MBA996 Advanced Email List Building P1

Hey O. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show, the business podcast for smart business builders every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And today's lesson is part one of a two part lesson on advanced email list building. We've covered the basics before, but in this two part lesson I want to get advanced. I want to get really, really specific and share with you some high level strategies when it comes to growing not only the size of your list but the quality of your list. We all know if we don't have an audience, we don't have anybody to sell to. This is why growing your email list is so important. And in today's day and age of business, and this includes online or offline businesses that offline business that you go to, like the supermarket, if they have their email, they're sending you emails. So let me tell you how we're gonna do this in part one. In today's lesson, we're gonna talk about acquisition, acquiring the right leads and acquiring a lot of them. How do we set up our website, how do we set up our business, how do we set up our opt ins so that we're getting the right leads consistently? This is what people really struggle with the most, getting people to opt in to get on their email list. And in today's lesson, I want to show you some advanced techniques that have worked for me several times in the past and in the present. And then in tomorrow's lesson, we're going to get into how to nurture and convert them into customers. We got a lot to cover just in part one today, so let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode of the $100 MBA show is supported by the Running Remote Conference. When we started our business, we chose to make our team a remote team. We wanted access to the best talent around the world. So if you're thinking about building a team without borders, without walls, then you need to attend the running Remote conference. You're going to hear from experts from big companies that run their teams remotely. And I'll be there to speak about how to motivate your remote team beyond compensation. Head on over to running remote.com to buy a ticket today. It's going to be in beautiful Bali and you can save 15% off by using my coupon code 1 00, MBA15. So again, in part one in today's lesson, we're going to be talking about acquiring the best leads to grow our email list. And let's start with that. It's very important to start with the right mindset to understand that a hundred leads that don't convert, that are not a good fit for your products, for your services, for your business, are not only worthless, they're a waste of your time and money because it's going to take you time and money to acquire them as well as to keep them on your email list. You have to pay per lead with your email marketing service, whether using Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Infusionsoft, whatever it is. So we're not only looking for quantity, we're looking for quality. Right? We're looking for people that are a perfect fit that will stay on our email list and convert into customers. So how do you make sure that you have targeted leads? How do you attract those people? Well, you have to speak their language. Think about somebody that you have gotten to know, whether it's your current significant other or even a friend. Most likely it started with a conversation and most likely you enjoyed that conversation. You found it interesting. They spoke your language. The same thing goes with you and your leads for your email list. Now, obviously we attract and get our leads on our website, so we really need to fine tune, especially our homepage. We need to really hone in on what are we saying, what are we communicating to people that land on our website. This is when that saying you only get one shot to make a good first impression really kicks in. Right? This is your first conversation. This is your hello. This is how are you doing? This is how the conversation begins. If they like this conversation, if they like what they see on your website, if they like what you're communicating, they're going to want more and they're going to want to continue the conversation by opting in. And again, we're going to talk about continuing those conversations in, in part two, when we talk about nurturing and converting them into customers. But this is the template. This is what you have to understand. This is the mindset you have to have. The better you understand this, the better your chances of getting targeted leads on your email list in droves. All right, so that's number one. Now, I told you this is going to be advanced email list building. Okay, so we're going to get a little tactical here when it comes to our website and when it comes to focusing on email list growth, we have one purpose. Get them to sign up for our opt in get them to sign up to our email list, get them to sign up for our freebie, whatever it is, where we acquire their email, whether it's a free trial, whether it's a E course, whether it's an ebook, whatever it is, that's the sole purpose of the website, right? You want the highest percentage of people that land on your website to convert and give up their email. This is called conversions, right? And it's really important for you to really just focus on conversions having a high conversion rate and you have to track this. Now, depending on your website building tool or your opt in tool, there should be some way to show how many visitors you have versus how many people actually opted in. Now we use sumo, sumo.com, this is the tool we use to collect email addresses. If you want to get started for free, we have a special link100mba.net sumo any quality tool should be able to tell you this is your conversion rate on your website. So if my conversion rate is 32%, that means 32% of people that have visited my website have opted in, have given up their email, and this is the number I really need to hone in on conversions. A lot of people think that the problem they have is not enough traffic. No, the problem is conversion rates, because it's a whole lot easier to double your conversion than to double your traffic. So say, for example, I have a thousand visitors a day and my conversion rate is 10%. That means 100 people opted in to my email list every single day. But if I double that conversion and I get up to 20%, that's 200 people have opted in. That's a whole lot easier to tweak and modify and work on than trying to get double the traffic, getting 2,000 people. So conversions are key. Okay, so we have a single goal on our website to get them to give us their email address and we're focusing on conversions. So with this single goal, that means I have to remove all other distractions on my website, whether it's a Twitter feed, whether it's a Flickr type of thing where I'm showing images somewhere, whether it's other offers they will buy, but get them on your email list first, build that relationship like we'll talk about in part two, and, and then they can convert into buyers. They're more likely to stay buyers and not, you know, return or refund or cancel if you build a relationship with them beforehand. So our focus is getting them on the email list. So your whole homepage should be about this so what should you say on this homepage? How do you get them to convert? How do you attract the right customer? Well, first you got to define who do you want, who do you is perfect for your products or services. And instead of trying to think of some sort of fictional character in your head, some fake avatar, think of somebody in the real world. Whether it's a colleague, a friend, somebody you met at a conference, maybe a founder of a company that you know who would be perfect for this product and describe them. This is a real person. This should be easy. What are their likes? What are their dislikes? What are their fears? What are, why haven't they bought your product already? What's holding them back? What are their pain points? What has been frustrating them for so long? This is a whole lot easier to do when you're focusing on a real person. In fact, you can ask them these questions directly if you wanted to. Too many people try to do this with some sort of fictional idea in their head they call an avatar. I like to actually choose somebody in the real world and say this person would be perfect for my product. For example, I have a friend named Mike Vardy. Mike Vardy is also known as the productivityist. He's a fantastic speaker. He's an author and he sells his programs, his coaching on how to improve your productivity. I know he would really benefit from using our software Webinar Ninja and run webinars to sell his courses. So I would go through all those exercises, I just mentioned all those questions with Mike or try to answer them myself. Now once I have that information, I have to integrate that in my website right on my sales page where I'm trying to convert them to opt into my free course, my free trial, whatever it is. From the opening headline, I'm having a conversation with Mike or people like Mike, something like, have a great product but not enough sales. It's time to leverage the power of webinars. Okay, there's are my headlines. But then he has a concern, right? Webinars could be a nightmare. They're hard to use. So I can keep on going with the conversation with some more copy. Now, I know you might be thinking webinars are difficult to do. Confusing, clunky, ugly and unreliable. We thought so as well, and that's why we created Webinar Ninja. So you see how I'm going with this conversation, or I'm addressing his concerns and I'm going through how I can actually get him to feel better about those concerns. And then I go through some of the Benefits why Webinar Ninja is superior, why is it better? How it's going to help him, make it easier for him to sell his courses, how he can get started right away, all that kind of stuff. And this leads me to a call to action. Whether it's a free trial, give us a try or take our free course to learn how to conduct your first webinar. See how easy it is. And that course will include a demo. Now, throughout this page, I want to make sure it's easy for them to start that free trial. So there's a button every time, time they scroll past the fold or they scroll a little bit, you should see an easy place to opt in. I don't want them to have to search. Where do I start? How do I sign up? Same thing. If you're doing a free course or an ebook or whatever it is, gotta make it simple for them. So now I'm really honing in and speaking the language of my perfect targeted email list subscriber. And I'm just focusing on getting them all on my email list. That's the whole goal here. Now, once they actually give their name and email address and sign up for their freebie, whatever it is that opt in, this is a moment of truth. This is a critical moment because you worked so hard to get them to give up their name and email address. So I want to talk about how you should wow them immediately when they sign up, when they opt in. More on that in a moment. But before that, let me give a love to today's sponsor. Lets say you make Danish inspired urban clogs. And let's say you want to start selling those gorgeous shoes online. Well, creating a beautiful website is a good start. But you know what's even better? A powerful website. With Weebly, you don't just get great looking online store templates. You get all the tools you need to build your brand, promote your products, process payment, manage inventory, send marketing campaigns and more, all wrapped up in one neat little package designed to turn your idea into a thriving online business. Plus, they've got an epic support team. No scripts, no robots, just friendly experts whose only job is to help you do whatever needs doing. So whether it's lavender biscotti or distressed denim sofas, Weebly helps turn your idea into a powerful online store. Because success isn't just getting your products online, it's getting them in the hands of your customers who love them. And as a fan of the hundred dollars MBA, you can go to weebly.com MBA that's at W-E-E-B-L-Y.com MBA and you'll get 15% off your Weebly online store. Weebly more than just a beautiful website. Okay, you made the conversion. They have opted into your list. Moment of truth. You've gotta wow them. You gotta deliver instantly. So the page right after they've opted in, once they've given their name and email address and they hit, you know, confirm, send, opt in, join, that next page is called the confirmation page. It's gotta tell them exactly how they're gonna get what they asked for, what they signed up for. It's gotta be clear instructions. Whether it's, hey, I just sent you an email. Check your inbox or your next step is to click this button and start the online course or whatever it is. You got to make sure this is clear. You want to thank them. You may want to even show your personality and have some, you know, funny gif or video that personally says thank you for being a part of your community. Yes, your customers are a part of your community, so make sure they feel they're welcomed. I highly recommend you always send an email to confirm. Hey, now you're on our list. Now you just started the trial. Now you just got the email course with the same instructions you gave on the confirmation page. So they have it handy anytime. Even if they close that browser tab or whatever, you gotta make sure that after they give their name and email address, they feel secure that you actually fulfilled on the promise that they got what they sign up for instantly so they can feel like they could trust you. If it's a little bit of a mess, if they're a little bit lost, if they didn't get what they wanted right away, they're gonna have some doubts, and that's not a good way to start a relationship. So you send them that confirmation email. You could do that through your email marketing service with an automation, and we'll talk more about that in part two. You can do that even automatically with a software like Sumo we talked about. But the point is, give them that email now. Once they're on your list and you give them that first email and they have access to that freebie or that free trial or whatever it is, what do you do next? How do you convert them into a customer? That's what we talk about in part two. Nurturing that list and getting them to becoming a buying customer. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss that tomorrow. That wraps up today's lesson. We got pretty deep. We got pretty technical today, but this is the good stuff. This is really what's going to take your email list building to the next level. Make sure you tune in tomorrow to part two. We talk about nurturing people on our email list, getting them to the point where they are more than ready to buy. You want to make sure that they're hungry to buy because you want to lower the risk of returns, refunds, cancellations. You want them begging you to take their money, right? And I'll show you how in tomorrow's lesson. Alright, thank you so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I got into this email list building, building thing a little late when I started my online business or my business journey and I regretted it. I probably didn't have an opt in or way to collect email for the first two years of my website and I probably lost, you know, 20, 30, maybe 40,000 emails of great customers I could have served. If you haven't gotten started yet, please apply what I just taught you today to get started and then tomorrow you'll learn what to do once they're on your list. All right, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode which is free ride Friday. I'll check you then. Take care.