Email marketing is still one of the best ways to build a connection with your audience.  If you still haven’t started building an email list, you need to make this your #1 priority this week. In this post, I am giving you 7 key email list building tips to get started.

This post contains affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure page for more info

Let’s first start with the basics:

After someone finds your content via Google, social media, or a friend, they then read your blog post, listen to your podcast, or watch your video. Then, there are two choices that someone can make:

1. Choose to move on to something else
2. Choose to learn more from you and become a lead.

What is a lead? 

A lead is someone who takes an action after reading, watching, listening to, or even just seeing your content.  They are in a sense raising their hand saying- “Hey, I want to learn more about this from you.”   

How does someone consuming your content become a lead? 

Someone officially becomes a lead when they give you a way to stay in contact with them- typically via an email address.

Despite growing technology and social media platforms, email is still the best way to keep in touch with your audience.  

How do you get someone’s email address?  

The days of creating a small form on the side of your website that says “Sign up for my newsletter” are over. 

People’s inboxes are flooded with info these days and ain’t nobody got time for another newsletter!

You need to provide your ideal person something of value that is worth them handing over their email address.

Once they are on your list, you need to nurture the relationship to help them build a know, like and trust factor with you.  

People do business with people they know.

An email list helps you convert random blog visitors into conscious subscribers, build a connection with your audience on a more intimate level, and helps you sell your products/services with confidence down the line.

Now let’s get into the specifics of how to build an email list for beginners. 

Email List Building Step 1: Start with the end in mind

This involves asking yourself,  What is your ideal person’s biggest pain points?  What problem do they need help solving? 

This is something I always tell my students and private coaching clients to get very clear on. 

Before you create any content or opt-ins, you want to make sure that you have done actual market research. This is to ensure that you are clear on what your actual audience needs and wants. 

I know market research is not exciting, but it is 100% necessary to avoid wasting a ton of time and money creating content and products that no one wants.  

Once you are clear on your ideal person’s pain points and desires then you can begin to reverse engineer the whole process.  

Start by asking, What digital product/service would best serve my audience and solve their main problem?

Then ask yourself- What type of content do I need to create to educate them and get them ready to purchase my product that would help them?

Then take it back even further and ask, What type of freebie would give them a quick win and get them on my email list so that I can help them along the way?

Then, ultimately solve their problem and have a big impact on their life with your course, coaching, digital product, whatever it may be.

Everything needs to be closely connected.  

Email List Building Step 2: Create a freebie

Create an incentive that will make it a no-brainer for them to opt-in.

There are a ton of different ways to get someone on your email list. 

You can offer a simple freebie like a cheat sheet or checklist or you can host a free event like a webinar. You can offer a content upgrade within a blog post. 

Watch my video on freebie ideas to grow your email list if you want a whole bunch of opt-in ideas and tips for creating them.

Click here to get your opt-in freebie cheat sheet

Once you know the freebie you are going to offer, then you are ready for step 3.

Email List Building Step 3: Choose an email provider

An email service provider is a company that provides an email marketing platform whereby you can create and send bulk emails to a list of subscribers.  

Your regular email provider like Gmail or Yahoo are not bulk email providers, so you cannot use them to send bulk emails without them getting flagged as spam or reported.  

The good news is that there are numerous email service providers to choose from for your email marketing needs.  Each has its own unique options and pricing.  

I’ve tried out a bunch of email service providers during my seven years of blogging. I can say with full confidence that ConvertKit is where you want to build your email list.

Email List Building Step 4: Create an incentive form via your email provider. 

Each email provider will have different options.  ConvertKit provides different styles to choose from that you can customize.  

You can also collect email address via a landing page that you direct people to from your site.  A landing page has one purpose and one purpose only- to get your audience to sign up for your list. 

There are no other links to distract them.  They either take action and sign up or click off the page. 

You can also use a landing page to collect email addresses as you build your blogging site and this is super simple to set up with ConvertKit. 

If you want access to tested, high converting landing pages and pops ups I highly recommend Leadpages in conjunction with your email provider.

Email List Building Step 5: Create a thank you landing page 

Your subscribers will be directed to a thank you page once they have signed up.  You can create this within your email provider or Leadpages.

This is an important step because it gives your subscriber/lead a confirmation that they are signed up.

It also provides them with instructions on what steps to take next. 

Plus it’s a great place for a tripwire offer which is a more advanced strategy that I teach.  It’s something that I use to grow my list and income at the same time. It is also something you will want to keep in mind too as you grow.  

After your form is in place and connected, The next thing you will want to do is… 

Email List Building Step 6:  Write and set up an automated welcome series. 

A lead is most interested in hearing from you right after they sign up for your freebie. If you get them on your list and just let them sit there for weeks without emailing them, it’s very likely that:

1. They are going to lose interest and move on or

2. Completely forget who you are and unsubscribe when they finally hear from you.  

Have you ever gotten an email from someone week’s after you signed up for their list and then have no idea who they are or how they got your email address?  Yeah me too! 

You need to nurture your list from the start.  It can start with a welcome email that delivers their freebie and then schedule an email once a day or every other day for the next 5-7 days providing your new subscriber with relevant content, tips, and info about yours and your clients/students success (if applicable) to build up credibility and trust. 

You can set this up to go out automatically within ConvertKit, which is essential once you start growing your list.  Once you set it up, you can start growing and nurturing your leads on autopilot! Check out my Convertkit workshop for step-by-step help on setting up your automations.

Email List Building Step 7: Optimize your website for leads

Lastly, once you have all the email pieces in place, you want to make sure to optimize your website to make it super easy for people to get on your list.  One opt-in form on one blog post, won’t cut it.  People need to see something multiple times before they take action.  You want to make sure that you are providing several opportunities for your audience to join your email list.  

Put your opt-in within your content a few times, on your sidebar, as a pop-up in Leadpages, above the fold on your home page, etc.

Putting it all together

If you follow these strategies, you will start to build a list of interested leads that will be ready to give you feedback and buy from you in the future. 

Once someone joins your list, be sure to talk to them like a friend in the emails and be consistent with staying in contact.  I recommend emailing your list once per week with helpful content to help them move forward in their journey.  

If you follow these strategies and your freebie and content are directly related to your offer then you will have a warmed up audience of qualified leads who will be ready to give you feedback and be interested in buying from you.

If you want to learn more about setting up your email forms and automations with ConvertKit so that you can start bringing leads into your business that will lead to more impact and income, then check out my ConvertKit Email Workshop.

You may also like:

How to Build an Email List for Free and Why you Absolutely Need One!

20 Freebie Email Opt Ins to Explode your Email List