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Author: Mark Satterfield
I get asked this question a lot. "How important is it to have a list?" Without meaning to be snide, it's only important if you want to achieve any level of success. (I'm reminded of Dan Kennedy's answer to the question of "Do speakers have to be funny?" To which he replied, "Only if they want to work.") Successfully operating your business depends upon a variety of factors. Since at a certain level this is a numbers game it's important that you have both a large base of people to present your messages to, and that you're adding new people on a continual basis. So what are the best ways to add more new people to your opt-in list? Here are my favorites. My number one favorite is writing articles. They don't have to be terribly long. Typically 500-700 words is a good number to shoot for. The key with using articles that actually will help you get new traffic, is that you need to provide some good value. It can't just be "The 10 reasons you should hire me." In fact after ten years of doing this, I've noticed an inverse relationship between overt promotion and how effective the article is at attracting new people to my website. You don't need to give away all your secrets, but if you show value in your article, you'll find that people will respond in a very positive way. My number two favorite method is to post to the forums that specialize in your field. The easiest way to do this is simple enter into Google the keyword associated with your audience and the word forum. For example in my world that would be, small business marketing forum. That will quickly give you the top discussion groups in your niche. Then it's simply a matter of signing up and getting into the communication flow. Again the same rules apply as before. You want to provide some helpful ideas or suggestions to the discussions that are taking place. Most forums or discussion boards allow you to include your url or contact information at the conclusion of your message. But the key here is not to get carried away. Don't spend all your time visiting the message boards because ultimately successfully growing your business is all about implementation. A good goal is to post once a week. I like to do it on Mondays and have found that it is a good way to jump start the week. Third on my list is Google Adwords. Lots of business owners shy away from using Google's paid advertising program, but I think that's a mistake. You can set up a local campaign and budget a small amount of money to test it out. I've got a number of clients who are getting extremely good results with micro-budgets of around $200-$500 per month. Naturally the important point is to track the results so you can expand the effort down the road. Remember that the success of adwords depends in large part on the keywords you select. When developing your list of these, put yourself in your prospect's mind. Remember that people search on the internet largely because they are trying to solve a problem. Thus your keywords need to focus on the problem your prospects face, rather than just on the solution you offer. One final item that is important to keep in mind. There is little point in driving lots of traffic to your site if you don't motivate people to tell you who they are once they are there. Thus, you need to have numerous offers of free information in order to get these visitors to take the first step in the relationship building process. What you offer does not have to be elaborate. However it does have to provide some real value. Keep these points in mind as you are developing your marketing strategy and I think you will be very pleased with both the quality and quantity of new prospects who come to your website.
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