Today I’m going to talk a little bit about list building… now we all know “the money’s in the list” but how does one build their list in the first place? This is something the majority of us struggle with, sure we have some success from time-to-time but is there a proven formula which if followed will deliver results?
Well I read a really interesting ebook last week, but to be honest with you I read this ebook for the first time last year but unfortunately never followed through and implemented it’s teachings. Shame on me I know 🙁
It’s called Subscriber Bonanza and is written by a marketer named Kelvin Nikkel. I’m sure a lot of you have heard about JV Giveaway Events? This is an event whereby marketers contribute a free product to the giveaway and promote this event as much as possible. The aim here is that prospects will arrive at the giveaway and sign-up to your mailing list in order to claim the free product. Thereby giving you the possibility of adding a large amount of subscribers to your list in a short period of time.
Well in Kelvin’s ebook he introduces the idea of growing your list with a JV Giveaway, the main difference being that YOU are the one who holds the event and only 4-5 joint venture partners are involved. It’s a “Mini-Giveaway” if you like, but don’t be fooled as it can still give you some great results.
The idea is that you hold the Giveaway and entice only a select few JV Partners to participate. You simply advertise the event on relevant forums or in Skype channels. The way you can garner interest amongst other list builders is to offer them an incentive, perhaps you guarantee to send them +25% clicks on whatever the agreed amount is. Say you were holding a Mini-Giveaway where each participant was sending 100 clicks to the event page, then you would guarantee to return at least 125 clicks to each sender.
Sounds simple, right?
Well beware because if you don’t deliver the agreed amount of clicks back to each participant you will have to make up the difference somehow – whether that’s by repeatably mailing to your own list until the shortfall is taken care of, or perhaps buying a solo ad to cover the difference (this could be expensive!).
You see after the visitors arrive at your Squeeze Page they will be taken to a Thank You page where they will see the Free Offers from your partners. If they then click on the offer and visit your JV partners page then this click will be tracked and is accounted for in the system.
So basically, if you have 5 people promoting this giveaway that means you will receive at least 500 visits to your Squeeze Page. This will allow you to build your list super fast and can be repeated as many times as you like. Maybe you could choose 100 clicks as the agreed amount for your first Giveaway, just incase not all goes to plan. Then maybe increase it to 200, 300 or 500 clicks?
Kelvin goes into some detail in about the system in his ebook and leaves no stone unturned. The results he achieved were startling to say the least…When he commenced this experiment he had a list of 2,500 subs which can taken him 10 months of hard work to establish. He ran many Mini-Giveaways during the 30 Day test period and by the end of the month he had added a total of 4,047 subscribers to his list. I was quite impressed when I saw that, now bearing in mind this guy knew what he was doing and worked relentlessly to achieve that great result but it got me wondering – could I do something similar?
Fair enough I may not hit the dizzying heights of over 4k subs in 30 Days but could I hit 1k in the first month of trying it? Then maybe when more comfortable with the system I could increase that to 2k in the second month? I got quite excited with the possibilities that lay before me….
What do you guys think? Is this something that you might be interested in learning more about? I know I am, but before jumping in at the deep end I need to do some more research on the topic and decide whether to run with it or not.
I’ll let you know if I do decide to do one of these “Mini-Giveaway Events” but I thought the concept of it was really cool and thought you’d enjoy reading about it here today.
Thanks for reading and talk soon;)
Noel.
Hey Noel
I know Kelvin he is a member of the IC and I speak with him now and again via skype. The most important thing, as you stated was you need to be in control so that you are building your list first before everyone else gets a bit of the cherry 🙂
I have found in my experience that these tend to be mostly freebie seekers, and not buyers.
Just my 2 cents worth
Cheers
Paul
Thanks Paul – always appreciate your insights;) Sure, how valuable the list being built by these Mini Giveaways is a whole other story! Will it be responsive or will it be a cold list with only freebie seekers? Only time will tell…I know of a few major list builders who have north of 200k subscribers in the IM niche but only see very small open rates and action takers. Don’t get me wrong they are still cleaning up big time but are only earning a fraction of the $1 per sub/month revenue goal.
Noel.
Hey Noel.
Thanks for the review.
Just so you and your readers know, when I did 4047 in 30 days, that was hosting just 5 events during that time. You can do better than me if you work it harder. 😉
I hope to see your results posted here soon.
All the best and
here’s to your success,
Kelvin
Hi Kelvin,
Thanks for dropping by – Ya, as you can see guys Kelvin achieved that Huge result because he took some major action. He didn’t just stop at doing one mini-giveaway but worked hard during the 30 Day period and ran 5 of those events.
Now I don’t think I’d be ready to do 4-5 events on the bounce but I’m definitely going to give a shot. Once I’m comfortable enough and have the system in place I’ll host one of these events and publish my results here in a later post.
Cheers,
Noel.
Hey Noel,
I’ve also heard that joining a giveaway is an excellent way to build your list and holding a mini-giveaway event is a great idea. Kelvin done awesome by just doing 5 events in one month and building a list of 4047 subscribers… one word.. jealous! I wish I had the know-how of how to hold events like this and I think when I’m ready it’s definately something that I would be interested in.
Great post Noel, thanks for sharing! I look forward to you hearing you hold one of these Mini Giveaway Events, you’ll smash it!
Jas
Hey Jas,
Ya, it sounds pretty sweet – just trying to learn as much as I can about it at the moment so hopefully I’ll be able to give it a good shot!
Cheers,
Noel.
Hi Noel, this is a very interesting strategy. I do not know too much about it. I will have to do some reasearch of my own. Thanks for the informative post anyway,has definitely got me thinking.
Best wishes,
Gerald.
Cheers Gerald – ya, it’s a new thing for me too! I’m intrigued by the idea of it so I’m studying it in more detail.
It’ll be interesting if I can get it working – some food for thought nonetheless;)
Thanks – Noel.
Thank you for the insights! Yes, there is always the freebie seekers, but hey- someday they might be inspired to purchase!
Hey,
Ya, it’s a catch 22 scenario – There will always be Freebie Seekers but that’s part of the Challenge, part of the Chase! It’s up to us to deliver the goods and hopefully over time they will appreciate our work and will evolve into an Action Taker who will make a purchase! That’s the Hope anyway;)
Thanks for joining the discussion,
Noel.
Hey Noel
I think even ‘freebie seekers’ are looking for an excuse to spend some money – after all it’s a form of taking action!
They just need to find something they feel comfortable exchanging their hard earned $$$ for – there is a freebie seeker inside us all but we still spend cash.
Brad
Hey Brad,
Very true – I think Freebie Seekers are just extra cautious and it’s the sellers job to convince them that they’ll get value for money if they choose to spend their cash with them.
Sure some will never spend any cash and will unsubscribe but are they a great loss to your list? Probably not…
Thanks for you input,
Noel.
Hey Noel,
A while back I also read some information about hosting your own giveaway and thought it was a good idea. That 30 day test had amazing numbers, so it’s definitely something to implement.
I would also be willing to be that once you’ve done one, organizing another would be a lot easier with the numbers to prove the results.
Very cool!
~Christine
Hi Christine,
Ya, I think the first one will be the hardest. You know yourself, the first time you try something it can be a chore but hopefully if it goes well you could do it again, and again with ease.
Watch this space!
Thanks – Noel.
Hey Christine,
Can you tell me where you found information on hosting your own giveaways can be beneficial? I am quite interested.
Hey Adeel,
If you follow the link in the post to Kelvin’s site he has a product about how to organize your own Mini-Giveaway events. You’ll find all the information you need about it there. Another interesting ebook by Coby Wright will also help you out “1023 Subscribers in 21 Days”
Hope that helps;)
Noel.
Giveaways are great but you have to think about the type of subscriber you are attracting, because as you will know, not all subscribers have the same value.
Freebie subscribers can be useful but you need a very large turnover to make any meaningful type of list. They are after free gifts and thus if you want to continually promote free offers to them then it can work. However you also must remember that they perhaps join a lot of free lists in exchange for goods – so you will have to mail them tons of times in order to be seen with all the competition in their inboxes.
Hope that makes some sense?
JV giveaways do work, but nowhere near as well as they used too. A person with a list of 1,000 already has some momentum to push their list further (leverage), but if you are starting from nothing then it can often be harder to create the momentum.
Give it a go Noel and update us with how it progresses.
Dee Kumar
Thanks for that Dee – all valid point to be taken onboard..but as I read everyones comments I’m left wondering “How do I build a list without the wasteful Freebie Seekers?”
Sure only a small fraction of them may ever buy something from you but how does one build a list without them because it’s very hard to make a cold sell to someone who doesn’t know you. As they say “the first-time customer is the most expensive to acquire” and once you give value it becomes easier to repeatably sell to these customers in the future…
I guess if I knew the answer to that question and could implement I would be a wealthy man:)
Cheers,
Noel.
Hi Noel,
Great post. I have also heard that giving out freebies that are of general use (ipads, vacations, etc.) tend to garner a lot of attention and boost to the list. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.
thanks
Hey,
Sure I’ve heard they can be a great way to get people excited and working hard for the Giveaway. You could use these Bonus Gifts as an incentive to the giveaway participants to out-do each other and get them to send more Clicks to the giveaway site. You could have a Leaderboard where you display how many Clicks each person has sent and at the end of the giveaway the winner gets the Prize! Once you can fund the cost of these Prizes I think they’d be awesome and really get your participants interested in promoting the event. Def something to keep in mind.
Thanks for that – hadn’t thought about it that much…cheers,
Noel.