five ways to grow your email list
why you need an email list
Do you have an email list? Starting, building, and growing one isn’t as hard as you might think, and email marketing brings a variety of benefits, including:
Increasing your sales
Driving traffic to your website
Nurturing leads
Owning your contact lists (so important!)
What would happen if tomorrow your social media account was hacked and you lost all of those followers? How would you communicate with your audience that you’ve worked so hard to build? Owning your contact list is SO important. Now, here are 5 easy ways to fill your email list full of subscribers that are dreamy potential clients and customers!
OFFER A LEAD MAGNET OR FREEBIE AND PROMOTE IT
This one is definitely the most popular: creating a lead magnet or freebie. A lead magnet is a free, valuable piece of content that you offer in exchange for an email address. So, in other words, if someone wants to receive the free content that you’re offering, they have to sign up with their email address to receive it! Each time someone signs up for your freebie, they’re added to your email list.
You might be wondering how to know what type of lead magnet to create. The best advice is to think about common problems or struggles that your target market faces and then think about a freebie you can create that solves that problem or struggle.
You can deliver the freebie in almost any format, including:
Video
PDF
eBook
Audio Clip
Spreadsheet
The list is endless. However, your work doesn’t end when you finish creating the freebie — now you have to promote it so that people see it and opt in to receive it! You can promote it by:
Putting it on your website
Sharing it on social media
Sending it to clients, customers, and colleagues who can benefit from using it
INCLUDE A BUTTON ON CONTACT FORMS
Do you use any type of contact form with your clients or customers, such as a general inquiries form or a form to book a call with you? These are excellent places to ask people if they’d like to join your email list by using a “yes or no” box feature.
If your form already asks for their email address, you can include a question at the bottom of the form that says something along the lines of, “Would you like to join our email list to receive (insert freebie)?”
You’ll find that most people will say yes because of the fact that they’ve already expressed interest in your products or services by filling out a form or signing up for a call with you. Getting these interested individuals on your email list is a great way to then nurture them and help you to stay top of mind for them!
HOST ONLINE OR IN-PERSON EVENTS
Have you ever hosted an in-person event that required attendees to register online? Or maybe you had a booth at an expo and laid out a piece of paper for people to leave their name and email address?
In both instances, you can add those people to your email list! You can do the same with online events if you’re presenting a webinar or hosting a virtual workshop. People tend to forget about events after they attend them, so being able to stay in touch with attendees via email is key.
LINK TO A SUBSCRIBE BUTTON IN YOUR EMAIL SIGNATURE
If you’re constantly sending emails like we are, putting a link to subscribe to your email list in your email signature is a fantastic opportunity for you to capture more subscribers, especially if that link directs people to your lead magnet.
Emailing dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people each month makes it possible for you to convert those people to your list, therefore allowing you to market to them consistently through newsletters!
ENCOURAGE SUBSCRIBERS TO FORWARD YOUR EMAILS
We know that you send really great content in your newsletters, and if people are subscribed to your email list, that means they feel the same way! Why not encourage them to forward your emails to people they know who would enjoy reading them?
Although the person would receive your “exclusive” newsletter content without being on your list yet, the chances of them subscribing to your email list after they read the newsletter is high because they’ll want to ensure they receive all of your emails moving forward.
Although these are just a few suggestions, implementing them can bring big results. Build that list and watch the followers and sales roll in!