Want More Subscribers?
If you answered ‘yes’, then every piece of content you produce for any platform – be it YouTube videos, podcasts, Instagram pictures or blogs posts – even your website – should be created with the goal of creating value in order to drive leads to your list.
Doing so will ensure that you benefit from a perpetual stream of qualified leads.
And if you’re not focused on growing your list now, you’re going to be playing catch-up.
By implementing some simple strategies now, you can automate the process of growing your list.
In This Post You’ll Learn…
- Why you really need to embrace the mindset that ‘it’s all in the list…’ (just in case you have not fully bought into the idea yet)
- 7 easy, but essential tactics that you can use right now to put your list building on auto-pilot
- I’ll also touch on the 3 biggest email list-building mistakes you don’t want to make
Why You Really Need To Build Your Email List
Before you sit down to write your next blog post, shoot a video, develop an ecourse – and if you don’t yet have a website, even before you create one – you should be thinking about how it will funnel leads to your list . This is true regardless of your market or your niche.
Why?
Simply put, your list is the asset from which you generate your revenue.
Just a few of the benefits of having an email list:
- Other channels that you use to engage with your prospects rely on ‘passive’ relationships. Social Media, Google search, and your website all require you to wait for your leads to come to you. Not so with email – you can reach out to your list anytime you want
- You own your list. You do not own your Google ranking or your Social Media page. In fact, those channels cost you – either in money or in time. And when a platform changes its algorithms or policies they can become inaccessible to you overnight
- On a cost-per-acquisition and revenue-per-lead basis, your email list has all other channels beat hands-down in terms of ROI
You might be thinking that email is becoming old school, and that there is too much spam to make it a viable medium for generating revenue.
Spam is indeed a scourge and does affect email open rates. But not enough to make it ineffective.
And, the more you learn about email marketing, the better you will become at avoiding spam filters, increasing engagement, etc.
Why I advocate for building your email list now
When I first started as a digital marketing professional 20 years ago I managed the teams that built websites for some of the largest brands in the world.
But at night my brother and I started building our own company. And the first thing we did was create a free giveaway (also known as a Lead Magnet) in order to build our list.
To date that one lead magnet has brought in over 2 million email addresses. It was the first step in what would become a multi-million dollar business. To this day that same Lead Magnet is still bringing in triple-digit subscribers every day.
Get The Free Lead Magnet Checklist
Seven Simple Tactics I use To Grow My List
1) Add Signup Forms To Your Web Pages
It may seem obvious, but the easiest thing you can do right now is to create a form so that visitors to your website can sign up to your list.
Every Email Service Provider (ESP) has a Form Builder you can use to create email signup forms for your website.
Add the signup form to every page of your site, but especially your Home page and your About page as these tend to drive the most traffic for you.
A few tips when creating your signup form:
- Entice people to signup to your list with something other than a ‘newsletter’. Instead, offer something of value such as Free Resources, Tips & Tricks, Exclusive Insider Secrets, etc…
- Have a clear Call To Action such as ‘Click Here To Get It Now!’
- Use testimonials or some other form of social proof when you can – If you have at least 1000 people on your list you could say: ‘Join Over 3000 Others – Apply For Access Now!’ You get the idea
Don’t yet have an Email Service Provider? Get the Email Service Provider Cheat Sheet.
2) Use Squeeze Pages
Squeeze Pages add an additional step to the email signup process.
They work like this:
Say you are offering a free ‘Yearly Financial Planner PDF’ download from your website. Your visitor would click a link to get the planner and immediately a pop-up dialog box appears requesting an email address to send the PDF to.
The reason we use Squeeze Pages is because they increase conversions.
And the reason they increase conversions is because once we commit to doing something we are more inclined to see it through.
Over the years I have had a lot of opportunities to test and tweak different list-building strategies. When we added a two-step squeeze page process to signup forms, conversions rates increased by over 100% instantly. So why wouldn’t you do that?
3) Single Opt-in Vs. Double Opt-in Signup?
Should people be required to confirm their registration to your list?
This has been hotly debated since I first started marketing on the Internet and building my first list back in the 90’s.
To this day there are two camps that are quite adamant about which is the right approach.
You’ll find that some of the big name marketers insist on double opt-in. However, you’ll also see other big name brands using single opt-in.
Here’s my take:
- If you’re going to have a simple signup form where people are not expecting to receive something from you immediately (such as signing up for a newsletter), then use a double opt-in.
- If you are giving something away, such as a PDF or anything else that you can deliver via email, then use single opt-in.
The issue people have with the single opt-in process is that anyone can enter a bogus email address – which is true. I would never give anything away via a single opt-in.
However, if the only way someone can receive what you’re offering (such as your Financial Planner PDF) is if you send it to them via email, then they have to enter a valid email address in order to receive it – right?!
And this is where your squeeze page comes in. If your potential subscriber does not provide their email address, or gives you a fake address, they don’t get your goodies.
This is the process I use and I recommend you use. Now, if I was getting a lot of fake email addresses then I would have high bounce and complaint rates. But the opposite is in fact the case. I have an email open rate that is 3 x over the industry average.
Give value, treat people with respect, and they will do the same for you.
4) Create Content Upgrades
A content upgrade is a value-add created for a specific blog post, podcast episode, or any other content you publish.
For example, if you write an article on why ‘Green Smoothies Will Improve Your Love Life’, then within the post you could link to a ‘7 Day Printable PDF Green Smoothie Recipe Planner’ download. And of course, access to this requires an email address.
Content upgrades can be any additional content that would make a logical next-step.
How to get started with Content Upgrades:
- Keep it simple. A PDF outline or checklist of the main topics of the blog post, podcast, etc, is all that is needed
- Go back through your current content and find the most popular blog posts, videos, etc. and add Content Upgrades to them
- When you create content going forward, think about what type of Content Upgrade you can add to it
5) Web Page Dialogues
You know those dialog boxes that seem to appear at random in the middle of some web pages? Don’t you love them!?
Me neither.
The truth is we all hate pop-ups. However, they convert like crazy.
Fortunately however, there are a number of different kinds of on-page dialogs that increase conversion rates without being annoying. Some of the more popular include Feature Boxes, Notification Bars, Welcome Mats and After Posts.
Visitors to your website have resistance to doing anything other than skimming over content and clicking on links. We’re all like this.
On-page forms – especially Dynamic dialogues – reduce friction by interrupting our tendency to skim and click.
Combined with Content Upgrades web page dialogs dramatically convert visitors to your website into subscribers to your email list.
I wrote an post on the most common Web Page Dialogues, which to use, and how to add them to your page.
6) Social Media Accounts = Free Links
Every Social Media account you have, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (Instagram, YouTube, Quara, Snapchat, Tumblr, etc. etc.) provides you with an opportunity to drive signups to your list.
They give you space to tell the world about yourself, including the ability to link to your website or other content you produce. And guess what: 90% of your competitors are not filling in all the fields.
Even if you are not active on every Social Media channel you are subscribed to, they are still prime real estate for you to promote your brand.
Remember, the more people see a consistent message from you, the more likely you are to stick in their minds.
To Do:
- Hit every Social Media account you have and fill in every field in your profile that you can
- Use consistent images and messaging across all your Social Media accounts
- Make sure that there is a link back to your website. And, if you want to take it to the next level, have links from your social media accounts to tailored landing pages
7) Leverage Your Emails – Signature & Share
Here’s an easy, but effective way to get more subscribers from your existing list.
- Setup your Signature in your outgoing emails to link to free content via a squeeze page
- Ask your readers to forward your emails to a friend
If you are delivering authentic, valuable content, then people are generally more than happy to help out.
You can set up your Signature profile in your personal email account, and in your Email Service Provider account to do this automatically for you when you send an email. That way if you feel uncomfortable about doing this, you don’t even have to think about it.
Three Email Marketing Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
- Thinking that you don’t really need an email list. It should go without saying, but the biggest mistake by far is not building your list
- Believing that a list is secondary to your other channels – other platforms are merely resources you use to funnel leads to your list. Get into the mindset that building your list is the ultimate goal of your efforts
- Thinking you can wait until later to build your list. No one needs a list, until they realize they do. Don’t wait until you need it to start building it.
Conclusion
Putting the foundation in place to build your list now is not difficult or time consuming. It does however pay off far beyond what you’ll get from the time and effort you put in.
And the great part is that once you set these tactics up, they run for you on autopilot. Which means you have more time to put into building your online empire.
What list building tactics do you find work best for you?
