Email marketing is becoming more and more profitable. Everyone is talking about it, and you know it. But how can you start? You have to build an email list. In this article, I will show you how to build an email list fast.
I know it can be challenging, but in this article, I will share different ways that you can model to build your own email list in record time.
Let’s dive in
Why building an email list is so important?
When you are able to make $1 per person on your email list every month, then you’ll know that it is really important.
Let’s do the math. If you have 1000 people on your email list and each of them is worth just $1 to you every month. That is a whopping $1000/month. You can now see why almost every marketer online tells you to build an email list.
Some sources even state that you can make up to $36 for every $1 spent. Isn’t that wonderful? here are some other fascinating facts you’ll love to check out
But here’s the thing:
Monetizing an email list is not just rocket science, you have to first build the email list, nurture your email list, and structure your campaigns in ways that will make people love you.
Before we get to monetization, let’s look into some other reasons why you should be building your email list.
More sales
When you build your own email list using the methods I’m about to share with you, you can start enjoying more sales.
Just send out one email and you will immediately start seeing sales. That’s because you own your own traffic, even if it is small.
More followers
Think about this, you build your email list to 2000 people and on a regular basis. You can send them an email about your new post on social media.
Even if you get just 30 % (and it can be higher) to click through and follow you. You can start getting more followers just from your email list.
More views to your YouTube channel
This is by far my favourite since you have people on your email list. When you create a new YouTube video. You can immediately get a boost from your email list to help your video on YouTube.
But here’s the fun part. If you are monetized on YouTube, you can make money off every view you get from your email list.
That means, besides the sales, you will make from selling your product, you will also make some money from the YouTube partner program.
Personally, I would do this, but for now, I’m working more on making my website (Gideonempire) a better place for my readers with lots of free awesome content.
Build your brand
Building an email list will help you to build your brand. This is very important because it will help your audience remember you always.
Since they are seeing your emails almost every day in their inboxes. They will more likely visit your website for more information next time they need one.
How to start collecting emails
Let me give you the strategy so that you can easily follow up with the steps. In order to start collecting emails, you have to understand that nobody will give you their precious emails unless you give them something valuable.
If you have something valuable to give, then you have solved one part of the equation.
The second part is the technical side of things
You have to sign up for an autoresponder that will hold the emails for you. You should also build a simple landing page to capture emails – although there are other ways like pop up and slide-in. But, this is the simplest – then, get traffic. That’s it.
So let’s dive into each of these steps as I share with you how you can build your email list fast.
Step 1: Prepare your freebie
Like I stated earlier, you have to give other people something valuable. Sometimes people ask how they will know that something is valuable enough.
My answer is for them to first know how much each person on their email list is going to be worth.
If it’s $24/yr. offer something that’s worth that much. Also, if it’s $500/yr. offer something that’s worth that amount to get them into your list. Remember that, you just have to get them into your email list once and they can remain there for years.
So here is a list of things you can use to entice people to join your email list:
EBook
You can easily create your eBook on WordPress and create a beautiful cover on Canva for free.
Software
This requires more money and time to create, but it will be worth every penny invested.
Free course
You can create a free email course, like in my case, or a video course. As long as it is of value.
Free Membership
This is also a really nice way to build your email list, and it requires less work. You just grant people access to your member’s area and get their email address in exchange. You can create a private Facebook group and grant people access to it only when they give your their email address.
Step 2: Get your autoresponder
Once your freebie is ready, the next step is to sign up for your autoresponder. This is the software you will use to build your email list.
It can be any of the following
- Aweber
- Getresponse
- Constantcontact
- Convertkit
- Systeme.io
Just go with anyone that you want, they are all good email marketing platforms. After signing up for your autoresponder, you need to schedule the first emails that will be sent out to your new email subscribers.
These initial emails are called the soap opera sequence. I learnt about that term from dotcom secrets book by Russell Brunson (you should read it)
How to start growing your email list “fast”
Now that you have everything set up correctly. You have scheduled the initial emails that will go out to your new subscribers. It’s now time to send traffic to your landing page and start growing your email list.
There are two ways of doing this. Advanced marketers love to go with the paid route because it brings fast results and they can test out different things on their landing page. But it also comes with a little drawback – it requires cash.
The second route which is more suitable for beginners is to use free organic traffic sources to drive traffic to their landing page.
So let’s talk first about paid ways to drive traffic to your landing page, then we will look more in-depth into the freeways to drive traffic.
Paid ways to get traffic to your landing page to build your email list fast
This requires you – the email marketer – to pay for traffic that comes to your landing page.
There are different ways to drive traffic to your landing page using paid methods. I won’t go into the various methods in this post. But I will just mention them so you know.
- Solo ads
- Native ads
- Facebook ads
- Google ads
- Tiktok ads
You can get this book from Russell Brunson where he shared the same traffic strategies he used to get his company to $100 million/year.
It will show you both paid and free ways to get traffic. I enjoyed reading it and I know you will too.
Also, if you will like to learn about awesome paid traffic strategies and get genuine case studies, then check this digital marketing website.
They also have a wonderful forum that you can join to ask questions in case you need help with your campaigns.
Free ways to get traffic to your landing page and build your email list fast
This doesn’t require any money to drive traffic to your landing page, but you have to be patient because it doesn’t provide fast results.
So make sure you plan to be consistent with your work. My advice is to stick to one traffic source at a time.
Instead of spreading your effort over different channels. Focus on one and maximize your effort on that platform.
Let’s look at some easy ways to drive free organic traffic to your landing page to build your email list fast.
Get free organic traffic from Facebook
Facebook has over 2.89 billion monthly users, isn’t that a huge number?
Why not tap into that traffic goldmine, but how? That is the question. Let’s find out
To tap into this huge traffic goldmine on Facebook. You have to start posting about your freebie on your personal Facebook profile. We are not doing this because of your current Facebook friends. NO!
Important: make sure you set the privacy of your posts to “public” so that people from different groups can see your posts.
Next, join relevant Facebook groups that are related to your niche. But how do you get people from all these various groups to see your posts on your personal profile?
It’s simple – “Just become the light of that group”
I’m a big believer in becoming the light of any Facebook group you are a part of. This way you will get noticed and people will start branching off to your personal profile.
How do you become the light of a Facebook group?
You do this by adding value, every single time you enter the group, make sure you try to add value.
When people read your valuable posts, they will naturally want to see more from you. That’s when they will check out your profile.
Once they land on your profile. VOILA! – They will see your freebie, go to your landing page and join your email list.
Get free organic traffic from Instagram
Instagram is mainly for sharing pictures. The best way to get more exposure from Instagram is to – use what Russell taught in his book expert secrets – identify your dream 100.
These are people in the same niche as you. People that have already earned the traffic you need (their followers are the set of people you need to join your email list)
So make sure you follow them. And see how they post, what they post, when they post.
Check the way they add tags to their post. Basically, what you are trying to do is to join the conversation. Since you are allowed to post just one link on your Instagram profile, let this be the link to your landing page
So whenever the people in your dream 100 make a post, try to be the first to comment. Make it a “useful” comment so that when people read your comment, they will like to check your profile too.
Secondly, as you are using the same tags as your dream 100, your posts will start showing up along theirs too. You can use this to drive people to your landing page.
You can use this strategy for almost every other social media platform. But if you want a step by step guide, read this book where Russell shared exactly what he does to get traffic. It’s free, you’ll only pay for shipping.
Get free organic traffic by creating a contest
This is a strategy I haven’t really tried myself, but the concept is so believable I have to share it with you.
When you have something like free software to give to people, you can offer them more features in the software only if they invite more people.
You could say – “invite 5 friends and get unlimited access”
Just get creative here and your traffic will be fueled by the people entering your landing page.
Imagine if 5 people invited 5 friends each who also invited 5 friends. That will be a lot of free traffic.
Here’s the math: 5X5=25X5=125
Just imagine if this continued like that. You will go viral.
If you can, try it. It requires some workaround to set up the process but never underestimate the power of google. A quick google search will do the trick.
Get free organic traffic from your blog
Another awesome way to build your email list fast is by blogging. When you have your own blog. You can send people anywhere you want them to go.
Recommend a product to them and if it’s good, they will follow your recommendation.
If you have something for people that’s free, just add it into your blog post and as more people read your blog. A good number of them will join your email list.
But if you want to see them fast inside your email list, then make sure you drive traffic to the blog itself. Because if no one sees your blog, they won’t see your freebie too.
Get free organic traffic from YouTube
I love YouTube so much. Aside from the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world (besides google)
YouTube has its own algorithm and your YouTube videos can also rank easily on google. You can create a YouTube video talking about your freebie and tell people to check the link in the description of your video to be able to get your freebie.
This link will be the link to your landing page, where you will capture their email address.
The second reason why I love YouTube so much is that your videos will have the chance to continue getting views forever. If you optimize your videos the right way. Your videos can continue getting views and build your email list for you fast. Try YouTube, it works.
Get traffic from Quora
Quora is a great place to get traffic from. Because people are searching for things and you can answer them while linking to your landing page.
It’s really a goldmine of free organic traffic. Try it, and you’ll see for yourself.
keep this email marketing best practices in mind if you want to become a successful email marketer
More Tips and reminders on building your email list
Offer something valuable
I’ve talked about this a little bit earlier, but it’s worth mentioning again. If you offer something valuable to the people in your niche, your conversion rate will be high. And you will be able to build your email list fast.
As a rule of thumb, make sure that the freebie you offer is worth at least the amount each person on your email list is worth to you.
Create an image for your freebie
It is important to create a beautiful image to represent your freebie, you can create a beautiful looking image on Canva for free.
This is one little tweak that will help you to build your email list faster than you expected.
Why? Because when people see a visual representation of what they are getting. It will increase your conversion rate.
That is to say that without a visual representation of your freebie, your landing page opt-in might be 10% but with that image, you can up it to a 20-30% opt-in rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is email marketing still profitable?
Yes. Email marketing is still very profitable, if you don’t believe me you can check out some of these cool email marketing stats from statista
From there you’ll discover that for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you get $36 back. Of course, results are not ethical. But you can expect something close to that number.
What can I offer people to get their emails?
To get people to join your email list, you have to give people something valuable like a free eBook, guide, resource, software etc. anything that’s valuable to people in your niche will do.
How often should I promote a product to my email list?
Some marketers like promoting products every day to their email list. While others do it with a little mildness. I would say it depends on how long the person has been on your email. And how well they know you.
That’s why it’s really important that everyone joining your email list should first enter your soap opera sequence from the expert secrets book. So that they can know like and trust you. After that, you can promote products on all your emails.
What is the best autoresponder for email marketing?
The best autoresponder for email marketing is Getresponse. Try them out and you won’t regret it.
What is the best way to build an email list?
The best way to build an email list is to offer people something valuable in exchange for their email addresses. This is the legal way of building an email list and this is how you should focus on building yours too.
How fast can I build an email list?
You can build an email list faster than you think. What really matters, in this case, is the amount of money you can spend to drive traffic to your landing page.
Just remember the more traffic you get the more likely you are to quickly build up an email list. But it’s also important to note that more traffic with a low conversion rate is not as effective as low traffic with a high conversion rate.
How can I make money from my email list?
You can make money from your email list in different ways, you can direct the people on your email list to your YouTube channel and make money off the YouTube partner program. Or you can make money by selling your product (or someone else’s product – affiliate marketing) to your email list. Lastly, you can get paid to send an email to your email list
Can I make money from my email list even if I don’t have a product to sell?
Yes. Even if you don’t have your own product to sell you can make money from your email list using affiliate marketing. It’s really profitable when you have a responsive email list.
Why are people not signing up to my email list?
People might not be signing up to your email list because of the following reasons:
- Your freebie is not valuable
- The free gift is not right for the people in your niche
- Your conversion rate is low
- No traffic to your landing page – if no one sees your freebie, no one will sign up to your email list.
Tweak your landing page and your offer and you will see more signups.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a really good source of income. If you build one you will reap the fruits over and over again. I hope you have gotten one or two strategies that you can now use to build your email list fast.
It’s now time to start building, signup for an autoresponder, create your freebie, and get traffic to your landing page.
Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy especially when you are using free traffic methods. Just remember to stick to one source at a time. The results will come. It will work out for you too. If people have done it in the past, you can too.
Have I left any strategy behind? Kindly drop a comment to help others learn about more awesome ways to build an email list fast.