We just got back from a marketing workshop in Boise Idaho where Russell Brunson (creator of click funnels, and author of the book DotComSecrets) laid some serious knowledge on us when it comes to the hundreds of ways to generate leads. While we were there, we met so many amazing entrepreneurs, rocking out the email capture systems we always talk about. Some of them are doing it on an enormous scale, like 250,000 email captures per month. Imagine the kind of impact you could have with your business with that many people signing up for your information each month.
It’s Mind Blowing!!!
So when a friend and coach asked me how he can better build his list, so that he has more impact and can work at building bigger and better relationships with his potential customers I put together this list of the my top 5 list building techniques and tips.
Use your current Client list.
Ok this seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised how many businesses don’t even email their current list of customers on a regular basis. You can pull it from your accounting software, your email software, business cards, invoices. Just find them and put together a list. Then get a program like mailchimp, aweber or (if you want to go advanced) infusionsoft, import your list in the form of an excel file and get emailing.
Through your website’s contact form.
Make sure that when customers are contacting you through your websites request a quote, contact us or feedback forms that you’re collecting those email addresses and putting them to good use. This is a great way to collect warm leads and keep in touch with them so you’re always top of mind.
Free Give Away
This has become a hugely popular technique online. But it’s nothing new. The technique is to give away a free download from your website that solves a problem your customer may have. It’s very similar to the boxes you see at coffee shops and restaurants where gyms are giving away a free month membership if you drop in your business card, or fill out the registration form. Think of what your customers need from you and what you can provide that is free for you to give away, in exchange for their contact info. Webinars, audio downloads, ebooks, pdfs, checklists, and guides are great examples to get you started.
Break Even Give Away
This is a new technique we just learned and it’s doing wonders for the people we met last week. Sell a product for cost, your goal is to break even. The catch is, they need to give you their email address and subscribe to your newsletter if they want the deal. It doesn’t cost you anything and you get to qualify those customers as buyer so that you know that you’ll be able to sell them something else in the future. Find a great little product that your customer base would be interested in, get them to buy, breakeven, get their email, send them more offers, and profit all the way to the bank.
Mini Course
Never forget that you in this online world, we need to build relationships with our customers even more than ever. This is true whether you’re a brick and mortar store or if you’re going completely online. A great way to do this is to create a short video course that will benefit your customers. A great example would be, if you’re say a hot tub retailer. Create a video or series of videos educating your customers on what they should look out for, what they need, things they should think about and any other topic that can alleviate any objections, confusions or myths they may have about buying you’re product or service. Of course in order to get the video, you’ll get their email address first then send them on to be amazed.
The goal of all of this is to collect and qualify as many customers as you can so that you can follow up with them through a recurring email that provides more value, more education and the occasional sale. If you’re a retail store where you know your customers love to see your weekly flyer or the deals you have that week, include that in your email. If you have a monthly flyer send that out as well. The rest of your emails should be educational, entertaining or informative.
If your business is service based and you don’t have many recurring sales, your objective should be to educated, entertain and inform your customer, build trust in you and your brand, become a face of knowledge that they can trust. Then when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be the good friend they know has all the answers.
One other tip that is one of the biggest mistakes we see with email marketing. If you’re delivering content that your customers want and expect, if it’s entertaining and informative, send out that email as often as you can. If you have a tip of the day, send out an email daily. If you have a weekly flyer, and your customers asked for it, send it out the same time every week. The trick is to keep an eye on your unsubscribe numbers, if people start dropping off your list, then pull back on sending out content. If you keep pushing forward and no one is unsubscribing, then send out more content.
However you must remember to entertaining, educational or informative. Provide the value your customers are looking for. If you do that and your customers take something away from your emails, they’ll stay subscribed and you’ll have more fans than you’ll know what to do with.
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