Blog-Off II Entry: 5 Tips to Quickly Build An Email Database of 1,000+ Leads

Everyone knows it. The money is in the list. The problem is never knowing what to do - it's knowing how to do it. Although email list building is a huge area and covers a broad range of topics, there are a few things you can do today to start building your list.

Here are 5 Tips to Quickly Build An Email Database of 1,000+ Leads:

#1. Give Something Away

You've probably heard the saying before that, "givers gain."  Well that saying is 100% true when it comes to building your list. The best thing you can do to generate leads is by giving something away.  When I say give something away, I'm referring to a free electronic report, an ebook, a video series or whatever is easiest for you to create.

You see what you're really doing here is an exchange.  Your giving your ideal prospect valuable information in exchange for their email.   Do this often and frequent enough and you'll start to quickly build your first 1,000+ leads.  This is the same formula I used to build an email database of 2,400 people over the course of a year.

#2. Don't Be Everything to Everyone

You don't want to be everything to everyone.  When you're creating your free offer focus on a niche. When you focus on a niche you become the expert in that area.  Not only will this help you build a list of targeted leads, but it will also help you eliminate your competition.

You don't want to offer an ebook called 7 Tips to be More Successful because it's too vague.  You're trying to be everything to everyone.  Focus your efforts into a niche.  Maybe create an ebook called 7 Tips to be More Successful as a Blogger. That's more specific.

Here's another example.  It's my first free ebook called: The Genius Within You - How to Unlock Your Life Purpose.  It's an electronic book that I give away for free on my blog.  It's geared towards people who are struggling with their life direction and may be looking for a career change.  That's what I mean about being more specific.

#3. Build A Landing Page for Your Free Offer

Once you know what you're going to give away create a landing page.  A landing page is just a web page where people can read about your free offer and opt-in to your email database. You can check out a sample landing page I created for my ebook: The Genius Within You - How to Unlock Your Life Purpose

What's important is that your landing page creates a sense of urgency.  If people don't feel an internal desire to act, then they won't opt into your email database. To create this internal desire make sure to offer your prospects something highly desirable.

#4. Give People What They Want (Not What They Need)

People act on what they want and not what they need.  So when you create your free offer make sure to give people what they want and not what they need.   One of the best places to find out what people want is by researching online forums.

That's where I started.  I joined an online personal growth community.  As I participated in the forum and began answering other members questions I realized something.   I realized I was answering the same questions over and over again - most of them on life purpose.  That's when I had my "ah-ha" moment. People wanted to learn about life purpose.  That's where I got my idea for the free ebook.

#5. Drive Traffic to Your Free Offer

Once you've nailed down your free offer it's time to drive traffic to it.  You can do this several different ways.  Here are what I've found to be the most effective ways to drive traffic:

• Article Marketing with a Spin - make sure to only post your articles in directories that are related to your niche.  For my Life Purpose ebook I would only post articles at SelfGrowth.com.  This worked extremely well because my prospects were nicely targeted.
• Forum Marketing - join an online forum and start posting comments.  Be as helpful as you can and contribute to the conversation.  The way you get traffic is by creating a compelling signature in your profile.  In my profile signature I used "How to Unlock Your Life Purpose" with a link back to my landing page.  30% of the people who went to my landing page opted-in to get my free ebook.
• Blog Commenting - start commenting on other blogs but do it with a specific intention.  Attempt to get the attention of the blog owner.  Once you get their attention send them a quick email and ask them if you could publish a guest article on their site.
• Newsletter Marketing - sign-up for the Newsletters that are in your niche.  Then email the owner asking them if you could publish an article in their Newsletter.  Make sure to include a small signature at the end of the guest article with a link back to your free offer.

These 5 tips have helped me build an email database of 1,000+ leads, but this list is far from being complete.  What other suggestions do you have for newbie marketers to help them quickly build an email database?

Steve is a Mind Power Coach.  You can learn more about Steve here: Learn the Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Comments

[Iyabo Asani, The Inner Genius Coach]

Thank you Steve. Great writing.

I think the first thing is to be intentional about it.

Go to the forums and write and respond to others. Create a facebook or linkedin group and get a really good feel for what people want to talk about. Then go and create the product.

Create the landing page on your website and go back to the facebook or linked in group and ask them to subscribe for the free report.

Just like you said.

This is powerful information.

You have to promote yourself and sometimes, we do not get that.

[Tim]

Great Post. On my website www.brogansinc.com , There was a holiday offer free shipping but they had to sign up for the website, I got about 2000 emails last winter. This past summer I did a landing page for $100.00 gift certificate and I will pull a winner each month for 3 months, I got about 1600 emails that time as well. Your strategy works well :) It IS PROVEN!!!

[Steve]

Hi Alan,

Not sure if you were asking a question? I saw the question mark, but I totally agree with you. Telling people what my offer is has been my own problem this past year which I think makes me an expert at writing about it ;)

Great point Alan,

Steve

[Steve]

@ Jacqueline,

Awesome, that's so great to hear. Go get'em!

[Susan Brown Ruiz, MSEd. Health Promotion and Marketing]

Great great article. I am a teacher with a background experience and a masters from KU in health promotion, marketing, devolopment and fundraising, and social services. I want to get into helping people with my own blog/website. This was a well outlined, short and to the point guide for me. Thank you much. I will be in touch. I need to spend more time researching my product for promotion for starters. I have lots of experience in database and the importance of contact lists. Thanks again. Any of your tips are very helpful.

[Jacqueline Fairbrass]

Thanks for sharing this info Steve. Good article and well written. I have been kicking some of these ideas around for a while and feel inspired to get started. Cheers.

[Kenny Sturgeon]

Hello-
Nice Post.
I especially believe that giving something away is a great thing- building value for readers and genuinely being interested in furthering their success by giving away information that can actually be used is just "Karmically Correct".
Choosing and speaking clearly to your niche is also a nice bit of advice.

[Alan Gee]

This is a great piece of free info Steve

I hope people read and act upon it so that more people make a success of themselves online.

In my opinion it is rarely the case that people have little to offer and more often the case that people just dont know how to tell people what their offer is?