Whether you are just starting to build your first list or trying to revive a list of 100,000 subscribers, you need to have a plan for what content you should send them that:

• they will value and
• will help them move from interested to buyer

First, let’s take a quick look at 3-types of lists we use (each of these are described in detail including how we split our lists, templates of the content we send them and how we manage them in InfoMarketer’sZone Training):

1. Cold subscriber lists – these come in from various opt-in forms and squeeze pages we have across our various sites.  We tend to segregate these into multiple sub-lists for better tracking, but basically send them all the same content (within a given market that is – obviously our personal development lists do not get internet marketing content and vice versa)

2. Warm subscriber list – where they have been through a focused content campaign already, either via a minicourse, downloaded a report, watched a video series, received a free ebook, etc…

3. A “Buyer’s List” – these are customers who have already purchased from us…obviously they need special consideration as our hottest list and to avoid repitition in marketing to them products they have already purchased. 

So, here’s what happens with our lists.

First, cold prospects opt-in to receive targeted content. 

Every form on our websites, blogs, squeeze pages, etc…target a specific content campaign designed to pre-sell a specific product for 14-30 days.  Most often we put them into a minicourse designed to inform and convert prospects into buyers by giving them up-front value, elevating their demand through emotional connection and urgency and directing them to our top, most relevant resources.   These are mainly pre-written, pre-developed content campaigns that we are constantly tracking and improving – they run 14-30 days in length

Second, after the initial campaign finishes (in 14-30 days), we continue to “drip” content (interviews, case studies

Just did one of these this morning, personal tips and experiences, reports, and videos…about 3/4 of these link back to a relevant product or service, some are my own, some are others).  We consider these “warm” prospects as they have already gotten to know us and have knowledge about one or more of our products.  Something else we do a lot of with this group is surveys.  What we want to do is get them involved and find out what they want — this gives us new product ideas and sometimes allows us to immediately target them with another offer. 

Third, buyers lists are separate again

With buyers, we typically kick off with a survey to solicit their feedback and testimonials that we can use to improve our products and marketing.  Next, we treat them as our TOP customers where we send them a combination of the “warm” list content as well as some special updates to let them know they are valued as a customer. 

So, as you can see, your list campaigns should be planned carefullly so that you appropriately target each “type” of prospect dramatically improving your chances of bringing them on as a future buyer.