What is the #1 Way to Build Your Business?

SIMPLE. . .

You can build your business, increase your influence, and grow your income easily by growing one of your best business assets . . . your email list.

 

Your email list is one of the most valuable resources in your entire business. And, finding the right subscribers is as easy as making a few subtle shifts in your overall business strategy.

And people ask me all the time…

Do I REALLY need to work on building my list?  Even if I’m building my social media presence?

And the short answer is . . .

YES!

 

What if I don’t have a list?

Start building your list.

What if I already have a list of 10,000?

Build your list.

What if I already have a list of 100,000?

Build your list.

The answer is the same for EVERYONE.

The bottom line is, the health of your business (and my business!) is directly connected to the size and strength of our email list. 

And for the record…

We have worked directly with clients who have social media accounts with MILLIONS of followers.  And I can without a shadow of a doubt tell you this…

I would take an engaged email list of 10,000 over a Facebook audience of 500,000 (even if it’s an engaged audience) ANY day.

And I would take that same list of 10,000 over an Instagram audience of 1,000,000 as well.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are advantages to growing your social media audience.  But for direct sales, the email list wins every time.

So the next logical question is, where do you start with your list building efforts?

Here’s what I like to do..

Brainstorm a big list of external problems – as many as possible.


I would literally take out a sheet of paper and I would brainstorm a whole bunch of problems that your market is experiencing.  

Think about your potential customers looking at Google or YouTube.  What would they be typing in?  What are they searching for?  What problems are they seeking solutions for?

Brainstorm as many different external problems as possible. The bigger the list, the better. Aim for ten different problems, but if you can go beyond ten to twenty or thirty different problems, that’s even better!

Then. . .

Offer a high-quality piece of content that solves one of those problems.

 

All you need to do now is create an opt-in magnet, or lead gen tool, or list builder, whatever you want to call it – but it’s essentially something that will help to solve their problem and move them forward.  It’s all about helping them make progress.  And you’ll give them this opt-in magnet in exchange for their  email address.

 

Again, this isn’t super complex. First step is to take one of those problems. Create a P.D.F. document that outlines a solution – BOOM. There’s your lead magnet. And once you have one, rinse and repeat by creating multiple lead magnets for all the various problems you brainstormed earlier.

Make sense?

Now here’s another idea… you can also . . .

Create list building events.

 

Is there a way that you can bring the collective wisdom of a whole bunch of thought leaders in your market together to share some ideas around one core idea?

For example, not long ago, I reached out to some of my friends, who are online marketing influencers—people like Russell Brunson, Jeff Walker, and Amy Porterfield, and we held a live event called Marketing Forecast Live.

 

I asked two questions.  That’s all they answered. Then we combined their answers into one heck of an awesome P.D.F. document where we presented the experts view on the up and coming trends in marketing.  Next, we started posting and driving traffic to that through ads. And in the end, we raised a bunch of money for a great cause and ultimately added thousands of names to our email list.

Last and most important. You need to …

Be intentional about building your list ALL – THE – TIME.

 

You’ve got to be intentional about building your list. The reality is. . .  very few people do this on a regular basis, and so, I want to change that for you.

I want you to focus on building your list – and I want you to make time for it on your calendar.  The challenge is, if you don’t put it on your calendar, it will get pushed to the backburner – because list building is important, but not urgent.

Time to crank up the urgency.  Put it on your calendar.  Schedule time for it.

Take out the old calendar and mark a date on a particular month when you’ are going to have a new lead magnet finished.

As you begin thinking about your new list builder, I thought about how I could help make this even easier for you.

So, I’ve put together a checklist to help you think through ideas you can run with right away.  It’s called the 4 Step Checklist for Low Stress List Building. And you can get it free by clicking below.

Enjoy!

P.S.  Yes… I actually do the things I suggest you do 🙂  That’s why I created this checklist… to help you jump start your list building efforts by mapping it out step-by-step.  Click below to get it TODAY!

I do NOT like commuting. Getting stuck in traffic sucks.

That being said, the one thing that I actually do enjoy about commuting is it gives me time to listen to podcasts.

A podcast I listened to recently tells the story of one email that produced MILLIONS of dollars of sales and generated hundreds of thousands of amazing responses online.

…using a simple marketing tactic that you and I can copy in our businesses.

Here’s the story:

Derek Sivers founded a company called CD Baby which he sold in 2008 for $22 million.

In this podcast episode, Sivers talks about the time he rewrote the automatic email that was sent to customers after they purchased a CD.

Initially, the email basically said, “Hey, your CD has been shipped.”

Sivers was looking at that email and thinking that it didn’t really reflect the personality of him or the company, so he rewrote it.

It took him 20 minutes or so to rewrite this email.

Because of the personality and the humour he injected into this email, it became an online sensation, producing millions in sales and hundreds of thousands of great responses.

Here’s the email:

 

 

That one silly email was sent out with every order and customers LOVED it. And the buzz and goodwill that this email created generated millions of dollars in sales.

Now, you and I can use the exact same strategy. It’s just a simple marketing idea, right? Make your autoresponders engaging and fun!

Here’s the awesome bigger picture that this story represents:

We have a tremendous opportunity to identify these touchpoints in our business – the mundane, forgettable aspects of the buying experience – and instead turn them into an experience that people will never forget.

We have the opportunity to turn these “boring” aspects of our business into an experience that people want to share with their friends, family, coworkers, and the vast digital public, the same way that Sivers’ email offered such a unique experience that it soon became a viral sensation.

The bottom line is that you and I can have a huge impact with our marketing just by challenging ourselves to take the aspects of our business that we take for granted – such as a purchase confirmation – and transform them into a reason for customers to tell others about us and and our products.

The amazing part of this strategy is that, besides a few minutes of your time, it’s completely free to implement. It’s not a huge marketing play. It doesn’t require a big, expensive campaign.

These minor details and touchpoints in your business are already there, waiting to be improved. It’s a cheap, relatively simple improvement, but if can have a profound impact on the success of your business.

 

 

Sivers says, “When you make a business, you’re making a little world where you control the laws.”

I LOVE that thought process.

When Sivers re-wrote that email, he made his little world a more memorable place. The word got out and suddenly everybody wanted to visit!

That’s the beauty of being entrepreneurs… you and I get to control how we do business. We get to control the experience we provide.

Anyways, I loved this story from Sivers. It inspired me and I hope that it will inspire you too.