If you’ve been in business for a while, you may have heard that building an email list is the best way to market your offer online. Research shows that 40% of marketers consider email marketing vital to their success. Most businesses, small and large, virtual and physical, have been using email lists to boost their sales, introduce their brand, or attract people. But what exactly is email list building? And how DO you build your email list? 

Read on and find out.

What is email list building?

Email list building is the process of building a list of potential leads by collecting emails from people interested in the information you have to offer. Like tips, updates, discounts, resources, etc. You can collect the emails from visitors and customers you meet online or offline.

While building your email list may not seem as important when you have social media and a ton of other marketing channels out there, it is the only marketing platform that’s completely in your control. 

Some more reasons why email list building is important.

• Unlike social media, the algorithm of the email list won’t change on you.
• Every dollar spent on email marketing provides an average return on investment of $36 – the highest across all marketing strategies (Source: Litmus).
• You can tailor your emails (and segment them) by target audience.
• It’s easy to analyze your emails and tweak your marketing strategy based on them.
• You can connect with your audience on a 1:1 personal level. You won’t believe the thoughtful conversations and moments of connection I’ve had with some of the coaches and course creators on my email list.

Speaking of my email list, if you’re interested in heart-centered, purposeful marketing and launch resources for your business, sign up at www.amazingobm.com or subscribe to The Coaches Marketing Scoop on LinkedIn.

I’ll happily send you weekly guides, freebies, quick tips, and super detailed articles like this one guaranteed to grow your business IF you apply them. 

Here are the top 5 ways to build your email list

1. Create a lead magnet.

And not just any lead magnet. Your lead magnet should be targeted to your ideal customer. It should be in a format that they like to consume and should solve a unique problem for them. It should have a killer name that converts. Like The A to Z Marketing Checklist for Your Coaches and Course Creators. 

And most importantly, it should be provided free in exchange for their email. An incentive, so to speak, is to get people signed up and join your email list. Here’s how you can create a lead magnet that cuts through the noise and compels readers to opt-in.

Once you have that in place, you need to promote it by showing up and sharing your expertise. 

2. Build your email list with paid advertising 

While requiring a $$ investment (that can be as much, or as little as you want) running ads on Facebook and Instagram is one of the fastest ways to build your email list. Just ensure that the ad you pay to advertise your lead magnet is written and designed to attract your ideal customer to sign up. 

3. Collaborations

When you are collaborating with someone, you get the chance to wow their audience with your expertise. This is an excellent opportunity to promote your lead magnet once you’re done helping them. Besides mentioning the lead magnet in the guest bio (if allowed) you can talk about it a little during or at the end of the collaboration. These collabs can be anything from guest blogging to podcasts to Facebook and Instagram lives. 

4. Host or participate in an online summit. 

Online summits are a great way to establish yourself as a leader in your industry and gain additional visibility. The best part, every speaker at the summit will be promoting the summit to their audience. Increasing the number of eyes on your content exponentially. You can promote your lead magnet in the summit bundle, in your speaker bio, at the end of the webinar, and as a special gift for people who appeared live. And remember, if you host the summit, you bring in new emails from all your guest speakers’ lists when they register for your summit.

5. Speaking events and online workshops

Conferences, in-person events, trade shows, and workshops (online and offline) provide great opportunities to promote your lead magnet. For the physical events, you can have sign-up sheets or postcards with a QR code, and for the virtual ones, a link to a landing page or an opt-in form.

BONUS: Promote your lead magnet on your website and social media

You can include sign-up forms to your lead magnet on every page of your website. If you have a blog, mention it in every blog post. Have an announcement bar or a pop-up on your website. The same goes for social media. You can include it in the ‘link in bio’ on Instagram, talk about it in your stories and posts, have a button on your Facebook page, and host giveaways to promote it. 

However, it’s not enough to just build your email list. 

Once you have attracted the right people, you need to keep them there. Not give them a reason to unsubscribe. You need to build the know, like, and trust factor. You can do that by continuously providing useful content that’s super valuable to them. And doing so with a flair of personality. That way, when you have a paid offer ready to launch, you have a warm audience primed to receive it with interest. Perhaps even excitement! 

Need some help strategizing, creating, executing, and testing your lead magnet funnel? Let’s connect! Contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation to learn more.