In a previous post I talked about how to set up your autoresponder sequence.
In this article I’m going to discuss the merits of having a customer list in the first place, especially if you want to make a blog income.
Your blog business is made up of your blog posts, your visitors, the products you sell and the services your offer.
But the most important part is your customer list.
That means your free subscribers list and your list of customers who have purchased something from you.
There is a huge difference between the two types of lists and I recommend you keep them separate.
So what’s the difference?
FACT: The vast number of your free subscribers will never buy from you.
FACT: A high percentage of customers who have purchased products from you will buy a second, third, fourth…product from you.
But you should still ‘wow’ all your lists.
You should give them value. You should build a relationship. These customers, especially the ‘buyers’ list can be the main source of your income.
Everyone says, “The money is in the list.”
That’s not completely true.
The money is in the relationship you have with your list.
For instance, if you had 1 million subscribers and all you did was try to ‘sell, sell, sell’ to them, the vast majority would never buy from you.
Why?
Because they don’t know you from Adam!
But if you had a much smaller list of 10,000 who liked you, knew you, trusted you – that list is worth a lot, lot more than the list of 1 million.
You want to build a relationship with your lists, not just a high number of subscribers.
Well, to be honest, you want both don’t you? Build a relationship AND have a huge list!
How many lists have you ever joined?
Maybe 20 or 50 or 100?
How many lists are you currently on?
A lot less than you signed up for, I bet.
You unsubscribe from most of them because when you joined they ‘promised’ great value and huge benefits but all you got was offer after offer after offer.
There are a lot of people signing up to numerous lists everyday.
Why?
Because they are wanting a new life. They want to get out of their mundane life and be happy. They want to remove themselves from the rat race and start their own business. They want to education themselves and improve their skills. The reasons are endless.
So if your free giveaway can help them in their lives, they will sign up.
Then you want to provide real value and exceptional service to your customers so they stay with you forever.
If you do that, your income will increase from one year to the next.
Your list will grow, as very few customers will unsubscribe.
As I have said before, I use Aweber to manage my opt-ins, my Autoresponders and lists.
Recently, I am setting up new bloggers on Aweber almost weekly. It’s easy, it’s simple and very reliable and the ‘live chat’ support is excellent.
What’s the best opt-in you’ve made?
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You make a really good point regarding the difference between a list of “free subscribers” and “subscribers who bought from you” – something the gurus should point out more to their readers when always saying “the money is in the list”.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..A Child Can Crack Your Password – Change It Now! =-.
I agree with Klaus, I like the way that you differentiated between the lists. It makes a difference. And yes the money is definitely in the relationship. I have unsubscribed from many lists that did not provide value.
Unsubscribes are very natural. It simply means the person has no interest in buying from you or hear what you have to say. That is okay. You only want people on your list that want to hear you or want to buy from you.
Remember they must want to hear what you have to say first. (The relationship build.) Then they will buy later.
.-= Gerlaine´s last blog ..Being a Kid Again! =-.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
And when they do subscribe – don’t take it personally! When I first started out, I did. I thought “How dare they. Are they stupid? I’ve gots lots of free stuff coming up”.
Andrew
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