Build Your List by Locking Your Subscribers Out!

Ask any serious Internet professional what their most important marketing tool is and they will very likely tell you that it is not their website but their autoresponder. An autoresponder enables businesses to keep their subscribers abreast of new developments by broadcasting up-to-the minute news reports. For information that is less subject to change, a set of letters can be loaded into the autoresponder and programmed to mail out to subscribers on specific days.

Typically, with a 2-step opt-in system (designed to avoid accusations of spamming), interested individuals may “opt in” to an autoresponder mailing list by filling in a form on the business website.

Another way to have people join a list is to invite them to send an e-mail to the autoresponder e-mail address.

On receiving the subscriber’s information the autoresponder will automatically send out a confirmation email and if the subscriber clicks a confirmation link in the email message he will be added to the autoresponder mailing list and start to receive messages whenever they are sent out by the system.

Persuading prospects to subscribe to their mailing list is one of the trickiest problems faced by Internet marketers today. The usual method is to feature a free e-book or training course which is delivered to subscribers immediately after they have filled in the opt in form.

The key here is to focus on offering relevant information that is well written and compelling to read. If you are providing the very same free stuff as loads of other internet marketers then you should not be shocked if few people fill in your opt-in form.

Let’s face it, a lot of people dislike dishing out their email address to strangers, especially on the Internet. One ingenious way of getting around this objection might be to put off the decisive moment when you ask for the mailing details of the subscriber to a time when there will be increased emotional commitment to the process of accessing the product.

With this approach, rather than requiring that the client complete a form, the online marketer invites the prospect to immediately download the e-book via a link.

The subscriber is then directed to the download page and will be invited to provide a download unlocking code so as to “open” the product.

Subscribers who do not yet have the unlocking code are invited to click a link which takes them to a password access form where they supply their e-mail address so that the password can be delivered to their inbox.

The subscriber then retrieves the password from his or her inbox and enters it into the keycode field on the download page and accesses the product. This can be very powerful if the prospect arrives at the download page via a product evaluation style “sales” letter .

This technique of breaking down resistance in advance of asking for e-mail details is more challenging to put in place than a normal opt in form. You will need to learn how to lock web pages and set up password access for your subscribers or check out software designed to do the job for you such as Dan Thompson’s Boomerang List Builder.

However, it is worth persevering with these and other list building techniques because the money really is in the list if you learn how to build it and build a relationship with everybody on it.