Using AdWords To Build A Mailing List

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Author: DA Palumbo

Article source: http://www.articlealley.com/. Used with author's permission.

There are a number of techniques you can use online to build a mailing list of targeted prospects. In most markets, you usually have to have to bait your prospects to sign up. You're going to have to lure them in with something. Usually this is done by offering some sort of incentive in exchange for permission to e-mail the prospect. Depending on the target market, this incentive is often a newsletter, an e-course, or a special report of some kind. But no matter what the incentive is, the principle is the same--offer the prospect something of value for free in exchange for their e-mail address. But even by offering a good incentive, there is a key question that still remains. Namely, the following--how do you get prospective customers to view your web site where you are offering this incentive? In other words, how do you drive traffic to your web site?

Without question, the single best way to drive targeted traffic to your web site is to use Google AdWords. So by extension, the best way to drive targeted prospects to your incentive page is to use Google AdWords. AdWords is Google's pay-per-click system whereby you as an advertiser pay Google for sending you targeted prospects. Incidentally, the reason I keep saying the word "targeted" is because these people are specifically looking for information you have to offer. As an AdWords advertiser, you bid on a specific set of keywords that you think people will type into the Google search engine. When a prospect types a keyword that you're bidding on, your ad will surface along with the other sponsored links on the right hand side of the page. And if you know how to write a compelling ad, prospective customers will click on your ad and be taken to your web site where they will be offered the incentive.

Incidentally, this page that offers the incentive is commonly called a squeeze page. So when a prospect clicks your ad, they will be taken to this squeeze page. Again, a squeeze page is nothing more than a simple HTML page that tried to get the prospect to opt-in to your mailing list. The squeeze page is usually very short, just highlighting the benefits of joining your list. Of course the squeeze page also hypes up the incentive as something of value and something that your visitors shouldn't pass up. Not all markets are created equal though. So depending on the market, you may find that you have to give away quite a bit to get people to give you their e-mail address.

In summary, the reason why using AdWords to build a mailing list is the best strategy is because AdWords produces the most targeted prospects. After all, these prospects are people who have typed in specific words into a search engine. They are quite literally looking for the information you have to offer them. Compare this with other forms of advertising such as banners and text links and you'll quickly see why advertisers pay a pretty penny to advertise on AdWords.

Incidentally, probably the greatest AdWords miracle I've seen yet involved the use of a squeeze page coupled with a compelling ad. This particular client was able to increase the click through rate to his squeeze page to over 20% by targeting the right keywords and writing an ad that draws prospects in. Google Adwords made it possible for him to do this, and there's no reason you can't do the same thing.

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