The most important thing you can do for your online presence is grow your email list.
There are quite a few reasons why growing your email list is an essential task for website owners to consider.
An email subscriber is someone who enjoyed your content so much that they want more from you. This is the first step into creating die-hard fans and customers. Subscribers are invested and much more receptive to your message and more likely to share your content or buy your products..
Moreover, there is a personal connection between you and the subscriber. This connection exists because you have established a one-on-one communication through the emails–a sacred and guarded place in people’s communication.
If those two reasons don’t convince you then the third and most important should. The simple fact is you own your email list outright. But you don’t own social media networks.
Think about it. You don’t own Facebook. So, if Facebook decided it didn’t like your page, they can delete it. It’s happened to plenty of others (probably can find links to support this). And there’s nothing you can do about it–your audience would disappear for good. But your email subscribers are yours for life. Because once again you own this list outright.
But if it is so important to grow your email lists, then how do you actually grow your email list?
Read on to find out the six best ways to grow your subscribers list.
1. Grow Your Email List with Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are essentially a free offering that can be placed anywhere on your website. It offers something of value to the website visitor in exchange for their contact information.
Simply put; it is an offer they cannot refuse!
Moreover, lead magnets don’t have to be lengthy, complex or time consuming. However, they do need to have a specific solution to a specific problem.
The rule of thumb is that in five minutes of subscribing, your lead magnet should solve the subscriber’s problem.
An example of a lead magnet is a lifestyle blogger offering a seasonal planner during the holidays on their website. Think about the holiday season. The holidays and the lead up to them are usually crazy and chaotic. So, the lifestyle blogger offers this printable planner to help the masses plan and keep ahead of the overwhelming holiday season. https://www.janinehuldie.com/free-christmas-planner-printable-available-now/ Another example is a family blogger that offers special exclusives and printable library access. https://amothersshadow.com/
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2. Grow Your Email List Faster with Content Upgrades
Content Upgrades are a free bonus download that’s directly related to ONE article or segment. Typically, these types of articles are high performers on your website already. So, you want to capitalize on this fact to add subscribers from those that keep finding this one, specific article on your site.
They are similar to lead magnets in that they are a free offering in exchange for contact information. The difference is that this offering is a direct extension (or addition) to the article that the visitor is reading.
These upgrades make it easier for your reader/potential subscriber to execute on the one article’s goals.
An example of a content upgrade is as follows. A parenting/lifestyle blogger has a large following because of her cleaning tips articles. She offers a cleaning tips content magnet on her homemaking landing page to gain even more subscribers who are looking to keep a clean home. https://www.whatsupfagans.com/category/home/
3. Grow Your List with Viral Giveaways
Viral Giveaways are contests that encourage readers to enter for a chance to win a prize(s) with the winner chosen randomly by signing up for your email list, as well as sharing socially.
This kind of giveaway is “viral” in nature because it allows participants to increase their chances of winning for sharing the giveaway. They are incentivised to help you spread the word–and gain more subscribers–because they get a direct benefit from it: increasing their odds of winning.
An example of a viral giveaway is a blogger giving away a $1K Amazon gift card with a group of other website owners. They ask in return that all that enter sign up for all emails, social channels and share socially, as well. Once again, sharing socially markets the giveaway and gets more eyes on the giveaway. The giveaway essentially goes viral. Thus, your website gains many new sign ups for your email. https://katherinescorner.com/giveaway-list-at-katherines-corner/
4. Gain More Subscribers with Free Webinars
With free webinars, subscribers actually hear and/or see to interact with you personally live in real time. So, they aren’t just reading a static article or post from you..
These free webinars show that you are an expert or leader in your niche.
Thus by promoting these free webinars on your site in a blog post and/or in a content or lead magnet, you can capitalize and also add subscribers.
An example of this is to write a blog post about a specific topic, such as how to speed up your website. Then, in order to promote this idea, you then host a Webinar to show how to speed up a website. (Here is an example: https://www.katerinagasset.com/webinar-blogging-on-your-wordpress-website-fast/)
5. Free Courses
Free courses are essentially a subgroup of lead magnets. How they work is you create a home landing page to have prospective subscribers sign up.
Once they are signed up, the course gets delivered via an email marketing system. These courses can be for written content, such as modules that only include text, but you can also include links to videos or audio, too.
Each module/chapter of your free course equals one email in the course series. So, you create a number of related emails for your course that are sent out at specific time intervals and in a set order.
An example of how to use free courses to your advantage is that website owners want to know how to actually build their email list in 30 days. There, you offer a free E-Course how to do so and show it in a series of chapters. (https://www.classcentral.com/course/udacity-website-performance-optimization-2189 or https://www.wp-tonic.com/blog/how-to-speed-up-online-course-creation/
6. Be so good, your subscribers want to recommend it.
One of the most under-rated methods of growing your email seems simple, but it’s not. And it’s not one you can easily teach–therefore most email marketers don’t. Make your emails so undeniably valuable that your email subscribers will not only open them every single time, but they’ll want to forward them to their friends.
Bonus: add a message in at the bottom of every email that says something like, “did a friend forward this email to you? Join the list yourself here.” which links to a landing page where non-subscribers can subscribe themselves.
Now that you have the tools to help build your email list. Go forth and put them to the test to crush your email subscriber number target.
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