It doesn’t really matter what product or service you sell online; the key metrics are the same and we should always start with building a list of targeted prospects
In this post I am going to highlight the best practice to build your list and generate revenue with the gold standard being you make more profit from the front-end funnel and back end follow up campaigns than the cost of the traffic and you have a very profitable long-term business
This should be the focal point of your marketing efforts and set up correctly you can capture the visitor’s email and then direct them to whatever page or offer you wish, and this provides the best ROI on your marketing spend
The key to building a list is to make sure you monetise the traffic
There are various ways to monetise your traffic, you can promote affiliate offers or create your own products and providing you build a high converting front end funnel and strong back end follow up, you should be able to make a profit from paid traffic which is the ultimate aim because you are then building your list for free
List building as an affiliate marketer
If you want to promote an affiliate offer many new markers send traffic directly to the vendors sales page which can be very costly and result in low conversions
To maximise revenue, always send your traffic to a review page of the offer you are promoting and collect the email to qualify for the bonus
Get review access as soon as possible from the vendor, if you are new provide as much info as possible so the vendor can see how you intend to promote and what sort of traffic you will be sending
The last thing any vendor wants is a lot of junk traffic because the conversion stats are all important to recruit other affiliates during the launch
It is also a great idea to create the bonus page frame work using the sales page or JV page graphics and headlines first before contacting the vendor because most will appreciate the effort and give you access
Do this as early as possible so you can go through the product thoroughly and create a review which can be a video or PDF
Always make sure you go through the entire product and provide a truthful review, it can take months to build up trust with your list of subscribers and 1 inaccurate review to destroy it
How to create a bonus
Providing good bonuses will increase your conversions but spend time going through the product to find something that could possibly be improved, generally an info product will address 1 key issue so find a weakness and base the bonus products on the missing piece of the puzzle
So, for example, you could be promoting an email marketing training course which covers how to get the most of out your emails but may not provide much in terms of how to get visitors to your website
Your review and bonus could point this out and address the issue with a related traffic product
If you are starting out chances are you will not have any of your own products but you can find some really great products that you can brand and sell or giveaway as your own and our own Plr profits club provides a product portfolio of over 5000 products you can sell and giveaway and we add 40 new products each month so a great resource to have
Other ways to build your list
If you have a blog (and you should have) add a signup offer in the sidebar or add links to the footer of your post linking to a paid offer, so for example you could say if you enjoyed this post you can find the top 3 advanced strategies etc on the link below
Forums and social media posting
Create accounts on the most popular forums in your niche and find questions or problems that have been posted that you can answer, if you don’t know the answer go and research it and you can add a link in your signature back to your blog and this method can be applied using all of the popular social media platforms
You will be amazed at the amount of quality traffic this method can provide even spending 20 minutes per day
The importance of top-quality Lead magnets
A lead magnet is something you give the visitor in return for their email address
Critically important to always provide high value content both as free content and paid offers
Gone are the days of throwing together a 7-page report, now we need to provide real value to get the visitor to give you their real email address
Make sure you provide a related offer based on the traffic you are generating, if you are promoting a list building product, its essential to provide a free report, video training or some related resource to list building for maximum conversions rather than a random offer which may be focused on another niche like social media etc
Always use a bridge page after the signup on the squeeze page
This is key to your conversions but also sets the scene and manages expectations for your new subscriber
A bridge page should give the new subscriber more information on what they can expect and when and how they will receive the gift they have signed up for
You can create a text page with graphics providing the info or create a short intro video
This is essential if you are sending the new subscriber to a one time offer or upgrade offer (and you should be)
Think about it for a minute, you have a brand-new subscriber that doesn’t know you and they have signed up to get your free offer
You obviously don’t mention on the squeeze page that you are going to send them to an offer before they get the free gift so guess what happens when they land on a paid offer? They are not too pleased, and a high percentage may well unsubscribe
Using a bridge page is designed to inform and educate the subscriber so they are fully aware of the process, you can tell them exactly how and when the free offer will be delivered but before that take a look at this offer on the next page because it could short cut the whole process, save money, or what ever reason you feel is appropriate in relation to the new offer you are presenting
Always use a trip wire offer
Once you have captured the lead and pre-sold on the bridge page, the offer you are going to send them to is know as a trip wire offer
A trip wire offer is simply a high value product with a low cost, I like to use an offer that may be an 8-part video training related to the free offer they just signed up for and typically I price this product at $7 which may normally sell for $27 - $37
The aim here is to convert as many cold subscribers to buyers with offers that should just be too good to miss
The value to you of a buyer can be 100 times more profitable than a subscriber so its key to work hard to convert as many free subscribers to buyers as possible
This process should be repeated with different offers sprinkled in amongst great free content in your follow up autoresponder campaigns until the subscriber finds an offer they can’t resist and becomes a buyer
Setting up your autoresponder
You will create a new list for your new subscribers and these leads are cold leads, they don’t know you and you need to spend some time providing genuine value and information that can help your new subscribers achieve whatever they are trying to do based on the niche you are in.
Over time you should achieve the “know, like and trust” status and this process gives you a far greater chance to make a sale and build up a long-term relationship
Segment your lists
Its key to segment your lists based on interests or products, so you can better target both paid offers and free content
Create as many free front end offers as you wish, add 1-2 personal follow up messages related to the actual free content and then set the autoresponder to automatically move the subscribers to a master prospects list so you never duplicate messages
Create a buyers list per product
Automate the lists so once a subscriber buys a product they are automatically removed from the prospects list and added to the buyers list and the buyer then starts on a new pre-loaded follow up campaign
List hygiene
Make sure the autoresponder removes any bounced emails, so you maintain the best sending reputation for better Inboxing
If you are using an autoresponder you should have the features included to automate all of these systems, if your autoresponder does not offer this amount of flexibility or automation take a look at InboxingPro here
This is our own cloud-based autoresponder with thousands of customers using it for all their email marketing campaigns, it provides a total end to end solution and with no monthly fees
Product creation
The one thing all successful marketers have in common is they are all product creators, and some seem to crank out products almost on a weekly basis
The secret here is the vast majority use done for you resale products or PLR products that can be rebranded and launched as their own and this is how I got started and 99.9% of all successful marketers
When you think about it, why work as an affiliate for 50% commission when as a product creator you can earn 100% and have an opportunity to recruit your own army of affiliates
If you want to get access to a wealth of high-quality resale and PLR products check out our own monthly membership PLR Profits Club
This is a one stop shop for internet marketers and you will find a library of over 5000 existing products you can brand and sell as your own with at least 40 new products added each month
Please click here to get the special joining offer
So now you have a blueprint go and get something set up and remember, it is better to have something out there that may not be 100% perfect rather than waiting for months until everything is exactly as you want it so good luck with your efforts