Since you are a small business owner (or hope to be one soon), you already know the importance of having a customer list. Long-lasting businesses are build around the fact that their customers keep coming back, instead of just buying one time and then vanishing forever like a cheap magic trick.
One of the most Underdog and inexpensive ways to build a customer list is to collect the one thing that they read almost every day, their email address.
When you have that golden little piece of information, and you RESPECT it, you can make the customer very happy, as well as your own bank account.
Here are 9 sneaky secrets that you can use to beef up your email list:
1. Create a squeeze page-Just like my UnderdogMillionaire.com page, you can create an email capture page where the prospect is encouraged to join your list before you show them the goods.
2. Create a “hover ad,” or email pop-up box- These are supposed to be highly effective in grabbing the most names, because an annoying box shows up on top of the page that you are reading. This is not something that I like personally, but it may work GREAT for you.
3. Only add BUYING customers to your email list. If you sell any kind of introductory product, or any product at all, wait until the customer has made a purchase before you add them to your list. In the future, when you market additional products or services, you will be marketing to an entire list of buyers only. This beats 20,000 Twitter or Facebook friends any day of the week.
4. Give them some INCENTIVE to hand over that precious email address- Your customers are tired of spam and they already have a full inbox as it is. If you give them something of VALUE in return, such as an audio recording, a coupon, or free report, they will happily sign up.
5. Sign them up automatically if they are a buying customer. All them to opt-out at any time, but if a customer has made a purchase from you, feel free to add them to your list, just let them know why you are now sending them emails, because they might forget that they did business with you and mark it as spam.
6. If you have a service business or physical store offer them discounts or a similar report for giving you their email address.For example, there is a local carpet cleaner in my area that sends out a newsletter telling customers how to get different stains out of their carpet with ingredients in the pantry.
7. Don’t pitch in every email- If you send your customers sales pitch after sales pitch, with no substance for them, they will unsubscribe in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if you offer them real value in each email, you can also contain a call to action at the bottom if they want even more information. That will lead to your products and services.
8. Make sure you always have a call to action- Although you are not going to directly pitch in every email, you need to ask the customer to do something in return for the information. After all, you are in business to make money, right? Therefor, no email should ever leave your shop without having some kind of call to action.
9. Entertain your customers- People don’t want to be lectured at like they are in a fourth grade classroom and they REALLY don’t want to feel dumb about the previous choices they have made. Try to give them information, but in your own voice, and be a little entertaining in the process. Heck, I am juggling flaming chainsaws for you right now, you just can’t see them 
Now, what would an Underdog Millionaire Tip Sheet Be without a little call to action eh? If you have not already done it, I highly encourage you to sign up for the Underdog Marketing 101 notification list.
ONLY people on this list will get all of the free goodies during the launch, and they are going to be a serious pile of ‘em.
Over the weekend I will be posting the sales letter for the new book, so you can really get into it and see what it’s all about. Just to give you an idea, there will be 101 different ways that you can bring in new customers into your business for FREE… yep nada, zip, nothing.
Inside you will see:
- How you could get $18 million dollars worth of free advertising for your business.
- How a tiny piece of paper that you keep in your pocket could bring more spontaneous clients than any other way.
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It’s my biggest project to date and I can’t wait for you to see how much it will help ANY business get more customers from many different sources.
Upper right hand corner of the blog…sign up right now.
So, what’s your number 10? Are there any list-building techniques that you use in order to bring in new clients that you would like to share with the rest of the Underdogs out there?
In your service,
Joshua Black
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Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!
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{ 11 comments }
I’ve been really on the fence about hover ads. I’ve noticed they’ve gained a lot of popularity lately, but I know that personally I just close them down. I am sure they convert, or else the wouldn’t be so prevelent, I just don’t want to annoy readers or visitors to my niche sites.
Who knows though, maybe I will have a change of heart sometime soon.
I agree with Joshua, I do exactly the same thing, I don’t even read them because I just finding them annoying.
As well as this, how many people just feel it in because they think that’s the only way to get rid of it? Do those people unsubscribe at the first chance? Would be great to see someone test it.
Anyway, sorry for that. Otherwise a great article, I really need to start getting peoples email addresses so that I can build a list of people I can depend on to buy.
Hey Simon,
Yes, the list is the key and the sooner you can grab your customer’s contact information the better. Even if you ahve nothing to sell right now, you should be grabbing your visitors ASAP. It’s much harder to sell casual visitors to your site than it is to sell people that get used to your voice and the products that you offer.
-Joshua Black
I’m with you on that Joshua…and Joshua
Finally a list of all the basic important elements of a any list building campaign all in one spot.
Great summary Joshua! I too am on the fence about the pop ups. Think I may jump on the Popup domination bandwagon though since you do have some control over them, and they don’t look half bad. Besides, they annoy me in relation to the blog I’m on. If you had one, for example then I would just click it away no bother, because your content is good regardless. oooh, that’s a good point, if people visit me and don;t know me… hmmmm, maybe I wont get it?!? FARK… see
ps: what’s your skype name brother?
Hey Alex,
Yep, that’s the big question that I’m not sure about either. Since I only have a really tiny corner of the blogging world, many people are coming here for the first time and won’t know anything about the content. All they will see is a pop-up for something free. I think I am going to stick with being anti-pop-up for now, because I would rather have a smaller list of people interested in my stuff, than a big ol’ list of people that are just looking for something free. As for the skype, I do not have an account… yet. When I get one I will let you know for sure.
-Josh
Some sites are using that email pop-up box and I really hate it! Imagine you’re reading something then this stupid stuff appears in front of you. I also hate those buttons below, I find it very distracting on my part. Of course, as an online freelancer, I already know the purpose of this style.
Cole,
Yes, I agree that I hate pop-ups too. Supposedly they are really good at converting new customers, but I don’t really buy it. I think you could get a lot of sign-ups that way, but I doubt they would convert to buyers.
-Joshua Black
I don’t even sign up on those pop-ups! Actually, whenever a pop-up appears on my screen, I just get out from that site unless the article is very useful for my research.
I agree Cole. Pop-ups make me pretty mad, but I do admit that I ususally stick around the site anyway if there is good content. I would really like to hear from the people that use them to know if they are worth the customer anger they can create.
-Josh
Ideal report! I’m only beginning out in advertising and marketing and trying to discover to carry out it very well – assets just like this post are extremely priceless. As our corporation is primarily based in america, it is all a little new to us.
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