AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome to another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am so overly excited for this episode because it’s all about list building.
You likely already know I’m borderline obsessed with this topic. I think the reason for that is that I know through my own experiences and those of my students that list building, when done right, can dramatically change your business.
What does it mean to say “list building done right”? We’re going to get into some strategies and some specifics today to help you kind of get your head wrapped around where you want to focus in terms of your list-building efforts.
This episode is dedicated to all things list building, not just because I’m obsessed with the topic, but more so because it’s something we continually need to talk about to make sure you are moving your list-building initiatives in your business forward.
Tell me this, what are you currently doing, or perhaps not doing, to add a consistent flow of highly-engaged subscribers to your email list every single week?
I bring this up now because I feel we’ve reached an interesting time in the world of profitable list growth. On one hand you no longer need me or anyone else, for that matter, to tell you how critical having a highly-engaged and constantly-growing email list is to the success of your business.
It’s like, “Thank you captain obvious.” You already know this. But by the same token, about 95% of online entrepreneurs I talk to are still struggling to dial in their list growth in a predictable or even sustainable way.
Maybe a small trickle of subscribers come in from an epic Facebook post you did or an epic Facebook Live. You’ve got some subscribers trickling in, maybe a few a week, from that. Or maybe you did an awesome podcast interview with an influencer and you know you’re getting subscribers from that one podcast interview.
It’s all good. It’s better than nothing. But it’s still a far cry from the consistent, and predictable, list growth your business is truly relying on. Trust me on that one.
That’s why we need to have this exact discussion today. I don’t only want you to have the confidence to double down on a consistent list-building strategy that you feel good about. It’s genuine, it’s in your voice, you’re offering things you know your ideal audience wants, and you feel really good about those offers. That’s where I want you to be.
I also want to get you fully up to speed on the exact strategies working right now so that you can focus your time and energy only on what you really want to be working on and you will have a dedicated email list of raving fans that can’t wait until you’re ready to sell your services, your consulting, or your programs.
Instead of slipping into overwhelm trying to do all the things all at once I want to help you get focused. That’s what this episode is all about. I want to dive into the questions I get asked the most in terms of list building the right way.
I think it’s important that you fully understand where you want to go with this. Before we get into any how-to we have to kind of set that foundation so that you feel really up to speed in terms of what’s working and what will work in your business and what you really are excited about implementing in your business.
I think as I go through these frequently-asked questions around list building you will start to make some decisions for your own list-building efforts. At the end of this episode my hope is that you will have a really good understanding as to where you want to focus on your business when it comes to list building.
At the end of this episode, stay with me here, because I’m going to invite you to a free training I’m doing all by myself (no guests this time) and it’s called The Ultimate List-Building Catch-Up Plan. If you’ve ever felt behind in your list building I’m going to show you how to get caught up quickly in terms of what to do inside your business to create a list-building foundation that can run on autopilot.
Stay with me until the very end and I’ll tell you where to go to sign up for that free live training.
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Let’s get to it.
The first question I get asked a lot is around coming up with a good idea for your lead magnet, your freebie, your giveaway, usually a PDF of some kind. It is a cheat sheet, checklist, blueprint, possibly a mini training video. You can use different media to create your lead magnet.
A lot of my students tell me they are still struggling to come up with a really good idea and they want to know what criteria I use to come up with my lead magnet ideas. This is exactly what I would do if I were you.
First, I would think of my ideal customer avatar. I would ask where they are right now, right this minute. If you were to go into their house and they were sitting on the couch and thinking about or working on something related to your niche (in my case let’s say they were sitting at their computer and were thinking about doing a webinar).
I would ask myself where they are right now, right in this minute. I’ll come back to that question because I would also ask what small, but significant, step I could help my avatar take to move them closer to needing or wanting to work with me in a paid capacity.
I’m going to read that one more time. What small, yet significant, step can I help my avatar take right now to move them closer to needing or wanting to work with me in a paid capacity.
I’m asking those two questions (where are they right now and what small but significant step can I help them take) because if your lead magnet starts where your avatar is right now then you are going to become that trusted go-to source.
Usually, when people are stuck they need someone to say, “Do this right now.” If they can get a quick win they can breath a little bit easier. They can see the possibilities. They are open to moving forward even more.
Let’s take that example for webinars. For webinars, a lot of my students, where they are right now, are thinking that they don’t have a webinar topic. They don’t know what they would even talk about on a webinar.
Even before they’re thinking they don’t know what to sell on a webinar they are thinking that they don’t even know what the topic might be. So I created a freebie to help my students come up with a webinar topic.
Of course that webinar topic is going to be aligned with what they’re selling so I’ll teach that in the freebie but, again, I’m starting right where they are at. Once you have a webinar topic it’s like you’re almost excited to jump in and do even more.
Now that you have a topic you want to know what to do next. That’s precisely where I want my audience to be. For you, I’m sure you do way different things than me, so ask yourself where your avatar is right now.
This gets a little tricky. Avatar discussions kind of stress people out. They say, “some people on my list are here but others are there and what about these people? They’re kind of different.” Just choose the low-hanging fruit, the bulk of your audience or those that you really know you can serve right away with a live workshop or a program you’ve already recorded or whatever it might be.
Let’s just go after one subset. Where are they right this minute? What’s that one small, but significant, step you can take. You are looking for the quick win. That’s what I want you to think about.
A lot of times my students already have a really great lead magnet. They think they don’t because they’re not getting any traffic to it. Let’s talk about getting traffic to a lead magnet because if you have just one lead magnet and you feel it is a valuable, action-packed lead magnet and it’s basically answering the questions I just laid out for you then the issue is likely not the lead magnet but everything to do with getting enough traffic there to grow your list significantly every single week.
The question I often get asked is, “I struggle to get enough traffic to my lead magnet to make all the effort of putting it together worth it.” What’s working right now to drive more traffic?
This is why I love to talk about list building. When you are talking about list building and social media things change pretty quickly. So it’s important that we continue to have the conversation and I share with you that I tried “this” and it’s working really well or I tried “that” and I think you could try that in your own business and see some really good results. I love to have those conversations with you.
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So, here’s what I’m doing in my business that’s working really well for list building and you can try it on for size and see if it might work for you.
First of all, you’ve got to embrace video when it comes to list building. We’ve been talking about video a lot and we need to embrace video for all areas of our business. But the reason it works so well for list building, people are giving you their name and email. That is a hot commodity.
They hold that name and email tight to their chest because they really don’t want another insignificant email in their inbox. Because name and email is a hot commodity you need to make sure people trust you and feel very good about giving up that hot commodity in exchange for your lead magnet.
If we assume your lead magnet is a really great free offer then from there we’ve got to build that trust. You can do that so much easier now than ever before with video in social media. I’m talking about Facebook live, Snapchat, InstaStories, and video in general.
If you make a short little video where you teach something and then the call to action is to sign up for your freebie aligned with what you taught you could do a pre-recorded video and upload it to Facebook and Twitter and wherever else you want to upload it.
You could do so something more timely and more relevant by jumping on Facebook Live. The great thing is with Facebook Live you do a session and maybe you don’t have a huge audience showing up for that live session. But that Facebook Live is now a recording on your Facebook page and it lives beyond the Live.
Facebook loves video so it’s going to push the video out into the newsfeed more so than if you just did a post with a static image that talked about your freebie and you encourage people to sign up for it. That just doesn’t work anymore.
I’d love to see you do a Facebook Live. I’ve talked about Facebook Lives on my show before so we will link to some of those episodes in the show notes. But I want you to think about getting on Facebook live, teaching something for a good 10-15 minutes, and then say, “If you like this and you want to make it actionable I’ve got a freebie for you.”
You can either send them to a blog post that has some kind of freebie (a content upgrade) in the blog post or, to make it directly more actionable, send them to a stand-alone opt-in page. I do this a lot with my Facebook Lives.
Rarely will you ever see me do a Facebook Live without a call to action to some kind of freebie; some kind of cheat sheet, checklist, worksheet, or whatever it might be. I say to use Facebook Lives on a weekly basis if you can make that happen in order to get your freebies out into the world and in front of the people that matter most to you.
InstaStories. I don’t use Snapchat but I kind of see InstaStories and Snapchat as the same type of media in the sense that you’re jumping on, they are 15-second videos that you can string together. The more interesting you can make them the better.
They only last for 24 hours on your InstaStory channel and then they go away. I’ve been doing InstaStories a lot around different list-building opportunities. So I might tell a quick story and then I’ll tell people where they can go to get a freebie to help them with the same challenge I had.
Whatever it might be, InstaStories are great. But what I’ve learned having done them a lot over the last few months is that you don’t just want a talking head for ten different 15-second chunks of video. I tend to follow people that I really love how they are showing up on InstaStories and I pay attention to what they are doing.
You will see that on the first seconds you will see their face and maybe some kind of text below to tell you what the video’s about. Next, instead of a 15-second video it is just a snapshot of something they are talking about. Then it might come back to them direct to camera and then it might go to another snapshot or the camera might be forward facing where they are showing you something.
As long as it’s just not a talking head the whole time I think it keeps things more interesting. For all of you that don’t love to be on video, just like me, it’s kind of refreshing to think that works really well.
You want to create an InstaStory that’s interesting and that will get people to take action. So Facebook Live, Facebook video in general, InstaStories, Snapchat, or any kind of video you can get out where you can not only promote your freebie but also tell a story, make it interesting, and give them a reason why they’ve just got to go get that lead magnet is so very important.
You can take it to the next level and run Facebook ads all around list building. I did a two-part podcast episode series (Episode #172 and Episode #173) around getting started with list- building Facebook ads.
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I already did that episode. I’ll link to it in the show notes if you’re thinking about using Facebook ads for list building. But that’s a whole other way you can do it. I say try them all. I say expand your horizon and use multiple different ways to get out in front of your ideal audience to talk about your lead magnet.
You don’t need tons of different lead magnets. Even if you just have one but focus on it and find new ways to talk about it that works as well. I say every single week that you should be sharing your lead magnet in different ways.
If you have a lead magnet that’s a PDF I would love to see you share it on Instagram and Facebook Live and maybe do an Instagram post where you talk about it. I want you to do this in multiple ways. I think that’s really important. That’s what most people are not doing. They’re missing the mark on the fact that you want to expand your opportunities to get the message out there.
You can also think in terms of PR. Maybe you’re interviewed on somebody’s podcast and you get to mention it or you’re guest blogging for somebody and you get to link to it. There are other ways you can get that lead magnet out there. Just get creative.
Here’s one thing I know to be true for me and so many of my students. I have to be intentional about the kind of stuff I’m going to do to get the word out. If I’m going to do an Instagram story about a lead magnet this week it’s got to be on my calendar.
I know, I’m a planner and it takes away some of the spontaneity but the thing is I’m likely not going to be spontaneous in stuff like this. I get bogged down with work. I am focusing on a new project and I’ll forget that I want to jump on a Facebook Live and promote the freebie or do an Instagram story or whatever it might be.
If you’re intentional, let’s say on Sunday night, and you decide to do three things this week to promote your lead magnet, mark it on your calendar, choose a time to do it, and get it done. That definitely helps me out immensely.
Moving on to the next question. I get asked this one a lot. What do I do once someone joins my email list? The second question to follow is usually: Should I be sending a nurture sequence for my new subscribers?
I’m going to talk about stuff that I’ve never talked about before. I just finished my program, List-Builder’s Lab 2.0. At the time of this recording it’s not even available yet but it’s all recorded. I added some new stuff in there specifically around email marketing and nurture sequences.
I’m going to give you a little taste of what I shared inside of that program. When you ask me what you send out once someone joins your email list in the past I would have said that you have to send out a confirmation email.
That confirmation email is something like, “Hey there, I’m so excited that you signed up for this freebie. All you need to do is click here to download it instantly and here’s what’s you’re going to learn. Thanks so much for signing up. Bye.”
I’ve learned over time that type of email just falls flat, dead in the water. There’s so much more you can do with that very first email you send out once somebody joins your email list.
Full disclosure, the strategy I’m going to tell you about in a moment isn’t something I created. It was created by my own copywriter and dear, dear friend, Ry Schwartz. One day Ry and I were talking and he said something about the fact that he hates those standard confirmation emails.
My ears perked up because I wanted to know what he meant when he said he hated them. I send those out in my own email marketing. He said, “There is so much more you could do.” He feels the first email you send should build value from the get go and immediately dial up your own leadership and authority prepping your new subscribers to eventually buy.
He calls this type of email a what-this-says-about-you email (you being the person reading it). He says this type of email, instead of just delivering the freebie and then saying, “see ya,” you are diving deeper into the underlying problems or desire that motivated your avatar to sign up for your freebie in the first place.
In this confirmation email you are going to actually address the challenge that they want to solve. You know this because they just signed up for a freebie related to a challenge or a desire. Sometimes it’s a challenge and sometimes it’s just something they truly, dearly want. So, challenge or desire.
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In the email, instead of just saying, “Here’s what I promised you. Enjoy,” I want you to talk about the challenge. I want you to let them know that you are aware of what they are going through. You totally understand so you relate to them. And I want you to give the hope that there is a solution.
The first step is diving into the freebie you’re giving them but you’re going to be on this journey with them. Just taking the opportunity to make that first email more value packed is a really important step.
After you relate to them and identify the challenge they are going through and give them hope that there is a solution and they are now on the right track you can do one of two things. One, from there you can instantly invite them to a webinar or a three-part video series or a challenge that leads them in to your funnel to sell one of your programs, products, or services.
Ry says not to wait. They are ready to find a solution. There’s no need to send them a bunch of content for weeks and weeks and weeks if you have something to sell and they’re telling you they have a challenge, help me solve it.
In the P.S. of the confirmation email that we now call a what-this-says-about-you email you can invite them to a webinar or some kind of video series or whatever it is that’s going to eventually sell one of your programs, products, or services.
A lot of my students are not ready to sell. That leads me into the next question. Now that you know you want to beef up your confirmation email and you want to offer more value but you’re not ready to sell you might ask if you should be sending a nurture sequence to your new subscribers.
I say, “yes” if you are not ready to sell. If you’re ready to sell I would move them into a promo funnel where you could still add value and give free content but you are intentionally moving them into a promo sequence that will sell something.
If you’re not ready for that I recommend a short-term nurture sequence, maybe three to six emails over three to six weeks, maybe one email a week where you are nurturing your new subscriber in a very specific way.
A nurture sequence is a series of emails you write once and set up inside your email service provider to send out at pre-set intervals to your new subscribers who sign up for your lead magnet. In our case, how we’re talking about it here, the nurture sequence will be sent out after you send the what-this-says-about-you confirmation email.
You might be asking what kind of content you put into a nurture sequence. The goal is to create an experience. They are new to your email list. They are new to you and your content, more importantly. You want to give them a taste of what you’re all about but you also want to invite them in and let them know you are going to be their go-to source. You are there to help and support and you have the answers they need.
Here is a list of examples you can include in your nurture sequence.
- You can share your stories. Give them a glimpse of who you are and what you’re all about.
- You can offer a quick lesson. Teach something inside of your nurture sequence. You could share a recent discovery or some kind of a-ha moment you’ve had that will be relatable to them.
- Ask them a question. If you want to understand them more and get to know them have them hit “reply” on an email and give you some information. Make it easy for them to answer and do your very best to reply back to everybody. When your list is small that is something that’s very doable.
- Provide a resource list of some kind.
- Deliver a case study or success story. Instead of telling the story about yourself you are telling a story about somebody that you supported or somebody you helped.
These are different things you can add to a nurture sequence. The topics that you put into your nurture sequence emails should relate or be aligned with your freebie. Of course, if somebody signed up for a freebie around webinars then my entire nurture sequence would be focused on webinars whether it be the mindset behind doing webinars or the mechanics. I really want you to stay aligned with whatever freebie they signed up for.
Here’s something I’ve really never talked about that is so very important. In your nurture sequence, and quite honestly you can use this in all you do as it pertains to list building, you always want to include simple calls to action.
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You want to do this in your nurture sequence but you definitely also want to do this in any emails you send in all of your social media. Pay attention here because this part is really important. Simple calls to action actually get your audience into the habit of doing something with you, engaging with you.
I’m talking about really simple things like “click this link” in an email. Let’s take it back to your nurture sequence series. You’ll have them click a link to go check out a blog post or click a link to watch a video or hit reply in the email to give you a little information about themselves.
You might encourage them to write a list of three things they want to do to XYZ. Or, in social media, you’ll ask them to reply with a list of three things they want to do related to XYZ. Or, in social media, you might ask them to double tap on an Instagram photo or click “like” on a Facebook post or whatever it might be.
These are what are called micro conversions. They are little actions that get your fans into the habit of engaging with you.
Imagine if you’re constantly doing this in an authentic way. You’re actually adding value to them by getting them to take action. Imagine what this will equate to when you go into a promotion when you are ready to sell. Having them click a link to go check out a webinar or click a link to check out a sales page won’t be too different from what they are used to doing when they see a communication from you.
These micro conversions really add up and they build a habit with your followers so that they are more likely to engage in your promotions when you are ready to sell. That’s pretty good, right? I feel this is a conversation we definitely need to have in order to help you build your list- building efforts because you’re having them click to sign up for a freebie or click to sign up for a video you created or whatever that might be. This leads into promotions as well.
Okay, we are switching gears just a bit and I’m going to go into another question I get asked a lot that is truly related to everything we’ve talked about so far. These next two questions are actually related to different tools I use inside of my own business in order to grow my email list.
The first question is around LeadPages because I promote LeadPages a bunch. Sometimes a student will tell me they don’t want to pay for LeadPages and that they have a website that allows them to create opt-in page templates and thank-you page templates. They want to know if they can just use the different templates inside their website.
Sometimes they have an email service provider that comes with templates as well. I’m totally fine, of course, if you’re not using LeadPages. But I thought it would be valuable to give you a few criteria to think about for your opt-in page for your lead magnet and for your thank-you page as well.
It is so very important that the page you’re sending traffic to in order to give you their name and email is a high, high, high-converting page. I don’t know about you but I’m not an expert in that area. I don’t study what converts well. I don’t run tests and analyze data.
However, some of the best of the best companies out there that focus on landing pages do the research. LeadPages happens to be one of them. So for me, because list building is such a huge part of my business, it’s something I really have got to get right from the get go because I know if I have an engaged email list I am more likely to impact lives and sell more of my programs. No doubt about it.
Because I take list building so seriously in my business, not just because I teach it but because I use the strategies of list building in my own business, I’m only going to use the best of the best tools to do so. That’s why I happen to use LeadPages for my opt-in pages. I know they all convert really well.
If I come to the table with a really good offer and some good copy I can drag and drop some images and text into that opt-in page and that’s the last thing I have to do there. It’s going to convert well.
But let’s say you don’t want to use LeadPages. Let’s talk about some criteria you want to look into.
- The template you are using should be proven to convert; meaning, there is some science and data behind the actual template design and they’ve done their homework. Whatever tool you’re using, they’ve done their homework to make sure the button is placed “there” because it converts the best, the images go “here” because this is where the eye is going to. There needs to be some data and research behind that template to make sure you’re using one that has converted for other entrepreneurs really well.
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- I would look for a tool that is drag and drop. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to deal with any code and I don’t want to hire a programmer every time I want to create a new lead magnet. I’m always looking for a drag and drop kind of solution.
- I have been customizing my opt-in pages more and more. I want to use my images inside of the opt-in pages and on the thank-you pages to make them more personal. When it comes to list building the more personal you can get the better, the more they get to see your face, the more they get to experience your own message through your copy, the more you can make that instant connection and you’re just talking to one person the better. When we’re talking about opt-in pages, using your own images and getting a change to feature your own content or copy is really important. Make sure you can customize your opt-in page so that it represents your own branding.
- Support. You must be able to get in touch with support at any time when you are stuck. I think that LeadPages has a great support team but I’m sure there are other tools out there that also offer great support. But that’s one thing you really want to look into.
What I wouldn’t do is probably use a template from my website. If my website is offering templates I have never, ever seen a good one. I don’t think most email service providers offer good templates either. So I would look for a company that specializes in opt-in page so you know you are going to get the best of the best.
That’s what I’ll say about that because I know I push LeadPages a lot because I think it’s the best and the easiest. But I also know there are other great solutions out there. You just have to do your research and I thought this criteria might help you do just that.
Moving into the final question that I get asked a lot still around this tools topic is this: Amy, what tools do you use to boost your list-building efforts? Obviously I’m using an email service provider and I use LeadPages for my opt-in page and my thank-you page.
Beyond those tools it’s important to talk about some other tools you can use in order to get more mileage out of your lead magnet. Remember, we already talked about getting more traffic; InstaStories, Facebook Live, Snapchat, Instagram in general, Facebook in general, video in general. That’s what’s working right now when it comes to getting your lead magnet in front of your ideal audience.
But there are more things you can do. These tools I’m going to go through, the first few, are about your website. If you are driving traffic to a blog post (this is one of my favorite ways to list build and I do this with my podcast all the time).
If I’m driving traffic to my show notes and inside my show notes I have a content upgrade, a lead magnet, a freebie and let’s say in my show notes I have an image that has the title of the freebie and maybe a quick sentence of what it’s about.
It will have a button that says something like, “Click here to get the freebie.” I do that in a lot of my show notes for my podcast. I get that image created. It’s just a template. We use the same template over and over again and change out the text and any details around the freebie.
If you click on that button a pop-up box appears. That’s actually a LeadBox. This is another way I use LeadPages. I always use LeadBoxes. This is important for me to bring up here because it’s not the traditional pop-up box that appears out of nowhere.
People have to see that image in the show notes, they have to want what I I’m giving away for free, and they have to click a button that says, “Yes, give it to me.” When they click that button then the pop-up box appears. It’s a two-step opt in that converts really, really well.
I use LeadBoxes for all of my freebies inside of my show notes or any blog posts that I might have a content upgrade. Just to make sure, content upgrade and freebie are used interchangeably here. A content upgrade is a freebie that you’ve included in a blog post or in the show notes.
You’re upgrading to even more content if somebody opts in. You get the point there? I’ll use LeadBoxes for all of those.
Another thing I do is use a traditional pop-up box on specific pages of my website where I want to get in front of my audience one more time. Here’s how it looks. If you go to one of my show notes and you’re on the show notes for a while but haven’t yet opted in a pop-up box will automatically appear.
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You didn’t click anything or do anything, it’s on at timer, a pop-up box will appear and that pop-up box features my freebie/my content upgrade for that podcast episode. It’s just one more way of getting in front of you and saying, “Hey, you know I’ve got a freebie for this episode. Make sure to sign up for it.”
I don’t know about the timing of this episode but we are fixing our website a little bit more. We recently did a whole website rebrand but there is some kind of weird coding going on with my website that I don’t have the exact pop-up box I want to appear.
Quite honestly, the one you are seeing is kind of ugly. But we are still going with it because it still really works. But hopefully it’s fixed by the time this episode comes out. If not we will get it fixed as soon as we can. We’re working on it right now. It’s a weird tech glitch with my new website.
Anyway, the pop-up box that happens automatically is one extra way that I get in front of my audience to boost my lead magnet.
In addition to that, I also use PushCrew. I’m going to link to the next few tools in the show notes. PushCrew is a tool you set up on your website. When people come to your website they have the opportunity to click “yes” on getting notifications when you have a new blog post that comes out.
Here’s what’s really cool about PushCrew if you’re not yet using it. Let’s say you come to my website and you say “yes” to PushCrew, that you want notifications. Then let’s say you are on Chrome and you minimize your screen and you’re working on your desktop.
Out of the corner of your eye you see a pop-up box appear in the right corner of your desktop and it says something about a new episode I just released on my podcast. PushCrew doesn’t only pop up to notify you of a new post if you’re on my website, no matter where you are on the web, no matter if your web is minimized and you’re on your desktop or inside of a document, it doesn’t matter, you are going to get that notification.
It’s pretty dang powerful. I think the first time I saw it was from Dr. Axe. Then I looked into it more and we started using it on our blog as well. It really converts. So PushCrew is one tool I definitely want you to look into.
You might be asking how it relates to list building. I’m going to encourage you to start adding content upgrades into your weekly blog post or weekly podcast episodes. Start small. Maybe every month you choose one blog post or show notes or video show notes, whatever you’re doing, choose one piece of content where you will add a freebie.
Now you have an automatic lead magnet in one of your pieces of content this month and when that notification goes out it’s going to a blog post. Eventually they will read and find a freebie that they can opt in to. Driving traffic back to a specific blog post is incredibly powerful for list building when you have things set up right.
Another tool we use that I love is called Proof. I use Proof on my opt-in pages. If you have stand-alone opt-in pages you can install the Proof app to work on those pages. Here’s how it works. If you go to one of my stand-alone opt-in pages (I don’t have this on every single one of them but I definitely do it for webinars) or one of my webinar opt-in pages while you are reading the text or thinking about signing up, in the lower left corner, you will see a little pop- up box appear and it shows you who else has just signed up for that webinar.
A lot of times it will show the person’s picture, their name, and where they are from. Depending on how much information the tool can pull from that person it might just say their first name or where they are from. Regardless, this is a powerful tool because it’s social proof.
It’s showing you who else just signed up. It’s timely. If I got 100 people to sign up today it’s going to be showing their faces and their names. I love this tool. It’s really, really powerful. I will link to Proof in my show notes.
The final thing we do that I think is really cool, and this was all created by Lindsay on my team so I have to give her a shout out, when somebody comes to my Facebook page and they leave me a message (you know how you can message somebody on their Facebook page) we’ve set up the messenger bot to respond back to the person that just left us a message.
It might say something like, “Thanks so much for reaching out. In the meantime, did you know we have a brand new podcast episode about XYZ. Click here to check it out.” So, if somebody private messages us on our Facebook page they will get an instant message back and we are constantly, every single week, updating that message with the latest podcast.
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Remember, most of my podcast episodes have freebies included, which is contributing to my list growth.
Before we get into the final wrap up where I have something super important to share with you I just kind of want to make a point that if you allow yourself to take the weekly content you’re doing every single week (your original content), your blog, your podcast, your videos, or whatever you’re doing, and you find ways to create lead magnets inside of that content (maybe not every single time) if you do it enough times you have a handful of lead magnets that you can use in so many different ways.
You can use them in Facebook Lives and InstaStories and with a messenger bot and with PushCrew or however you want to use them. That’s why it’s so important and something that I talk about a lot, especially inside my program, List-Builder’s Lab 2.0, I talk a lot about content creation and creating weekly original content and how to infuse that content with lead magnet opportunities.
I’m telling you right now the best of the best list builders, the people I know have really engaged email lists that definitely are a huge part of their success inside their business, are linking their original free weekly content to their list-building efforts. That is how they are making the biggest bang inside of their business in terms of finding their audience, growing their audience, and engaging with that audience.
Like I said, this is a topic I could go on and on about because I am semi obsessed with it. There are so many cool things that you can do with list building. And that is precisely why I have created a brand new totally free live training.
It’s called the Ultimate List-Building Catch-Up Plan, my proven three-stack system for leveraging the most powerful what’s-working-now list-building strategies without the stress, tech confusion, or crazy overwhelm. That’s a pretty long title for a webinar, right?
I am so excited. Let me tell you why this free training is extra special. It’s live and I’m doing it solo. I haven’t done a lot of live webinars this year and I am so pumped to finally get out there again, do these live webinars, and engage with you in real time. I’m doing it solo so I’m not bringing on any guests or any hosts, just me.
I’m also going to be live on video during this training. This is the first time I’ve ever been on video during a live webinar the entire time. I think it will make things more personal. I think we’ll get to connect at a totally new level and I think it will make things more interesting. So, if you want to see me do a webinar where it’s live and I’m on video then please come and join me.
Also, of course, I will be extending an invitation into my fully revamped program, List-Builder’s Lab 2.0. But, if you know anything about me you know that for the first probably 45 minutes you will just get impeccable, free, valuable content that you can take action on.
I always use this mantra each time I go into a live webinar. I say to myself, “No matter if they buy or not they walk away today feeling excited, inspired, and driven to take action.” I really mean it and I think that’s why I spend hours and hours and hours on the free live training part. To me that’s the most important.
I will be extending an invitation to List-Builder’s Lab 2.0 but you will walk away whether you join that program or not with some new list-building strategies, insights, and know how. That, I can promise you.
Here’s what we’re going to cover inside of the Ultimate List-Building Catch-Up Plan.
- The biggest list-building shifts I’ve noticed in the last 12 months. If you keep creating stellar content only to have six people actually see it then it’s not worth it. I’m going to talk to you about what’s working right now in terms of creating the right type of content and getting the right audience to actually see it and sign up for it.
- I will dive into my three favorite emerging platforms. I think InstaStories, Facebook Live, and Snapchat are three really valuable tools. I literally touched on them here in this episode but I’m going to get into some formulas and into some how-to related to these platforms so that you can use them for list building.
- How to know when you’re ready to amplify your list-building efforts with Facebook ads. I really do believe it’s time for you to embrace list-building Facebook ads but I’m going to help you understand, when you’re ready to dive in, how much money you need to spend and actually where to focus with your list-building Facebook ads.
- Why building your email list is more important than ever right now and, again, I’m going to use tons of examples and stories from my own business as well as those of my students’.
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That’s what this free training is all about. All you need to do is go to http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/buildmylist in order to sign up for this live free training. And don’t wait. I am going to be there live and I want you there live.
Don’t sign up and say, “I’m just going to catch the replay.” We will have a replay but it’s only going to be available for one to two days. It is a very, very short cycle of the replay and we’re going to have so much more fun if you’re there live.
Plus, you get so much more out of a training when you show up live and, of course, I always have extra bonuses when people are there live on the webinar. If you can do it, show up live. Mark your calendar and make it happen.
If you’re feel you are so busy and you don’t have time for this but want to be a part of it how do you know if you are the right fit for my free training? Let me tell you.
- You have been trying to build your email list for months or years but haven’t gained any serious traction that inspires you to keep going. You are perfect for my free training.
- You’ve had some success in the past but you’re starting to realize what used to work with list building now barely even brings in a small trickle. You, my friend, are right for the training.
- You feel you have fallen behind on all of the most current strategies like Facebook Live and paid ads and InstaStories and all that good stuff. You sure as heck don’t want your competitor to have the edge so you know this is stuff you need to learn. Come on the live training.
- If you don’t currently have a list of 2,500 subscribers and if that list is not growing every single week you are perfect for this live training.
Again, http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/buildmylist will take you to the registration page where you can sign up. Do not forget I am there live so I hope you will show up there live as well. If you catch this after the live webinar you will likely hit a page that says it is over. But give it a shot depending on when you’re listening.
Guys, thank you so very, very much for being here with me. I am so very lucky that I get to share all of these list-building strategies with you and I hope I will see you on the live webinar as well where I get down to even more detail.
That reminds me, if you liked the strategy around enhancing your confirmation email, the what-this-says-about-you email, and you want to see some examples of it I’m going to be showing some examples in this free live training.
If you want me to go into even more detail around that strategy meet me on the live webinar. Okay guys, have a wonderful morning, noon, or night, wherever you are in the world and I will see you again next week. Bye for now.
