Build Your Marketing List For Free

How expensive is it to build your marketing list?

No one disputes that a good list is the most valuable asset any business can have. Your list can generate more and more sales for you. Over time it can be more valuable than advertising, or any other way you might be using to bring in new business.

BUT, building that list often involves spending a lot of money. Many marketers spend sizeable amounts on PPC advertising, or engage in expensive joint ventures. However there is a way to build your marketing list for free.

First, imagine you know a marketer who makes a lot of money because she has built a large, very targeted list of prospects. This list consistently produces sales everytime this marketer contacts her list.

Now suppose you ask that marketer if you could copy her list for your own use? Obviously that is not likely to happen. A business person with a good list knows to protect that list at all cost.

But there really is a way to copy a top marketer's list, sort of.

On Twitter all you have to do is find some of the rock stars in your field of interest. Typically these are the most well-known names and who have massive respect - and lots of followers.

Notice that all of their followers are available to you to look at. On Twitter, a person's followers are open to all.

Just follow the people who follow the rock stars. Why? Because the people who follow the rock stars do so because they are interested in the same things the stars are talking about. This is a targeted list.

And because you also talk about the same things, there is no reason they won't follow you as well.

So follow these followers. As a rule of thumb, about 33% to 50% of the people you follow will follow you in return. Now your job is to build relationships with these people.

Here is a very important point:

The real success of a marketing list is not simply the names and contact information of certain people. It is also vital that these people come to know, like and trust you. "Borrowing" someone else's list will not enable you to duplicate their results, because that person has also built relationships with these people.

Your job is to provide as much or more good, quality information as the rock star. Build a relationship with these people and gently lead them to visit your blog and ultimately to opt in to your email autoresponder.

How do you do this? By being a friend. By being generous. By providing value. By giving them problem-solving information. By educating the people on "your" list.

Borrowing someone else's list is just the start. It will help you find targeted followers, but it is up to you to make them know, like and trust you.

And that's how you build your list for free using Twitter.

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