List Building: So You've Got an Email List… Now What?

List Building: So You've Got an Email List… Now What?

December 14th, 2009 @ MsMedia // One Comment

Let me tell you a little secret: I’m on the email list of a pretty well known internet marketer, but I hate it when his emails arrive. To be honest, I totally loathe it.

I hit the Delete button so hard, I’m worried my laptop will prematurely go into retirement!

Why, you ask? I’ll tell you why. This guy has never, ever given me anything of value to help me in my marketing efforts. Never a useful tip, never a valuable insight, nothing…  Let’s call him Joe Greedy.

Each and every email he sends me, is nothing but a pitch fest. This product, that product, whatever he can get his hands on, he will tell me to buy.

It looks like the quality of the product he recommends is of less importance, as long as he can make a buck. I can tell you right now that this is a typical “here today – gone tomorrow” type of marketer.

We’ve discussed the importance of list building several times, but this is the perfect example of how building a list in itself is NOT enough.

Let me contrast this “horror story” with the following example: I’ve got a “Top 5 List” of newsletters that I really look forward to receiving. Thanks to useful tips and great advice through the years, I am likely to buy whatever these marketers recommend.

Their trust factor is sky high, and my resistance towards making a purchase melts like a snow ball landing on the sun with its 27 million degrees fahrenheit.

Let’s call the marketer I’m reffering to for Mike Value. Mike has got go integrity, and does not recommend everything under the sun. But his rewards are great. Just listen to what happened when he decided to put his seal of approval on a search engine marketing course, by recommending it to his list.

The publisher contacted Mike Value a few weeks later and told him the following in excited tones: “The conversion rate of the people you sent to our site was exponentially higher than all the other internet marketing experts we have ever dealt with. It was in a class by itself.”

As it turned out, Mike made more than all their other Joint Venture partners. This is the true value of having a list. A huge list of let’s say 50 thousand people, can be pretty much worthless, if your readers do not like and trust you.

Let me tell you a little bit more about our friend Mike Value, and you will probably understand why people trust him like their brother. At the end of each week, Mike takes the latest version of his customer list to the bank and puts it in his safety deposit box. Reason being that accidents can happen – power surges, hard drive crashes, fires and so on.

This weekly ritual also serves as a vivid reminder to Mike that his customer list IS his business”, as he puts it.

The weekly depositing serves as a constant reminder that lists require ongoing care and attention. That’s why Mike Value asks himself the following, every Friday, on the way to the bank: “What have I done to enrich my list members this week?”.

Start asking yourself the same question. It’s not that hard. Just make sure you value and respect your readers enough to give them helpful tips along the way. Never recommend a lousy product.

Your readers will begin to trust you, and they will be voting for you with their wallets when you endorse quality products and services down the road.

About the Author: Charles Jahren is a content manager for Multiple Stream Media - a company dedicated to helping online businesses Attract More Customers the Easy Way.  To get more low or no cost advertising tips from Charles and the Multiple Streams Media staff, visit www.weeklytips.com

Category : Affiliate Marketing &Charles Jahren &Tactics