50 Ways to Build Your List

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2 Contents Optimize opt-ins Put an sign up prompt on every page of your site Put an sign up form on every page, not just a link to an sign up page Have two opt-in forms on every page Use more engaging copy than just subscribe in the sign up box button Use a pop-up or lightbox Limit how much information you ask for in the opt-in box Offer an incentive to sign up Include a link to previous newsletters Include a link to your privacy policy Add a testimonial near the opt-in box Add a home page opt-in form Test your opt-in box Add an opt-in form to your About Us page Add an opt-in form to all the videos on your site Add a Hello bar Social media Add a custom tab to your Facebook page Host a contest on your Facebook page 2

3 Create a LinkedIn group Ask people who comment on your blog to sign up for your newsletter Use Twitter s Lead Generation Cards Promote your newsletter in your tweets Promote your newsletter in your YouTube videos Use Pinterest to promote your s Use your Google+ page Create a SlideShare account Put social media sharing buttons in your messages Online marketing Use paid traffic to send people to a squeeze page Write a Kindle book Put a sign up promotion in your signature line Partner with other companies and websites Seek out co-registration partners Add send to a friend buttons to product pages Create a mobile app Try the Opt-in Content Locker plugin Host a webinar Include a prompt to join your list when someone is about to place an order Guest post on related blogs Create an online tool that requires registration 3

4 Offline marketing Don t overlook the fish bowl Send postcards with an sign up offer Use Forms on the Go Use text to join Use QR codes Add a prompt to sign up for your list on all printed materials Do some public speaking Use the phone Run employee contests Minimize opt-outs Find out what your readers really want to know about Segment your list Use double opt-in 4

5 Optimize opt-ins Optimize opt-ins 5

6 #1 Put your sign up box on every page of your site If people can t find your form, they can t sign up. So add your sign-up form to every single page of your site. Make it part of both the header and footer so people can see the sign-up box from almost every view. 6

7 Optimize opt-ins The place to be is above the fold. The header area and the area above the fold are valuable real estate on your website. Above the fold comes from newspaper publishing. It means the visible area above where the printed newspaper folds. It is the part of the newspaper with the greatest visibility. Websites have an above the scroll line, but we call that above the fold, too. It s a little different depending on which computer and browser your visitor uses. For right now, don t get too worried about where above the fold is on your site. Just focus on the part of the screen you can see on your home page without scrolling. Squeezing in above the fold Having your sign-up box in the header or above the fold means you can t promote other parts of your site. You ll have to decide what your priorities are. Is growing your list more important than what might otherwise be in that valuable header space? Maybe it is, maybe it isn t. Need some food for thought about about using that precious header space for an sign-up? I ve got a case study for you. This study shows how moving an opt-in box from below the fold to above the fold resulted in 30% more sign-ups over the course of a year. The client was an online retailer in the B2C market. 7

8 They did just one thing to get 30% more opt-ins. They moved the sign-up box higher on the page. This sign-up box isn t even in the header area, but it s still much more visible than before. Moving the opt-in box did not hurt sales. In fact, the new page increased sales by 27%. Nice work! 8

9 Optimize opt-ins #2 Use an sign-up form, not just a link to a sign-up page You ll get more subscribers if you include the sign-up form on every page of your site, not just a link to click through to sign up. A link or linked image is better than nothing. But having the form right there works better. With the form right on the page, people don t have to click through to another page to sign up. This increases sign-ups. Here s what MECLABS Director Dr. Flint McGlaughlin said in a webinar. Every time you ask someone to click a new page in the process, you lose 50% of your audience. Optimization: Improve ROI from Capture to Conversion 9

10 #3 Add more opt-in forms It s great to have an opt-in form above the fold on every page, but that s just a start. Consider adding a second form to the footer of every page on your site. Something like this would work well: A study of how 300 small online retailers found that most opt-in forms are in the bottom right corner. Even the bottom left corner beat the top right position. 10

11 Optimize opt-ins Where would you add an opt-in box? 11

12 #4 On the sign-up box button, use copy that is more engaging than just subscribe. The words you use in your buttons can make a tremendous difference in your results. Run a simple A/B split test to see which words get the most conversions. You could test these six options: 12

13 Optimize opt-ins 1) Go 2) Sign up 3) Get updates 4) Sign up for FREE 5) Join 6) Sign me up! More examples of sign-up box buttons: If testing your sign-up button copy seems like too much of a hassle, consider this test: 13

14 In this button copy, Send My Free Report converted 22.9% better than Start my free subscription. That s a nice bump from just one test. Who wouldn t like 23% more subscribers by making one simple change? #5 Test pop-ups Pop-ups (also called pop-overs, pop-ins, overlays, hover-boxes and light-boxes) have a bad rep. As soon as you mention them, people say, Oh, those annoying things. Then someone asks, Do those even work? Don t the pop-up blockers keep them from showing? Pop-ups work well. Many of them appear even when a visitor has a pop-up blocker installed. You can make pop-ups less annoying. In fact, many of the best practices for pop-ups the practices that make them most effective also make them less annoying. 14

15 Optimize opt-ins Best practices for pop-ups 1) Show the pop-up one time. Each unique visitor should seed the pop-up just once per visit. GetResponse gives you an easy way to do this. Just choose how many days you want to pass after the pop-up appears. In this example, a visitor would not see the pop up more than once every 7 days. 2) Show the pop-up after a visitor has been on your site for at least few seconds. This reduces the annoyance factor. In the example above, the pop up is set to appear after a visitor has been on the site for 20 seconds. 3) Offer a bonus for signing up. This applied to your opt-in boxes and to your pop-ups, too. Offer something to entice site visitors to sign up, whether that s a free trial, an ebook, or a discount. 15

16 Here are some more examples of pop-ups, and light-boxes. What s the difference between a pop-up and a light-box? Great question! The difference is slight, and it s all in how the area behind the box appears. If the background grays out, or goes dark, as in these examples, you ve got a light-box. If the screen area behind the opt-in box is still visible, it s a pop-up. 16

17 Optimize opt-ins #6 Limit how much information you ask for in the opt-in box A dozen case studies show how a marketer trimmed a sign-up form and got major increases in opt-ins. Here are two good examples: 1) HP saw an increase of 186% in opt-ins when they trimmed form fields. 2) Neil Patel cut the revenue field from the form below and saw a 26% increase in conversions. 17

18 Limit the number of fields. If you don t need that information, don t ask for it. To maximize opt-ins, ask for address only. They can type their address into a form on your home page, click a button, and BANG they re subscribed. If you need more information, use progressive profiling. In this technique you request just one or two pieces of information at a time. As you build a relationship, you ask for more information. 18

19 Optimize opt-ins #7 Offer an incentive to sign up If you want subscribers, you ll have to do better than just ask people to sign up for our s. Visitors need a compelling reason to give you their address. Their inbox is already full. They don t have enough time to read even 20% of the s they get every day. If you want them on your list, you ll need to sell them on What s In It For Me? (WIIFM). The simplest way is to write a short report (5 pages or so) on how to solve one of their main problems. 19

20 If you want to do an extra-good job, add these 3 steps: 1) Write a second report that solves a different problem. 2) Split-test the two sign-up offers. 3) Rinse and repeat. It s worth spending time to tweak your sign-up offer. Think of all the work you do to get people to see your opt-in form. If you could get 10% or 20% more subscribers for all that work, what would that be worth to you? Here s how some bloggers lure visitors onto their lists. 20

21 Optimize opt-ins Before we move on, you should know that some marketers have had lots of success by offering the newsletter as the incentive. In other words, they put the whole newsletter and sign up for our messages model aside. Instead, they offer an e-course. The e-course is a week- or month-long autoresponder series. Once people are on the autoresponder, they re on the list. The marketer can send messages until they unsubscribe and some do. This technique of ing people until they either buy or unsubscribe is sometimes called buy or die. Here s how Contentrix does it. (Note how they present the course as a $97 value you get for free) 21

22 #8 Include a link to previous newsletters Descriptions of our updates are great. But a newsletter archive shows people exactly what they ll get. A newsletter archive gets you more subscribers, and it gives you a great way to repurpose content. Each newsletter edition can be it s own page. You can add a new category to your site to round up all the editions. The newsletters themselves can be in pdf format or saved as high-quality images. 22

23 Optimize opt-ins If that sounds like too much work, we ve got good news for you. GetResponse can automate the newsletter archive for you. Just go to your campaign settings page (click the little gear wheel just to the right of the campaign pull-down menu). Then go to the Profile tab. It looks like this: Click the newsletter directory link at the bottom. You ll see a page that lists all the newsletters you ve sent for that campaign. Here s our archive: 23

24 Are your newsletters simple enough to be readable as images? If so, create a Pinterest board or Facebook gallery of past newsletters. Presto there s another way to repurpose your content, and another way to flesh out your social media sites. Here s an example of a newsletter archive link in an opt-in box from PracticalEcommerce.com: 24

25 Optimize opt-ins #9 Include a link to your privacy policy This reassures prospective subscribers. Nobody wants to get spammed. Though it might seem obvious (of course you re not going to spam them!) it helps to say so and to put the link to your privacy policy just below the sign-up form. Here s an example from MarketingProfs.com 25

26 Maybe you re still on the fence about taking up space with a privacy policy link. If so, consider the results of this case study from WhichTestWon in The only difference between the two forms is the privacy policy link below the button. The version with the privacy link got 19.1% more sign-ups. 26

27 Optimize opt-ins #10 Add a testimonial for your messages near the opt-in box This is a marketing principle called social proof. You must be good, because others say so. It was described by Robert B. Cialdini in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Marketers have applied it in hundreds of ways in countless marketing projects. Why is social proof used so often? Because it works. Add a testimonial about your messages near the opt-in box. It lets prospective subscribers know others enjoy your newsletter. You can include a static quote like the one below from Ash Ambirge s site. Or let people know how many subscribers you have, as Social Media Examiner does. 27

28 Another way to use social proof would be to put your social buttons, with interaction counts, next to your opt-in box. That s not as specific as someone saying they love your messages, but it gives you enough credibility to help. What if you don t have 230,000 subscribers or great testimonials? You ask for them. The testimonials, I mean. If you don t have 100,000 subscribers, the easiest way to get social proof is to go with just one good testimonial. Keep in mind that you don t need 100,000 subscribers to be impressive. If you re in a niche market, 10,000 subscribers may be enough. Or maybe it will take just 1,000 or 3,000 subscribers to get a lift for your opt-in box. The only way to know is to test. 28

29 Optimize opt-ins Here s another example showing subscriber counts and social media accounts. It s an impressive dashboard that shows how much influence the Content Marketing Institute has. And it gives people a clickable way to join whichever channel they prefer. #11 Add a home page opt-in This opt-in form appears only on your home page. It is sometimes called a resource box. These opt-ins take up the full width of the top of the home page area, filling most of the space above the fold. 29

30 While it s a commitment to give that much real estate to an opt-in form, there s a good reason for it. Home page opt-in forms work. One blogger reports his client saw a 500% increase by switching from a top right navigation opt-in box to a full-width box. ( headwaythemes.com/the-3-best-places-for-high-conversion- -opt-in-forms). Many of the best-converting home page opt-in forms include a video, too. Here are some examples of total commitment to getting more subscribers: 30

31 Optimize opt-ins #12 Test your opt-in box Other list-building tactics mention testing. This one focuses on it. It may generate your best results. You can move your opt-in box higher on the page, and you can write enticing copy to get people to subscribe, and you can offer a free report. But how do you know if you re increasing your opt-in rate? That s where testing comes in. For example, which one of these opt-in boxes do you think gets the most subscribers? (Note: DIYThemes.com used the testing tool Visual Website Optimizer) 31

32 It was Variation #2, the center option. The control is on the left above. If you use WordPress, you may run into a snag when you try to test your opt-in box. That s because most opt-in boxes are placed in the template section of pages, not in the main content area. So they test only what s in the content area, with no option for testing template elements. To control which template a page uses in WordPress, look for the pull-down menu labeled template. The problem is getting two or more templates to rotate as users go through the site. That s where the plugin Split Test Dynamo comes in. For $7 a month or $77 one time, you can test your site s template. There is a limitation. You can only test two templates at a time (compared to the test on the previous page, which tested three elements at once). But keeping things simple and affordable on a WordPress site, Split Test Dynamo may be the ticket. If you want something more robust, try Visual Website Optimizer or Optimizely. Visual Website Optimizer is free for up to 1,000 visitors/month. Up to 10,000 visitors a month costs $49. Optimizely has a free 30-day trial and then costs $17 for up to 2,000 visitors per month. It s $71 a month for up to 20,000 visitors. 32

33 Optimize opt-ins #13 Add an opt-in on the About us page The About us page is one of the most important pages on your site, yet most of us don t give it the attention it deserves. It is an opportunity to sell your site to your visitors. More important, it s a great opportunity to get visitors onto your list. Add at least two customized opt-in forms to your About us page. One should be toward the top between two paragraphs, and another one below (again between two paragraphs). Here s a nice format for an about us page: Headline Paragraph: Who this site is for Full-width opt-in form 33

34 Paragraph: What we offer Paragraph: About the founder/owner Full-width opt-in form Here s the top segment of the About page from ChrisDucker.com. As you can see, the full-width opt-in form is not like the home page opt-in form. It s a skinny row of two form fields and the opt-in button, not a square area like the home page examples. 34

35 Optimize opt-ins #14 Add an opt-in form to each video on your site We ll talk about capturing leads with YouTube annotations later. For the moment let s talk about getting more subscribers with videos on your site. The first thing you ll need is a media player that lets you embed an opt-in form in the video. There are four that let you do that: Wistia, Viewbix, OptinPlayer and HeroCaster. 35

36 Wistia is the best-known media player and is also a video hosting service. Wistia refers to its opt-in feature as turnstile. Here s what their embedded turnstile opt-in forms looks like: You can gate the video, so visitors can see the video only if they enter their address. Or you can put the opt-in form at the end, or even in the middle of the video. Wistia recommends putting the opt-in form about 15 seconds into the video. That gives people a nice introduction, so they are more likely to enter their address so they can view the rest. Wistia has tested where to place an opt-in form and has gotten as high as an 11% opt-in rate from the example shown above. Be careful about requiring an upfront. It can suppress views. Test which opt-in placement works best. 36

37 Optimize opt-ins Here s an example showing a ViewBix opt-in form from Pinterest marketer Cheryl Stinchcomb s website. 37

38 #15 Add a Hello Bar The Hello Bar is a little widget you can add to your blog or a static HTML web page. It creates a skinny horizontal opt-in form at the top of your page. The Hello Bar plugin is free, but you have to register to download the plugin (hey, they want to build their list, too). There are similar plugins called ViperBar and AttentionGetter. They let you do about the same thing, though I d recommend you start with Hello Bar. 38

39 Optimize opt-ins The Hello Bar has an attractive advantage. Unlike other plugins, it lets you do A/B split tests. The downside is that it doesn t integrate with GetResponse yet. So you ll have to download new subscribers in a CSV file then import them into GetResponse. It s not a big deal (5 extra minutes of work), and Hello Bar support says integration is coming soon. Subscribers Magnet is like the Hello Bar, but with far more features. It can create a Hello-like bar at the top or bottom of any page. It also creates pop-ups, and can insert an sign-up box in the navigation column or between paragraphs in a blog post. And it integrates with GetResponse. You can test it with a 14-day free trial for $1. After that, a single-site license costs $37. 39

40 Social media 40

41 Social media #16 Add an opt-in to your Facebook page Facebook is a huge resource for marketers. If you do only one thing to build your list, add a custom tab where Facebook visitors can sign up for your list. It takes less than 30 minutes using the GetResponse app available here. ( The app creates a nice sign-up tab like the one below. The setup for creating the tab is super-simple. Just make sure you re logged into both your Facebook account and your GetResponse account. Download a pdf tutorial of how to set it up here. Get a video here. how-can-i-capture-new-subscribers-facebook-fan-page. 41

42 Here s how it looks when you click the tab. This sign-up form is simple. You can dress up yours as you like. Use testimonials and other opt-in form best practices covered in the previous section. 42

43 Social media Consider creating a separate campaign for people who sign up for your list through Facebook. You may want to treat Facebook subscribers different than other subscribers. Having them in a separate campaign is the easiest way to do that, and it won t create much extra work. When you re sending newsletters to your primary list, you can check a box to send it to your Facebook subscribers too. 43

44 #17 Host a contest on Facebook You can run Facebook contests to get likes. Or you can generate customer engagement by encouraging comments and photo posting. Either is a great opportunity to capture addresses. And we re all about the addresses. First, you ll need a third-party app. Heyo is an excellent, easy-to-use Facebook contest app. It has a 7-day free trial and great extra features (including a like gate). It doesn t integrate with GetResponse, but you can download a CSV file and import it into your GetResponse account. There are four types of Facebook contests: sweepstakes, video, photo and posts. The last three are for generating content and user engagement. We re interested in sweepstakes. 44

45 Social media Your sweepstakes prize can be something like an ipad or a gift certificate in exchange for information about the visitor. For example, they enter their address for a chance to win. You might also want their first name and their zip code, especially if you re a brick-and-mortar business. Make your offer something that will be interesting to your visitors. It should be relevant to your product or service and relevant to the interests of your ideal customers. If you re a retailer or a service business, gift certificates are excellent. A travel site might offer a trip. A restaurant could offer dinner for two. After you pick your prize and your app, it s still not time to post that contest. Read the Facebook page guidelines. Facebook takes contests down if they don t follow their rules. A short version of the rules includes: 1) Disclose who is sponsoring the contest. 2) State that the contest is not in any way associated with Facebook. 3) Explain who qualifies to take part. 4) Disclose that you will add them to your newsletter list. 5) Disclose that you may use their name and photograph in promotional materials later (if you plan to). 6) Follow all the contest rules that apply to you on a local, state and federal level. 7) Don t contact the contest winners through Facebook. Let them know they ve won through . 45

46 If #5 sounds confusing, here are some resources for clarification: 1) Facebook contest rules: php#promotionsguidelines 2) An article from Social Media Examiner about Facebook contest rules: To build the contest page, you may need the help of a designer. Your contest page should have a clean, bold design visitors can understand at a glance. When it s up (and tested) then promote it. Aren t you glad you have a way to segment Facebook users in your list? 46

47 Social media #18 Create a LinkedIn group LinkedIn is more appropriate for B2B companies and consultants. But retailers and nonprofits could use it to their advantage, too. LinkedIn allows you to create groups. Some groups are open, which means anyone can join. For closed groups, you must apply and wait for approval. When someone joins a group, the group owner can send a welcome message. That message can include a prompt to sign up for updates. LinkedIn groups can also send automatic group-activity digests. LinkedIn groups no longer sends automatic welcome messages. So the group manager can send manual welcome messages. But the true goal is to drive people to the website to subscribe. 47

48 Most people on LinkedIn don t have their own groups, but that doesn t mean you can t have one. All you need is a topic and the time to fill out the form on the following page. You grow your list when you send a welcome . This is not a way to get 10,000 subscribers overnight. But it s a proven way to build a small, super-targeted, high-value list. After you ve created your LinkedIn group, you can invite people to join. This is a great way for service businesses and high-end retailers to reach prospects and build a community. Once you get people into the group, you ll need to give them regular updates with valuable information. Otherwise they ll leave. This is another opportunity to re-use newsletter content. And because LinkedIn is also a social site, you may get more feedback than in distribution to inboxes. As with any social media channel, make sure it s not all about you. Add polls and industry reports, and encourage group members to post. This means you may not have absolute control over what happens, but that s the nature of social media. You publish information then watch what people do with it. You can t have absolute control while sharing ideas and creating a community. One-way marketing has become less effective. 48

49 Social media This is the form for creating a LinkedIn group. 49

50 #19 Ask people who comment on your blog to sign up for your newsletter If someone engages with your blog by commenting, they may want to subscribe to your list. The moment they submit a blog comment is a great time to ask. Here s a free WordPress plugin that prompts blog commenters to join your list: Comment Redirect. 50

51 Social media After you ve installed the plugin, create the page to send people to after they ve left a comment. After you publish the page, go to the plugin settings and use the pull-down menu to select a page for redirect. And that s it! Whenever someone leaves a comment on your blog, they ll see a page that invites them to join your list. 51

52 #20 Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards In May of 2013 Twitter rolled out new ad formats called Twitter Cards. One of them is a lead generation card that lets advertisers capture addresses from within an expanded tweet. These tweets allow about 50 characters of description, a large image, and a call to action. The user s Twitter name and address are pre-populated in the form. The prepopulated address is a big advantage. Twitter lets you customize the copy on the subscribe button. When they click it, they subscribe. 52

53 Social media Twitter lead generation cards integrate with your GetResponse account. For setup, go to My Account > Integrations and select Twitter ads. Then choose a campaign for your Twitter leads. Click Get the Submit URL for the URL to paste into your Twitter ads. Voila! Your new subscribers will go into the specified campaign. 53

54 #21 Promote your newsletter in your tweets It s easy to get followers on Twitter, even if you only tweet a couple times a day. You ll get even more if you follow other people, especially if they tweet about the same things you do. Pitch your newsletters to your Twitter audience. Don t abuse this, of course. Only about 20% of your tweets should self-promote. But that still leaves lots of tweets to sing the praises of your s. 54

55 Social media You re not limited to tweeting about something just once. Many top bloggers tweet about a post 3 to 5 times over the course of a day. Other bloggers tweet whole sentences from their post, getting as many as 15 tweets out of each post. You can pull content for tweets out of every article in your newsletters. And you can write a dozen or so sentences in each newsletter article that are short and focused enough to be tweetable. You can even embed a tweet this feature into your so your readers can tweet sentences from the articles. Even if your message isn t ready to go yet, you can announce the content you re working on. Your followers will enjoy teasers about what s ahead in the next . It s legit to tweet things like this: GetResponse makes this easy an automated way to tweet whenever you send out an update. To set this up, go to My account > Integrations and select Twitter. Just click the Connect to Twitter account button. A prompt asks you to give the GetResponse app access to your Twitter account so it can post for you, and you re done. 55

56 #22 Promote your newsletter in YouTube videos YouTube is the second largest search engine. You and your content need to be on it. Even if you can t bear the idea of seeing yourself in a video, you can do great screencasts and other formats for video. It doesn t have to be perfect. It just needs to get out there. If you think your videos have to be perfect, go look at YouTube. Click around. Your confidence will rise. But let s get back to . A cheap, easy way to get more sign-ups from your YouTube videos is to add an Associated Website Annotation. You can add annotations to any YouTube video for free, then use them to link from YouTube to your primary site. 56

57 Social media There s a good video tutorial on how to do that here: watch?v=ojp8coo2tem. YouTube s official page about website annotations is here: The prompt to join a newsletter can be something as simple as this: How Derek Halpern of SocialTriggers.com promotes his updates in videos. 57

58 #23 Use Pinterest to promote your s Pinterest continues to grow, and recently outgrew Twitter. While it might not work for every audience, Pinterest users buy more and share more than Facebook users. There are two ways to use Pinterest to build your list. The first is to drive traffic to gated content. Here s an example. You create a pin about a recipe and link the pin to a page that requires users to enter their address before they can see the recipe. 58

59 Social media The pin might look like this: If you click on the image, it goes to this page: 59

60 There are two interesting things going on here. First, there s a pop-up to view the content. See #34 for how to gate content like this. Second, notice how long the light-box copy is. This is the longest copy I ve ever seen on a lightbox like a mini landing page. Another technique is to create a pin about a contest or sweepstakes you re running. The pin links to the contest entry page, which requires and an address. Here are a few examples of Pinterest contests: You can also create an image promotion for your list, like this: 60

61 Social media #24 Use your Google+ page Google+ doesn t offer an easy way to get an opt-in form in front of people, but there are workarounds. Some people have success creating Google+ Notification circles. After people join the circle, you can send them an update every time you post to that circle. It s better than nothing. But it still means Google is the intermediary and that you still don t have the person s address. At least, you can announce your newsletter on Google+ as Chris Brogan does below. Note that he s not just saying sign up for my newsletter. He s saying he s put his best content into the newsletter. It s a way to say to your Google+ audience: Like what you ve seen from me so far? Then sign up for my updates there s even better stuff there. 61

62 #25 Create a SlideShare account This technique is best for consultants and B2B companies because of the nature of the SlideShare audience. But a non-profit or a retailer could do well with SlideShare, too. Slideshare lets you post presentations like PowerPoint and KeyNote. You can add audio, too. If you upgrade to a paid account (starting level Silver is $19 a month) you can also collect sales leads from your content. Don t dismiss SlideShare just because you don t have any PowerPoint presentations on hand. Think like you did with Pinterest. Make your information visual, but this time, put it into a slideshow format. 62

63 Social media It s easy to create a 10-slide PowerPoint deck from a blog post. You ve got the cover slide that s your blog headline. Then the next slide or two describes the problem or situation. The next 3-10 slides show how you solved the problem. Your last slide prompts people to sign up for your list. SlideShare is big enough to get plenty of traffic. But it s not so competitive that it takes a full-scale campaign to get exposure. In other words, it s a good balance of ample traffic and low competition. Here s an example of a SlideShare. See the opt-in box? It s the yellow box just above the SlideShare control arrows. 63

64 #26 Put social media sharing buttons in your messages Make your messages easy to share. That includes putting social media buttons in your messages. It also includes adding a send to a friend sharing button. While you re at it, include a subscribe link in the footer of your s. That makes it easy for the person who gets the forwarded to sign up for your list. By adding those sharing buttons, you give subscribers the power to promote your list. You ve built goodwill by delivering good content and honoring reader preferences. Give them the tools to share your s, and they will indeed share them with their friends. This is one of the most powerful ways to grow an list. 64

65 Social media Do you remember the Marketing Sherpa chart at the beginning of this book? It showed which methods marketers were using to grow their lists. 48% were using social media buttons in their s. Last year GetResponse reported that social sharing boosts click-through rates by 158%. Their same study, done two years earlier in March 2011, showed social sharing buttons raised CTRs by 115%. What do you think that stat will be next year? 65

66 Online marketing 66

67 Online marketing #27 Use paid traffic to send people to a squeeze page The squeeze page is one of the classic Internet marketing tools. It s as essential to Internet marketing as the autoresponder. The two go hand in hand. They mark a specific kind of business plan that has worked for years, though it is less effective than it used to be. If you use AdWords for paid traffic, you may find it difficult to get a squeeze page to work. You may lose two weeks of your advertising budget just to optimize the page enough to break even. This is because Google s paid advertising reviewers are especially suspicious of squeeze pages. You may want to add navigation, add free resources and build a full-fledged site around your squeeze page. This usually gets it 67

68 approved in AdWords. If you can t, try advertising on Bing. They are more tolerant of squeeze pages, and the cost per click is usually less. Here s the setup for a basic squeeze page. You buy traffic (usually from pay-per-click) and send it to a page that has: A headline A sales letter (sometimes a sales paragraph or a video) A freebie (such as a free report) An opt-in box You collect addresses and opt people in to an autoresponder sequence. An autoresponder cycle is a series of messages that goes out one after another in a timed sequence. There is another critical step if you want your squeeze page to work: Test. If you use GetResponse Landing Page Creator, you can create attractive landing pages fast. And you ll be able to A/B test them as much as you want. If you re resistant to the idea of testing, look at how much you spend to drive traffic to that squeeze page. What if you could cut that in half, or down to a third of what it is now? That s what careful, long-term testing can do. 68

69 Online marketing Here s what a typical squeeze page looks like: 69

70 #28 Write a Kindle book Kindle books have a lot going for them. They re on Amazon, which gets massive traffic. Amazon is a sales MACHINE. People buy on Amazon. Kindle books are readable on ipads, iphones and on laptops and computers. Amazon offers powerful tools for promotion. There are dozens of sites devoted to promoting Kindle books, including free ones. Nothing builds your authority quite as much as writing a book. You don t have to write 200 pages. Most Kindle books are about 50 pages. Kindle books can become a small but steady revenue stream. You use your Kindle book to get eyeballs and reputation. It provides proof of your expertise. And you leverage that into more subscribers by asking them to join your list. You can promote your updates, your website and your services several times throughout your book. 70

71 Online marketing You could even include content from your messages in your book, and let people know where the content is from. Another best practice for Kindle books is to add a page at the end of the book where you sell your newsletter. Include an extra-good freebie and show (not tell) people what to expect when they sign up. When you click through, you re brought to this page: 71

72 from the Kindle book Marketing That Doesn t Suck Notice this sign-up prompt doesn t say anything about joining a list. The marketer just wants to give you a gift. #29 Put a sign up promotion in your signature line Lots of people have quotes in their signature line. Some are funny. Some are philosophical. Some are both. Yours can have a prompt to join your list. 72

73 Online marketing You can write something simple like: Sign up for weekly updates on how to grow your list at YourSite.com. That s a fine start. But you can also do one better: Create a landing page for this signature link. Send people to a page designed and optimized to get them to sign up for your list. 73

74 #30 Partner with other companies and websites There are all sorts of ways to partner with other websites to grow your list. Many marketers have built their list using partnerships as the sole means. Partnering could mean letting a related website put their sign up box on your site, while you put your sign-up box on their site. It could mean swapping advertising space in your newsletters or website. It could mean just buying advertising and creating a sign-up process, like the squeeze page example. There are several things to consider while you consider and negotiate a partnership. The first is tracking. You need to know what works. Even a simple free tool like Google s Analytics tags will work. Bit.ly would help too. Anything is better than nothing. 74

75 Online marketing Track the quality of your subscribers. You don t want people to just grab your free offer and never open another . You re building an audience; they need to like you and want more of what you offer. To track new subscribers, add them to their own campaign inside your GetResponse account. That makes it easy to send a customized welcome message or series. And it makes it easier to judge the performance based on open rates and purchases. You have to be picky about who you partner with. They in turn should want to know a bit about you. Good sites and companies don t just turn anyone loose on their audience. Make sure your site is good enough to pass muster with the sort of people you want to partner with. Always partner with people who treat their subscribers and customers well. 75

76 #31 Seek out coregistration partners Co-registration was big back in ancient times, like Co-registration partnerships get less press now, but some companies still use it to grow their lists. In co-registration, you get another company to add a promotion on their site asking readers to join your list. That promotion goes into the company s sign-up form. Your sign-up is bundled into the other site s sign-up form. 76

77 Online marketing Here s a typical co-registration sign up: The actual co-registration happens in the checkbox below the form fields. The copy next to the checkbox explains that the user is signing up for a second list. You ll get fewer but better quality subscribers if the co-registration box is not prechecked. If the service you use has the checkbox checked by default, expect more spam complaints. If co-registration seems just a wee bit shady to you, you re right. If it s not done well, it s one step up from buying an list. Many co-registration companies sell signups. So in that sense you are buying names. It s not the best way to grow an list, but some marketers are still having success with it. 77

78 For a safe way to test co-registration, check out GetSubscribers. It s owned by Implix, which is the same company that runs GetResponse. The prices are affordable and GetSubscribers integrates with your GetResponse account. That means you won t have any trouble getting your new subscribers approved. If you want to boost your list size overnight, it s worth a look. 78

79 Online marketing #32 Add send to a friend buttons to product pages Take a look at this chart from the Marketing Sherpa report. 79

80 Notice that 58% of marketers say it is very easy to get subscribers with the to a friend tactic. Now look at all the other methods for building an list in that chart. Humble little send to a friend buttons beat every other tactic, even signing people up when they re placing an order. Too many retailers and content producers have missed this amazing sleeper tactic for growing an list. But you don t have to be one of them. If your website is on WordPress, there are plugins that create a send link to a friend widget. One is named Send Link to A Friend ( If your site is not on WordPress, then ShareThis is a better choice. This retailer has their send to a friend prompt below the product videos. 80

81 Online marketing #33 Create a mobile app Creating a mobile app is simpler than you might think. It s less expensive, too. In the last few years dozens of companies have created platforms that let you create apps. Their drag-and-drop interface makes it about as easy as creating newsletters in GetResponse. Many app-creation services will help you through the approval process to get your app on itunes or Google Play, too. Prices range from free to over $100 a month. But $29 to $59 a month will buy you enough features to create apps that generate business and new subscribers. You can get an attractive layout with the ability to serve several thousand users. And you can add monetization, analytics, e-commerce and video. Your users will be able to do cool things like schedule an appointment, upload files and fill out an opt-in form. Most platforms offer a free version to try out their interface. Many give you a way to see your app live on your phone for testing. 81

82 About half of all messages are read on mobile devices. It only makes sense to give users what they want and create a mobile app. Especially when it s something you could do in a few days or less. 82

83 Online marketing #34 Use the plugin Opt-in Content Locker plugin You may have seen websites that limit access to content until you ve signed up for their updates. The website America s Test Kitchen from Way to Build Your List in #23 is an example of this tactic. It s called gating content. It means visitors can t access content unless they provide an address, Facebook like, or even money. A plugin called Opt-in Content Locker, available from CodeCanyon for $12, lets you gate your content. ( And it integrates with GetResponse. 83

84 Here s an example in action. This is before a user has signed up: This is after they ve signed up: 84

85 Online marketing Opt-in content locker takes about five minutes to configure. And you can specify which GetResponse campaign to add new subscribers to. This means you can customize the welcome sequence and mail for these users if you wish. The plugin is smart enough to allow search engines to see through the gated content. And it s smart enough not to ask the user for sign-up on other pages if they ve already signed up. The visitor fills out the form on one page, and then they can see all the content on the rest of your site. 85

86 #35 Host a webinar Many marketers say webinars are the best way to build an list. If you have a presentation prepared and are willing to do some promotion, you can use a webinar to add people to your list. Just sign them up for the webinar, and you ve got their . LinkedIn groups are a particularly good place to promote webinars. Whole books are available about how to run a successful webinar. Seek more information if this format appeals to you. For starters, consider surveying your existing audience to see what they want to learn about. Second, use a popular webinar platform like ClickWebinar to manage the technical side. Going cheap on a webinar platform can burn you when things start to go wrong. That s usually in front of your webinar audience - exactly the people you want to impress. Click- Webinar has a free 30-day trial and it integrates with GetResponse. 86

87 Online marketing The good news with webinars is that after you re done, you ve got great on-demand content for your site. Webinars have a lot more going for them than just getting addresses. They let your audience know you better and position you as an expert. Here s a nice example of a webinar confirmation page. Many marketers add people to their lists when they register for the webinar. But it s best to ask, or to at least add a disclaimer to the registration form. 87

88 #36 Include a prompt to join your list when someone is about to place an order Surprised? Did you assume that if someone places an order on your site, you could add them to your list? Many marketers have drawn that conclusion. But some customers don t want to subscribe. We should honor that preference. 88

89 Online marketing Ask for their address early in the checkout process, not at the end. If they abandon their cart, you can them with a reminder that their order is waiting. If you use Zen Cart, there s a plugin you can use to integrate GetResponse. Head over here: to download it. You ll see installation instructions. If you use another shopping cart, integration takes a few more steps, but it s definitely worth it. Check out the GetResponse Developer Resource Center at getresponse.com to learn more. This is an example of a ZenCart checkout page. Notice the opt-in box just above the submit button. The retailer is asking customers whether they want their s in HTML or text format. 89

90 #37 Guest post on related blogs If you ve been online for a few years, you may remember article marketing. It doesn t work as well anymore. But the new version of it, guest posting, does work. In guest posting, you pick a blog you want to write for, then you pitch the owner of the blog with a blog post idea. When the blog owner says yes, you write the post and get a byline and a link back to your site. You almost always get a one-line bio with the link. But instead of a standard bio, you can pitch your newsletter. Your link should go to a landing page designed to sell the benefits of signing up for your list. Target it to the kind of audience that would appreciate the post you wrote. All the pieces should fit together. Guest blogging can be a powerful tool for generating traffic and building their list. It can position you as an expert just as well as publishing a book or doing public speaking. 90

91 Online marketing Some consultants and professionals use guest posting as their sole tactic. A well-written blog post can get lots of attention on a popular blog. It can skyrocket your traffic and your subscriber count. There are whole books and courses written about how to do guest posting. In a nutshell, you need to be well-acquainted with the blog you re pitching. You should read posts on the site and make regular, helpful comments. Then craft a post idea that will appeal to the site s owner. Deliver your promised post within a week of acceptance. That post needs to sparkle. If you are pitching to a major-league blog, it helps to have built up a series of successful posts with smaller blogs first. 91

92 #38 Create an online tool that requires registration This is a twist on an old SEO technique called link baiting. You create an amazing resource on your site. This resource attracts people to visit your site, and also links to it. The link bait gathers addresses instead of links. It does this by requiring registration. MajesticSEO.com is a good example of this technique. Majestic SEO is an excellent free SEO tool that requires you to register to use it. Epicurious requires registration to save your recipes. Sites with great tools can amass huge lists by offering a useful resource. Many software websites offer a free version of their program in exchange for an address. 92

93 Online marketing You could use your work from the mobile app we talked about earlier; just re-purpose the app as a web-based version. But it s better to create something unique that s not available elsewhere. FitDay.com is another example of a free tool that requires registration to use. 93

94 Offline marketing 94

95 Offline marketing #39 Use the fishbowl Put a fishbowl by your checkout counter or by the reception desk in your office. It s the oldest trick in the book for building an list. The fishbowl is a low-tech version of the cool Forms to Go app we ll talk about in #41. People still put business cards in fishbowls. If your customers aren t the sort to carry business cards, leave them a notepad and a pen to write their address on. You do have to offer something in exchange for the address. People are much less eager to sign up for newsletters than they used to be. Offer something better than just join our list. Raffles work. So do free lunches work (especially if they are for two or more people) and company discounts. You may have to test some different enticements before you find a winner. You may also have to work on how to present your messages. This goes back to testing which promotion copy works best for getting sign-ups. You must show how your messages are better than the typical boring newsletter. 95