List Building Techniques 2
If you missed the first post on building a responsive list, see it here. We continue here with some more advanced techniques.
Ad Swaps
Once you have a list of at least 200, you can explore the idea of ad swaps with other marketers in your niche. Search out 20-30 such marketers and ask them if they’d be willing to post a marketing email of yours to their list in exchange for sending their message to your own. You may get a few bites from those with similarly-sized mailing lists.
Compose your ad that directs them to your sign-up form in one way or another. Don’t do it too often – twice a month at the most. You don’t want to annoy the people on your list! Once you start doing this you’ll find your list growing much faster. Then you can attract ad swaps from even more marketers in your niche.
Fair Method
Set up a spot at your local craft fair, county fair, flea market, etc. Again, this will cost you something, but the returns should be worth the cost.
Give away something of value or something neat or cool that relates to you niche. Include the website address for your squeeze page. You could easily gather hundreds of local list members this way.
JV Swap
For this method to work well, you need a huge giveaway. Make it something that you could sell, but are giving it away free for this purpose. A good example is an audio interview with a renowned expert in your niche.
Then approach other marketers in your niche who sell products. Tell them you love their products and would like to add your giveaway to their sales as a bonus item. To get it, all their customers have to do is sign up to your list. Give the merchant a link or even a graphic to post on their thank you page.
To increase your chances of the merchant saying yes, make your request though a handwritten postal letter. You might even want to include a small gift card or other gift to sweeten their attitude toward you. Don’t forget to put your email address in the letter and ask them to contact you. Chances are good that they will!
Newspaper Ads
Placing ads in newspapers and local swap ads/mailers is another great way to get your URL in the hands of people who might not otherwise find it. Some may even list it for free, if it’s for a giveaway item. Don’t forget Craig’s List, another great place for your ads.
Viral PDFs
Join butterflyreports.com. The idea behind this site is simple. You write an informative, high-value report full of affiliate links, putting your website link under the title. You then submit it to butterfly reports so that other members can use it with full resale rights. These other members rebrand the affiliate links, but leave your web link as is, then continue to spread it all over the web.
They make money from the affiliate links, their customers get a high-quality product for free, and you get a ton of new sign-ups for your list. Win-win-win!
