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If you\u2019ve been online for any length of time trying to generate any kind of income, then chances are, you\u2019ve heard the notion \u201cmoney is in the list\u201d.<\/p>\nIf you\u2019ve been online for any length of time trying to generate any kind of income, then chances are, you\u2019ve heard the notion \u201cmoney is in the list\u201d.<\/p>\n
But is it really true? Is it an old-time folk myth? Was it true years ago and now email marketing is simply dead?<\/p>\n
Or is it the real secret to making money online? Keep reading as I\u2019ll answer all these questions for you in this article..\u00a0So we can put this never-ending debate to bed. Once and for all!<\/p>\n
So where did it all come from anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nobody seems to know where the notion \u201cThe money is in the list\u201d originally came from.<\/p>\n Some say that it goes back to old times, even before internet marketing existed, back to the days of direct response and mail marketing. Back then, marketers who had bigger \u201clists\u201d of mailing addresses, made the most money. Well, it\u2019s a simple numbers game, isn\u2019t it? But what does that have to do with email marketing?<\/p>\n Well, this opens our eyes to the fact that \u201clist\u201d does not have to be limited to email marketing only, there are other types of lists that a marketer can tap into. I\u2019ll touch on those a little later..\u00a0But first, let\u2019s answer the below important question, shall we?<\/p>\n Is email marketing really dead?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is one of the most frequent questions I see asked around on Facebook and in groups. And I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised to see it often. Why?<\/p>\n Oh wow! What a dark picture that is! So email marketing is really dead, isn\u2019t it? The answer is\u2026<\/p>\n NO!<\/strong><\/p>\n Far from it, actually!<\/p>\n In fact, if anything, email marketing is and will always (for the foreseen future at least) be the single most important channel of communication for businesses with their audiences..<\/p>\n Marketing, or otherwise. How do I know? Think about it. When you sign up to a new online service, what do you use?<\/p>\n Your email<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n When you purchase a physical product online, what\u2019s the first piece of data they ask you for?<\/p>\n Your email<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n When you want to login to your account on social media, what\u2019s your username?<\/p>\n Your email<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n And if you\u2019ve forgotten your password, where do sites usually send your reset link to?<\/p>\n Yep, you guessed it. Do you see where I\u2019m going with this? Can you imagine the internet without email? OK great, those are all \u201ctransactional\u201d situations, but what about marketing?<\/p>\n The answer is simple.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you need to login to your email account several times a day to confirm, check, reset a password or even search for an old document scan you sent to someone years ago then being on email is inevitable<\/p>\n People simply can\u2019t survive online without email. Which means, we, marketers, have a chance to show our messages right where they are. Their email inbox. But what about all the low open rates, busy inboxes, AI-based spam filters and all the points I mentioned above?<\/p>\n Well, while it\u2019s true that reach of emails is declining, we can\u2019t ignore the importance of building an email list, just because we don\u2019t see high deliverability compared to other types of lists such as SMS, chatbots and push notifications, doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t build email lists.<\/p>\n Oops!<\/strong><\/p>\n I just realized that I answered the question above about what other types of lists an online marketer can build these days. So now that I \u201caccidentally\u201d mentioned them, let me touch on a few facts related to these other types of lists real quick. SMS, Messenger chatbots and push notifications all have much higher open rates and click-through rates.<\/p>\n We\u2019re talking close to 100% vs 5-20% higher than email. I guess you can see now why marketers are turning into other channels of communication. Immediately, the smart marketer in you will notice how building a list in these channels of communications can be the way to go. But building a list on those other channels means that you no longer need to build an email list..<\/p>\n Right?<\/strong><\/p>\n Wrong!<\/strong><\/p>\n Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Because your email list is an asset that you fully own and control. At any point, if your autoresponder service provider decided to shut you down, you\u2019ll still be able to move your lists to another service provider. And you\u2019re back in business in a day or less<\/p>\n PRO Tip:<\/strong> While most autoresponder services allow you to download your lists in case you shutdown your account, you should make it a habit to have a backup of your lists.<\/p>\n But what happens if you lost your Facebook account or your push notification service provider shut you down? You\u2019re out of business!<\/p>\n But what about SMS? You do own that list don\u2019t you? Yes you do. However, SMS can be a little costly since you\u2019re paying per message.<\/p>\n With email marketing, you\u2019re paying one fixed monthly fee to send unlimited emails. Unless you\u2019re using an SMTP service, but even then, the cost per message is way cheaper. Does that mean you shouldn\u2019t be building your SMS, chatbot and push notifications lists?<\/p>\n No, not at all<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s all about priorities though. Email lists should be the very first and the most important point of contact of your audience<\/p>\n If you can then get your audience to subscribe to your chatbot, part with their mobile number and\/or subscribe to your push notification service, then that\u2019s an added bonus that will pay dividends<\/p>\n The golden rule is this: Always start with an email, then everything else next.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure by now you know the \u201cnot so secret\u201d formula to building a list fast<\/p>\n Step 1: Create a lead magnet<\/strong><\/p>\n Step 2: Build a funnel (squeeze page + thank you page)<\/strong><\/p>\n Step 3: Send traffic<\/strong><\/p>\n And just like that, you can build a list of tens, hundreds or even thousands of leads, super fast. All that\u2019s left for you to do to start making money is send a few messages and viola, dollar signs will cha-ching all over<\/p>\n Right?<\/p>\n WRONG!<\/p>\n The old ways of building a list and making money with it <\/strong>is DEAD!<\/strong> There used to be times when there were not a lot of us marketers competing for some real estate in our audience inboxes. In 2019 and beyond, that\u2019s no longer the case!<\/p>\n And just because the other channels of communications are newer and have less competition than email, doesn\u2019t mean that rule is not applicable to them<\/p>\n Email, SMS, chatbot, push notifications, social media following, etc. etc. etc.<\/p>\n Whichever way you choose to go, you have got to stand out If you\u2019re interested in making money online, that is.<\/p>\n How?<\/strong><\/p>\n The easiest and fastest way that will guarantee you the highest conversion rates is building a relationship with them building a list in itself should never be the goal, it\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n The beginning of an ongoing journey of building and relationship that\u2019s based on you making a real impact by giving your audience \u201cvalue\u201d<\/p>\n What comes after the lead\/customer lands in your list is really where you need to focus most of your efforts on.<\/p>\n I mentioned above impacting lives through value and to most, value means \u201cfree crap\u201d. This is where many marketers make mistake. Value does NOT necessarily mean charity! After all, you\u2019re running a business and you need to make money<\/p>\n So you need to pitch and sell, otherwise you won\u2019t even afford the service fees you\u2019re building your lists with<\/p>\n Value means provide whatever it takes to help your audience<\/p>\n This could mean giving them tips and tricks on how to use a certain product or service that you\u2019re recommending to them as an affiliate, aka value stacking<\/p>\n As a product vendor, this means offering aftersale support and be there to answer any questions they might have. Regardless of the business model you\u2019re running relationship building is the name of the game when it comes to list building<\/p>\n And if that means putting in more time to answering email replies or sending your audience valuable bonuses, then so be it.<\/p>\n The bottom line is this<\/strong><\/p>\n Those who build the strongest relationships with their audience are the ones who make the most money, period.<\/p>\n So as you can see, the money is NOT exactly in the list, the money is in the relationship you build with the list<\/p>\n Sounds simple, yet I can\u2019t tell you how many marketers still treat their subscribers as numbers<\/p>\n Marketing in general is the art of attracting people to you and once you got them to know you, like you and trust you, amazing things will happen.<\/p>\n Email, SMS, push notifications or chatbot lists are no different.<\/p>\n These are some of the things I learned, both the easy way and the hard way, as I was navigating my way around internet marketing.<\/p>\n Speaking of easy way, when it comes to fast-tracking your success and avoiding the newbie mistakes that most people do, I can\u2019t recommend John Thornhill\u2019s teaching highly enough.<\/p>\n I can safely say, and I\u2019m not saying that because this article is on his blog, but John\u2019s coaching program contributed the most to advancing my career as an internet marketer.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019re ready to cut through all the noise and go to where the real knowledge is, allow me to invite you to a free workshop by John Thornhill<\/a> where you\u2019ll learn some eye-opening secrets about how to make money online by creating automated sales using a simple formula.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t regret it .. I promise.<\/p>\n Register here<\/a> now and chances are, you\u2019ll never look back.<\/p>\n Momen Khaiti<\/p>\n\n