by Victoria Hockaday | Featured Contributor
You keep hearing that there’s money in the mailing list and you see that email marketing isn’t going anywhere.
But you still can’t seem to wrap your head around email.
What the HECK do you say to people without sounding spammy?
How do you go about getting people onto your mailing list without sounding obnoxious?
I’ve been there and I’ve had ZERO people on my mailing list.
Eventually, things changed.
I was getting on average 7 email subscribers a day just from creating organic content.
And I felt like I was onto something…
I was able to send love letters to my tribe every week, get to know my audience with surveys and sell digital products in my sleep.
That was when I saw the power of having a mailing list. It’s not just another thing you need to do in your business. It’s an opportunity to engage and serve the exact type of people you want to attract in your business.
That’s why today I want to share with you my tried and tested tips and tricks for list building so that you have the confidence to get started on your journey or the inspiration to keep moving forward.
Are you ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Know Your Ideal Client Avatar To Grow Your Mailing List
Let’s be honest: getting someone to give you their email address is no easy thing. People hold their email addresses tight to their chests because they don’t want another email in their inbox.
If you’re refocusing on your mailing list, you might want to revisit who you’re trying to attract. If people aren’t signing up to your mailing list it’s probably because you’re not creating content that is specific, relevant and interesting to your audience.
One of the biggest reasons why people struggle to create momentum with their mailing list is because they don’t know their dream customer avatar. I want you to take a fresh look at your ideal client avatar and get crystal clear on who they are. What are their biggest pain points? What do they struggle with? What do they want to learn more about? Because here’s the thing: by speaking to everyone you’re speaking to no one.
Cultivate a Pop Up Strategy
One way I’ve grown my audience this year is by presenting pop-ups in front of my audience. Ok… I know what you’re thinking! Pop-ups can be annoying and irritating when you’re checking out an article. But bear with me on this one… Pop-ups can be an incredibly effective way to capture your audience and invite them to learn more from you. So, I promise it’s worth it!
I started with testing out pop-ups to promote my generic opt-in freebie and it worked like a treat for growing my audience. This was a small tweak I made to my website and it made the biggest difference to my list-building efforts. I want you to test out pop-ups for yourself and use it to promote your main freebie.
Here’s how to start: Sign up to a pop-up provider, such as Optinmonster or Thrive Leads and design a lightbox pop up on your site. Then, sit back and watch the party grow!
Create an Irresistible Opt-In Freebie
One of the most common ways to grow your mailing list is with an opt-in freebie. If you’re a newbie to email marketing, an opt-in freebie is a free piece of content that you gift your audience in exchange for their name and email address.
But, to create a good opt-in freebie you need to know what your audience wants and needs from you. It’s no good giving them something for the sake of it. You need to create something that is going to make them say “OMG, I can’t believe you’re giving me this for free!”.
So, I want you to take a look at your freebie and ask yourself whether it’s clear, specific and relevant to your dream customer. You want to make sure that your opt-in freebie gives your dream customer one small win that gets them closer to buying from you in the future.
Facebook Ads
Let’s be real: unless you already have a lot of traffic on your website, organic reach for list building is very slow.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think content creation is a great foundation for list building. The only problem is that it can take around 6-9 months to grow your mailing list past 300-500 subscribers.
If you want to increase your mileage with list-building, you need to be adopting rapid list building strategies. These are things like giveaways and Facebook ads, which will grow your mailing list at a much faster rate. I’m talking about growing your mailing list by the hundreds or even thousands at a time!
And that’s it! I hope this gives you some mojo to refocus on your mailing list.
Victoria Hockaday is a Launch Strategist who helps online entrepreneurs and course creators launch profitable online courses, so that they can impact more people and teach what they love. She is passionate about helping creators lead with their hearts, so they can overcome fear, imposter syndrome and become Brave Creators.
