Lesson 4: How to get featured to 750,000 readers (and get your first 250 subscribers)

This is the fourth lesson of the Jump-Start Your Email List training series.

Today, you’re going to learn the step-by-step process to follow to get featured on a major media site and turn that into your first 250 email subscribers.

Let’s get started!

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Yesterday you made a list of 5 products, blogs and podcasts that you follow closely.

That was the first step to implementing the Testimonial Hack strategy.

Here is the high-level overview of how the Testimonial Hack works:

Step 1: Make a list of 5 products or services that you’ve purchased (related to your business).
Step 2: Write a short testimonial documenting one small win you’ve had with each product.
Step 3: Send that testimonial to the owner of the product and tell them “Thank you!”

This strategy works because all product owners are looking for success stories. They want to feature people (like you!) who have used their product and have had success as a sales tool to get more people to buy their product.

Here is an example…

You can take advantage of this by using your success story to introduce yourself to that product owner’s audience.

Let’s walk through each step in detail.

Step 1: Make a list of 5 products, blogs and podcasts that you are familiar with.

(You did this in the previous lesson, but I’ll offer it again here as a quick review.)

Think broadly here.

What books have you bought?
What courses have you purchased?
What blog posts have you read?
What podcasts have you listened to?

The goal of this step is to identify 5 companies in your industry, with websites, that have people in their audience who would be a good fit for your list.

Step 2: Write a short testimonial documenting one small (or big!) win you’ve had with each product.

Next share a small (or big) win you’ve had after taking their advice and acting on it.

Don’t over-think this step.

Review back over their instructions they gave, then dig into what you’ve done since.

Then write a short testimonial sharing your results.

Here is the template I use as a general guide.

Step 3: Send that testimonial to the owner of the product and tell them “Thank you!”

The last part is the easiest.

Share your results.

This is the fun part. This is where you get to brag on yourself and on them for helping you.

Here is an example of a short conversation I had with Clay Collins (the owner of LeadPages).

After this conversation, my website was featured in numerous blog posts and 100s of webinars that LeadPages put on in 2014.

It also helped me land a guest post later that year which directly added 500 subscribers to my list.

Whether you are just starting out or are a little further along, the Testimonial Hack is a great way to get free traffic and grow your list as a result.

Note: The exact payoff will vary based on the company you are supplying your testimonial to. Sometimes your testimony will pay off in the form of a guest post or front page link on their website. Other times it will serve as an introduction to the owner of the company and a relationship with them.

Don’t get caught up in obsessing about immediate payoff here. Focus on serving the needs of the company you are supplying your success story to. The results will come.

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OK. It’s time to get to work…

Your action actions items for today are:

Action Item #1: Brainstorm one website you could use the testimonial hack on.
Action Item #2: Hit reply and tell me who you are thinking of targeting and why.
Action Item #3: Use the template above to write out your testimonial.

Once you’ve completed these, fill out the interactive worksheet.

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In the next lesson, I’ll show you three examples of the Testimonial Hack in the wild. Real examples of people who have used this strategy to get regular recurring traffic to their websites and grow their list as a result.

Here’s a recap of our training so far:

Lesson 1 – The very first step to building your list
Lesson 2 – How to know the exact product to build for your list
Lesson 3 – Behind the scenes of a $32,000 per month email list
Lesson 4 – How to get featured to 750,000 readers
Lesson 5 – Two examples of how to use the Testimonial Hack strategy
Lesson 6 – The exact technology stack you need to use to jump-start your list growth