Email Marketing solutions

The Basics of Email List Building

There are no mysteries or secrets when it comes to the basics of email list building. Sure, you will find many successful techniques in those $67 to $97 e-books that you see all over the Net. But as far as the basic steps to set up a simple form on your website to collect names and email addresses, it is actually not very difficult.

The first thing you need is a website (only three pages are needed) and your own hosting account and we will assume you have this already. Next you will need an account with a good autoresponder/mailing list management site like http://www.getresponse.com or http://www.aweber.com (neither of which I am an affiliate). Alternatively you could install your own mailing list script on the server where your website resides like I did. That is a different topic altogether but the basics for email list building are exactly the same with either method you choose.

Ok so you have a website and all you need is one lead capture page with a form to collect names and email addresses, a thank you page, and a download link page. Build a single lead capture page with your headline and ad-copy and leave room toward the bottom for your form. Ideally the entire page should be viewable without scrolling the browser but this is not always possible. As far as content you would want to have something to give away for free such as a report or ebook. You could also direct people to another page containing ‘exclusive’ information for your subscribers.

So after you have your lead capture page written and your product available as a download or another website, you need to add the form to the html of your page. The mailing list account that you choose will allow you to generate the html with the specific code for your site. All you do is copy and paste it into your site. An html editor such as Frontpage or cutehtml are very easy to use. After you do this save the file and upload it to your hosting account.

Create a thank you page that resembles the layout of the lead capture page and another page that gives the user a download link or a link to a ‘special page’ and that is basically it as far as getting your site set up. In your autoresponder account you must write your confirmation emails and your sequence of emails after your subscriber downloads their report or whatever you offer. I will leave that up to you.

Now, here is how the process works when someone stumbles upon your beautiful new lead capture page. They read your presentation and are happy with what they read so they readily fill in your form with their name and email address. Then they are taken to your confirmation page which merely states something like “Thank you for your request. You will receive an email shortly (automatically sent by your autoresponder) with a confirmation/download link to the ________________ e-book.” You of course can tailor this however you want it to read.

The anxious subscriber hurries to their email account and quickly opens the email from you containing the link so they can download the free information. What they just did and were made aware of all along was double opt-in to your mailing list. They filled out a form and then clicked a confirmation link (again provided by your autoresponder company) opting in twice. The subscriber is next taken to your download page when they click on the confirmation link that you included in the automatic email. There they find a single page with a link to a product or whatever you choose to give away. He or she now has your product and they have agreed to allow further mailing from you with whatever you have to offer because you just gave them something of value for free!

That’s it! The basics of list building are not that difficult at all. Of course there are other details involved when working with your autoresponder but like anything else, if you use it a lot you will get the hang of it. Just promote your lead capture page and everything else will be on autopilot to build a HUGE list for you!