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If you have done any research on how to drive traffic to your blog or website you know that building an email list of blog or site subscribers is key.
And, it follows that knowing how to grow to your email list means knowing how to grow your traffic. And what does more traffic mean? Well, hopefully, more money!
If you are looking for ways to grow your email list read on! Plus, discover the email list building tools you need to make it easier!
Table of Contents
Why do You Need an Email List?
Well, like we said above, you need an email subscriber list to ultimately to make more money off of your blog or website. More affiliate link clicks, more ad impressions, and more product sales!
So, having a list of email addresses of your readers and potential readers is crucial.
Building an email list is important because it helps you increase website traffic and product sales by turning one-time visitors into repeat visitors. Not building an email list is a common amateur blogging mistake you should avoid.
When someone visits your site from that cute Pinterest pin of your latest post, chances are they will read that post and then bounce on back to look for more pins on Pinterest.
But, if you are able to get them to sign up for email communications from you, then you have a way of influencing them to come back to your site for more.
You can email them about your latest blog post that they may be interested in. Or, you can email them a coupon code for an affiliate that will earn you money. And someday, you can create your own product like an ebook and email them a promotion of it. Your website visitors are all potential customers!
So knowing how to grow your email list quickly has a direct affect on the success of your blog and the size of your earnings.
What is an Email List and Email Marketing?
Well, simply put, it is a list of emails of people who have visited your blog or website. Or, might want to visit your website. When readers or customers come to your site, you want to capture and save their email so you can promote to them later.
Knowing how to grow email list fast is the first step, the second is actual email marketing.
Email marketing just refers to how you communicate with your email list of blog readers and visitors. It is how you use email to promote your blog, products and more to your audience.
It helps you foster and maintain a relationship with your readers. And, most importantly, it can help you grow your blog traffic and make more money. Which is the whole point of your blog or website right?
But don’t worry, creating email marketing campaigns is much easier than it sounds! You just need to choose one of the email marketing services platforms we mention below to help make it easier.
How do you Start an Email List?
In order to start an email list, you need a way to collect names into a list automatically. The right email list building tools will help you do this.
This is why you need to sign up for an email marketing service.
Thankfully, there are some great companies out there with email list building software you can make use of.
Signing up for an email marketing service isn’t one of my 8 email list-building tactics so much as it is a must-do, starting point. Before you can start building your email list, you need an email automation platform to help make it easier.
Two Email List Building Tools to Try
In order to grow an email list, you need email list building services. There are two email automation platforms I suggest to help you build a list of blog subscribers and help make your email marketing efforts easier.
ConvertKit Blog Marketing and Email Growth Tool
One of the best email list building tools I can suggest is ConvertKit.
ConvertKit is an all-in-one email marketing, blog marketing, email list building powerhouse. Best of all, you can grow your email list for free with their free plan!
In addition to email marketing, you can also use ConvertKit to create unique landing pages for your blog to sell products, courses or anything you want!
You can even collect payment with ConvertKit on your landing pages, so you don’t have to pay for an additional service or plugin.
ConvertKit makes growing your email list easy with embedded forms you can add to your website. You can also gain new email list subscribers on your social media.
ConvertKit even offers an email list building course you can take!
Their easy-to-use email designer lets you quickly create beautiful email templates. You can use these templates over and over again.
Another important feature of ConvertKit is that you can send personalized content and you can also set up automation to send specific emails to specific subscribers.
So for instance, if you build a freebie landing page with ConvertKit for a budget planner, you can set it up that they receive personal finance related emails.
There are 3 pricing plans available for ConvertKit.
If you want a free email list, you can opt for the free plan from ConvertKit which allows up to 1,000 subscribers! This is a great plan if you are just starting your blog.
Or, you can opt for the Creator or Creator Pro plans for even more capabilities like Facebook custom audiences and free migration. Check out the pricing plan details and features here.
Constant Contact for Building Your Email List
Another email list building tool I suggest is Constant Contact. They have many tools and options to make email marketing easier and to help build your list of emails and subscribers.
A drag and drop editor with tons of available templates makes it easy to create beautiful emails that are on-brand for your blog or business. (Haven’t started a money-making blog of your own yet? Start here!)
Plus, this way you can track the results and see what emails are working and replicate your most successful tactics. A/B testing lets you determine what subject lines perform best as well.
More than a simple email list building service, Constant Contact includes some extended marketing capabilities you can incorporate. Landing pages, pop-up signup forms, and social media ads just to name a few.
Most importantly, it is all automated. So you can create for instance a “Welcome” email that is automatically sent whenever someone new signs up. Nothing better to save you time than a set it and forget it option!
If you want to start instead with a free email marketing platform like Mailchimp, you can consider using a plugin like WP Forms or OptinMonster to create signup forms that include a lot of design options, testing and more features you want.
Related reading:
- Best Blogs about Blogging
- 7 Best AdSense Alternatives
- My First Blog Income Report
- 7 Best Free Social Media Scheduler Tools
17 Ways to Grow Your Email List Faster for Your Blog or Business
It is never too early or too late to start building your blogger email list. Here are 17 list building hacks you can use to start email marketing for your blog or website!
1. Create an Opt-in Freebie to Grow Your Email List
One of the most powerful tactics for growing your email list is offering an opt-in freebie. Also called a lead magnet, a freebie gives people a reason to sign up because they want what you are offering.
People will be much more likely to give you their email address and opt-in to your communications if you give them something in return.
You can offer something related to your niche, so if you are a personal finance blogger than offer a free budget or financial planner. For a beauty blogger maybe a pdf of your best beauty tips.
The main ingredients for a successful opt-in offer is that it solves a problem for your readers and it is quick and simple to download. Just offer the freebie in your signup form.
Here are some ideas for a freebie you can offer to readers in order to grow your email list:
- eGuide that is helpful or solves an issue
- Worksheet to help your reader’s meet a goal or track something
- Report of data and facts your readers are interested in
- Online Course or tutorial
- Coaching session with you
- Contest for a prize
- How to guide
- PDF of informative content your readers want
If you need help creating the freebie yourself there are a few sites that make that part easy as well. Here are some blogger tools to help you create an email list-building, lead magnet:
Canva: An easy-to-use design tool
Picktochart: Helps you turn statistics and data into a visual.
Gleam: If you want to run a contest or give-away Gleam helps run that process.
Fiverr: Online marketplace with affordable designers that you can pay to do an eBook cover or infographic, whatever format you need.
Generate More Leads!
OptinMonster: Generate sales, leads and capture email addresses. Improve conversion with beautiful forms and landing pages.
3. In-line Email Sign Up Form
In order to gain email subscribers, you need to have a visible sign up form on your blog. There are many different formats of signup forms you can use, ribbon, lightbox, pop up or sidebar form.
No matter what signup form you choose, you want to make sure there is an email subscriber form that permanently resides on your blog or website. Make it as easy, and as obvious as possible for people to sign up for your blog email newsletter.
You want to give every visitor to your site the option of subscribing, that way you can make sure they return by sending them emails of your new blog posts or offers.
I do not personally recommend pop up signup forms at this point. Those used to be a suggested format but I find them so annoying now
I have had a lot of success with a standard ribbon form at the top of my page. It is simple and clearly visible. You can also create a widget email sign up form for your sidebar that appears on every page.
Here are 3 different ribbon form examples:
Constant Contact is an ideal email marketing company to sign up with because they give you the ability to easily create forms that are designed to grow your list of email subscribers.
You don’t have to have technical knowledge or be able to create html codes yourself. You can create and customize the form right in your Constant Contact account dashboard and then drop it into your blog or website.
When new visitors check out your blog, the forms will help you capture emails so you can keep them coming back. And, as me mentioned already, growing your email list will help grow your blog traffic.
4. Create a Lead Generation Landing Page
Having a dedicated sign up page that is custom built for the purpose of growing your email list is a must-do tactic. A landing page is almost like a stand-alone, single page website.
You can make the whole page about opting in and design in to maximize the number of sign-ups you receive.
For instance, if you have a new eBook you are offering, a dedicated page gives you the ability to really “sell” the ebook.
You can talk about the benefits and include relevant images or testimonials from people who loved the ebook. The more reasons you can give someone to want your ebook or course, the more subscribers you will get!
This is another reason to sign up with Constant Contact since they have the option to help you quickly and easily create a sign up landing page to gather email addresses.
Once you have the landing page created, you can create a short, bitly link to it and drop it in the bio of your Pinterest profile, or create a Facebook or Twitter post and drive more visitors to sign up!
And, as mentioned earlier, you can use a landing page to build your email list even without a website!
5. Facebook Join My email List App
How can you grow your email list with social media? One tactic is the Facebook join my list app.
When you sign up with an automated email marketing service like Constant Contact you get a lot more features than just the email. You can also easily grow your email list with Faceook and Instagram.
For instance you can add the Facebook app integration into your Facebook page. You can customize it with your logo and decide what list you want any new sign-ups to go on. It provides an easy, fast way for visitors to your page to sign up for your email list.
You can also create a Facebook lead ad to grow your audience of subscribers. You will need a little budget to run an ad, but it is a quick way to grow your email list.
6. Leverage Pinterest
One awesome thing about Pinterest is the chance that you will have a pin go viral. Think about creating a pin that promotes your opt-in freebie.
Link that pin to a sign up form (Mailchimp and Constant Contact will provide an individual one you can use for social media.)
Create several versions of the pin and push it into the Pinterest universe! If you have a pin offering a free planner and it goes viral, there is no telling how many email subscribers you can gain and how quickly!
You can also use tools like Tailwind for Pinterest to amplify your efforts and traction on Pinterest.
And of course, these tactics work for other social media platforms as well. Instagram, Twitter and any others you regularly use.
7. Exit Intent Pop-Up Sign up forms
Another successful opt-in to grow your email list is a pop up form. You can create one of these in Constant Contact as well and specify how and when you want it to show up on your blog.
For instance you can set it so that when someone is about to leave your website, the pop-up form appears. Grabbing their email address before they leave is a way to turn them into a return visitor instead of losing the forever.
However, as I mentioned previously, I suggest using this feature sparingly. Maybe only in certain situations such as when someone is already leaving your site. That way it is less annoying and does serve a purpose.
While this was successful when it first started, now I feel like I’m immediately annoyed if I land on a website or blog and a pop up appears before I even have a chance to look at the site!
8. Text to join
Another way to make it easy for people to sign up for your blog emails is with text to join. This is another included feature with Constant Contact.
You create a keyword of your own choice and all your readers have to do is text that keyword to a number and they are in!
You can promote the text number on social media on your Facebook page or in Twitter and Instagram posts. You can also just place the information on the blog itself.
9. Use a list builder app
This may not be applicable for your blog or website because it is a way to take email sign-ups in person.
If you sell products or services and will be physically present at a trade show or fair, the list builder app allows you let people in person sign up.
Even if you have a blog, you could just use the list builder app at the next happy hour you are at!
10. Add Incentives
We’ve already mentioned free content offers. But deals and discounts can be even more tantalizing to your website visitors.
If you have a product you sell, think about offering a small discount in exchange for someone’s email address. It could help you make more money in the long run. You just give them a discount code once they sign up.
If your business is selling products, just build in this discount to your pricing structure. That way you aren’t losing any money but you are gaining the right to communicate with all your potential customers.
You could even offer a free gift card! This will help you collect email addresses quickly.
11. Use Games and Spin Wheels
This falls in line with your incentives and opt-in freebies. You can use a fun spin wheel on your website for instance to encourage sign ups.
People like games so give them the chance to spin the wheel for a discount or a freebie in exchange for providing you with their email address.
12. A/B test Your Sign Up Forms
Another way to grow your subscriber list more quickly is to test your forms so you can see what works best.
You can for instance create two different versions of ribbon opt in form, each with a different CTA and see what works best!
Simple copy changes or image changes can increase your conversion rate and using the best performing sign up will grow your list more quickly.
We mentioned OptinMonster as an excellent tool that makes it easy to leverage A/B testing. And provides lots of in depth analytics.
You can also test the format of the forms. Maybe a ribbon form converts better than a lightbox. Or vice versa. A little testing can go a long way in increasing the number of blog subscribers you can get.
13. Offer Extra Content
You can offer content additions and upgrades to encourage sign up from your website visitors.
How this works is if someone is reading a blog post you have written on a specific subject, you can offer them more information on that subject in exchange for their email address.
So for instance maybe they are reading your how to guide on DIY Christmas decorations. Offer them a downloadable pdf with 20 more ideas if they give you their email!
They are already interested in the subject so it may be an easy way for you to collect email addresses.
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14. Use Paid Advertising
If you have the budget, think about using paid advertising to gain more email subscribers. Social media makes it very easy now to pay for ads. And, best of all, you can limit your budget to only a few dollars if you want!
So think about combining our Pinterest, or Facebook tactics with a little money to drive more visitors to your email signup form.
You can also use google paid search ads to drive more visitors to your blog or website and hopefully pick up sign ups that way.
Social media platforms are always useful to leverage with potential customers and blog readers.
15. Get In Person Signups
This tip is probably more applicable for b2b companies and websites that might be at trade shows.
Or, if you sell physical products at local fairs this is also an excellent way to gain email subscribers.
But if you are around people at an in-person event or show, have a sign up sheet or a sign with your text to join number.
And of course, offer people a discount or freebie in exchange for giving you their email address.
16. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is an amazing tactic to grow your blog. For starters, it provides you with those all important backlinks to your blog to help grow your domain authority.
And, guest posts can bring more traffic to your website. But, you can also think about including your email sign up landing page link in a guest post!
Just make sure you also getting a standard backlink to your blog, or that the email sign up form is on your blog url so you don’t lose that all-important SEO juice!
17. Create a Contest
Another way to grow an email list fast is by running a contest. In a contest, you can offer a really big prize. Like a tv or a cash reward.
And all someone has to do to be entered is provide their email and sign up. HGTV does this every year with their dream home giveaway. I have used their signup form many times!
You can add a lot of names to your list this way!
How to Build a Pre launch Email List
Did you know you can build your email list without a website? Or even before you start your blog or website?
It is true! You can use ConvertKit to build out a single landing page with signup form to gain blog email subscribers even before you start your blog!
It is an awesome blog pre launch activity that will help you gain readers and tease out your blog before you hit publish.
You can use this tactic to build an email list for affiliate marketing before even signing up to be an affiliate!
What to Do With Your Email List?
So, you’ve gotten really good at gaining new email subscribers. But what do you do with this list?
Well, that’s where those two email marketing services companies we mentioned of ConvertKit or Constant Contact come in.
You can create email marketing campaigns in these platforms to keep in touch with your subscribers. You want to keep them engaged but also keep them coming back to your blog or website.
Creating email content to push them back to your blog is helpful, for instance when you have published a new blog post you want them to see.
But, you can also use this email list to generate revenue more directly. Promote something you are an affiliate for within the mail! Then you can make a commission for any sales.
Or, if you have a digital product of your own to sell, promote that for even more cash in your pocket.
I do suggest you use a reasonable schedule and not overload your reader’s email inbox. I get annoyed if I am getting too many emails from a company.
The time you have available to work on it may drive this as well! Think about a weekly or bi weekly schedule of email sends.
Email Content IDeas
Once you have built up a list you will need to be sending your emails! This is your chance to build connection with your audience and tell them your story.
For example, you might tell them about some of your employees, or your backstory on how you started. Or maybe you want to tell them about your sustainable leadership policy if you are a business or detail your experience in your field so you can make a good first impression.
Here are some email subject ideas:
- Provide a teaser snippet of your latest blog post with a link to read more
- Offer an eGuide or white paper on your blog or website
- Embed a video saying hi, or telling them a story or even product review
- Promote a product you are an affiliate for or something that you sell
- Tell them something personal about you, or a recent story about your business
- Create a roundup of interesting articles form other websites (Yes, if it keeps readers engaged you can talk about other sites! Your readers will appreciate that you just want to give them informative content.)
- Interview someone your readers will want to learn about
The point is, tell them about your values, your story and your mission. Don’t just tell them about products you want to sell and don’t just recycle your blog posts into email!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Make my Email List Grow Faster?
There are many tactics to grow your list faster as we’ve mentioned above, but probably the quickest ways are to offer opt-ins of valuable content like free eGuides or white papers. Incentives like deals and discounts will also grow your list more quickly. And, combining this with leveraging social media and text to join options will help!
How Can I Grow my Email List for Free?
This is one thing it is easy to do! You can use free plug ins to add opt in forms to your blog to capture your visitor’s email addresses. Plug-ins like Ultimate Member or Buddy Forms.
WP Forms is just $49.50 a year and offers a lot more options though! You can then sign up with Mailchimp (another email marketing platform) for their free plan for email marketing which only includes a certain number of subscribers.
As long as your list isn’t too large in the beginning, you can still send emails to subscribers for free with the Mailchimp lite plan. As you grow your email list to a larger number you will have to upgrade to a premium plan.
Final Thoughts on Tips to Grow an Email List
No matter what you do, don’t wait! Even if you aren’t getting a lot of traffic now to your new blog or website, you want to be getting every possible email subscriber you can. And now that you know how to grow your email list, you can get started.
So, as soon as you publish your site, make sure you are incorporating a way to collect email addresses from each and every visitor.
Either get signed up with an email marketing platform that provides you with forms, or download a plugin that will help you start building your email list.
Originally published 4/29/2020
More Blogging Tips and Tricks:
Best Platform to Start a Blog and Make Money
How to Write a Blog Description
17 Must-Have Tools for Beginning Bloggers
75 Blog Post Ideas for Beginners
200 Lifestyle Blog Post Ideas and Topics
My favorite blogging tools:
ConvertKit for emailing subscribers
Keysearch for keyword research
Blue Host to start your blog
Elegant Themes for design themes
Tailwind for Pinterest to help boost your blog traffic
Canva for graphic design
Stupid Simple SEO course for SEO tactics
Long Tail Pro keyword research
Fiverr for freelance designers
