So by now you should be convinced that when it comes to generating income as a speaker and maximizing your ability to tap into profitable niche speaking markets, developing a targeted subscriber base of responsive subscribers and customers is an important component in your marketing arsenal.
An email list will not only help you sell your info products, but it will also build your expert status brand as well as overall prestige and reputation in the speaking community at large. In combination, these elements will also affect your annual number of speaking engagements positively. To be clear, your number 1 goal with the online component of your speaking business is to build your email marketing list as big and as fast as possible. Nothing will set you up for long-term success as a well-paid speaker and information provider than a sizable, responsive email marketing database.
Email list building is all about connecting with your target audience by offering them high-quality information while consistently working toward building a strong relationship with each and every subscriber. Your main job as an email marketer will be to collect leads using squeeze pages (which will typically be your speaker homepage, but as you become an info product marketer will include multiple other webpages) that are focused on specific topics, and include an “opt-in form” that includes text fields such as a visitor’s full name and email address.
This lead capture form on your squeeze page (which is an individual page created exclusively for the purpose of converting visitors into opt-in subscribers) or speaker homepage will act as the doorway into your autoresponder email marketing system. As you’re likely aware, many speakers have already mastered the process of building a large mailing list, and have tens of thousands of subscribers to their e-newsletter or ezine (e-magazine). Each new subscriber is collected one at a time from the opt-in box on their squeeze or homepage or from their live speaking events.
The subscriber opt-in box is generated by your autoresponder provider and is embedded into the HTML code of your squeeze page template with just a few clicks of your (or your webmaster’s) mouse. Each time a visitor to your squeeze page enters in their name and email address, they are added to your mailing list database and become an active subscriber of your e-newsletter.
Once a subscriber is a confirmed member of your list, you can begin sending follow-up emails that offer high-quality information, such as articles, reports, links to blog posts, video guides and other information and resources that your subscribers would find useful. Well-oiled email marketing campaigns (like the one for Motivational Speaker Academy) have dozens of email messages already created and automatically sent to each new list subscriber.
