The #1 digital marketing strategy is building your email list to grow your business. Think of this as the modern-day rolodex. Flashback: Jerry Maguire, 1996 romcom, where Jerry competes in a mad dash to call everyone in his rolodex to win them over as clients before walking out of his job. Of course, it’s a movie and it all worked out – and he got the girl. But in real life it is imperative that you know how to build an email subscriber list to grow your business. 

There are two *basic* types of email lists. 

Building an email subscriber list is about finding your ideal customer and giving them something of value so that they want to sign up or stay signed up. 

1. Target Practice. Your target your ideal customers using social media, blog posts, print (antiquated but can be effective). You offer them something amazing so that they want to sign up. They stick with you because they love your insights, coupons, or whatever amazing value you continue to provide. This is your profit-center email list.
2. Cold Caching. This strategy is about identifying who will benefit from your service. Adding them to an email subscriber list. This list is similar to cold calling. They did NOT ask to be on your list. You send them an introduction about you and your business. You offer something of value. And you ASK permission to continue to send them emails. Here are two examples.   

• You are a massage therapist that specialized in sports massage. You identify all of the physical therapists in your area and add them to your list. You send an intro about how awesome you are and offer a 25% – 50% coupon for the physical therapist to come in for massage. Your goal is to keep the PT on your list in hopes the PT will refer business to you as well as become a client.  

• You’re a health and wellness coach. You identify yoga and fitness instructors in a large geographical area (like the entire state). You add them to your email list. Send something of value. Again, you’re hoping they like what they read/get and stick with you. 

You are hoping to “cache” these people – or collect them as loyal subscribers to your email list. This is DIFFERENT than buying an email list. You’re targeting potential customers based on your niche and location. State that in your welcome email: 

“Hi, I’m Samaara. I’m a business and marketing coach that specializes in helping women entrepreneurs get over the hump of marketing their business. I’m sending this email to you because I think we can work together. It looks like your focus is setting up systems for entrepreneurs. Many of my clients need systems! But I don’t help with that. I’d love to offer you a free 25-min coaching session to show you how I work and see if you think we’d be a good fit to work together.” 

4 Steps to build your email list.

OK, let’s get down to business. I’ll show you how to build an email list to grow your business in a few simple and actionable steps. 

Step 1. Create a freebie or coupon. Your freebie is an enticing offer that inspires your reader to give you their email list. For example, you can use a guide, a quiz, or an ebook. It should be something of incredible value so spend time creating this freebie. Another freebie, which works great for businesses like hair salons, massage studios, fitness centers, and similar businesses, is a coupon.

Step 2: Build a call-to-action or CTA. This is where you ask your readers to give you their email in exchange for your freebie. CTAs can be created in Facebook, on Instagram, a landing page, or pop-up on your website. Here are a few extra tips on nailing your CTA. 

1. Ditch the yes and no. Instead use “I’m ready!” or “No, my business is perfect already.” Adding creativity into your action buttons reaffirms what your giving or what you’re giving up.  
2. Customize your CTAs. For example, a great CTA for this blog post would be “Create Your Freebie in 1 hour.” Customizing CTAs have a 42% higher view-to-submission rate according to Hubspot. This means personalizing the CTA to the content your customers are actually reading. 
3. Tell ’em what they’re getting. How many times have you signed up for something and were disappointed? Tell people exactly what you’re giving them and then over deliver in your Freebie. 

Step 3: Get the word out. Use social media, your website, add links to your email signature. On your website, you can add a CTA in your footer, on any one of your pages, or create a pop-up. Include your CTA on all of your social platforms – and that includes LinkedIn, especially if you’re a B2B business. 

Step 4: Nurture. We’ve all done it. Signed up for the freebie and hit “unsubscribe” immediately! You will have people that do that. It’s OK – those people are not your customers anyway. Nurture your email subscribers by offering value every time you send a newsletter. This is different for different businesses. But helpful or valuable content includes how-to’s, coupons (if that’s your type of business), demonstrations (bonus points for using video), step-by-step processes, details of a particular image or item (great for photography or product businesses). Here are a few examples. 

• You’re a nutrition coach. Create a “How to change your eating habits in 21 days.” This does two things – it tells people what to do and how long it will take. Add the “why” and it’s a winner. (Of course, I’m not a nutrition coach so I don’t know the why, but I’d love to!)

• You own a professional portrait photography business. Using one of your images, detail the lighting, camera settings, and other pertinent data to create that image. Just because you tell someone how to do something, doesn’t mean they will do it! It does, however, set you up as an expert.   

You got this! 

Looking for more tips? Neil Patel, the SEO guru has a few other great ideas to build your email list.

OK, don’t pour the martinis just yet. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. But you got this. The point is to take small steps and be consistent. Building an email list takes time. And remember, the better you nurture your subscribers, the more profitable your business will be. 

Up next week: The pros and cons of the top email platforms. 

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