I blogged consistently for years and years before I ever thought of collecting email addresses. After all: why would I possibly need my readers’ email addresses? What would I send them if I had their emails? New blog posts? Can’t they follow my blog using a feed reader like Blog Lovin’ or on social media?
I didn’t get it.
Maybe you’re where I was a few months ago. You have heard other small business owners and bloggers tell you, “Start an email list!” and you’re saying “Okay, but…” and asking: “How?” “When?” and most of all, “WHY?”
Let’s start with WHY, because that’s always the best place to start.
1. Gather Your Tribe
There is a difference between a reader who will check into your blog occasionally and a reader who subscribes to your email list. A casual relationship versus a committed one. Your email list is your tribe. A group of people excited about what you have to say, a group of people who look to you as a voice in your industry. Every successful business has a loyal group of followers and knows who they are.
2. Opportunity to Build Trust
Your email list is a direct communication line to your followers. You send an email and they’ll receive it in their inbox. It as simple as that. Use your emails sparingly. Every time you draft an email, ask “What value am I offering my readers?” before you press “Send.” Give your followers a reason to trust you and establish yourself as an expert in the industry.
3. It’s Crazy Effective
Once you have systems in place to grow your list and have spent time building trust with your readers, it’s time to sell. (Sparingly.) The best part about launching and selling a product to your list? You know they are already “all in.” They love your voice, appreciate your brand and look to you as an expert — because you’ve given them so much for free already!
Use your email list to connect with this highly targeted group of potential customers, offering sales, discount codes, exclusive pre-launch opportunities, etc. It’s a good rule of thumb to offer excellent content 80% of the time and only sell 20% of the time. Of course, it should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway – never sell a product you don’t 100% believe will help people.
4. And It’s Cost Effective
Most newsletter providers are very reasonably priced for the value offered. In fact, you can start with Mailchimp (the email provider I use) for free up to 2000 subscribers! Over 2000 subscribers (or if you want bonus features not provided in the free version) you can purchase a scalable monthly subscription that increases in costs only as your list grows. $30/month is a very small price to pay to communicate directly with your followers!
More newsletter options: iContact, AWeber, GetResponse, MadMimi, Constant Contact.
5. Your List is Your Own
Growing a following–a unique group of people who believe in the message of your brand–across multiple social media platforms is important. But ultimately, you don’t own Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest. The developers of the platform can decide at any point to change the “rules of the game” – we’ve seen it in a big way the last year or so with Facebook. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business. Facebook has too much information to show users in their feed, therefore they have to be strategic with what they show when and offering businesses the option to purchase ads for greater visibility.
As social networks continue to grow, I think we’ll see more and more networks going this way. It’s not a guarantee that every follower will see every post. Instagram doesn’t “owe” you anything! ;) But your email list is your own and nobody can take that away from you! If Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest all disappeared tomorrow (I sure hope not!) what would you have left? How would you communicate with the followers in your “tribe?” If your answer is, “I don’t know!!” you need to start growing an email list.
You’re all thinking, “We get it, Jamie, we need to grow an email list. When should we start?”
Now.
“Okay. But how do I collect email addresses? Just tweet and ask people to @reply with them?”
… perhaps there’s a better, less annoying, way.
Earlier in this post, I encouraged you to question “What is the value of this?” before you pressed send on any email to your subscribers. It’s time to back up that same thought process by a couple of steps. Let’s consider: what value could we offer to our blog readers and customers that would compel them to subscribe to your list? Something a little more attractive than, “Click here to sign up for my list.” Why should they?
This valuable offer is called a lead magnet. The more powerful your lead magnet, the more leads you’ll attract. The more targeted your lead magnet, the more targeted leads you’ll attract.
Examples of Lead Magnets
– First Chapter
– Free Consultation
– “Tools of the Trade”
– Checklist
– Software Trial
– Coupon Code
– Webinar/Video
– Case Study
– E Book
– Access to private Facebook group
Creating Your Lead Magnet
Know Your Target Audience
It’s important that your lead magnet is created with your target audience in mind. I’m going to use my own blog as an example. My target market is small business owners and bloggers looking to grow their online presence. I wanted to create a high-quality lead magnet that bloggers would love to sign up for. Enter 5 Days to Build Your Blog Following.
Spend Time on Quality Content
You may be able to “trick” people into signing up for a lead magnet called “Gain 1000 Instagram Followers in One Week” but if you can’t follow through on your promises, or the offer seems inflated when readers actually view your content, you’re only kicking yourself in the foot. Catchy titles are awesome (and are really effective!) but you need to have content worthy of its title… or you’re going to lose subscribers fast.
I spent about 40 hours writing and creating my lead magnet for my blog. 40 hours! This isn’t a thrown-together checklist or freebie, it’s quality content I knew I could be proud of… and it’s been working like crazy. In the last 30 days, I’ve grown my mailing list by 241 subscribers. That’s an average of 8 new subscribers per day! Invest time into developing a lead magnet you’re proud of and the results will pay off for you long-term!
See below – I created my opt-in offer and launched it on July 6th, less than 2 months ago, with already 805 subscribers! This would not have been possible without my e-book.
Optimize Your Opt-In Offer
Are you making it easy for new readers to your blog to find your opt-in offer/lead magnet? Many experts recommend having a link to join your email list (aka “opt in offer”) on every single page of your blog. I include my opt-in offer on my Start Here page and via pop-up window using Leadpages. In addition, I try to regularly reference my offer: 5 Days to Build Your Blog Following in new blog posts I write, to direct new traffic. — See what I did there? ;)
Once you’ve finished your lead magnet, now you need to determine how to deliver it to new subscribers! With Mailchimp, you can set an automatic “Welcome” email for each new subscriber. In that email, you can include a link to your lead magnet for download. As another more advanced option, you can use Leadpages to create a custom landing page for your opt-in offer as I’ve done here.
Leadpages integrates with Mailchimp, automatically sending out your lead magnet for you, and adding new subscribers to your Mailchimp list.
Your Next Steps
The best time to start building an email list is today! If you’re a list-maker and a linear thinker like me, here are your next steps.
1. Choose a newsletter provider
2. Brainstorm 5-10 possible lead magnets
3. Write an outline for your lead magnet
4. Complete your lead magnet
5a. Write welcome email to new subscribers with link to opt-in
OR 5b. Create Leadpages landing page with link to opt-in
6. Add opt-in offer to your website header, sidebar, pop-up, footer, etc.
7. Announce your new offer on all social media platforms!
8. Watch the subscribers roll in!
9. Add value and see your list grow!
I hope this post inspired you to dig in and brainstorm a valuable and unique lead magnet you can offer new readers soon! I’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Pay it Forward
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