List building is one of the greatest keys to establishing a viable and lucrative solo business online.
When you think about it, communicating with your prospects and customers is one of the best and most effective ways to build a relationship with them.
You need the trust and confidence of your customers. If you don't have it, they won't give you money for your products or services, and they will only allow you a short amount of time to prove to them that you are worth dealing with in your niche.
Building a list of prospects, and possibly a different list of buying customers, allows you to make contact with them repeatedly so that you can share your knowledge, products, and advice for their benefit.
A list is simply a data base of customer names and email addresses. It is possible to add additional customer information items (like address, phone number, age, etc) but typically that is only done for your best customers that give you such information as part of an order for your products.
In the beginning, you don't want to bother your customers by asking for too much of their personal information. You don't really need anything but a name (first name) and email address.
Here are ten top time-tested and proven strategies for building a customer list:
1. Start a blog. Everyone seems to have a blog these days. They are super easy to set up and easy to post to on a regular basis. On your blog site, have a simple form that allows your readers to join your mailing list. Another way to accomplish nearly the same thing is to allow comments by your readers and first require that they sign in with their name and email address. Blogs are very popular and a good idea for all small business owners.
2. Put your sig file in all communications, articles, posts, etc. A sig file is simply a short "ad" for your business (usually a slogan or phrase) that includes your name and web address. Those who read your articles or communications will then have your contact information and they can visit your site where they will join your list.
3. Visit chat rooms and other people's blogs. By doing this, and displaying your name and sig file on your posts and contributions, you will be advertising your own business with a link to your sign-up page.
4. Take out ads in other people's ezines or newsletters. Often you can do this for very little money (and sometimes if you will contribute a meaningful article, you can do this for free.) Of course, it is best to advertise in your own niche where the people that will be seeing your ad or article will already be interested in your topic.
5. Target message boards and forums. There are a gazillion forums online today where people interested in a given subject congregate and discuss sub-topics of interest in the niche. Again, you can post comments and talk to other folks and at the same time leave your signature for all to see. If you provide relevant and useful information in your comments, others will want to follow the link in your signature and visit your web site.
6. Sign-up forms on your web sites. This probably goes without saying, but many of the most successful web sites include a short and easy sign-up form - even on every page of their web site. This is a constant reminder to get visitors subscribed to the owner's email list. Generally, a freebie of some kind is offered as an incentive for joining the list.
7. Create entry, squeeze, or splash pages. They are all the same thing basically, just being called different things. A squeeze page is a single web page that customers encounter as they try to visit a web site. I say "try" because they are basically forced to give up their name and email address in order to get access to the underlying web site. Incentives are typically given in order to make the customer want to sign up and get access.
8. Co-registration services. Some hate them, others swear by them - but "co-reg" does work and it is considered a legitimate way to gain an email list. There are large sites that get lots of traffic that will sell you a spot to advertise your mailing list sign-up alongside other offers. When folks come to these pages, they are given the opportunity to "opt in" to your mailing list along with other offers. Hence, it could be that someone signs up for multiple lists at the same time. Some have said that these services are spamming customers; however, with the right service, you can require double opt-in making sure that you are not spamming folks.
9. Trade customer lists with someone in your niche - but not a direct competitor.I'm not saying that you just hand over your email list - that would be breaking your commitment to keep your customer file secure and private. But what you can do is send an offer to a competitor's list (have them send the offer) and then reciprocate and let them send an offer to your list. This is a great way to develop new targeted customers. It works best if you and your partner are in the same niche but sell non-competing products.
10. Google Adwords advertising. There is always pay per click advertising (PPC) where you can buy clicks at your web site for a price. This can be a good strategy for building a list if you can get a good amount of prospects joining your list for a reasonable fee. One way to recoup your ad costs is to offer a product at a great price which helps to offset the advertising fees. If you can do this so you at least break even, you will have a great list building strategy.
There are many other ways to start building an email list, but if you are able to implement these ten ideas, you will be well on your way to having a great foundation to your solo business.
