Top Tactics for Building a Profitable Opt-In List

If you are going to be successful in marketing your business online, you will need to build an list of potential customers who opt-in to receive your marketing messages. But how do you do this?

This is the larger topic I will be covering this month at Women’s Business Gallery. But first, I thought I’d start off with a little primer of the top list-building techniques you can use to build a profitable opt-in list.

1) Build trust in who you are and your expertise.
People may opt in to your list if they visit your website and see that you have an attractive “ethical bribe” in exchange for their name and email address. But if they, once they’ve received your ethical bribe, have no reason to believe that continuing to stay on you list is of value to them, they will opt right back out.

Therefore, you need to be constantly working on illustrating that you know your stuff and are a valuable resource. You do this by providing relevant information in a wide variety of places:

• Your blog
• Article directories
• Forums
• Social networking sites

and more. Work on your “aura of expertise” and your opt-in list will become more and more valuable to you.

2) Make your opt-in form stand out.
Make it easy for visitors to your website to opt-in to your list. You can make the first page of your website focus only on getting the opt in. Good examples of this strategy include:

• www.womensbusinessgallery.com
• www.vivavisibility.com
• www.jackcanfield.com

Or, you can place the opt-in box in a strategic location “above the fold.” Good examples of this strategy include:

• www.marketingturbocharge.com/blog
• themarketingmentors.com
• surefiremarketing.com

3) Ask for the sale … repeatedly.
O.K. You’ve generated an amazing “aura of expertise.” You have a list of loyal subscribers to hang on your every word. Is this a profitable list? Not if you don’t ask them to buy something!

Offer products and services that are relevant to the topic of your list. These can be products and services you’ve developed. Or, they can be the products and services of others, for which you are an affiliate.

Regularly ask the members of your opt-in list to buy something, and you will see a profit.

4) Partner with other list-builders.
Create win-win-win joint ventures where you, your JV partner and the members of both your lists benefit and you’ve got a formula for success! Joint ventures can be powerful list-building tools, as well as successful money makers. Just be sure to make it a win-win-win — anything else and you’ll taint your “aura”.

5) Honor your commitments.
People don’t like to be spammed. So, if you say you won’t sell or share their information — keep that commitment. Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

Are you a complete newbie to list building? Unsure of how to even set up the tools you need to start collecting names? Then Video List Building Tutorials for Newbies is for you! This series of six flash videos shows you how to create a landing page, set up an Aweber account and load it all up to your web host. It is one of several list-building products I have for you in the DragonWyze Solutions Marketplace!