The Get It Done Blog

When an entrepreneur first starts out building an online presence, perhaps list building isn’t a big priority. Maybe you think you need to be big before you can even start growing your very own online community.

Truth is instead of list building being the last thing you do, it should really should be one of top priorities of your online marketing strategies. You want to capture visitors that check you out and then keep supplying them with information that’s of value to them. This allows you to build solid (and profitable) relationships.

If the idea of list building seems stressful to you, remember that it doesn’t need to be an elaborate, complex strategy. Some of the most effective list building ideas are easy to use.

Whether you’re new to online marketing or are someone who’s interested in ways to make it more effective, here are a few strategies for building your list that every entrepreneur can use to make online marketing more profitable:

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When entrepreneurs develop their websites, a lot of thought goes into making it an effective marketing tool. Not only will you want to clearly introduce yourself and what you have to offer, you’ll also want to make sure that you’ve included a key component – a well-crafted squeeze page.

If you haven’t heard that term, a squeeze page is a very effective marketing tool for capturing your audience right away. A squeeze page is a page with a very clear call to action. It includes an opt-in form that encourages the person to sign-up for the offer.

To see an example of a squeeze page that’s worked very effectively for me, click here.

So, how can YOU create a squeeze page that works?

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On one of my recent Get it Done Action calls, I was speaking with Jim Palmer, the Newsletter Guru, and he mentioned some statistics that are so important I had to share them with you. According to Jim, it typically costs an entrepreneur at least five times more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain a customer. And for each one percent increase in customer retention that transforms into a seven percent increase in profits.

What does that mean for you?

It means customer retention makes a lot more sense (and cents) than customer acquisition.

As a general rule, entrepreneurs don’t feel comfortable with marketing. You go to all the expense and effort of attracting a new customer and making a sale and that’s something to be grateful for. But if it stops there and you let that customer walk away without some plan in place to keep the relationship going, it’s a real waste. It’s not just one lost customer, it’s lost revenue of all the future sales and referrals that might have been.

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When you’re an entrepreneur you’ve probably ALREADY spent a lot of your resources developing your product or service. So I’m guessing your advertising budget isn’t large as let’s say…McDonald’s.   

McDonald’s spends a huge amount of money on constant ads. They make you remember that if you’re hungry, it’s fast and easy to eat a hamburger. Most entrepreneurs, however, don’t have that kind of financial resources to get the word out about your businesses.  

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Have you ever tried rushing up to a cat that has never seen you before?  How does it react?  Doesn’t it immediately flee, viewing you as a threat to its safety?  That’s a natural reaction. Consumers have that same protective reaction when it comes to being “sold to”.  

They work hard for their money and are protective of it because it represents a comfortable way of life for their family.  So “in your face marketing” doesn’t work for entrepreneurs today.            

Therefore, how can taming a cat help entrepreneurs successfully market to your ideal customer? 

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As i coach entrepreneurs who want to launch something new in their business, I find the consistent problem they face is what direction to take. Generally it’s pretty easy to decide your overall field of business, whether it’s in the health industry, creative designs, fashion, or teaching your technical expertise, because it’s something you’re passionate about.

But the next steps of figuring out your specific niche and how you want to model your business aren’t as easy. A great deal of the problem is because you haven’t identified your ideal client. Who is it specifically that can benefit from your services that they’re going to want to buy from you? It’s only when you get that clarity that you can effectively market your offerings.

And here are two things you must know about your ideal client (target market):

First, WHAT do they want? (What problem are you going to solve that they will be willing to pay for?)

Second, HOW do they want to get it? (What’s the best way for them to access the solution? Is it via a product, a service, one-time information or continuous access to information?)

To help you understand this whole process of refining your ideal client and determining which business model you’re going to employ, let me give you a real life example. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas you can apply it to your own situation.

One of my clients came to me with the very clear intention that she wanted to set up her business model around a continuity program, which means somebody is paying monthly money to receive something of value to them.

She’d defined her ideal client as a mom who’s looking to be in business, but who has special needs children. So the first question that I asked her was, “Okay, what does a special needs mom really need on a monthly basis that she is going to pay for?” And the client couldn’t answer that question. We both acknowledged maybe she’d sign up for a month or two for some valuable content, but there really wasn’t anything my client was offering that would make her ideal customer stay very long.

As we began understanding more about who this client was, we realized she’s really someone who needs a lot of information - information on medical issues for her child, on how she can make money while she’s home, on nutritional things that might support her child. Now will she pay for that information? Not necessarily.

I just intuitively knew that rather than spend a lot of time and energy creating a continuity program; it would be a much better avenue for my client to become the great resource for women who need information about their kids.

To attract attention to her site, she’s going to need to create great content, do keyword research and search engine optimization, but once all those eyeballs are seeing her great content, advertisers are going to want to put ads there. So she’ll have the opportunity for advertising revenue, for AdSense revenue, and for affiliate product revenue.

Through our conversation she realized that there was no financial viability in the continuity model, but she could make money in her niche in other ways. She gained clarity when she finally asked herself, “Is this worth my time and effort? Is this going to manifest into bottom line revenue for my business?”

Those are tough questions every entrepreneur needs to ask before launching a new product, service, or membership site. If you’d like one-on-one coaching from me, check out my private coaching services so you too can find clarity about the business model that best suits you and you avoid costly mistakes.

I attended a great conference recently that got me thinking about how entrepreneurs should set up their businesses with multiple income streams. We know that we can’t have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to being in business. It’s just too risky. We need to diversify and generate business in different ways.

If you can visualize your business like a pie cut into wedges with each wedge representing different avenues of generating revenue, how many wedges are you using? And what percentage of your whole is each one occupying?

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If you’re running your own business, nothing hurts like knowing you have all the tools to help and serve more people – but they just don’t know you even exist.

My friend Jenny calls this ‘shouting in the dark.’ A lot of businesses drift along without a plan, thinking something along the lines of “If I just work hard to become the very BEST, then I’ll get discovered by Oprah or someone else… and then I’ll be able to reach everyone!”

That’s a lovely thought. But it’s not reality.

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Recently, I wrote about how press releases are a great way for entrepreneurs to let reporters know your expertise.  It’s a win-win situation for you and the reporters because when they see the value you have to share, they’ll share it with their readers. 

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