While there are many marketing strategies that you can use and implement to make money, I'm going to have to say that if I had to choose ONE strategy, it would be to build a list.
Some marketers will disagree and say that testing and tracking is the best strategy. In my opinion this is not a marketing strategy per se, but it's without a doubt a darn good business practice. You should put this practice to work, but be careful cause you can overdue it.
Building a list is one thing, how you build a relationship with that list is key, and there is an art and a science to it. How often have I read posts on marketing forums where someone says "I have a list of 10 or 20 thousand and I'm barely making anything"?. That's an easy one...quite a bit!
Then there are people that know how to build very high quality lists and earn huge profits from relatively small lists. You'll be surprised that some marketers make gobs of cash from a list of less than 1,000 highly-targeted customers. And I know a few marketers who aren't worried about building a list of 50,000 subscribers. You know why? Because they know how to treat the subscribers that they've got.
The Golden Rule goes a long way - even with Internet marketing. "Treat others the same way you would want to be treated." I don't' know about you, but I definitely don't like to be "sold to". I want to read good, quality information. And if the author recommends something here and there, I'll usually check out their suggestion - but what's most important is that you treat your subscribers the way you would want to be treated.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is they don't treat their customer list as a LIST! Some studies indicate that roughly 30% of your customers will buy from you again and again, yet many people are afraid to market to their customer list.
There are some niches that have never ever seen this kind of multi-media and you can literally blow them away with your valuable content. Valuable doesn't necessarily mean a lot of content.
I've realized that taking a "customer-for-life" approach and making them "raving fans" will pay off HUGE dividends.
Now, you might be asking, "how in the heck do I build my list?".
Well, I've had great success using Pay Per Click Search Engines, writing articles, press releases, setting up joint ventures with e-zine editors/owners, search engine optimization, and using viral tools such as giving away free reports, free ebooks, and free audios. I wasn't lying to you in the earlier lessons when I gave you the top ways to build your list from scratch.
One of the keys here is to step outside of yourself and try and think like your potential customer. Also survey your visitors. Ask them what their biggest problems and challenges are and what kind of solution they are looking for. Then GIVE it to them.
I know that sounds like an oversimlification, but you'll be amazed at how many people don't ask their visitors what they want. They assume they know better and tend to create a product before ever asking people what they want.
Build a list, build a relationship with that list by providing mind-blowing, over-the-top content, give them a free report or product and show them that you're a genuine human being that really cares about them, and you'll have them fighting at your virtual door wanting to buy your products or services.
So that's my 2 cents for the day.
In a later lesson, I'll fill you in on the important things to focus your time and effort on when dealing with your "list relationships". You'll be surprised by some of the tips I'm going to recommend.
About the Author
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