Now that you’ve done the work of identifying your ideal customer avatar, creating your lead magnet, designing your opt-in form and page, and even writing your welcome emails, it’s time to get actual people onto your email list.

Growing your email list isn’t a case of “if you build it, they will come.” It takes time, effort, and some key strategies to grow your list of subscribers.

You need to find ways to drive traffic to your opt-in form to get people to sign up for your free offer and start building a relationship with you.

In this module, you’ll find a variety of ways to get this done rapidly. With a consistent focus, you can make tremendous progress on building your first email list.

Getting Started: Finding People to Subscribe

You might be wondering where you’re going to find people to subscribe to your list. So where can you find your ideal subscriber?

• Current contacts or customers. You probably already have some sort of contact list or a list of people who you’ve worked with or sold to in the past.
• Website visitors. It’s obvious that if people are visiting your website, they’re interested in what you have to offer.
• Social media. With so many users, social media is becoming one of the best places to capture higher-converting email leads.
• You may have some ideal customers you’ve met offline – maybe they’ve given you their business card or maybe you’ve had a conversation that ties into your lead magnet.
• Content marketing. Think of this as word-of-mouth marketing based on the lead magnet you created. People will share your content with others who will then also sign up for your list. We’ll talk more about content marketing later in this module.

Let’s expand on this and look at key strategies you can use.

Strategy #1: Adding Current Contacts and Customers to Your List

Before you manually add anyone to your email list, make sure they have explicitly asked to be added. If you add someone who hasn’t asked to be on your list, it’s likely that you will have violated the terms of your email marketing platform and they may even suspend your account.

What you can do is send personalized, individual emails from your regular email account with a link to the opt-in for your lead magnet. This way, if your current contacts are interested, they can be added to your email list by signing up for your free offer.

Here’s a template you might want to adapt and use:

Hi… just checking in to see how you’re doing!

I’ve been thinking about you and your situation recently and I remember that you expressed some interest in (INSERT BUSINESS AREA HERE).

Where are you in your process?

I’ve got something that might help you to (INSERT CLIENTS’ DESIRED RESULT HERE). It’s getting good results for other clients.

It’s free to people I know, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of the offer.

You can sign up here to download it right away

LINK

Strategy #2: Get Website Viewers Added to Your Email List

If you have a website, then you want to get your website visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Having your opt-in form placed throughout your website essentially turns every page into a landing page. As we said in the previous module, the goal of a landing page is to convert visitors into email subscribers, and eventually into paying customers. By adding these opt-in forms, you are well on your way to growing your email list.

Strategy #3: Get Social Media Followers to Join Your Email List

Because email marketing can be more effective than social media, it’s important to have your social media followers sign up for your lead magnet and subscribe to your email list. You may have thousands of ‘friends’ on Facebook for example, but if they aren’t connected to your email system, you can’t be sure of ever interacting with them again, let alone selling to them.
Remember, you don’t own the contact information about your social media followers, unless they’ve joined your email list. As you learned in module 1, an email list is crucial to your business because it’s something that belongs exclusively to you.

Here are some ways you can get your social media followers to join your list. In every case, this means making sure they see your enticing opt-in for the lead magnet:

• People love to win. Create a contest with a giveaway that relates to your lead magnet.
• Freebie offers. Provide immense value by offering a lead magnet exclusively to your social media fans.
• Link to opt-in page on your cover image. On your social media business page or group, update your cover image to link to your opt-in page.
• Create a video promo. Using YouTube, Facebook Live, or Instagram Live, create a short promo video where you talk about your lead magnet. Add a link to your landing page in the description.
• Use pinned posts. Whether it’s a pinned tweet, Instagram story, or Facebook post, pin a post with a link to your opt-in to your profile, group, or page.
• Start a group. Create a group on Facebook or LinkedIn and be active in it. Share your free offer with the group.
• Ask your followers to download your lead magnet. You can use on-camera video to make your ask personal. Focus on the benefits of your lead magnet as an incentive. This is especially great for groups you run.
• Video tutorials on YouTube. Send visitors to your opt-in for more information at end of each video.
• Partner with others working in your field and get them to promote you and your opt-in link online.
• Share your lead magnet opt-in in ‘Comments.’ When someone asks about something your freebie would help with, post it as a comment. Not only will it help the original poster, but other commenters will also see the opt-in for your lead magnet.
• Create an ad. Run an ad to promote your lead magnet and encourage signups.

Strategy #4: Get People You’ve Met Offline onto Your List

There are times when your marketing leads will come from traditional ways of marketing and meeting people offline.

Remember that any marketing materials you create should promote your lead magnet by including a call-to-action to sign up.

Here are some ways to reach people through traditional marketing:

• Hand out business cards to prospective customers and new people you meet.
• Create handouts and printed marketing content such as flyers, reports, and brochures that advertise your services and include a link to your lead magnet.
• Create product displays in brick and mortar stores to showcase your physical products.
• Incorporate QR codes that link to your lead magnet into all your marketing materials.
• Use sign-up sheets at presentations and speaking events you’re hosting to gather contact information from attendees.
• Host a giveaway at presentations/seminars to encourage people to leave their contact information.

Strategy #5: Use Content Marketing to Drive Traffic to Your Opt-In Page or Form

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a form of marketing that’s focused on publishing high-quality, valuable free content that helps people solve a relevant problem.

How Does It Get Someone to Join Your Email List?

When you give someone valuable information, they’re more likely to share it with others, expanding your reach and growing your email list.

It sounds simple: You give someone your awesome lead magnet and they love it so much they share it. Unfortunately, content marketing is a competitive space and lots of people are using it to grow their lists. This means that your content must be extra special and relate directly back to solving a problem for your ideal client.

Here’s how you can use content marketing to grow your list:

• Guest blog posts. Offer to write content for a similar blog in your industry as a guest blogger. This gives you an opportunity to share your content and links to your website with a different, but closely related audience.
• Post articles on social media. LinkedIn and Medium are ideal for sharing content related specifically to business. Posting your articles on LinkedIn not only creates engagement, but also shows you’re an expert on the topic.
• Because people have to sign up for a webinar, they are an effective way to generate new leads. Not everyone may attend your webinar, but you’ve still captured their email address to be able to market to them in the future (so you can offer them your lead magnet further down the line).
• Interviews where you’re the guest. Whether you’re a guest on an online radio show or interviewed in a blog post, this is an effective way of reaching a larger audience.
• Podcasts where you’re the guest. Just like an interview, podcasts help to expand your reach. Audio content is a great way for someone to get to know you, since they can hear your personality and your authenticity.
• SEO optimization. People who come across your blog posts, videos, and podcasts via organic search are usually looking to solve a problem and therefore will happily sign up for your free lead magnet.

Regardless of the method you choose, each option needs to have a call-to-action to sign up for your lead magnet.

Conclusion

Although there are many free ways to get people signed up for your email list, you don’t have to do all of them.

The most important step is to make sure they have the same call-to-action, which is to sign up for your free offer.

Don’t be afraid of a little trial and error as you test out different strategies. Each time you try something new, you get closer to understanding what works best for your audience.

Take action consistently to get people signing up for your free gift and for your email list to start to grow.