Here are some quick things you should think about if you’re going to build an email list.
Attracting The Right People
When creating content, lead magnets, or anything else aimed at generating an email list, one lead magnet, one PDF, or one document may be all you need. However, if you’re using an unsuitable PDF, you will get the wrong signups with the wrong motivations. You could have a list of people with ulterior motives.
Assume you’re selling a service and create a lead magnet, but people only want your lead magnet because it will help them do it better themselves. Now you’re thinking, “I’d never do that.” That is something we would never do. We’d optimise it.’
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen doing misguided lead magnets for their email list.
I noticed one company offering a Beginner’s Guide to optimising this specific technology platform. They were focusing on developers with this guide. When I looked at it, I asked them, ‘How successful is it?’ ‘How effective is the lead magnet?’
They replied: ‘Oh, the lead magnet is incredibly successful. We get signups every single day. It’s fantastic’.
But I dug a little deeper. Just how much conversion comes from that email list? And what they said was, in fact, not much. I was thinking about it, and I realised that after all of that effort, energy, or ad spend to promote that lead magnet, they only get one sale. Now, in their minds and logic, a single sale was worth a quarter-million pounds. So it’s around $300,000, which makes it worthwhile for them to do because it’s worth every penny.
But when I said: ‘Okay, that’s a Beginner’s Guide. What percentage of people do you think are downloading that because they want to do the work themselves?’.
They replied ‘Probably a lot of them.
So you’re going to give them some guidance about how to do it on their own? A step-by-step instruction manual. What are their plans for the future? If they’re in the mindset to do it themselves.
‘Well, when they get stuck, they’re going to look for the way to fix it. So, that might be us.’
Yeah, absolutely. But what about the people who don’t want to do it for themselves? What about the people who want help?
When we looked at who they were targeting with the lead magnet, we discovered that they were going after the developer. So, the developer is the person in charge of integrating technology for a platform or platforms that they use. They’ll download the lead magnet because they want to know how to do it.
But, if that developer’s job is to do it, why would they go to their boss and recommend a company do it for them? So, the reason I’m telling you that story is that I currently have a lead magnet that is converting at nearly 70%, which is significantly boosting my email list. Keep in mind that the industry average is around 25%. So, 70% of all of those people opting in, we are targeting based on the fact that they don’t want to do the work themselves and they want help.
This email list is growing organically as a result of our social media. You don’t need ads to promote your list if you target it and build it strategically. I got 54 new signups to my email list in one day, and I’ll add a new one every single day. My mission is to add 54 people every single business day.
In reality, my email list is growing by about 10,000 people per month as a result of all of the different activities I’m involved in. 10,000 people were reached organically via social media. That allows me to communicate with them when the algorithms do not favour me.
Intent
Your email list needs to have the intent behind it.
What will you do with the emails once you have them? What are they signing up for? What are you hoping to sell to them? You must have the right intent in order for those who sign up to have the right intent. In other words, you don’t want people to sign up because they like your beautiful palm trees and want to learn more about them, and then you attempt to sell them holidays.
Are they looking for something? What are they starving for? Do they want to do something for themselves? Are they eager to achieve a goal? Or are they looking for a way to solve a problem? People are willing to pay to have their problems solved. If someone is attempting to learn a skill or implement something on their own and you convince them to sign up, do you have a product or service that will assist them in doing so more effectively?
If people sign up because they need help understanding how to fix a problem or achieve a goal, you must have a product or service that fits. It’s just common sense. If you sign up the wrong people you will get poor results in your emails, and your email marketing will fail. So you need the right intent from the start.
Your One Liner
Finally, just one quick note. The subject line determines the success of every email you send.
The success of building an email list is frequently determined by the title of the lead magnet or the reason for which they are exchanging their email address. What is the key line that they will see that will persuade them that they must download it? It’s usually a one-line sentence or a single statement. Similarly, the subject line is identical. You must devote time to the subject line if you want people to open it. You could have the best-written email in the world, but it will never be opened because the subject line just doesn’t do it for them.
The subject line of the email and lead magnet is the most important things to spend time on because they determine success.
