Get Your Email List DONE & Running With AWeber – Even Without A Website – Plus Tips For Success

Video From Austin Internet Marketing Meetup

Last Monday I was the speake at the Austin Internet Marketing Meetup organized by Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit.

The topic and purpose was to help members get their (maybe first) email list DONE, up and running, and help them make it a success.

Not everyone who wanted to attend could, and since I had the Powerpoint presentation and the material fresh in my mind I decided to go ahead and record a Camtasia screencast video with the same material.

I even added a BONUS: What Question Must Every Email You Send Answer?

 

 

Extra AWeber and List Building Resources

Here Is My Outline For The AWeber, List Building Presentation

• You don’t need a website to have a list
  • aWeber can host your form
  • Launch Effect (launcheffectapp.com) has free & premium WP Themes
  • Facebook page (aWeber app is easy to use)
  • If you do have a website, you can automatically send out blog updates to your list – Shawn covered that previously
• What you DO need to have a list
  • A reason to have a list
  • An offer, if you hope to make money
  • Probably a freebie of some sort (download, video, coupon)
• Why you want to use aWeber
  • Building a list is an investment, start with the best – moving a list is difficult and you likely will lose a great number of subscribers
  • Capabilities
  • Support
  • Getting your emails delivered instead of marked spam
  • Setup checklist to aid you in creating a list; form templates; tracking
• Why you want to plan your list creation
  • aWeber isn’t free or even cheap, and the $1 trial goes fast
  • Make sure you are committed to it
  • So you DON’T waste your time
  • So you DO Succeed!
• Creating Your First List
  • Basic Info
    • “From name” – one that the reader will recognize
    • Email address – Not free like yahoo or AOL, but Gmail may be a good idea, yourwebsite.com may not be the best idea due to spam filters
    • Can Spam compliance address – can be a P.O. Box – yes, people will Google Map it, so if it’s your house…
    • Logo – helps give a professional appearance
  • Fields you want to record
    • Decide Name, First Name, etc. – Whether you will use in salutations
    • Many choose just First Name & Email unless REASON to capture more
  • Social Sharing?
  • Global Text Snippets can be helpful (like a macro)
  • You DO want double opt-in – if they even give you the choice
  • Confirmation Email
    • Identify yourself in the subject – Get Opened!
    • This can be your first step in gaining their trust
    • Where do you want to send them? (Freebie?)
      • Where to send them after signing up?
      • Where to send them after CONFIRMING (double optin)?
  • Web Forms
    • 4 Types
      • In-line – Part of the web page, should have, often upper right
      • Pop Over – Hovers, mostly unblockable
      • LightBox – Same as Pop Over but darkens the page – very popular
      • Pop Up – Opens new window, blockable by browsers
      • Test yourself, but Pop Over get more signups
      • Use a delay on Pop Over/LightBox to make sure the person has an interest before annoying them; can set cookie so they only get it once
      • You CAN create custom fields for tracking purposes
      • Tip: Get rid of aWeber links for privacy, marketing, make your own email privacy page, keep them on YOUR site
      • IMPORTANT: Where do you want to send them after they have signed up, but BEFORE confirming? Some use an “instruction” page to get that optin confirmation right away http://talkingtotoddlers.com/thank-you
• Tips for the emails
  • Reason to read
  • Tip: State at the beginning that ‘you are receiving this correspondence because you requested it; unsubscribe details are at the bottom’
  • Compelling subject / identify who you are
  • Headline!
  • Worthwhile content
  • Call to Action – 4 to 5 “gives” for every 1 “take”
  • Thank you/Signature/Link to your website
  • Tip: Ellipsis / whitespace to get Can Spam info pushed down.
  • Create HTML is fine; aWeber automatically creates a plain text version and determines who needs that

Time To Take Action

1. Determine that you are ready for a list. Hint: Don’t be afraid to outsource!
2. Craft your offer/theme and purpose of your list
3. Come up with a reward for signup and decide how to deliver it
4. Create your aWeber account – use SOMEONE’s affiliate link; why not? (cannot use your own)
5. Determine where you will send the person after signup and after confirmation
6. Create a new list with a meaningful name
7. Create a form(s) to capture the user info; optionally a separate form for Facebook page
8. Create at least 5 sequential emails to load your autoresponder with and determine the time gap between them.
   1. Additional sequential emails will automatically be sent out to your current and future subscribers; current ones will go immediately if the time delay for the new email has already passed since they received their last email from you
   2. Add value and build trust (your “give”) BEFORE trying to generate a sale (your “take”)

 What question must every email you send answer?

Learn More About AWeber List Management Here