Building Your List by Michael Gravette

OK, its a new year and a new decade.  Time to refocus.  Put those things you didn’t do behind you and focus on what you can do. Quit focusing on what you didn’t do. Every day try to start and finish something that will further your business.  Every day just do a little more than you did the day before.  Small steps.

There is one thing that I feel its very important to focus on and grow. And that is growing your list.  There is no more valuable business asset you can have than a list of people who are interested in your products and eventually a list of people who have bought from you.

If you sell on the Internet, this list starts with visitors to your website.  If you sell at a flea market, swap meet, gun show or a store, this list begins with getting the names and mailing addresses of people who come to your booth or into your store.

People are always emphasizing getting traffic to your website.  Getting links by writing articles and submitting to article directories, writing press releases and submitting to press release sites, creating and submitting videos to video directories, creating audios and submitting to podcast directories, creating pages on Web 2.0 sites like www.squidoo.com, www.hubpages.com and www.wetpaint.com, writing on your blog everyday, commenting on blogs, etc.

But, that is just part of the process.  Now you have that visitor on your website, what do you do now?

Remember, the whole point is not only to get a bunch of traffic to your website, but to convert that traffic to sales.  Making a sale is the goal.  I know it may sound silly to say that, but you’d be surprised to see how many people focus on getting traffic and then drop the ball or don’t know what to so with that traffic.

It’s estimated that only 2% who visit a website actually buy on their first visit.  That means 98% will come to your website and leave without purchasing.  Ouch!

So, what do you do?

You do everything you can to get that visitor to sign up for your list.  Even though its free to sign up for your list, you still have to sell it.  The most popular thing to do is to bribe your visitors to sign up.  Give them something of value.  That can be a free report, a video on how to use a stun gun, TASER or pepper spray, or a $5 coupon, just for signing up.  Its not enough just to ask for the email address.  You have to give them something.

Now you need to start communicating with those people on your list.  This is the perfect opportunity to allow the people on your list to get to know you.  People buy from people they know, like and trust.  So, you have to tell stuff about yourself.  Let them know who you are.  What your likes are, your dislikes, your pets, your hobbies, why you’re selling these products.

Many people are not comfortable with sending frequent emails to their list.  However, tests have shown that emailing everyday increases sales.  In fact, emailing twice a day will generate even more sales.  But, I don’t expect you to email twice a day. But, you should email every day to your list.

If you are concerned that people will get mad and unsubscribe, you’re right.  They will unsubscribe.  In fact you want them to.  You want to create a list made up of people who enjoy hearing from you.  And, they will enjoy your emails if you keep them interesting.  Don’t just tell them to come to your website and buy your stuff.  In fact, you don’t have to sell in every email if you are emailing every day.
Remember, you are developing a relationship with these people so that when they are ready to buy, they will buy from you.  There is no better way to eliminate competition than to create a strong relationship with your list.

Now get out there and build that list.