Ten Ridiculously Easy Ways to Build an Email List Quickly with Few Technical Skills
Build a tribe of fans and future buyers.
It doesn’t matter how many millions of followers you have on various social media channels because you can lose them to algorithms, changes in policies, or bad behavior. I know of a guy who just lost his 88 million followers overnight for breaching terms of service.
You do have some control turning your followers into die-hard fans.
There are several ways to turn your social media following into email subscribers. Don’t be a slave to algorithms. There are many algorithms at play on social media platforms, but your email list, you own that.
Before we get to the ten ways to build your list, here are three steps you need to take.
Step One
Find an ESP or email service provider
To begin, you’ll need an email service provider (ESP) like ConvertKit or Mailchimp.
I use ConvertKit and have been happy with it for more than a year. After playing around with it for only a few days, I got the hang of it. You could probably learn it in a few hours. Also, the ConvertKit staff is well informed and helpful via chat if you get stuck. ConvertKit is free for up to 1000 subscribers. After your first 1000 subscribers, the fee is $29 per month for the basic service.
Step Two
Come up with a valuable freebie to entice readers to subscribe
What will you create to entice readers to sign up for your list?
It can be anything in your niche that you’ve already written. Organize it into a freebie. Here are some examples, “A Goal Setting Workbook,” a five email sequence promoting “Five-steps to Making Money Online from Writing,” or “90 Journal Prompts to Create a Writing Habit.”
Create something and make it downloadable in PDF format.
Step Three
Create a dedicated landing page
This can be done in ConvertKit as well as GoDaddy, Squarespace, WordPress or WIX.
Create a dedicated landing page targeting a specific audience. Let’s say you’re targeting writers by linking your “Five-steps to Making Money Online from Writing” workbook to this landing page. Then, you create a landing page that speaks to writers. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be one or two lines promoting whatever freebie you’ve created with a line for the subscriber’s name and a box for their email address to be entered.
I have made several of these using ConvertKit. Of the ten I’ve created, you can view the one with the highest rate of conversion here. It doesn’t even have a freebie attached to it, it just has my Medium credentials listed.
I’m the least technical person; if I can do it, you can as well. I’m positive it will take you a lot less time than it took me, and it didn’t take me long to set this up.
Now, here are ten ways to share the landing page you’ve created in step three with a link to your freebie (step two) and grow you an email list in relatively little time.
Ten ways to build your list overnight
#1. Create an email signature
Whenever you communicate with anyone via email (those not on your main subscriber list yet) you increase your email subscribers by including your email signature at the bottom with a link to your landing page.
Every time you send a newsletter or a promotion, send an email signature with a link included. Subscribers will start trickling in when you place a link for them to join inside your email signature.
Include your name, what you do, and hey, if you want a free goal setting workbook. get it here (include the link on the ‘here’). When they click on the link included, the reader will be redirected to your landing page to join your actual email list. Include this any time and anywhere, no matter what email you are sending.
Here is a video link to show you how to create an email signature with a landing page link.
#2 Add an announcement bar at the top of your website.
(for numbers 2 through 4, you will need a website)
Your website doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate. You can create a website in just a few hours using GoDaddy, WIX, or Squarespace.
Making a website is ridiculously easy these days with the services mentioned above. It takes no time to set one up. I don’t possess many tech-savvy skills, yet I’ve created several websites on my own using WordPress. If I can do it, you can do it with the more the more manageable websites described above.
Add an announcement bar at the top of your website. Implement this strategy on your website.
On the top bar, say something like “Join my 2021 X Challenge.” When visitors click on the bar, the bar pulls down, and they are forwarded to your landing page with a promotional freebie, maybe a five email sequence detailing the challenge rules and homework. On the landing page, the visitor will be prompted to enter a name and email address. You have to set up the email sequence in your email service provider, again, relatively easy.
How you make a dropdown announcement bar depends on what website developer you use. WordPress will be different from GoDaddy.
#3 Use your About Page
Place your landing page link (step three) somewhere embedded in your About Page on your website.
Your website is like your exclusive community for your business. Give visitors the ability to read about you, what you offer, or teach somewhere on your About Page; it builds trust, community, and personal relationships.
Link your landing page at the bottom of your About Page.
#4. Include a Menu link
Include your landing page link as a menu link, a visible tab on your website that links out to your landing page.
The visible tab or menu link can be something that reads “Free Workshop” or “Free Download.” This “Free Workshop” or “Free Download” tab should be on the very front of your homepage (the first page where visitors land on your website) so that anytime someone is on your website, they will see this menu option right away, grabbing their attention.
That way, your chances of turning a website visitor into a subscriber increase.
#5 Blog Posts
Make sure you place your landing page link at the bottom of your blog posts. Be specific when targeting audiences. For instance, if you write a post titled “How to Create a Writing Habit,” link a particular landing page giving away a valuable freebie workbook containing journal prompts.
A reader drawn to a post titled “How to Create a Writing Habit” will more likely give their email address if the freebie offered adds value to their writing habit.
#6 Social Media
Social media sites are great places to share your voice and make sure your social media followers know there’s an opportunity to join your list.
Let’s start with Instagram.
In your Instagram bio, there is a place for one link. Include a link to your landing page, so your followers can join your email list. Many people include their website link here. This is a mistake if you’re trying to build an email list. It’s better to include your landing page for subscribers to join easily. Target your email list to grow it.
Drop a link to your landing page. Offer a free course on your landing page.
Like Instagram, make sure your Twitter bio includes your landing page link right next to your profile. Twitter users often view a person’s profile page before they hit follow. It’s an excellent opportunity to share a landing page link to capture emails and build your list.
Your Facebook group or community — make sure people have a way to join your email list, and not just ‘like’ your business page or group.
Click on the ‘edit sign up’ button, and you’ll be able to link a landing page in this section.
YouTube
Make sure in the description below the video you upload, you include your landing page link. You’re sharing how your audience can join your email list. Another great tip, somewhere toward the end of the video, say something like, “to go with this video I created…go ahead and access the link down below.”
You are gifting them with something, make sure you say it’s a free gift.
#7 Pinterest
Pinterest isn’t just a social media platform; it’s an actual search engine tool that makes it much more valuable. You can use a pin to enhance your own business.
Create a Pinterest account
Build a pin using a free tool like Canva. A pin is simply a digital thumbnail or flyer to promote something you’re selling or giving away. Promote what you’ve been creating using these digital thumbnails or flyers. Canva is fantastic if you love to create. And very simple to use.
If you have a course to sell, create a pin, give it a title and a description (in Pinterest), and then where it asks you to enter your website, add your landing page link instead. This is an effortless way to reach a whole new audience.
#8. Webinars
Webinars are perhaps the best way to grow your audience — they have a very authentic feel. As a creator, there is no better way to share your personality and demonstrate your teaching approach. Creating webinars are best list growth strategy you can get, but you have to be comfortable being on video.
When you are, you can personalize building trust because your audience can see and hear you.
Webinars are a great way to share your personality and voice. You can add your webinar as a free class on your website’s front page so that it stands out. When a visitor clicks on the free class link, they’re automatically redirected to a landing page with a sign up link to the webinar you’re promoting.
Keep in mind webinars take more work and time than most list building strategy techniques. Because you have to plan and prepare along with creating a slide show and talking points. But when you do, it is a great list builder.
If you only have five people join, celebrate that. You’ll get practice leading a webinar with little downside. That’s valuable.
#9 Guest post on someone else’s blog or publication
Guest post on a blog in your niche. You’re allowing another person’s audience to get to know you. Include a link to your landing page at the end of your blog post.
Start asking like-minded creators, you might get a yes. Do research, ask if they want to partner or collaborate by making it a win/win situation, so they receive value from you as well.
#10 Podcast interview
Be a guest on a podcast. While on a podcast let the audience know you have something valuable to share, like a free download to get to know you as a creator and teacher.
Ask if you can include your social media links and landing page in show notes for the podcast audience to get your workbook or free download that you’ve created.
How do you go about asking a podcaster if you can be a guest on their show
First off, do your research and then ask! Find the best podcasts in your niche. Make sure you listen to the podcast you will be pitching to first. Pitch to the podcast host explaining how you can help their audience. You might just get on and have a whole new group of people to turn into subscribers.
These are just ten. There are many more I’ll be sharing in the future.
Build on.
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Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats
