Why a List?
One of the first, and most important things you should do when you first start a new endeavor is to create a list of your followers, clients, or customers. You want to know who is engaging with you or your content. Through their interactions, they are showing you that they’re interested in what you have to say, or in the products or solutions that you are offering. You definitely want to know who they are so you can keep them coming back, and so they spread the word about you or your site.
Tips to Grow Your List
There are lots of ways to grow your list and in this article, I’ll share ten of the most effective methods. Some of these are easy to implement quickly, while others take some time and effort.
1. Just Ask
The easiest way to get people to join your list is to simply ask them. It might seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many solopreneurs or businesses make it difficult for you to sign up to get more information from them.
Where should you place your request? Everywhere, really. Ask them on your web site, in your social media profiles, in your YouTube captions, and so on. For external sites like Instagram, use links that take them directly to your sign-up landing page. On your website, use forms tools like wpforms or Thrive Leads to collect their information and add them to your list. Use shortcodes to add forms or links in your site’s sidebars, footers, and so on. (Look to the left of this post’s content to see my opt-in form.)
2. Offer Incentives
Everyone likes a free gift, and exchanging your email address for something of value is a fair exchange for most people. An opt-in incentive is known as a lead magnet and it is probably the most effective means of getting your visitors to sign up.
Make sure your free offer is: 1) actually free; 2) tantalizing; and 3) related to your site’s theme, brand, and your area of expertise. It should be useful to them, but it should not be your entire product. You want to give them enough to demonstrate your expertise and value, so that they keep coming back for more.
Lead magnets do take some effort, since you have to create the content, but presumably you’re an expert so it shouldn’t be that hard. Think of something that your target audience will find useful. The simplest lead magnets are how-to guides (for consultants, coaches, and so on), or perhaps some media samples (for musicians, artists).
You can see an example of my lead magnet on my home page, or in the menu (Free Email Guide) at the top of this page.
3. Use Popups
I admit, I really hate this one, but on the other hand, popups are incredibly effective (go figure). I find them annoying when something pops up over a blog post or page that I’m reading since it interrupts. However, it does get your opt-in offer right in your visitor’s line of sight and if they’re the least bit interested in your content, they might find it just as easy to sign up as it is to click the Close button.
If you are morally against interrupting them while they are reading your page, you could present a popup when they click away from the page.
I recommend popups only once per visitor on your site. You can turn a potential contact into someone who swears to never go to your site again if you are overly persistent, popping up on every page or two. Once per visit!
4. Lock Your Content
Providing free content is a great way to draw people to your site. Once you have their attention, you can use premium contact to capture their email address. You don’t have to charge for the content; that’s an option for a different article. In this case, your goal is to get the visitor to sign up for your list so that you can build and nurture your relationship with them going forward.
If you have a lot of content on your site already, you might limit guests to a fixed number of articles or pages, before you require them to sign up with their email address. Signed-in visitors can then see the rest of the free content on your site. Another method is to have some freely-available teaser content and then require an email address to access more advanced, premium content.
5. Run a Giveaway Promotion
A giveaway is similar to a lead magnet except that it typically refers to a specific product that visitors can get if they sign up during the promotion. You can either give the product to everyone who signs up during the promotion, or if it’s something more valuable or limited in availability, you could have a drawing from among everyone who signed up and the winner receives the giveaway prize.
Giveaway promotions work particularly well if you have a physical or digital product that you sell on your site, but even coaches and consultants can use this by giving away an introductory session, for example.
You can tie giveaways to your other objectives as well. For example, you could grant additional entries for social media follows, retweets or Instagram mentions, and so on.
6. Include a Call to Action at End of Every Post
A call-to-action (or CTA) is a marketing element on your web site that prompts your visitor to perform some immediate action. In this case, the action is to sign up for your email list. A CTA typically uses affirmative, command-oriented language on a button, such as “Sign up now!” or “Join our list!”. The idea behind a CTA is give your visitors guidance on what they should do next.
You can use lead magnets and other techniques as part of your CTA’s hook; these techniques are not mutually exclusive.
A CTA that follows the end of an article or blog post will be seen by visitors who read the entire article , all the way to the bottom. Visitors that read the entire article are more likely to be interested in what you are offering, so you want to give them the opportunity to sign up immediately after they finish reading your content.
7. Accept Guest Posts or Articles
Another great way to get in front of more eyeballs, and to get more sign-ups, is to accept guest posts on your site. Guest authors, with their own following, will advertise their own content to their list or on their social media. You can often arrange a trade in which you write an article for their site and they write one for yours. Then you both advertise the content to your respective audience, along with a call-to-action to sign up for your list.
8. Ask the Minimum
Let’s say a visitor does click on your lead magnet or CTA, which means they’re interested in following you. You take them to a sign-up page and then you ask them for too much personal information: name, email, phone number, city, experience level in your niche, and so on.
Don’t do this. Although it might be tempting to collect as much demographic data as you can about your potential follower, you risk alienating them by being so intrusive. They are likely to abandon the form without submitting it.
Graphic from wpforms.com showing the reduction in conversion rate when you ask for additional pieces of information during the sign-up process.
Remember, your objective is to get them on your list so that you can nurture the relationship going forward. They don’t know you at all, they don’t trust you yet, and they’re not likely to hand over personal details at this point in your relationship. You can learn more about them later, through their interactions with you and your content. For now, I recommend asking them for their name (so you can personalize your emails to them) and email address, and nothing more.
9. Make Sure Your Forms are Mobile-Friendly
Few things in marketing are worse than clicking on a sign-up form on your mobile phone and then having the form not work or be so burdensome on the small screen that the visitor gives up and never submits their data. Make sure your site uses a responsive theme, and that you test your pages on all three form factors: desktop, tablet, mobile phone. Most modern themes these days are both responsive and give you the ability to preview your pages and posts on all three formats. For example, I use Thrive Themes for my websites and it has both of these essential features.
10. Make Visitors Feel Safe
This final tip is related to Number 8 above: be very honest and clear about how you will use the information your visitor is providing to you. Include your anti-spam policy, and let them know how often they can expect to hear from you if they sign up. Add a GDPR form field to your sign-up form so you can get your visitors’ consent to use their data. The very act of asking for their consent strengthens the trust they have in you because it shows you care enough to ask.
What Next?
I hope you found these tips helpful and worthwhile. One bonus tip: there’s no substitute for effort. If you want to grow your brand, you need to get your name out there. Let people know about your service or products by participating in your industry’s or field’s forums, discussion boards, and social media such as Twitter. Use the comments sections on related YouTube or TikTok videos, Reddit posts, and so on. Be respectful and not spammy and people will notice. Provide your expertise; when you add value to the community, people will seek you out.
And end up on your email list.