When it comes to having your own business or working for someone else, you will need to be able to build a database of contacts. I am going to share with you the 7 best methods I have found when building my list of contacts.
1. Offer something for Free
In exchange for people signing up to your database, you should offer them something for free. There are millions of people online looking for free stuff everyday. You can give away anything from a software download to a free e-book or webinar. If you are a part of my database, you will notice I have offered my sign-up’s my complimentary 7 day ecourse and I also run webinars on a monthly basis. This however doesn’t mean you offer your followers something of little value, they will end up un-subscribing if you do this too often.
2. Hold a Contest
As said above, offering something for free is a great way to keep your database in contact with you. Another way to do this is to hold a contest. I held my very first contest a few months ago and from that, I received over 200 new contacts to add to my database. If the prize is something worth having and in demand, you will find that people will be willing to give you their email address as they will know they have a chance to win.
3. Join a Forum to share insightful content.
To build your list, you will need to get your name out there and there is no better place to do this than in an online forum. Participate in discussion and debates, especially in your area of specialty. It is OK to be controversial if you are comfortable with this. Make your posts thoughtful and intelligent so that people listen to you and ultimately, want to hear more. It would also be worth have a link back to your website or blog so that people can read more about you before opting in to receiving updates on you.
4. Write articles worth reading
There are lots of great websites out there that you can submit your content to where it can be published. As I am a social media expert, I submit my articles to Social Media Today where they then publish the articles they feel their audience will most benefit from. One of my articles; The Importance of Mobile Commerce has received near 500 shares in the space of 10 days. You must establish yourself as an expert so that people will listen to what you have to say and don’t write the same articles over and over again. You need to be creative and make each article unique.
5. High Quality Newsletters
When sending emails out to your database, you need to make sure it is high quality information. Even if you only have a few subscribers, you will need to put a lot of time and effort into making the email campaign interesting. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to gain more readers and subscribers.If your content is of excellent quality and useful, your subscribers will be sure to forward it on to their friends and family.
6. Make it Easy to Sign-up for
There is nothing worse than spending your time trying to sign up for someone’s email newsletter. Some experts make their subscribers fill out questionnaires just to join their list. The only things you really need from potential subscribers is their name and email address. Don’t make it any more complicated than it needs to be otherwise you will lose that person. You will also need a disclaimer to inform them that their details will not end up in the hands of a third party. I suggest using either Mailchimp as your newsletter tool as it is easy, free to use and looks very professional.
7. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is slightly different from submitting articles to third party websites as when you are a guest blogger, you will need to use exclusive content (something that isn’t on another website). By guest blogging, you can attract new visitors and some of them may opt-in to receive your email newsletter.
Bonus – Live Chat
I managed to acquire an £8,000 client by having a free software called Zopim embedded into my website. I was able to see where this client came from and what page he was viewing. I noticed he had spent quite a bit of time on the GroupBuy page so I messaged him where I got his details and followed up with a call 10 minutes later. We then built his DealJungle website. It is so important to catch your readers when they are most interested so that they don’t lose interest.
Using the 8 techniques above, you will see your number of opt-in’s grow rapidly which will hopefully lead to more sales for your business!