You’ve just started your blog and you’re ready to learn how to start an email list. That’s great! Or else you’ve been blogging for a while and want to know how to start an email list the right way. Targeting the right people with the right incentive and using it to make money online.
An email list is an excellent way to reach your people, develop a relationship and then cultivate said relationship. Your email subscribers have already taken that extra step by signing up to your email list. They want to hear from you! So don’t be afraid of getting started.
How To Start An Email List & Get Your First 1000 Subscribers
What to send your email list as a beginner:
The key with your email list is to develop a relationship built on trust. Share weekly updates, share personal experiences, and offer free things as a thank you for being on the list. There are SO many things you can send out to your email list!
The great thing about your email list is that it is yours and you own the content. With most social media content, you can’t control it as much as you can with email. Again, your subscribers are invested in what you are doing, unlike random social media scrollers!
Spend time on developing a plan for your newsletter content and if you have to choose between social media growth and list building growth, I would go for list building growth first!
Right now, we are going to get started developing that plan. As soon as you get some subscribers, ensure that you have a content calendar of newsletters to send out regularly.
1. How To Start An Email List | Sign Up To An Email Service
For your first 1000 subscribers, I highly recommend using MailerLite or if you want to hit the ground running, Constant Contact offers a free trial with advanced features as soon as you sign up.
As a new blogger, it can be a bit of a shock when you realise that you do have to pay for professional services if you want to grow. With most email services, including Mailerlite. You can set up multiple forms, landing pages, automation, and A/B testing to tweak your emails in accordance with analytics.
If you’ve got your sights set higher and you want to invest in a more efficient tool, I highly recommend using Constant Contact. It’s the service that is recommended by most bloggers and entrepreneurial experts. I’ve been Convertkit for 3 years now and I’ve changed my hosting company twice in that time. I’m not afraid to switch services if I’m not getting value for money, but I’ve stuck with Convertkit!
2. Pick Your Most Popular Posts From Analytics & Create Relevant Freebies!
Offering a free download is a great way to offer valuable content in exchange for an email address. Of course, if you have visitors in the European Union or Switzerland, you must adhere to GDPR laws.
Give your readers something extra valuable that you don’t share anywhere else. It’s an excellent way to share your expertise on a topic, build trust and educate your readers.
What Kind Of Freebie Could You Create?
In terms of freebies, there are countless ideas but the most common ideas are
- Planners
- Guides
- Workshop
- Webinars
- Ebooks
- Workbooks
- Planners
- Templates (trello, spreadsheets, images, graphics)
Depending on your category and blog niche, I recommend checking your most popular content on your blog. To begin with, pick the top three posts and create a free download for each of those posts. It MUST be relevant to the content. These are also known as opt-ins or content upgrades.
How to create a freebie?
My favourite resources for creating free downloads:
- Google Docs
- Canva
- Designrr.io
- Pdfjoin
- Unsplash (free stock images)
- Pexels (free stock images)
- CreativeMarket (ebook templates, workbook templates, etc to help you create your freebie)
- DesignBundles (clip art)
- FontBundles (fonts)
- Hungry jpeg (fonts and clip art)
Creating a guide or ebook in Canva can look beautiful but boy oh boy, it is time-consuming. My favourite method is to create the document in Google Docs and then create the cover in Canva. Then I can select the two pdf documents, right click > quick actions > create pdf. Et voila.
Powered by Creative Market
3. Upload To Your Service Provider & Customise Settings
As mentioned above, you can offer content upgrades inside your most popular posts to start off with. Always use Google Analytics to discover your top performing posts over the last 3 months and start at the top. Make one content upgrade a week and your list will be full in NO TIME!
EXAMPLES OF CONTENT UPGRADES OR OPT-INS
- Cheat Sheet
- Worksheet
- Printable – Planner, Poster, Gift Tags…..
- Swipe file
- Trello Board (that you’ve created) or
- Air table Base (that you’ve created and want to share)
- Spreadsheet
- Video Training
- A resource list
- Audio recording/Podcast
When you’ve finished with your opt-in creation process, head over to Mailerlite, or Convertkit and create some forms. The forms are what users will add their details to in exchange for the freebie. You should also create separate landing pages and social media images for higher conversions.
Landing pages are simply pages with one major goal. For example, download this workbook. Buy this ebook. Get your free meal planning checklist. Sign up for webinar etc.
For landing pages, I would suggest using an all in one tool like Thrive Architect. Thrive have some incredible plugins to optimize your website, but their landing page templates and A/B testing abilities are so worth it!
4. Remember That Content Is King
To grow your email list, you need to produce content consistently. The more eyes that are on your content, means more opportunity for you to get your first 1000 email subscribers.
In this post, we’re only targeting 1000 subscribers, so you don’t have to add content upgrades to every post; just the most popular content.
Your goal for every visitor should be to get their email address or get them to buy from you. If you’re just starting out, you’re in a great position to grow your email list with a very targeted niche. The more you grow your email list, the more chances you have of selling to your list.
5. Getting Traffic To Your Blog
So, you’ve done steps 1-4! What’s next in order to get your first 1000 email subscribers?
Getting traffic!
I can help you when it comes to Pinterest, for the other platforms I did a little research on your behalf!
Here is a resource list of some incredible posts that will help you start an email list and GROW it with different social platforms:
- How To Build Your Email List Using Facebook
- Grow Your Email List Using LinkedIn
- How To Grow Your Email List With Instagram
- Grow Your Email List With Youtube
- How To Grow Your Email List With Twitter
Pinterest has been a game changer for blog traffic. It is a top referrer of traffic for both of my sites, but my SEO game has been improving! I’m thrilled to have a huge account with over 1.1 Million followers and 7 million monthly views. I’ve been a huge fan of Pinterest for a long time.
For more exposure for your content, join some Pinterest group boards to increase your Pinterest views, and get more clicks.
Below are some posts from my other site Clarity Avenue, which will help you get more Pinterest traffic.
- How I Grew My Pinterest Account By 26.5 MILLION % In 100 Days
- How To Get 4k Pinterest Followers In One Month, Just Like I Did
- The Secret To Making Impressive Pins In Under 15 Minutes
Most importantly, organic traffic is one of the best traffic sources. It’s coming directly from Google. The searchers are actually looking for a solution that means they convert well. If you need help with SEO, I’m currently taking this course and enjoying it immensely. I’m actually learning things! Who woulda thunk it?!
ARE YOU READY TO GROW YOUR EMAIL LIST TO 1000 SUBSCRIBERS?
Did I make you feel overwhelmed? You can always bookmark this post so that next time when you get stuck somewhere you can simply refer to this post. Or, save the Pinterest pin to your favourite board so you can access the post anytime.
<<GET STARTED WITH CONSTANT CONTACT FOR FREE>>
