7 NO COST Hot Spots for Building Your List

If you are running an online business, bricks-and-mortar small business, or ANY kind of business, it's absolutely vital that you stay in touch with your potential clients, and present day clients.

And since every person in the world has an email address (well nearly everyone, my Dad still hasn't!), building an email list is one of the cheapest, most cost-effective solutions for doing that.

And the most common question then is so “how do I build my list?” So let me cut to the chase here and lay out my top 7 hot spots for capturing email addresses on line – and the best part is, it won't cost you a penny!

1. Your website or blog – you must have an opt-in box on every page of your website because you never know where people are going to land when they visit via Google. And these days it's just not enough to say “join my mailing list” or “sign up for my newsletter here”. You must offer a gift that is so juicy to your ideal client, that they must sign up to receive it NOW.
2. Social Media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – all excellent places to be visible and active. You must place an opt in box on your personal profile/business pages with the enticing offer of your free gift for them.
3. Forums – spend some time investigating on line forums where your ideal clients are hanging out. Tap in key words into Google that they will be using to find them. Eg, your ideal client is suffering with a bad back – you would tap in bad back, back pain, how to relieve a bad back, etc. And once you find active forums, join in and answer questions and start building relationships. Eventually, after a while you can start pointing people back to your website/blog by offering your free gift. Bonus tip: the forums will give you great information of what your ideal clients are struggling with and you can base your products/programmes/services and free gift around them. Simple :-)
4. Newsletter/E-zine – might sound a little backwards, surely they are on your list and receiving your newsletter? Not necessarily. If you are being visible on social media and forums and publishing a link to your latest newsletter, then you must make it clear on the newsletter that they can sign up to receive it on a regular basis.
5. Article Directories – post your articles on the many article directories for free. They all allow a small paragraph for your bio and where you can point people back to your website/blog to pick up your free gift in return for their email address.
6. E-book – create an e-book answering your ideal client's number 1 struggle and give it internet marketers to use as a giveaway to their list. Internet marketers are always looking for ways to add value to their service and free giveaways is one of their favourites, so do them a favour and give them something to giveaway with your details splashed all the way through it of course.
7. Joint Venturing – this is the power card of the deck! Partnering with other business owners with the same or similar niche who already have a list. You have a ready made audience to speak to, how great is that? There are lots of ways to work together to build your list – teleseminars, telesummits, interviews, webinars, email promotion, giveaways, etc. The fabulous thing about joint venturing is that you can build your list, and you can help them build their list while offering great value to your own list. It's the win-win-win!

The golden rule when building your list is to make sure you are in regular contact with them. It's no good capturing email addresses and storing them on a list for months and then launching a campaign out of the blue yourself because people will have forgotten who you are and likely forget they opted in and think you are spamming them.

The 2nd golden rule is to always offer true value. Find out what your ideal client is struggling with or is striving to achieve and help them with it.

Of course, if you are just starting out, take it a step at a time. Choose one hot spot that feels like it would be fun and/or easiest for you and build from there. We totally overestimate what we can get done in a week and underestimate what we can achieve in a year. So getting started is essential, one step at a time, but being consistent is the key.

Commit to one new hot spot today, and stick to it until it feels reasonably comfortable and then add a new one. Do this and you will see your list grow.