When I first started marketing online, I kept hearing so-called gurus yell “The money is in your list!” Up until that point, the only list that meant anything to me was probably my shopping list. However, as I quickly became familiar with web marketing, building lists became one of my key goals.
Mainly because list building is one of the vital elements to your internet marketing success. It can play an important role in increasing your sales, getting repeat targeted traffic to your sites and a perfect vehicle for branding your product or company. Additionally, your list can be a primary source of business relationships that will help you build your business online, as these contacts can be the cornerstone of your online marketing.
While I have fulfilled my main ambition of working full time on the network, I have not yet reached my goal of reaching 100,000 subscribers. When I started, my goal was to get 1,000 subscribers, which I went through quickly, then I hit 10,000, which was much harder to reach…getting to 100,000 will take a lot more time and effort, but I think I’ll get there eventually.
Maybe that number is a bit silly, mainly because I learned a long time ago that it’s not the size of your list that counts, but how responsive it is. Still, it’s helpful to have a goal set for yourself…and a 100k subscriber list isn’t an unattainable number, especially when you’re talking about the internet. There are probably more than a few pimple-faced teenagers who have tripled that number of subscribers just by putting up a few goofy videos on YouTube.
Many marketers also make the mistake that list building is all about sales and forget that there is much more to your list than just monetary gain. It can be the foundation for a host of ideas and interactions that go far beyond the number of sales you can squeeze out of your list. Really smart marketers use their lists for market research, product development, and treat their lists as a knowledge resource they can tap into over and over again.
Building your list can also be the foundation of your own vibrant online community. An interactive community and a great source of ideas and business contacts. Probably the best example of this type of community building would be those communities that spring up through social networking sites… and Twitter would be a good example of this type of list building.
Construction of invisible lists
In studying and using lists over the years, some things have really surprised me. As an affiliate marketer, I quickly realized that most of my list building was invisible. This happened when I was fairly new to the marketing game, I had problems with one of my site’s web servers and had to move the entire site to a different server and my site was down for several days… but the weird thing was my Online sales from this site kept coming in even though my site was down.
I was totally baffled (I can be quite slow sometimes!) until I realized or rather learned the marketing power of cookies. Almost every affiliate program I promoted on my site used cookies to mark traffic or clicks from my site as referrals from me. If any of these referrals made a purchase in the next 30, 60, 90 or more days, you would get credit for the sale.
My site was down, but because I had a full list of cookie shoppers lined up to buy these affiliate products, my sales kept coming. I was pretty new to the web at the time and this was a real eye opener for me. I started joining those affiliate programs that gave me the longest time frame with their cookies. Most are around 30 days, but there are quite a few that will give 365 days. Some affiliate programs, like Ken Evoy’s Site Build It and Marlon Sanders Products, even give you a cookie for life.
In affiliate marketing, using these “cookies” to create hundreds of “invisible customer” lists can be a very effective marketing strategy. You may not see these lists, but they are quietly working for you in the background, generating sales even if your site is down or even when you’ve stopped a particular campaign.
Of course, the key here again is how specific your marketing is. You could have a million cookie customers lined up, but if they don’t have a real interest in your product, they won’t convert into buying customers. You must include the potential customer who has shown interest in your product in your list of invisible cookies. This is why ranking high in organic search results for your chosen keywords plays a vital role in how much you earn online, especially if you are interested in affiliate marketing. Going the PPC (pay per click) route can also work, but the profit margins are much closer.
You also shouldn’t ignore building a real opt-in list of customers for your autoresponder system in this entire process. Many marketers also try to “cookie” their actual subscription lists as soon as possible to increase their sales. Their invisible cookie lists may work in conjunction with their so-called real lists.
Along those same lines, one of my most effective marketing strategies is to use “micro” list building, which is creating hundreds of small customer lists for each affiliate product I promote. In the process of creating these lists of potential customers, my first goal is to have these customers “cookies” with my affiliate ID. So it doesn’t matter if they buy directly from you or from some other link on the web; you still receive credit for the sale.
Another effective marketing technique to use with your lists is to promote a whole group of related brand name products and MAKE SURE you include ALL of these different products on your list so no matter which one they choose to buy, you still get credit for the sale. This way, as a seller, you can come across as a helpful neutral third party pointing out the benefits and drawbacks of each product rather than a pushy salesperson pushing a product on your list. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson, so be a helpful friend.
Do not ignore the effectiveness of these cookies or invisible lists in your online marketing. If used correctly, they can increase your sales dramatically. You can have hundreds of these invisible cookie lists working for you across the web. When it comes to the actual numbers, a list of 100,000 subscribers can pale in comparison. So the next time someone mentions list building to you, remember that you can always go incognito!
