One of the things that I am a massive believer in is the importance of your bribe in list building.
For those of you who do not understand what I mean by bribe, let me explain.
Dictionary.com defines a bribe as:
Something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person’s views or conduct.
Now put this into the perspective of converting visitors to your email list:
Your bribe is the product or promise that your offer your visitors to influence their decision of whether to join your email list.
What Are Some Bribe Examples?
There are quite a few ways that we can ‘bribe’ or visitors into subscribing to our email lists.
Here are a few examples:
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Ebook
Quickly becoming one of the most popular bribe among bloggers and internet marketers alike. They are easy to create (with a word processor and free PDF creator) and with the inclusion of a creative ebook cover – they can convert really well.
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E-Course
But why not ease your new subscribers into your emails? An e-course allows you to slowly introduce your readers to regular emails and it helps you package your content into more manageable chunks of information
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Newsletter
Quite popular in early internet marketing, but unless you have a unique selling point or are extremely popular or successful, it will be hard to make a newsletter successful. And why would you only want to email your list once a month? This seems like a waste of resources to me.
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Product
Products work extremely well as bribes because they are a lot harder to copy. There are a whole lot of internet marketers with ebooks teaching you how to make money online, but if you have a have created an blog comment software or have some free squeeze pages (shameless plug), there is not as much competition – therefore more likely to convert.
The Problem With Bribes
That is an overview of the types of bribes that you can use with your squeeze pages, but finding a bribe is not the problem. But consider that everyone seems to be able to find a bribe – the real problem is finding a bribe that converts.
Since every list builder is using bribes, visitors are becoming a lot thicker skinned and it is getting harder to convert them. We are no longer able to to use mediocre bribes and expect our lists to grow.
So what’s it going to take?
The Irresistible Bribe
Obviously there is a way to increase the value in your bribe or I wouldn’t be writing, so let’s take a look at a few things that you can do to up your bribe and make it to good to pass up.
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Make Your Bribe Unique
If someone can get your bribe from another source, why would they choose yours? Give yourself the best chance of converting your visitors and make sure that your bribe is something that you have personally created. This also allows your subscribers a preview of your writing style before they start receiving regular emails.
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Make Sure It Solves Their Problems
If your list is about traffic generation then don’t make your bribe an ebook about making money. Your visitors are at your website because they have a problem, it is your job to work out what that problem is, and then offer the solution in the form of your bribe.
Find out what your visitors problems are and create a solution that will stop them in their tracks and leave them with no other option but to subscribe.
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Make It Easy To Access
While this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the actual bribe, the whole process of subscribing to your list has to be made as easy as possible – with as little obstacles as possible.
‘If you give a visitor a reason not to buy – they won’t’.
Your visitors are looking for any reason they can find to not subscribe to your list – to not take your bribe. It is your job to make sure that they cannot find a reason and that the benefits of your bribe far out way any obstacle.
So one of the things that I did to make the process as simple as possible, is to only ask for visitors email address. Sure it is nice to personalise your emails, but that extra text field will drastically reduce your conversion rate.
What are you doing to make sure that your bribe is irresistible? Make sure you subscribe so that you do not miss the launch of my upcoming, unmissable bribe – that will cause your list to explode!
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice thought on bribes. At first , i thought what the heck is bribe on blogging stuff. After reading your post then only I know what you try to deliver. I think those stuff are not bribe but more to gift to appreciate subscribers(if we are concentrate on list building)
Fazreen´s last blog ..What the Heck is RSS?
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I like to think of it as “coaxing” instead of bribing LOL
Keith´s last blog ..Drooling On PageRank
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Tom,
A great post for people who are new to list building. I agree with Fazreen and Keith, you can call them different names; however if they achieve their objective, does it matter what they are called.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Paul
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I like the simple, focused advice. I think bribe is an appropriate word for the setting.
My question is though, to what end do we bribe them? I don’t have a product that I’m specifically selling, so what do you do once you bribe them? Where do you take them?
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Yeah, I love the bribe idea of yours! =p
BloggerDaily´s last blog ..Better Than Nothing
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Making your bribe unique is perhaps the most important part of it all! Great post Tom.
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@MMABart – That is a really good question. I am a massive believer in starting to build your list before you have a product, so the big question is what to do once they have subscribed and received their bribe.
A recently posted on a fantastic strategy that Joel Comm uses once he gets a new subscriber:
http://www.buildthatlist.com/list-building/surefire-way-to-build-a-massive-list-in-one-easy-step/
But one of the things that I am personally doing with my latest bribe, is create an e-course. This gives me 10 days to email my new subscribers with quality information – and of course there are going to be a few products that I recommend ( and this is where you can make a few affiliate sales)
@BloggerDaily – I am glad you like it. I don’t see it as a bad term, because the word bribe really just means incentive ( but it just sounds a lot cooler!)
@Paul – I definitely agree! And Thanks!
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Nicely explained. I have always been so bad at creating a list.
Agent Deepak´s last blog ..My 4 Golden Tips for Google Buzz
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I have read it’s becoming much more difficult to give free stuff away, let alone sell paid stuff. The content has to be spot on and in demand by the reader.
Thanks for sharing!
Matthew Needham´s last blog ..The Aweber Code – and why you need to promote it
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@Agent Deepak – What do feel you struggle with most with list building?
@Matthew – It is getting more crowding, but all you need is a free gift that connects with your visitors. Quality really does count!
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It is an interesting concept to grasp that every time someone comes to your site for any reason, they’re looking for a reason to leave. This is the same idea with sales. In sales I focus on creating a positive difference for myself. This seems to transpose to blogging as well. It is one thing to feel you know a lot of information and it is another to provide that. Maybe you would consider writing an ebook or some detailed posts on the devices and tactics you use to create YOUR lists? If you already have please do link.
Thanks
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@Eric – Great Point. I do not currently have anything on the tactics that I am personally using but I am working on it. I have a free 10 Day course coming out soon and hopefully an ebook a little later.
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People are always looking for something new, but usually it is a case of the wheel already being invented. A key is to frame the bribe in such as way as to make it seem like a new, special and exciting item.
Vince@John Cena Games´s last blog ..Avatar Movie Budget Cost vs. Gross Record
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Great post as always. Build your list first then create an ecourse to send your readers great content and valuable products that will also make you some money via affiliate link.
How do you find time to build your blog and create an ecourse Tom? I’m asking because that’s my problem right now, not know where or how to begin with creating an ecourse. A point to any direction is appreciated. Thanks
JackNguyen.com´s last blog ..11 Characteristics of Highly Influential Blogs
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Tom Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 2:42 am
You are really asking the wrong person that question! I am really struggling to find the time to write my e-course, but I know that it needs to get done. I just spend a lot of time on my blogs and that is how I plan on doing it. I reason I am getting the results so quickly is because I am putting 6-8+ hours a day into commenting, writing and promoting, then trying to create my e-course (that is while doing freelance work as well).
Check out my latest post about delivery method to see how I am going to structure my ecourse – and if you want any more info or a more indepth chat, just hit me up and we can do something over email or IM.
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Jack from Online Marketing Blog Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 11:53 am
Will do Tom! Thanks! Will head over to your new post, appreciate it.
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Very insightful post Tom.
We have to get into the mind of the reader by thinking about the experiences we would want for ourselves and what we look for when we visit a site. Especially by reducing the amount of text fields; I personally get tired of filling out forms online and have passed up great learning opportunities because I’ve been tired of filling out forms. Great thinking here Tom.
Basically, we just need to get into our readers’ minds.
Robyn-Dale@Sam’s Web Guide – Web Tutorials & Tech News´s last blog ..Bloggers are now eligible for Press Passes in New York
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