will be creating a separate one to use on your blog sidebar. This form will typically be thinner and can be altered in terms of color to match the theme of your blog.
Day 15: Install the Widget to Blog List Building and Activate Your Form
This day will be spent logging into the dashboard of your blog and installing an HTML widget in the sidebar directly beneath the search box where are you will paste the code for the form you created yesterday for the blog sidebar.
Go to the page when you have completed the task and make sure that it appears correctly. If you had any wording in the form, you want to make sure that it all fits within the width of your sidebar.
Day 16: Create a Form to Build a List Below Each Blog Post
Today, you will be creating another form that is wider and doesn’t necessarily include any color formatting so that you can place it directly beneath each and every blog post. When a visitor lands on your blog, they may initially see your sidebar form.
However, they may not sign up because they have not yet read your blog post to see if what you provide is of value. That’s why it’s important to have another form directly beneath each blog post so that as the visitor scrolls down past the sidebar option, they are given another chance upon completing the reading of your post.
Day 17: Create a Video and Form to Use on a Different Lead Magnet Page
You are not done with the forms just yet! Today, you will be creating a separate lead magnet page that you can use to split test conversions. If you want to, you can simply use different text on the page.
However, it’s often worth it to create a new lead magnet page using a different format, such as video. If you use video copy on your lead magnet page, it often lends credibility to your message because the visitor can see and hear you.
Day 18: Test All Four of Your Forms
Today, you will visit the original lead magnet page, the video version, the sidebar of your blog, and the bottom of a blog post to test all four forms to ensure they are in working order.
The great thing about using four different forms is that you will be able to log into your email autoresponder and see how each one is converting. For example, you may discover that you get far more signups at the bottom of a blog post than you do in the sidebar.
Day 19: Consider the Use of Pop-Ups in Your List Building Strategy
You may want to employ the use of a pop-up tool to help you build your list. These can appear after the visitor has been on your site for a few seconds and they can also serve as exit notifications that pop up before the visitor has a chance to leave.
Not everyone appreciates pop-ups. You’ll want to keep tabs on whether or not it’s worth having on your site because it may end up turning more people off of your opt in offer than it converts.
Day 20: Share Your Free Lead Magnet on Social Sites
When your lead magnet is completed and the site has been set up and proven to be functional, you want to share the link to your lead magnet page on various social media sites and apps.
Make sure you put the emphasis on the free gift you are giving away and not the fact that you want to build a list of subscribers. The emphasis should be on how you are stepping up to serve your audience at no cost to them.
Day 21: Create a List of Competitors Whose Lists You’d Love to Steal
Today, you will begin the growth explosion process for your list. This is where you leverage the list of people who are already succeeding in your niche for your own good. Start by scouring the Internet to find out who your top competitors are and what kinds of products they promote as affiliates.
You can go to Google and search for niche leaders, blogs that discuss the same topic as you, and look on leaderboards for contests of products that have previously launched to find out who is a top performer that has a list of buyers for that niche topic.
These are the people you will want on your list. Not only will they be buying your future products, but they should convert nicely for you as an affiliate whenever you promote someone else’s product to these subscribers.
Day 22: Brainstorm a Funnel with a 100% Commission Front End
If you want to own a list of subscribers that someone else is succeeding with, you can’t just ask them to hand it over. While some unscrupulous vendors will sell their list, the ones who truly succeed will protect it at all costs.
The easiest way to get a large number of their subscribers onto your list is to create a product launch where are you give the competitor 100% commission on the front-end offer and 50% on the rest of the funnel.
Successful marketers are always looking for good products to promote. Therefore, this has to be some of your very best work periods you cannot take shortcuts because the other person will ignore your request to promote if they can’t see the value in it.
You want a funnel with at least one upgrade offer, preferably two. While consumers may say they dislike one-time offers, the fact is, many of them purchase them in order to get an additional deal – and affiliates love it because it gives them more opportunities to earn commissions.
Day 23: Create a JV Page and List It on Muncheye
Once you have come up with your idea, create a joint venture (JV) page with all of the details for your lunch, such as the date and time, funnel details, swipe files, and other information that will bring affiliates on board.
Once you have created your JV page, go to Muncheye and create a listing for the upcoming launch. While you will have already done some investigating into who you want to recruit as an affiliate, it’s always best to publicly launch the product so that you cast a wider net, bring more affiliates onboard, and therefore accumulate more targeted subscribers.
Day 24: Create Your Front End Files
Spend today, and as many days as necessary, to create a value-packed front end. Some marketers who employed this list-building strategy try to slap up any type of product just to get by.
You have to remember that the type of people you want to bring onto this launch are those who have a very responsive list that makes them so successful. The reason their list is responsive is that they are careful to weed out useless products and only present the very best to their subscribers.
When you have your product finished, make sure you polish it to perfection and create a sales letter that convinces the visitor to convert into a buyer. Your sales copy should have headlines, a storyline, bullet points, and a strong call to action.
Day 25: Create a One-Time Offer Upgrade
Today, you will create at least one upgrade offer that will help stack up the commissions your affiliates will receive when they promote your funnel. Usually, the further in the funnel a buyer gets, the bigger the value and the higher the price tag they see.
Don’t forget to create your upgrade offer sales pages and then upload everything into the platform of your choice, such as Warrior Plus, JVZoo, or ClickBank. Conduct a test run of the funnel to make sure everything is working properly
Day 26: Recruit Competitors as Affiliates with a Review Copy and Additional Perks
Now that everything has been completed, spend today reaching out to those very competitors you first spied on who was successful with a high-performing list. With each one, you want to introduce yourself, explain why you think your product would be a good fit for their list, and present them with both a link to the JV page and a review copy of the product.
If you want to offer any top performers additional perks, such as 100% commission on the entire funnel or a spot for their banner ad on your download page, you can do that at this time.
Day 27: Host a Contest to Bring More List Owners Onboard
You can make a decision today as to whether or not you want to host a contest for your list-building launch. Sometimes, the presence of a contest will make or break a marketer’s decision about whether or not to promote you.
In order to protect yourself from humiliation, make sure you put factors in place that will prevent payouts of contest prize money to people who didn’t convert very well, such as minimum products sold to receive a prize.
When the launch goes live, make sure you hold back enough prize money to be able to payout the winnings as soon as the contest is closed. When you go to approve potential affiliates, make sure you carefully screen them so that you are not approving scammers who will be using things like stolen credit cards to rack up sales, get paid commissions, and take your prize money before disappearing.
Day 28: Create a Follow-Up Freebie That Wows Your New Subscribers
You are almost finished with your 30-day list-building process. Today, you want to create a simple follow-up freebie that wows your subscribers. The people who have gotten on your list will be impressed by the original free gift that you provided to them.
Imagine their surprise, when days later, an email comes from you that bestows an additional free gift upon them. This will be unexpected and will cement their decision to trust you with their contact information.
Yes, this is all a lot of work to complete in order to build a list. But it’s much better to spend 30 days working hard to have a functional, high-performing list than to spend months barely lifting a finger and seeing no return for such minimal effort.
Day 29: Develop a Private Blog Series to Publish for Subscribers Only
One way to make your subscribers feel special, and also get new subscribers onboard is to have a series of password-protected blog posts for subscribers only. Whenever a new visitor lands on your blog to read a public post, they will often see private posts that they are unable to access.
You can create a page at the top of your blog that informs these visitors about how they can access the private blog posts – which is by signing up to your list using the form in your sidebar.
Day 30: Craft an End of Blog Call to Action Statement to Encourage Sign Ups
On the very last day of your explosive list-building process, you want to craft a simple message that you will use at the end of every blog post that works as a strong call to action to encourage people to sign up for your list.
Sometimes, people will be blind to an empty form, so having you point out to them with an encouraging statement could be the push they need to enter their contact details.
If you want to, you can create several of these statements and alternate their use of them. Building a list can be a slow or strategic process. One method is easy and takes forever, and the other requires hard work and determination – but pays off quicker than the alternative.
