Do you need an email list if you have referrals?
Referrals are pure gold. Referrals built my business which continued to grow at a rapid pace until the stock market crashed in 2008. Before 2008 my business was outputting over 300 design jobs a year. After the crash…12.
And that’s the problem.
Like COVID, and stock market corrections, it’s hard to predict what will cause the next economic downturn, and when it will occur.
If your business is humming along on referrals alone, touche to you, but be forewarned.
If you don’t have an email list, or not actively building an email list, you could be setting yourself up for an expected downturn when the economy hits another bump in the road.
How to use Google Search to build your list of prospects: Click here to download my FREE video.
…but List Building isn’t an income generating activity
It’s true.
List building takes hours of your unpaid time to create a free offer in exchange for a prospect’s email address.
The good news is, successful online entrepreneurs report that each hot prospect on your email list is worth between $.50 and $2.50 per month, depending upon your industry and product.
How to make free offers worth your time and effort
If you can:
- Solve an immediate problem for your ideal customer
- Give them a small quick win they can use right away
- Keep in touch so they remember you…
…you’ll build an email list that’s worth your time and effort.
What makes the best free offer?
The best free offers give people what they want. But your best free offer gives your prospect only one quick win.
If you’re spending more than two hours creating your free offer you’re giving away too much information.
Create one page.
Given them one quick win.
Like many entrepreneurs, the first free offer I created contained too much information. I wanted to show my expertise so I wrote a 20-page step-by-step guide on how to set up a WordPress website. It was so thorough there was no need to hire me; and that was the problem.
Today, with free design templates from Canva, you can quickly build a professional looking, one-page free offer that builds your list of prospects.
How to discover what your ideal customer wants badly enough to give you their email address
- Ask Google!
- Go to google.com
- Ask question to a problem you can easily solve for your ideal customer
BEFORE you press enter wait for the drop down menu to appear (see below).
- Choose the most relevant question from the dropdown menu
- Click
Look for the People also ask box (PAA)
You’ll find the People also ask (PAA) box on page one of Googles Search Results page. PAA is pure gold because you will find the EXACT words people are using to solve their problems.
And that’s exactly what you want: their words. Not the words you use, or that you think your ideal customer is using.
How to use PAA
Click on the most relevant question.
Read the article to discover if:
- it’s what your customer wants and needs
- there’s something in article that’s missing, or that you could answer more thoroughly
- you have a different ‘spin’
By creating a free offer from a real question people are asking you will become a trusted resource.
Need Help Creating a Free Offer?
Most of my website customers also need free offers so I’ve designed a lot of them.
Please feel free to phone or email me at nancy (at) fieldsgraphicdesign (dot) com for a free 15-minute consultation to see how I can help you.
How I use Google Search to build my list of prospects: Click here to download my FREE video.
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