Getting more people to sign up for your email list isn’t always easy. And it’s downright brutal in the beginning stages.
Your head will pop right off if you Google the Gazillion ways to get more people on your list. It’s a lot of tail chasing. And if your list count is zero, you don’t even have a tail.
The thought of that keeps me up at nap time. So please soak up these actionable and solid ways to build up your email list while preserving your sanity.
First off – don’t purchase an email list. Why?
- 🚫 Google says “get clear consent” to email someone
- 🚫 Apple and Microsoft agree
- 🚫 ESPs also wag their finger no
- 🚫 You’re paying for potluck addresses at best
Plus, this Spam Vigilante will put a bounty on your head or you may land in a spam trap.
Think of the worst emails you get. You never subscribed and likely got put on a list someone is selling.
Now, if you take just one of these steps, you will get more people to join your email list.
Forgotten Freebies
Giving freebies to only newbie sign-ups is like paying a rookie more than your MVP quarterback.
Keep giving free e-books and webinars to your new email sign-ups. Don’t forget readers who have stuck with you though.
Keep them stuck with honey:
- 🍯 Free Amazon book only for your VIPs
- 🍯 Starbucks card for your top 5 email sharers or clickers
- 🍯 Share a personal story that inspires & touches (be real with your top readers)
Boots on the Ground
If you have a sales team, ensure they have an easy way to add clients to the email list. If you’re the one-person sales team, be sure to add past customers (with permission – remember, vigilantes).
Also, the OG Metaverse (Earth) is still intact. Use physical-world events and non-bot groups to ask people to join your epic email list. This takes creativity, courage, and detachment (you from your desk 🙂).
Posse Up to Build Up Your Email List
Partnerships can also round up more names for your list. Do you know how many newsletters exist?
Only this one! Keep your wandering eyes off other newsletter homewreckers.
For real, find a way to get your landing page link into other newsletters via offers, quotes, and interviews. I did the math – that tactic is 9,022 times easier than SEO.
And at risk of being digitally smacked by you guys, try guest blog posts.
Kidding – unless you have endless free time and are independently wealthy already. The easier way is…
🎙 Go on podcasts – yapping > blogging
🎤 Speak in person (clubs, libraries, schools, etc.)
💡 Place a creative sign-up at local businesses and shows
A young, broke Kevin Hart collected email addresses at his comedy shows. You don’t have to be the main attraction to wiggle your way into places that host comics, music, or trivia.
Beware running contests though. Unless moochers are your avatar.
Readers Outside Your Email List
Now consider this. Your email newsletter or blast is not the only thing you or your company has produced, right?
It’s not the only content you’ve got. So don’t miss those readers, viewers, or listeners.
Locate them and entice them to join your list. And to share your emails with friends, family, and folks they don’t particularly like. Whoever can benefit from your emails.
Yep – also offer unique freebies to content consumers who have been with you outside of the inbox.
Offer them something fast, easy, and effective in exchange for their email address.
It’s my nap time but here are examples:
- Give a Facebook commenter a coupon code in a PM
- Send a podcast reviewer an audio version of your book
- Give YouTube commenters a link to a webinar
- Email DIY greenhouse plans to your vegetable seed customers
- Do a free 20-minute consultation for someone who read your guide
They join your list, they get the goods.👆
Can’t-Miss Forms
All those steps above can get people on your list or to your website.
Once on your site, don’t let them off the hook!
Make sure your email sign-up forms are:
Easy to seeHighly visible- Attention-engulfing, scrollable & sticky🍯
And yep, pop-up forms are universally despised. But don’t let personal rage get in the way of proven marketing tools.
Finally, with every person you add to your list, be sure you know the perfect time to get them to open your emails.
The Knowledge Base
Knowledge is power but first some motivation.
Some tips from Forbes to get your salespeeps to grow email lists.
Going viral won’t matter if your form is invisible like this poor fella’s.
Bad form design to beware, versus email opt-ins to emulate.
This most-viewed search shows creating how-to video content doesn’t have to teach complex lessons (people can’t draw circles!).
Self Help
There are over 85,000 self-help books out there.
If they were helpful they could’ve stopped the presses at book #23.
Or perhaps the focus is on helping the wrong self? Research shows less focus on the self improves well-being.
Helping others may be the best self-help… that’s what decent people tell me anyway (I can’t be bothered, of course 😎).
However, since you are a decent human and like to help others, Inbox Mailers has a terrific promotion for non-profits you can share.
Facts & Stats
Automation tools are used for sending all types of emails, not just welcomes or abandoned cart emails
75% of Gmail users are using their mobile devices to access email
50% of marketers claim there’s no perfect time for sending email campaigns (oh, they haven’t heard?)
*Pre Inbox Mailers Quote Circa 1981: “1.3 million scorched bags of microwave popcorn prove timing matters.” ~ Howard “Butter” Johnson (80s Popcorn & Hotdog Eating Champion)
Marketing Musings
Cheat Sheets are handy and hint at debauchery, don’t they?
Let’s indulge!
These 26 Cheat Sheets are for the busy digital marketer.
Sure, their Periodic Table of Content Marketing gave me a headache, but…
Their Ideal Length of Content was a gigantic help.
And definitely check out their Anatomy of a Marketing Email. An effective one.
Today’s Hack
Open up your email list. Even if you store it in a Trapper Keeper. Now find your Top-3 most engaged readers. People who click your links. Reply to you. Those who spend money on your stuff.
Now send those Big-3 something nice, cool, or clever. Because they’ve been good to you. And it’s been a while since they were Johnny-Come-Latelys racking up freebies like tickets at a Skee-Ball thingy. Make those 3 VIPs feel special today.
To take our own advice – shoutout to some of our VIP readers. Allison, Tara, & Michael. I’m giving you guys an autographed copy of Michael Jordan’s rookie card. It’s just a screenshot that I forged. But give me time – the VIP freebies will get better.
