How to Use the Piggyback Method to Build an Email Client List

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By kofnye
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Building an Online Client List Online is Easy When You Know How

Are there shortcuts to building a great list to market to? No, but there are tried and true methods for adding people to your lists if you know where to look.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A source for leads
Advertising copy to attract prospects
A quality auto responder
Patience and persistence

Step 1

Who needs internet customer lists? Anyone who does business online. No matter if you're a plumber or attorney, a customer list is like gold. The first step to getting started is to tap into some one else that has the type of customer of client you are looking for already on their list! Is this stealing? No, it's an old method of internet advertising that's called "piggybacking". Before starting, narrow down the characteristics of the customer demographic you will be going after. Once you get this distilled down to the exact details you are ready for step two.
Step 2

Before you go fishing for customers and clients, the first thing you will want to do is get something called an auto responder. Auto responders are software that maintains a database of information on people that sign up for your product or service. When picking an auto responder, you want to go for quality and not skimp as you want to make sure your client list is well kept. Fortunately, the best one out there starts out for as little as $20 a month and won't set you back a lot of money.
Step 3

Next, you want to get a web page or site set up with advertising copy on it that will tempt people interested in what you are offering to sign up for more info. If you are not good with ad copy, you can hire a copy writer (No doubt there are probably good ones who hang out on Ehow) to do the job for you at a pretty reasonable cost. Make sure the ad leads to a person signing up on a form that will lead them to your auto responder. The copy writer can also write follow up email messages to load into your auto responder for your clients giving them the information that they are looking for.
Step 4

Next you will want to look at list you want to advertise to. The most commonly used list is called an opt in list. Opt in lists are lists that contain people interested in a particular subject or area. Some of these can be accessed for little or no money but be careful as these are just a starting point for your own list. You can find these by looking on the search engines and info on these can be found on business forums.
Step 5

If you have a bit of a budget and can afford it, a specialized type of list known as an ezine can be beneficial. Ezines have hundreds to thousands of members and some have been known to have great response rates. Just be sure to check advertising rates when you find what you are looking for.
Step 6

The ultimate type of piggyback lists are the major search engines. Before advertising here be sure you understand the ins and outs of online advertising. Taking a course on internet advertising is highly recommended to help you get the most out of your advertising dollars.

Comments

ampersand said

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on 11/13/2009 Great tips on building an email client list; thanks!

charlotteh said

on 11/4/2009 Very good list building tips, you certainly know what it takes. With people following these steps it will save them a ton of time on trial and error Thanks :-)