83 | How to build your email list from scratch
How To Build Your Email List From Scratch
This post may contain affiliate links. This means we may receive a commission if you make a purchase via these links.
Over the past 30 days, my client has grown her email list from 0 to 500 subscribers. In this episode, I’m walking you through the step-by-step process we took to start and grow her email list from scratch. Plus, how she made over $2,000 in passive income solely through her email list.
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
🔗 FREE: 18 Ways to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration
🔗 Book a week of Voxer Support
🔗 MailerLite - free for your first 1,000 subscribers (aff link)
🔗 Get 50% off your first year of Flodesk (aff link)
🔗 ConvertKit (aff link)
🔗 Episode 71: How to create a profitable lead magnet
🔗 Episode 72: How to get more sign ups for your lead magnet
want to listen instead?
A few weeks ago, I began working with a client who wanted my help to start her email list. She knew the importance of email marketing, she knew she was missing a huge part of her marketing strategy, and she hired me for a week of Voxer Support to help her set up her email list and map out her ongoing email strategy.
Fast forward to today, it’s been about 30 days since we mapped out her strategy, and she already has her first 500 subscribers! Plus, she’s made over $2,000 in passive income solely through her email list. Let’s talk about how she did it!
1. Define your purpose
Before you do anything within your business, you should be taking some time to figure out WHY you’re doing it, WHAT your goals are and the result you want to achieve so that you can identify the strategy you need to take, and also ensure that you’re working towards a tangible goal.
When I discussed this with my client, we discovered that her top 3 reasons for starting an email list was to…
1. Diversify her marketing strategy and protect her business with a sustainable content platform that couldn’t be taken away from her (unlike with Instagram)
2. Reach her potential clients in a more intimate capacity and increase the amount of people engaging with her content
3. Grow her business by selling her coaching programme and online courses
So if you don’t yet have an email list, ask yourself: “Why do I need an email list? What are the benefits of building my email list? And how will having an email list benefit my business?”
2. Choose your email marketing platform
Your email marketing platform is where you’ll house your email subscribers and how you’ll send out your emails.
MailerLite - Free for your first 1,000 subscribers*
My client wanted a low-cost option as she was just getting started with email marketing and just wanted a simple platform that wouldn’t require too much of a learning curve, but would still do everything she needed. We settled on MailerLite (affiliate link), and we came to this decision for a few different reasons:
It’s free for your first 1,000 subscribers
The platform is extremely intuitive and easy to use (especially with their drag-and-drop builder)
It allows you to create unlimited automations, even on their free plan
If you are starting your email list and you’re wondering which platform is right for you, all-in-all, MailerLite is a great option for new business owners who want to start their email list for free, or want to keep their costs down once they pass 1,000 subscribers. It’s really simple and easy to use and they have a ton of tutorials to help you easily set up your list and create your first automations.
Flodesk - Get 50% off your first year*
If you have the budget to start paying straight away, Flodesk (affiliate link) is another great option! They make it easy to create such beautifully branded emails and the platform is extremely simple and easy to use. They also recently introduced checkout and sales pages for a great all-in-one solution.
The biggest benefit to Flodesk is that they have a fixed pricing system, which means that the price stays the same whether you have 100 or 10,000 subscribers. This makes it an extremely affordable option. If you want to try out Flodesk for yourself, click here to get 50% off Flodesk for your first year!*
ConvertKit - For advanced email marketing*
If you want to start off with a robust platform that is going to give you all the bells and whistles and allow you to create advanced automations, tagging, segmentation etc. then you’ll definitely want to look into ConvertKit (affiliate link). It is a pricier option, and it’s a bit of a learning curve, but it is a lot more robust.
Ultimately, it all comes down to what works for you, and no platform will ever be 100% perfect, so I recommend experimenting with a few different platforms to find what works for you best.
3. Create an enticing lead magnet
A “lead magnet” is a free resource that you’re giving to someone in exchange for their email address. People are picky about who they give their email address to these days, which is why you need to create a free resource that your ideal client can’t say “no” to. The key is that this incentive needs to be valuable, and it should be something that prepares your audience for your paid offer or service.
Here are some questions to ask to determine what your lead magnet should be:
What common struggles do you notice between your clients when they first start working with you?
What’s a common objection that your ideal clients have before they start working with you?
What’s one thing that you wish all your clients had in place BEFORE they hire you?
My client is a Money Coach, and after answering those questions, we decided that the perfect lead magnet for her was a 5 day challenge that would teach her ideal clients how to identify their budget, manage their money, create a realistic plan to pay off their debt and put money aside to save. Ultimately, the challenge was designed to help them get a better idea of their current financial situation and create a realistic plan for the future, which then encouraged them to book a money strategy call and get an in-depth plan personalised to their specific situation.
If you don’t currently have a lead magnet, and you want to make sure that you’re creating one that is going to do more than just build your list (but bring in sales as well), make sure to listen to episode 71 where I break down in-depth the steps you need to take to create a profitable lead magnet. And in episode 72, I’m sharing how to promote your lead magnet and where to put it to drive traffic to your list, so make sure to listen to that episode after as well!
4. Create your opt-in and thank you page
Your opt-in page
The purpose of the opt-in page is to present your lead magnet in a way that appeals to your audience and allow them to enter their name and email address in exchange for the free resource you are offering.
The basic things you need for your opt-in page are:
A catchy heading that tells your ideal client exactly what they’ll get from your lead magnet
An enticing description detailing what’s inside and the outcome they’ll achieve
A mockup of your lead magnet
A sign-up form where they can enter their name and email address
Your thank you or tripwire page
With your thank you page, you have two options: You can create a simple thank you page that let’s them know that the thing they signed up for is on its way to their inbox, or you can redirect them to a tripwire page that upsells them into a digital product
As my client already had a few different digital products on her website, we decided that the smartest decision was to create a tripwire offer so that she could take her new subscribers and immediately convert them into customers, not only earning her some passive income as she grows her list, but also installing trust and loyalty from her customers from the get-go.
For her tripwire offer, she reduced her Money Dashboard down from $47 to $27 and presented this as a one-time offer that they could only get on this page and it would only be available for 20 minutes. So everyone who signed up to her list was redirected to this page.
In the 30 days since we started growing her list, she has gained 500 subscribers, and of those 500 subscribers, she’s made 82 tripwire, which is a conversion rate of 16% and has earned her an extra $2,000 this past month from her tripwire alone.
If you have digital products already, I highly recommend setting up a tripwire! And if you want more details on how to do that, then make sure to listen to episode 58.
5. Create an automated welcome sequence
This sequence will trigger when someone signs up for your lead magnet, and it should immediately deliver the resource to them. Now, a lot of people will set up an automation to deliver this resource, and then just enter them into their regular weekly emails. However, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to leverage your new leads while they’re at their hottest if you don’t have a nurture welcome sequence in place.
My client and I set up a 7-part welcome sequence that her new subscribers would get over the course of 2 weeks. In the first email, she delivered the free resource, then in the second email she introduced herself properly and shared her story. After that, she sent out a second chance pitch to anyone who didn’t purchase her tripwire and gave them the opportunity to get it once more. Then, she shared some value in emails 4 and 5 and in emails 6 and 7, she pitched her strategy sessions as a way to work with her. Then, they were entered into her regular weekly emails.
If you want a welcome sequence template where all you have to do is fill in the blanks, I have actually created a template that you can use called the Freebie to Customer Email Welcome Sequence.
6. Send weekly email newsletters
Whether you have 50, 500 or 5,000 subscribers, you need to be emailing them consistently, a minimum of once a week.
If you’re not sending regular emails, those subscribers that you worked so hard to get, are just going to forget about you. And you do finally send an email after ghosting them for however many weeks, they’re going to be like “umm, who’s this? I don’t remember signing up for their emails” and they are going to unsubscribe.
Sending emails on a weekly basis keeps you top of mind and allows you to become a part of your audience’s weekly routine.
PIN FOR LATER
Save this post to Pinterest so you can read it again later!
hey, I'm Tish!
I'm a multi-passionate business owner, digital marketing strategist, business mentor & part-time digital nomad ✈️
I'm on a mission to help you create more time, freedom & profit in your business through the implementation of sustainable & scalable business and marketing strategies!
let’s connect
work with me
The Simple Marketing Podcast is for ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build a sustainable & scalable online business. With bite-sized, actionable episodes, you’ll learn how to create more time, freedom & profit in a way that feels good to you.
