Oct 17 2009
Building a List
Many people believe that I am against list building because of my general opposition to list builders. This is actually slightly inaccurate, what I have reservations about is specific aspects of list building, namely the way and why of list building.
Too often I see people being taught and sold List Building as though it is the end in itself – if you have a big list, you will have big sales. This sadly is a mis-conception that benefits only those selling the list building, not the person doing the building.
The list is nothing more than a means to acheiving an end, to think it is anything more than that is to be setting yourself up for disappointment. Once you understand this, you’ll understand why I distinguish between list building and list builders.
While it is true a bigger list will give potentially a bigger return, it is not guaranteed.
A list is an opportunity to get to know like-minded people better, it is not a short cut to instant profits.
A list can be created in a variety of ways, and the way you generate your list will influence the effectiveness of the list. The most common methods are:
- By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
- By selling a product or service
- By joining an opt-in list program
- By buying a commercial list
All these methods have strengths and weaknesses, and this will affect how effective they are.
By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
You will often see this done where someone says “get xyz for free” and require you to send your name and/or email address to receive the gift. This can seem a very effective way of building a list if the freebie has apparent value, but a lot of these people will only be after the freebie and have no interest in you or what else you may be offering, and so will either
a) unsubscribe
b) block your mail; or
c) report you for spamming because they do not believe that requesting the freebie was giving you permission to continue to email them.
By selling a product or service
This is a very common method where a person provides an ongoing service, eg traffic exchange, web hosting; or sells a product or service, eg web design, e-book. This method of list building has been used for years by companies working off-line to develop massive mailing lists, although in recent years the trend has increasingly been for companies to offer an opt-out/opt-in option to customers. It has the advantage that the members are more likely to be interested in what you are offering as they have demonstrated a proven interest in the past, but can still leave you vulnerable to claims of abuse if members feel you’re sending too many emails or that you did not make it clear that you were adding their details to a list.
By joining an opt-in list program
This is where I have the most concerns about the reasoning of people joining and using the list. Many of these programs advertise themselves as offering you the chance to send your advert to 1000’s of people. What they omit to mention is that you will be receiving counter-offers from 1000’s of people. 99% of the people on the list are there to sell you what they are offering and not to buy what you are offering – after all that is why you joined – to sell something! As a result many members start to filter the list emails out, so your offer is being ignored by most of the membership, so the list has suddenly effectively shrunk in size.
By buying a commercial list
This is by no means cheap, but hopefully the members of the list will have been pre-screened and opted in to receiving emails. The effectiveness of the list will be largely dependant on how well the screening process was carried out. The closer the screening process is to matching list recipients to your target market, the greater the chance of getting a good response, but this comes at a price.
If you understand that the effectiveness of the list you build is directly related to how you built it, and how you interact with it, then you will be better able to make your list more responsive. Every list will be different because the membership will be different from person to person, but if you start by remembering that the list is comprised of real people not gaping wallets, you will be starting on the path to building an effective, responsive list.
When addressing your list, start by asking yourself “what do the recipients want?” and then once you have identified their needs, then ask “how can I supply a solution to that need?”
If you are selling refrigeration equipment, and your list is eskimos – you will struggle to make sales. If you believe that eskimos want a secure storage facility for fish they have caught, and you have a lockable fridge – now you have a selling point to your offer. Don’t be afraid to ask your list what they want, even if you can not supply it, you have more information about what they are thinking – plus you build credibility, as you now give them the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with you and develop your relationship.