To an Entrepreneur Who Wants to Build His Own List Some Day

Have You ever felt like building a list of your own prospects, but did not know where to start? I, sure have been there. I wanted to build my own list, but I put off doing it, because I thought it is not necessary and did not believe that MONEY is in the list.

Why should you build your OWN list?

As per my experience, there are four reasons.

1. To learn about your Target Market. Who are they? What do they want? How can you help them with their problems? What is their geographical location?
2. To Develop services/products using YOUR strengths/skills that benefit them.
3. To save time, money and energy by avoiding advertising and marketing to the WRONG market.
4. To build credibility with your prospects and ease the sales process.

What do we mean by building YOUR own list?

First of all, it is not the list purchased from Lead generation companies. Building YOUR own list means, having someone Opting/choosing to give their name and email address and/or mailing address to you, in exchange of providing information that interests them. That means, they came to your website, found you and your information in the web page credible/interesting and offered to give you their name and email address. This is exactly the opposite of YOU chasing them with your information and asking their name and email id. The web page I am referring to, must be very simple, clear, brief and have a single CALL to ACTION. The Call to Action could be giving them a FREE report/E zine/CD in exchange for receiving their name and email address. This type of Web page is called Squeeze page OR Landing page.

How can you build your OWN list?

I am sharing a few methods that is working for me that I personally use. Your goal must be to make the Squeeze Page available through various channels for people to opt-in.

1. By writing articles describing the benefits your product/services OR affiliate products provide. Bear in mind that these articles must not have any Sales pitch. At the end of the article the author's bio must include a link to the Squeeze page mentioned above. This gives the reader an opportunity to opt-in for more information.
2. By setting up accounts in Social Media /Professional Networking websites like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook etc and including the Squeeze page URL in your Bio.
3. By including your Squeeze page URL in your email signature.
4. By including a subscription box in your blog where the reader can subscribe to your E-zine and/or adding squeeze page URL in your Bio.

You may have a customer list, but that is not sufficient. You must start building a prospect list, communicate and build a relationship, to eventually convert them to happy customers. If you have not started, I would highly recommend to start right away, whether you own a start up company or a long term established one. You will be able to run a business that can help you make consistent multiple streams of income.

Action Exercise

1. If you do not have YOUR own list of prospects, make a written commitment to YOURSELF to build one.
2. Use one of the strategies mentioned above that you are comfortable with, and implement it the next 30 days.