Everything You Need To Know To Build Your Email List

by Shawn

Striking out in your own online business does not need to be a daunting task if you follow a few simple tips. There are hundreds of ways to ensure that you are profitable in this endeavor but new marketers frequently overlook the biggest one.

Build your email list. You don’t even have to rank your site if you
have a huge list. I have learned almost everything I know about email marketing from AnikSingal.

He has a new product coming out in a couple days called Publish Academy where he teaches his latest secrets about email marketing and how to run an online business. Let’s go over the reasons you need a list and how to use it successfully.

What is an Email List?

An email list includes every person who has indicated that they are interested in your niche and gave you their contact information. This includes those who subscribe to your blog, newsletter readers, and people who opt-in for free giveaways.

You can also get Facebook friends, Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers etc. to sign up for your email list. You then have the ability to communicate with all of these people at once…. So do it wisely.

These are the people who want to listen/read what you have to say and who should be pandered to, with relevant and trustworthy content that inspires them to see you as a cornerstone for your particular market.

Why Do I Need A List?

A research study of online consumers found that over 56% of customers who purchase goods online originated from links embedded in emails.

While you may have a loyal following that logs in to your website three times a week, email offers are easily accessible advertisements that do not require any extra steps.

Everyone checks their email daily; they don’t always visit your site that often.

In a mobile community where your consumers are seeking speed, this way of advertising is crucial.

Motivating People to Opt-In

How will you inspire your readers to want more of your content to clutter their inbox? There are some simple tools to ensure that people want to sign up for your list:

Provide amazing, valuable, up-to-date and unique content EVERY time
Offer a free giveaway like an eBook, bonus, or exclusive deal
Offer to solve a problem for them
Provide inspiration and motivation in your niche
Give your readers high quality info, to get them coming back for more

Why Should They Subscribe?

You want to give them a good reason to subscribe; otherwise, they will skip the opt-in, hopefully bookmark you to visit occasionally or find another site to follow or buy from.

While any traffic to your website will increase your ranking and revenue, the statistic about emails providing the most sales stands true. So offer something interesting, like:

A short video series where you highlight your expertise on the subject
A smartly designed eBook with motivational messages and intriguing pictures
A short consult on an issue within your niche (if you choose that route, you should also offer that service at cost in the future).

Easiest Ways To Lose Subscribers

These tools are crucial but make sure that your offer is solid and interesting. If you harass them to buy all the time or if your new user opts in to find a shoddy design as their freebie, they will opt right back out.

If you are not confident in your skills in creating eBooks or email series there are services such as AffiloJetpack that will give you quality eBooks in your niche and newsletters to use to get you started.

Building Trust with Your Followers

If you want to make money online, you have to build your rapport with your followers or you will wither away into the dead space of the Internet that is reserved for websites with no traffic.

You need to build your relationship, communication, and most importantly give them what they want.

Build Your Relationship

You need to share with your audience. Readers won’t just throw their money at you.

Offer them important tips about things that you have in common (your niche)
Treat them like a new friend by offering tidbits of exclusive information
Give them value and a platform for them to share back (comment sections, social media, Q & A).

People trust sites that provide up-to-date information that makes an impact on their lives, and when they trust that person (or site), they are more likely to purchase your recommended products.

You cannot just immediately throw products at them because you will lose your clients, so ensure that there is a relationship in place.

Regular Communication

All good relationships require constant communication, it’s not annoying if it is valuable and it’s good to remind people that you are there.

Do not be shy about sending out important emails because if you don’t, you will lose your customers because they forgot who you are.

This leads to people unsubscribing at each email blast regardless of the content. You are going to lose followers. That’s normal.

But with quality content, you will continue to grow your list and the people who stay are more likely to turn into customers.

Be Consistent

Strike a balance and make sure that you are providing updates at least once a week. People like consistency and will start to look forward to your email, post, video, etc.

Reflect on Your Own Subscriptions

Think about the newsletters that you are personally signed up for and how they interest you enough to open, read, and click through to a link.

Having an interesting headline is a great start, but if the topic is something that was extensively covered a month ago, you just don’t care anymore.

Check With Google Trends

If you are not sure how to make sure that your content is going to offer value to your customer, look at Google trends for your niche. What’s in the news section?

See what related keywords Google is suggesting and provide content on that keyword, ensuring that you are offering your own twist on the subject.

You are not only selling your viewers products, you are selling your personality to them, so make sure that it has your touch.

Stay Familiar with Your List

Your niche will have many small offshoots that interest your audience, and you want to make sure that you are touching on each of these categories.

You also want to make sure that you are offering differentiated content depending on the needs of your readers. To do this you should offer a multiple sections on opt-in, which should include their interests so you can cater to them.

This means you will be offering multiple email lists, including:

General offers, upgrades, tips, and news that cover the entire niche and will be seen by your complete email list.
Individualized categories that will only be sent to those who opt-in for that category.

This will help your business greatly as you will not be bogging down your users’ inbox with information that they will not be interested in, reducing your chances of them opening your emails. It will also encourage and deepen your relationship as they see that you are responsive to their needs.

Choosing a Schedule

You should have a schedule for all of your marketing, but it is especially important for your emails as it helps to create familiarity.

If you are sending a bi-weekly newsletter about your niche, your recipients will take notice when you send something off schedule and time-sensitive.

You want to provide a constant ritual for your emails so they know what to expect and are intrigued by new content that arrives of schedule.

What to include in a Newsletter

We have talked about how important it is that you have amazing content in all of your emails and now it is time to talk design and flow. You want to pick a template that is engaging, flows well, and includes:

Main headlines and sub-headers that are interesting and convey your subject well
A beginning, middle, and end with infographics to direct the flow and increase retention
Amazing navigation with a side bar for advertising offers and links to your website
A call to action so that your readers see that there is more to it: click here, share this, read the whole article here, etc.
Social media share buttons so that people can easily share with their friends
A photo and a personal message on each newsletter. You should have your standard mission statement and short bio, making sure that you update it twice a year to be up-to-date.
You can check out this Inbox Blueprint review to learn exactly how to do all of the above.

Always Look Professional

The design of your newsletter is crucial and needs to be done extremely well to engage your readers so many choose to use a service such as AffiloJetpack to get their business going.

Choosing an interactive design will ensure that you will be able to tweak as you expand and grow with your email list, providing interesting content without extra stress.

Each Email Must Include

While there is a plethora of concepts that should be offered in your newsletter, you should always aim to provide one of the following in each email:

Useful and Unique blog post that has an interesting teaser paragraph and a link to the full article on your web-site
An offer for an interesting podcast or video that they should check out
Any sort of major update that may change your website
Offers that have a specified time period

Don't Overwhelm Your Followers

While it is important to offer a wide variety of subjects to your email list, you also do not want to clutter your newsletter and make it too busy.

Consider the MIT “mongrel” studies that show that many infographics are useless due to poor color choice, overcrowding, and bad shapes and apply that to your newsletter.

These are the best tips out there to building a steady email list that will provide you with a large amount of traffic.

Most Importantly Be You

The best thing that you can do is ensure that your content is perfect for you niche, and let your personality shine through.

While some people will not appreciate your personal flavor, you do not want to try to sell your opinions with a fake persona.

Build your tribe and nurture it carefully, so that you can continue to brand yourself and increase your revenue.