You’re tired of hearing the same advice from experts and it says, ‘start an email list’. But, You are still stuck. Not sure how to get email list subscribers and actually grow an email list. You find it time-consuming, or maybe, wonder what the heck it is?
An email list is one of the direct ways of reaching your people and making a trustworthy relationship. If they enjoy reading from you then they are also going to hear what you say. You can send a direct note to your subscribers and communicate with them directly.
You send them weekly updates, share personal experiences, ask them for their struggles, send out intact advice, and treat them well. Here, I mean to send them additional discounts, freebies, contest, and what not. Even better, it also sends traffic to your blog.
All other platforms like Pinterest or Facebook do not guarantee you that ownership what an email list does.
And,
Why you stress over creating content for people who are not your regular readers? Usually, when you’re on Facebook or Pinterest, you usually get new readers. People read your posts, and leave. That’s it. You’re not sure if they will ever come again to read your posts.
When you’ve got an email list – you have a list of raving fans who read to your emails, send replies, click to your posts and share their problems.
Wouldn’t that be the best option to focus on when you’re trying to build an audience and grow your blog?
I shamelessly admit to not have an email list from the beginning, but I soon realized ‘where are my people?’ Are they hanging out on Facebook? Do I have to tweet every day or what should I exactly do to have a talk with them?
You know what happened,
I build an email list and I proudly say that it’s the best thing I did.
Here’s one more thing…
Do not ever stress over numbers! I did not and I’m not going to stress over growing your email list to 20,000 subscribers. You should only put efforts in growing your email list to 20,000 subscribers if you know they will open your emails and are looking forward to reading it every week.
What’s the purpose of growing your email list to 20k subscribers when only 200 read your emails?
What you should do?
Celebrate having with those 300 subscribers who actually read your emails, respond and engage. Agreed, right?
By now, you get the idea of what an email list is and how important it is to actually build your email list. Again, don’t worry about the numbers!
To just help you set an easy peasy goal, we start with 500 subscribers.
What you need to do, and how you will do it?
I’ve explained everything below.
Let’s do it
FIVE STEPS TO GET FIRST 1000 EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBERS
1- GET STARTED WITH AN EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER (SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU’VE ALREADY USE A SERVICE)
There are multiple email service providers out there including some free and paid. I recommend using Hubspot which is free and has unlimited freebies setup, you can easily upgrade which is still affordable as compared to other tools.
I also understand that as a new blogger, it’s hard to pay for new services while you’re already paying for hosting, domain, and theme.
So just when you are starting, use Hubspot which has no limit of number of subscribers and you can create multiple freebies in absolute NO COST.
If you already have an email autoresponder then you can skip step 1 and quickly jump to step 2.
2- CREATE A KILLER FREEBIE OR LEAD MAGNET
Ok, what is a freebie?
It’s basically a valuable content you give in exchange of an email address. When you’re trying to grow an email list, you have to go a little extra.
But, what does that mean?
Give your readers something extra valuable that you don’t share anywhere else. We write blog posts to educate and inform our readers. We use social media to entertain and update.
But, what are you offering to your subscribers?
Of course, you’re going to send emails but how you’re going to collect that email?
Nowadays, it’s unusual to get subscribers from a sidebar subscription form. This is what I noticed. Because there’s too much competition and everyone is competing.
Why would someone subscribe to your email list when you’re a tiny blogger or very new?
A killer freebie is thus needed to collect those raving fans for your email list.
What could be that killer freebie?
Depending on your niche, you can brainstorm and find out what to offer as a freebie. There are countless ideas but the most common ideas are;
- Ebook
- Ecourse
- Workshop/Webinars
- Video
- Workbooks
- Planners
- Templates
How to create a freebie?
There are a lot of free tools like Canva to start designing your freebie. You can also use Google drive to write your ebook, and download it as a PDF. Use Canva to create a pretty planner or templates.
I also suggest using a pre-made template if you’re not a design pro. Even it took me more than a year to learn the basic concepts of designing.
3- CREATE 3 ADDITIONAL OPT-IN OR CONTENT UPGRADES TO GROW YOUR EMAIL LIST FAST
We just talked about a freebie. Now, what opt-in or content upgrades is all about?
An opt-in or content upgrade is an incentive that is created specifically for a particular blog post. It’s just like offering something extra to what people are already reading about..
If you’ve got a blog post on ‘how to keep track of your monthly expenses’. Then, a content upgrade could be a free printable. Or, if you have a how-to post that’s super lengthy (2500 words) then a checklist could be offered as a content upgrade. The checklist includes a series of steps they can easily print out or refer to whenever required.
Find the top blog posts, using Google analytics, that brings you maximum traffic and see if you could make a quick content upgrade.
EXAMPLES OF CONTENT UPGRADES OR OPT-INS
- Cheatsheat
- Worksheet
- Printable
- Swipe file
- Worksheets
- Spreadsheet
- A resource list
- Audio recording
4- PRODUCE MORE CONSISTENT CONTENT WITH QUICK INCENTIVES
Let me tell you something.
You’re not going to grow your email list if you’re not producing content. Because the more people visit your blog the more chances you get to collect subscribers.
As you always read me stressing over producing good content, just take that advice and come up with more better content. I don’t recommend you to create content upgrades for every post. No, you don’t need that. Just create content-upgrades for each category, if possible.
In this post, we’re only targeting 1000 subscribers so one killer freebie and 3 content upgrades are good to start with.
Write more consistent content, and add your email form with an incentive in each post. Do not give your readers an option to leave your site without subscribing.
5- DRIVE TRAFFIC USING PINTEREST, SEO, AND FACEBOOK
So, you’ve got a freebie, some content-upgrades, and few well-written posts.
Now what?
Get more traffic!
There’s no purpose of having those pretty forms, and valuable freebies if people are not coming to your site.
I definitely suggest using Facebook, Pinterest & SEO to drive traffic to your website. Start with participating in Facebook groups.
Pinterest is the top traffic referrer for my own website. You can literally use Pinterest for everything possible but it’s not that easy. If you’re new then you will have to invest some time on Pinterest.
You can simply join some Pinterest Group Boards to increase your Pinterest views, and get more clicks.
Most importantly, organic traffic is one of the best traffic sources. It’s coming directly from Google. The searchers are actually looking for a solution that means they convert well. And, you will not need to schedule your content just how we do for social media. But, you need to put some effort into growing that traffic which is possible.
Want to learn more ? I grew my Email List to 20,000 subscribers in 9 months with these steps and with a strategy.
Do you want my exact strategy?
SAKSHI DHAMIJA
Creator of The Coach Lab
Known for : The Get More Client Method | www.sakshidhamija.com
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