Build a List
Whilst some of the most influential people on the planet have done so by mastering the development of a commanding social media profile, what happens to their anxiety levels and blood pressure and of course their influence in the event that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram were to go away?
I am sure it would rise and stress them out!
If Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Snapchat were to drop off the face of the earth tomorrow what would happen to your influence? Would your message or business be negatively impacted? Would it thrive or would it crumble under algorithm changes and paid media models being aggressively implemented by every social network that hits prime time.
Are you building your influence on digital property that you own?
Or are you too dependent upon the social networks and larger social ecosystem for your success?
Are you building your influence on rented land?
Are you building your influence on social land that is far from a solid foundation to build your life, cause and or business upon?
Building your influence foundation on digital and social networks you don’t own, puts your message at risk. You have no control on what these social networks do, what happens with their product roadmaps or how your audience and ideal customer react to their upcoming changes in the future.
Simply take a look at Facebook, Twitter and any social network for that matter and you’ll see how quickly they are changing.
To be a Million Dollar Influencer you can not let this happen to you.
You need to build your own plan, strategy and integrated platform that inspires, attracts, engages and nurtures your ideal follower. You need to look past the numbers and market segment statistics and connect with real human beings in real ways on your owned digital property.
You should be integrating influencer marketing, content marketing and tapping into the power of the OPC (other people’s content and community) and the list goes on.
The social networks should be igniting your influence and helping you achieve your goals, not be your only oxygen for survival. Big difference.
This is why Million Dollar Influencers have databases of emails, belonging to their customers, members or followers.In other words they build a list!
So by now I am sure you understand how important it is to a potential influencer to have an email list.
Anybody who has been in business a while understands you’re supposed to build an audience of excited fans who can’t wait to buy your next product or service. Historically this has required many hours, days, months or more than likely years painstakingly building up this list so you can reach those thrilled would-be customers as soon as you hit send.
But frankly, you just don’t have that kind of time to devote to building your list. Right?
The good news: You don’t have to spend weeks or even hours setting up the tools that will grow your list. No matter what you’re doing in your brand, cause or business (even if you’re running the whole show yourself), you can take some practical steps right now to start growing your list immediately.
Here are four simple yet effective ways to commence or bolster efforts to build a list.
1. Landing Page
It is possible to build a list for just about any cause imaginable using a simple landing page as your temporary (or sometimes not-so-temporary) website.
If you’re starting at square one, you can use a landing page to start growing your email list in minutes—even before you have a permanent website to drive traffic to.
What You Need: A single webpage with a powerful headline and call-to-action button that gives away a high value piece of content or “lead magnet” in exchange for your subscriber’s email address.
Plus, a traffic source like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
For example, let’s say you’re a fitness trainer looking for new clients. You might create a landing page to grow your list of potential clients.
The landing page might give away the fitness trainer’s top 5 personal exercises.
No matter what industry you’re in, I have found that you can give away your top 5 tools, resources, or routines you use and this is a hotly sought after commodity.
Once you have developed your page, share it in as many places as possible. For example, tweet your page, post the link in your Twitter description, share it on Facebook, add it to your LinkedIn page, add it to your blog or online bio, add it to your email signature, etc.
2. Don’t be coy about asking people to join your list
In business we call this the “A.B.C.”— always be closing? Well, for a Million Dollar Influencer if you have a website, you should be “A.B.B.”— always be building (your list).
That starts from the moment a new web visitor clicks on your website for the first time.
You can do this by turning your homepage into a Welcome Gate page that immediately asks new visitors to join your list. Or you can place a call-to-action button or subscription link on your homepage. Ideally, you should add this button or link above the fold so your new visitors don’t have to scroll down to see it.
For best results, try linking your call-to-action button to a pop-up lead capture form.
3. Capture leads within your content
The last thing you want is for a potential follower to come to your site, fall in love with your blog or podcast content and then leave and never come back.
That’s why you need a mechanism in place to capture these leads and turn your blog readers into email subscribers and potential supporters or customers.
Other than a pop up lightbox The other ideal mechanism to capture subscribers is known as a content upgrade.
A content upgrade is a special kind of lead magnet. Think of it as a bonus piece of content built to complement an individual blog post, video or podcast episode. Visitors can take in the original content with no strings attached, then opt in with their email address to get the content upgrade.
To see a perfect example of an in content lightbox [thrive_2step id=’1009′]CLICK HERE.[/thrive_2step]
To get you started here are some content upgrade ideas:
PDFs of your blog posts
Transcripts of your videos or podcasts
Mindmaps or process maps to explain the post topic
Quickstart guides that help readers implement the content
Infographics that explain the post topic
Resource guides or lists to help readers take action on the content
Videos to give step-by-step actions for your content
Additional content (for example, “100 Ways to Grow Your List” as opposed to the six
already in this post)
4. Grow your list via your strategic partners.
Don’t have a list yet, but have great relationships with other business owners in your industry or other influencers? Then you can use those strategic partnerships to start generating leads.
It’s as simple as asking your strategic partner to reach out to their existing email list to introduce you and what you have to offer.
The best way to start this process is to produce a valuable piece of content or message that your strategic partners will want to share with their audiences. Ideally, you should ask your partner’s subscribers to join your list to receive this valuable content.
What you need: At least one strategic partner, a valuable piece of content to share with their audience and a mechanism to allow your partner’s subscribers to join your list, like a purpose built landing page.
