Twelve ideas for growing your email subscriber list.

Growing your email subscriber ‘list‘ should be a daily activity for you. A growing list is a healthy list, provided it’s the right type of subscribers, of course.

Email marketing, like most marketing channels, is a numbers game, and therefore it’s crucial that you maximise how many relevant subscribers you have that you can market to.

One of the most effective ways in which to grow your list is to offer something of value (called a “lead magnet“) in exchange for your subscribers’ email addresses. So, you need to make sure you have at least one great lead magnet.

So, figure out a problem that you’ll solve for your ideal client and then create that solution using one of the following formats;

Here are 12 format ideas that you can use to collect new subscribers (i.e. leads) every day;

Downloadable PDF: create a helpful document and store on a cloud-based system like Dropbox, and share the link.
Mini course: create your course on a free Learning Management System (LMS).
Video series: create a series of videos and make them ‘unlisted’ on YouTube.
Quiz: choose from the range of free quiz-creating platforms and share your link.
Checklists: create a useful checklist and share the link (just as with the PDF option).
1-2-1 session: share a link to a calendar booking tool and offer some of your time.
Email course: create a series of emails with helpful content and schedule them using an email marketing platform.
Free chapter of your book: share this chapter in the same way as numbers 1 & 5 above.
A free trial to your membership: if you have one, give a free 7-day (or month) trial.
A webinar: use Zoom (or any platform you wish) to present a solution to a common problem.
A template: if applicable, create a useful template that your ideal clients would appreciate.
Free ‘live’ training: much like number 10 (above), you can schedule a free training session.

Whatever you decide to do, please don’t fall into the trap that many do; they create a ‘lead magnet’ that only serves to underwhelm their ‘leads’ because it’s just not that valuable.

We’ve all seen them… “Download the 7 Secrets to Getting Your First Million!” – but guess what, you download it only to discover that the amazing 7 secrets are a 1-pager with some bullet points that anyone could have come up with.

So, don’t hold back on your solution – give your leads something that will really fix a problem for them, and they’ll be much more likely to engage with you afterwards.

Your website visitors need direction and they love ‘packaged’ services.

Imagine the scenario…. you’re a personal trainer who wants to attract new clients to your services whenever they arrive on your website. They land there but after a few seconds they start to lose focus before clicking away.

Why did they click away?

Well, there could be many reasons but one of the main ones is usually due to a lack of clarity around what you (i.e. your business) provides – they just don’t get it, or get confused/disheartened by your weak messaging.

They’ll see things like…

“Lose excess body fat.”
“Free trial session.”
“I have 12 years experience in the fitness industry.”
“Discounts for couples.”
“Sign up for my newsletter.”

None of which are going to keep website visitors interested for very long.

Contrast these messages with what you could present;

“The 12-Week Body Fat Reduction Plan for New Mums in their 30’s. – £XXX”
“The Over-50s Beginners Guide to Training for Your First 5k. – £XXX”
“Free Video: How to Increase Your Body’s Flexibility Without All the Pain.”
“Free Class: Get Started today with my 60-Min Online Introduction to Pilates.”

Can you feel the difference when you read those, when compared to the first list?

You know who they’re intended for, you understand the expected outcome, and you know the required investment.

When you give some context around your services, explain a bit more about what’s involved, then the reader is more likely to engage.

💡Tip: Optimising your website is a huge topic and doesn’t only require what I’ve covered here, but as a quick tip, here are 4 questions that your website home page should answer (for every visitor) within a few seconds of arriving there;

1. What do you do? (e.g. “Helping new mums in their 30s to get their fitness back.”)

2. Who do you do it for? (e.g. new mums in their 30s)

3. How will it benefit me? (e.g. you’ll look and feel much better when you get your fitness back)

4. What do you want me to do next? (e.g. click a button, watch a video, complete a form etc.)

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A man made of steel, and twice as rich as Elon Musk. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We all regularly see the rich list being flashed up every now and then, and usually it’s people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffet who sit atop – but a couple of hundred years ago there was someone who would have made even those guys look a bit poorer!

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist who lived from 1835 to 1919. He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and moved to the United States with his family when he was a child.

Carnegie became one of the wealthiest people in history, amassing a fortune of over $350 billion in today’s dollars.

He started his career in the steel industry, working as a telegraph operator and personal assistant to Thomas A. Scott, a prominent railroad executive. He quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became a partner in the Keystone Bridge Company, which manufactured steel bridges (there was a demand for steel bridges as the wooden ones were too easily destroyed by fire in the American Civil War which was going on at the time).

Twelve ideas for growing your email subscriber list. 5

Carnegie Hall, New York.

Carnegie was also a philanthropist, using his wealth to support various causes, including education, peace, and scientific research. He gave away most of his fortune, including funding the construction of over 2,500 public libraries around the world, and of course, the famous Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, New York.

He’s been quoted to have said: “I spent the first half of my life making money and the second half of my life giving it away to do the most good and the least harm.”

Perhaps I’m a little bit biased, being a fellow-Scotsman, but what Andrew Carnegie achieved is truly incredible, especially when you consider his beginnings; he moved to Pittsburgh with his parents, aged just 12 (using borrowed money from a family member), and starting working a year later as a ‘bobbin boy’ in a cotton mill, earning the equivalent now of $38/week.

So, he went from being literally penniless to the richest person who ever lived! Not bad for a lad from Dunfermline!

Cheers,
John

If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, then let’s fix that now!

If you’re new around here, let me give you a brief intro to who I am and what I do;

👋 Hi, I’m John, a freelancer with 30+ years of experience in software development, business start-up and growth strategies, and digital marketing, specialising in email marketing.

I help service-based freelancers grow their businesses by showing them how to effectively implement an email marketing system that’ll bring them leads, prospects, and new clients, complemented with proven success strategies for solopreneur-type businesses.