Building your email list is one of the most important tasks you’ll ever do, if you’re trying to create a sustainable and profitable online business. List building NEVER ends.
It’s an ongoing process where you’ll have to keep adding new leads daily (if possible) because some subscribers will leave your list. It’s an inevitable part of the process and should not be taken personally.
People unsubscribe for a multitude of reasons, but your concern should always be about increasing the size of your list. Let the ones who want to leave, leave. Find new fans to join you and your loyal tribe.
In this article you’ll discover 12 simple but powerful list building tips you must know. Apply ALL of them as and when you can.
Let’s get started…
1. Build a high-converting squeeze page
First impressions count… especially when you’re trying to get someone on your email list. While many reputable autoresponders allow you to create landing pages, these often look very basic and the options to customize them are very limited.
The best way to create an opt in page that looks great and converts well will be to use a page builder. Some of the best page builders are (in no particular order):
- Leadpages
- OptimizePress
- Thrive Architect
- ClickFunnels
- GrooveFunnels
These are just a few of the many out there. What makes them so easy to use is the drag-and-drop functionality that many of these tools have. In most cases, preloaded templates are included so that you can create a fantastic landing page in minutes without having to think too much about design.
Tools such as Leadpages are hosted on blazing fast servers too. So your landing pages load fast – which in turn increases conversions.
2. Use a proven and reputable autoresponder
The hard truth is that no matter which autoresponder you choose, it’ll never be perfect. What matters here is choosing one that is reliable most of the time.
The test of any autoresponder is its deliverability rate. Ultimately, you want your emails landing in the subscriber’s inbox instead of the SPAM folder or the promotions tab.
Many email providers are very strict when it comes to allowing emails into your inbox. So, the autoresponder company will need to maintain a good relationship with the major email providers.
You’ll have a choice between either choosing a self-hosted autoresponder where you pay a one-time fee… or a managed autoresponder where you’ll pay a monthly fee. Our suggestion is that you choose one of the major autoresponder companies and pay a monthly fee instead of trying to cut costs here.
Some of the most popular autoresponders are (in no particular order):
- Aweber
- GetResponse
- ConvertKit
- Active Campaign
- Mailchimp
Choose one and get started building your list with them!
3. Use a ‘bribe’ that tempts the visitor!
It goes without saying that if you wish to woo someone over and get them to join your list, you’ll need to ‘bribe’ them with something of value that’s free.
Marketers have several names for a such a bribe:- freebie, lead magnet, freemium, etc.
It doesn’t matter what you call it… as long as it’s something of perceived value, in the visitor’s eyes.
For example, if you’re in the weight loss niche targeting men above 40, a short free report on boosting one’s testosterone levels to accelerate weight loss will be a very pertinent topic to them.
You can bet that those in the demographic you’re targeting will sign up to get the report.
In the same vein, if you’re in the survival niche, a checklist of survival items to store in case of a crisis will be very useful information. Offer the checklist free, and watch your sign ups soar.
Your freebie must be useful, relevant and what your audience is looking for. Get this right and you’ll build your list much faster.
4. Have a blog
One of the best ways to build a list is to have a blog with several posts targeting keywords that get a relatively high number of searches. You’ll want to get a domain and good hosting. Use a clean theme that’s attractive and loads fast.
While trying to rank for the top keywords is difficult, ranking for several less competitive keywords that get 100-300 searches a month will still help you to get sign ups – if you’re on the first page of the search results.
With a blog, you can use Thrive Leads to create pop ups, sticky bars, etc. to offer a freebie and build your list. Furthermore, you can even add a sign-up form in the sidebar of your blog to get more subscribers.
Besides building a list, a blog will give you a chance to get affiliate sales and build authority in your niche… which in turn will lean to more sign ups.
5. Sell your own product
One of the best ways to build a profitable list will be to sell your own products so that you have a list of buyers. When it comes to an email list, quality will beat quantity any day.
A list of 1,000 customers/buyers will generate more income than a list of 10,000 freebie-seeking tire kickers. While you can build a free list and some of them will buy what you’re selling, your goal will always be to increase the subscribers on your ‘buyer list’.
Make sure you set up automation within your autoresponder account so that when someone on the freebie list buys your product, they get automatically moved to the buyer list.
When creating lead magnets for your squeeze pages, you can use different lead magnets to segment your list better. Then promote products closely related to the freebie they signed up for. Now you’ll increase your chances of getting a sale.
Don’t forget to segment your buyers too.
A lady who downloads your free report on homesteading for survival may be more interested in purchasing products related to gardening, canning vegetables, etc. She may not be interested in self-defense weapons for survival.
It’s still the same niche, but the interests are different. So, segment your list well too.
6. Present opportunities for people to sign up
It doesn’t matter whether you have a blog, video channel, Facebook group or even a Pinterest board – you still want to have links from all these different web properties pointing to your squeeze page/s.
Use a versatile list building tool like Thrive Leads to add pop ups, scroll mats, sticky bars and more to your website. If you’re using a tool like Leadpages, you’ll be able to install the Leadpages plugin and have pop ups on your site too.
There are many ways to go about this. Just know that the more options people have to sign up to your list, the more subscribers you’ll get.
7. Use videos!
Videos are an extremely powerful tool that can be used in most niches. Ideally, you should have a channel on YouTube where you share information, tips and recommendations.
Now you’ll be able to embed these videos on your blog and on social media too.
The videos serve 2 purposes. Firstly, they’ll help to drive traffic to your landing pages, especially when you’re ranking for popular keywords on YouTube.
Just remember to tell your viewers to “Click on the link in the description to subscriber and get your freebie!” – and the link will point to a landing page, which offers a freebie in return for their email.
Now imagine if you have 50 videos pointing to a landing page. Sooner or later, people will start subscribing to your list and they’d have found you from YouTube. This is video marketing in a nutshell.
The second purpose of using videos on your blog (especially if you’re on screen) is to not only put a face and voice to the page, but to also inspire trust and credibility.
When people can see who you are and hear your voice, there’s a certain authenticity that comes along with it. Rather than giving their email to a faceless online entity, now they know they’re subscribing to your list – and they’ll be much more willing to do so.
8. Traffic generation is a never-ending process
As mentioned earlier, you can expect people to leave your list. This is part and parcel of list building. The goal is to always have more subscribers joining your list, than people leaving it.
You can prevent subscribers from leaving by offering tremendous value and being entertaining. But even then, some will leave. That’s fine. Let’s focus on getting more subscribers.
The only way to build your list will be to siphon traffic from high traffic sites to your list. This is traffic generation at its core.
When you use Facebook groups or Facebook ads, you’re siphoning traffic from there to your offers and landing pages. The same applies to Instagram, Pinterest and other popular sites.
You’re always trying to drive traffic from these sites to your own. Even when you’re ranking in Google, you’re still leveraging the popularity of Google to get people to your sites.
Now that you know the set up – all you need to do is create user-focused content that resonates with your niche. By providing free value and dropping your links (to your landing page) in these popular platforms, you’ll get curious visitors clicking on these links and joining your list.
After all, if you’re giving away so much value for free, why wouldn’t anyone want more?
They’ll sign up for your freebie and end up on your list. So, keep creating content and actively finding ways to send traffic to your landing pages.
You’ll want to split test your landing pages to improve conversions too. The better your landing page converts, the more bang you’ll get for your buck – more subscribers for the same amount of effort.
9. Email your list regularly
There’s a saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
That’s very applicable here. You’ll want to email your list at least once or twice a week so that they remember who you are. Some marketers email daily, while others email 3-4 times a week.
Find out what works for you and stick to it. Whatever you do, make sure you don’t ignore your list for 2-3 months and suddenly email them out of the blue. Maintain the relationship you have with your list and you’ll have subscribers that treat you as a friend and look forward to your emails.
10. Study your autoresponder’s features
Most of the major autoresponders have fantastic features that will help you segment your list, automate processes and so on.
For example, the tagging feature in ConvertKit will help you to segment subscribers based on them just clicking a link. So if you sent your list an email about a nootropic supplement, and you used the tagging feature, everyone who clicked on that link would be tagged.
Now you can create a free short report on ‘7 Benefits of Nootropics’ and scatter your affiliate links within the report. Then all you need to do is email ONLY the subscribers who are tagged because their actions showed interest in the product.
By doing this, you’d be targeting your subscribers better and will not be sending emails to people on your list who are not interested in it. This will improve your email open rates and other metrics.
11. Look at the numbers
Analyze the stats in your autoresponder once every two weeks or so. Take note if you have a high unsubscribe rate. While you shouldn’t worry too much about people unsubscribing, if they’re leaving at an alarming rate, there’s probably a problem somewhere.
Either your emails are not targeted or you’re not providing enough value… you appear too salesy and so on. Pay attention to what’s happening.
The same applies to your landing pages. Look at the conversion rates. If it’s abysmal, then there’s either a problem with the landing page or the freebie… or the traffic.
Split test your landing pages, use click tracking software to find out where your leads are coming from and find ways to increase the number of people seeing your landing page.
12. Gate your content
News sites do this all the time. They have an interesting article and as you’re reading it, halfway you discover that the content is ‘locked’. In order to read the rest, you’ll need to subscribe to the news site. This is known as gated content.
The same principle can be applied to your blog. Study your Google Analytics for your site and see which blog posts get the most traffic. Now lock the content halfway through the post and tell the reader to subscribe to the blog if they want to read the rest.
You’ll get several subscribers this way. Once again, don’t overdo this method. Only use it on pages that get a lot of traffic.
In conclusion…
The 12 list building tips in this article are just a few of many. Nevertheless, if you follow them, you’ll inevitably build a list faster than you ever thought possible.
Always remember that it doesn’t matter what web properties you own (video channel, blog, etc.)… you should always have links pointing to your landing pages. The more links you have out there, the higher the chances of people signing up.
To some degree, this is a numbers game.
Ensure that you have a welcome sequence to ‘warm up’ new subscribers, and after that, they should be automatically moved to your main list where they either receive emails queued in your sequence or your broadcast emails… or both.
That’s basically how you start building a list and maintaining it. Follow these list building tips and rinse and repeat until you’re making a sustainable income from your list.