I must admit it, learning and mastering how to grow email list for your online business is a Herculean task to execute especially for beginners, webmasters, and bloggers who are just starting out; but it’s doable. So, this blog article will focus on simple ways to grow email list without breaking the bank or breaking a sweat.
You already know that “money is in the list” which has
become a common saying. But the hardest part is that it requires a lot of hard
work upfront to make it successful. An internet business without list building
system in place is really hanging in the balance. Its life and earning capacity
will always depend on third party algorithms which is not so good for any
business that wants to scale up and grow on the World Wide Web.
Having an online business backed up with a list of email
subscribers that are very targeted is like having an ATM card in your wallet.
As long as you have good product or service to promote to your list members and
they always trust you for your recommendations, the world is your oyster in
making money online.
Starting an online business and integrating email marketing
system have the highest potential of increasing ROI (return on investment) and
improving the bottom line of your business positively. From my research, I’m
yet to find a sustainable web business without consistently and actively building
an email list of subscribers. You need dependable and specific audience you can
always reach out to when you publish high quality content on your web property
or have products and services to promote and recommend.
Also, statistics show
that a highly targeted email list is worth $1 per subscriber per month to the
online business owner. In other words, if you have about 1,000 subscribers in
your list and you’re able to nurture them with stellar content consistently,
you can make $1,000 a month online through various monetization models which
you may decide to make use of.
Beyond making money on the internet, growing email list of
subscribers will continue to create brand awareness for your business as well
as build relationships and credibility over time. In the long run, this will
help you to work less and earn more.
So, I’m going to give you five solid ways to grow email list
fast on the internet without breaking a sweat. But you’ve to make sure you consistently
take action to get measurable results which you can be proud of.
Method
#1: Double Down on Content Marketing
Because of the work involved in constantly planning,
creating, publishing and marketing content on the web, a lot of webmasters,
bloggers and content marketers are always in a fix on how to sustain the tempo
of reaching out to readers with constant content. But you should not forget the
fact that content is king on the internet; be it white paper, ebook, podcast,
webinar, email message, video, audio, and so on.
To compound the case of this onerous task, content marketing
is not a case of instant gratification. You’ll not immediately see traffic,
leads and sales to your website or blog within few months of starting it like
paid advertising is. You’ve to wait until 6-12 months of constant grinding to
be able to know what exactly you’re doing.
To this in end, you’ve to double down on your content
marketing efforts by constantly writing content and distributing same to your
target audience at places where they usually hang out and congregate even if
you’re not seeing the result of your marketing efforts yet. Before you know it,
you’ll start to notice a tipping point in your content marketing campaigns
through increased targeted traffic to your website, growing sign ups and sales
on your website.
But approaching content creation and distribution on the web
without targeting specific keyword phrases in your industry or niche will
amount to wasted efforts. Information seekers type words or phrases that best
describe what they are looking for to find content online using search engines or
search boxes from their favorite websites.
If you focus on these keywords, whether they are
informational, navigational or transactional, you’ve a high chance of
attracting the right prospects, leads and customers to your website. You really
must be intentional in your content marketing campaigns to gain traction.
To make it effective, you should always target one keyword
phrase per blog post or article. For example, I discovered that people are
searching for information on “ways to grow email list.” Because I’ve been
there, I simply targeted this keyword phrase and created this blog post which serves
as the answer to your search query.
However, when creating content, you should take the buyer’s
journey into consideration so that you can directly tailor your content to
their specific needs or pain points in each phase of the journey i.e. BOFU
(bottom of the funnel), MOFU (middle of the funnel), or TOFU (top of the
funnel).
There are several online channels where you can publish your
content and gain traction and attention including Facebook page, LinkedIn, PDF
distribution sites, video streaming sites, questions and answers (Q&A)
sites, niche forums related to your topic, and so on.
Method
#2: Landing Page with Compelling Lead Magnet
Take it or leave it, majority of online shoppers and
information seekers love freebies and freemium products usually as a taste of
the pudding i.e. to have a foretaste of your main offerings. If you’re
confident in your space, you can create a lead magnet and use it as an
incentive to grow email list fast making use of dedicated landing page with
opt-in form embedded on your blog website. With a good and reliable email marketing software, you’ll be able to set up everything seamlessly.
This is the most potent way to build an email list of
subscribers from scratch whom you can continue to nurture with content down the
road. But you’ve to invest in domain name registration and reliable web hosting
to create a blog and set up an opt-in form.
Your free lead magnet should be able to answer specific or lots
of questions which your ideal readers are asking and searching solution for.
You’ve to create it as a solution to their pain points. For example, a beginning
affiliate marketer who wants to start an online business may be looking for cheap web hosting and domain name registration website
that is popular and reliable. If you know a good domain names registrar whom you
have used, this will be the best opportunity to recommend them in your free
ebook, checklist, cheat sheet, video, and so forth.
You should not create a lead magnet haphazardly simply
because it is going to be a free giveaway. First impression lasts. You want to
put your best foot forward to wow your target audience that you are a thought
leader and expert in your niche. Beyond this, you also want your readers to
pass this lead magnet around to their colleagues, family and friends. Yes,
you’ve to make your lead magnet worth sharing and linking to on your blog.
A good strategy is to create a valuable lead magnet and
monetize it in a way that will continually generate targeted traffic, leads, sales
and revenue for your business. Because you’ll be asking strangers to give you
their email addresses in exchange for your freebie, the best practice is to put
together an irresistible offer or incentive which they cannot afford to pass up.
If you run a self-hosted WordPress blog, you can easily integrate
an opt-in form on the sidebar to make it visible for leads to sign up, or on a dedicated
landing page, or simply embed signup form in a blog post content or even in
third-party websites such as on your Facebook page.
Method
#3: Guest Blogging
Guest blogging or guest posting is a strategy where you
research related, popular and authority blogs in your industry or niche and
send a proposal to write a blog post on a topic for them in exchange for an
author bio which will probably include a link back to your website.
Getting accepted to write for well-known blogs is like
looking for a needle in a haystack. But if you can research and find a unique
pattern in content publications of a blog, discover gaps you can fill and send the
blog post ideas that will benefit their readers or audience, you’ll get an approval
to write for them.
Guest posting is a veritable way to tap into other people’s
network and audience and use it to build credibility, trust and exposure for
yourself, brand and business. You can use a simple Google search to locate
blogs to write for using search operators below:
Keyword + “write for us’
Keyword + “guest post”
Keyword + “submit blog post”
Keyword + “suggest a post”
You’ve to replace the keyword above with your niche keyword
(i.e. self-help, personal finance, productivity, etc). But for you to get accepted
for guest posting proposals, you’ve to first gain traction for your blog or
website. It will give you and your business a lot of credence before asking for
favor or opportunity from popular bloggers. You want to portray a mutually beneficial
relationship and not a lopsided one.
As you may already know, popular bloggers are influencers in
their spaces. They receive avalanche of guest blogging requests on a daily
basis. So, you’ve to stand out from the crowd to get their attention by
proposing unique and relevant blog post ideas that cannot be ignored by any blog
owner who is worth his salt.
Method #4:
Joint Venture (JV) and Affiliate Programs
Joint ventures and affiliate programs are one of the best
ways to grow email list in any niche market. The leads and subscribers from JV
and affiliate programs are prequalified customers or clients and highly
targeted.
The first thing to do, however, is to create a digital
product or service which meets desperate needs in the marketplace. This will
attract high number of affiliate marketers and publishers to sign up for your
program. You can find reputable affiliate networks online using Google. Some of
these affiliate network programs are:
- JVZoo.com
- Clickbank.com
- CJ.com
- Impact.com
- Etc
You should use low-ticket offers to get as many sign ups as
you can.
Method
#5: Social Media Platforms
One of the best ways to grow email list for your side hustle
business is to become very active in relevant social media platforms like
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), etc, and
constantly use it to engage with your target audience before sending them to
your website or blog.
On your blog website, you should have created a compelling
free offer to give away and set up landing page with an opt-in form in place.
You’ve to make sure that your sign-up form is above the fold, it has
conspicuous CTA (call to action) and the benefits of the offer are tersely
stated in bullet points.
You should always bear in mind that having a catchy headline
reinforced by a sub headline loaded with an outstanding benefit is the first
attraction of a converting landing page.
If you’re a very busy online entrepreneur, making use of freelancers and virtual assistants can relieve
you of a lot of stress associated with constant digital marketing campaigns. But
don’t forget to optimize your social media profiles, bio, website URL, etc, in
order to get found easily for relevant keywords related to your brand, product
or service.
