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Despite the recent growth of various online marketing strategies such as social media, email marketing still remains to be the most effective marketing tool for websites. A mailing list is therefore one of the greatest assets a business can possess.
Building this list however is not an easy task. Some websites have even resorted to buying lists in a desperate attempt to increase their subscribers but in the end this proves useless and even damaging.
A good mailing list is one which a website has developed naturally. Such a list contains individuals who have a high potential of becoming loyal customers. To build a good mailing list you need an equally good, high conversion opt in page.
The first step in creating a successful opt in page is increasing the traffic to it. Without people visiting the page, you have no chance of building your list. Below are some helpful strategies through which you can boost the number of visitors visiting your opt in page.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To get as many people as possible to visit the opt in page, you need to put your website in front of as many eyes as possible. The best way of doing this is through search engine optimization.
The proper use of certain rich keywords and key phrases and providing value to your visitors through the content on the website are all effective SEO methods.
With an increased ranking, more web users will see your website and possibly visit it.
Paid Advertising
If you are just beginning to build your mailing list, getting the traffic you need naturally can take time. To jumpstart the list, make use of paid advertising. You can advertise using Google, Bing or Facebook ads among others.
The advantage of paid advertising is that the traffic that you receive is still beneficial since the people who will click on the ad are those who are interested in what you have to offer.
Ensure that you have crafted your ads, especially those on Facebook, well enough so as to attract as many people as possible.
Social Media
Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus are some of the best social media websites that you can use to triple the traffic being received on the opt in or squeeze page. Facebook is especially effective at this.
All you need to do is create a fan page and then get people to join it.
You can even use Facebook ads to get more fans. Frequently invite your fans to sign up for something and place the opt in page url where they can easily see it.
Be careful however not to spam your fans. Instead, strive to provide value and make offers that they cannot refuse.
Solo Ads
This is another popular method of jumpstarting your list although you will have to pay for it. It involves using someone else’s list to market your website and create your own subscribers.
For instance, if your website is in the health niche, you can find a well-developed almost similar health website and then pay the site owner to email your content or offer to his list.
Of course, you can only use solo ads with other related websites. For those in marketing and business niches, a form of solo ads is Safe Swaps – http://safe-swaps.com
A word of warning though; not all solo ad vendors are made equal and there are a lot of poor providers out there so this is NOT for the novice marketer as you can lose a lot of money quickly. In all honesty, paid advertising via the likes of Google, Bing and Facebook are more reliable.
Forums
Many websites owners do not realize the potential that forums hold in getting more people to visit an opt in page and subscribe to emails. You can easily build a list with hundreds of subscribers simply by using forums.
Just find a popular forum in your niche, sign up and then become an active participant. Answer and ask questions and contribute to discussions.
As you build your authority on a forum, more people will be curious to find out what you are offering.
Article Marketing
Article marketing has long been said that it no longer works. However, it should still be part of your traffic generation strategy, as you’ll still get traffic from those searching for information around a particular topic.
This involves creating short articles, between 300 to 700 words and then posting them on various article directories. At the bottom of each article, you include a url to your opt in page.
To increase the number of people who follow the url ensure that the article contains helpful and informative content and use more than one article directory.
Even better, post the articles to directories in a certain niche rather than general directories. Here’s an article directory where you can submit your articles: http://ezinearticles.com
Press Releases
Media releases are particularly effective at getting people to check out what you are offering.
To increase the effectiveness of press releases, create them regularly and submit them to different news websites.
Guest Blogging
Get in touch with popular bloggers and ask whether you can submit a blog post.
Although you may not get paid for the post, you may be allowed to place a link to your website at the end of the article.
This tactic is all about exposure and you are borrowing the site owners expertise. The more popular the blog, the more traffic you will get.
Contests
People love winning things, and a contest of any kind will receive a lot of attention.
Start a contest on your website and publicize it on social media and ask your fans to share it with their friends.
Ensure that the reward for the winner is appealing enough for people to want to participate.
YouTube
YouTube is the most popular video hosting website. Take advantage of the millions of visitors who visit it every day to boost traffic to your opt in page.
Learn how to create a viral video that is both helpful and interesting. In the video and description, provide a link to the opt in page. You can also encourage people to share their video on their websites for more visibility.
In your effort to get people to visit your website, make sure that they are people who are likely to sign up. Hence your efforts need to be directed towards a specific target group. As you work within your niche, you attract relevant visitors who in the future can easily turn into paying customers.
After you have attained considerable traffic increases, remember that there is also the work of getting people to actually join your mailing list. But once you have established a steady stream of reliable traffic, you have tackled this major first step in email marketing.
If you want to know more about building your list after they have opted in, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further.
