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How to Grow Your Email List

A good quality email list is still one of the most effective ways to promote and sell your products and services. But growing an email list can be a challenge for businesses, especially when you are first starting out.

However, with a little bit of creativity and commitment, there are many ways to help you attract new email subscribers. And the good news is some of them are even free!
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Here are the most powerful ways to grow your email list in 2021.

Run a Facebook Ad Campaign

If you want a reliable way to bring in email leads, advertising is your best option.

It's tempting to think that advertising is only possible for businesses with multi-million dollar budgets. Still, you can bring in email subscribers for as little as $5 per day with the right ad campaign.

Of course, advertising is a broad term. To get a return on advertising when you only have a small budget, try Facebook ads.

The best way to achieve a good ROI with a Facebook ad campaign is to have an unmistakable idea of your ideal customer.

Use that customer profile in your targeting so that your ad goes to the most appropriate audience.
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A high-quality landing page that converts will also set your ad campaign up for success from the very start. 

Launch a Competition on Instagram or Tiktok

Social media offers the perfect opportunity for a low-cost promotional campaign that can potentially land you hundreds or even thousands of new email subscribers. 

One of the most effective social media campaigns is a competition targeted at your followers. Create a prize that is strongly related to your product or service. Entice people via a signup form to enter the contest.

If you want to run a competition, plan it in advance to maximize the chance of building your email list.

Great copywriting on your promotional posts will help build buzz about your promotion. 
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Don't forget to align your competition content with your branding to create a strong marketing campaign that looks professional and attracts the right audience. 

Use Other People's Lists

If you are a relatively new business and don't have an email list or social media following, growing a list of subscribers often feels like a catch-22. You need an audience to get an audience.

So why not use other people's existing email lists to help grow your own?

This is not as radical as it might sound at first. Promoting on other existing email lists is a tried-and-tested way to help grow your own list.

If you use an influencer with an engaged audience, you can potentially get a great result.

Unless you are good friends with an influencer, this option doesn't come for free.
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You will pay a fee for the business referral. So make sure the email you write is carefully crafted with some high-quality sales copy to entice people to sign up to your own email list. 

Create a Content Upgrade

If you are already getting organic traffic to your blog, one of the easiest and most effective ways of turning that traffic into email subscribers is to create a content upgrade.

A content upgrade is essentially a freebie that you offer people at the end of a blog post if they want to continue learning about a topic.

It gives the most highly engaged reader the chance to get more value from your content in exchange for their email address, so it is a win-win.

Many autoresponders and WordPress plugins offer a box to add to the middle or end of a blog post that includes a signup form.
It only takes a few minutes to implement this.

​Still, if you do this right, it can potentially bring hundreds of new email subscribers over a year, providing you are getting regular traffic to your blog post.

Network in Facebook Groups

If you have excellent relationship-building skills, join some Facebook groups related to your niche. Use these as an opportunity not just to network, but also to build your email list.

Of course, signing up to a group and promoting an email list is both unethical and ineffective. Instead, build long-term bonds with your peers and influencers, introduce your business.

Let people discover you, your business, and what you have to offer. That time you spend on Facebook groups will naturally translate into highly targeted signups to your email list.
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This is a perfect option if you don't have a marketing budget but have the time to spend getting to know people on Facebook groups.

Be a Guest on a Podcast

More marketers are discovering the power of a good podcast. As internet uses find themselves increasingly time-poor, podcasts have become a popular way for people to consume content on the go.

If there is a popular podcast in your niche and you are good at selling yourself, contact the presenter. Let them know what you do, and explain that you'd be a perfect guest for their podcast.

When you are interviewed on the podcast, deliver as much value as you can.

​Be an authority in your subject and build trust with the audience. And come prepared with a one-line call to action to get people to join your email list

Write a Guest Post

If you are an effective writer, pitch a blog post idea to a big website and become a guest blogger.

Most guest blogging opportunities include a writer's profile, and often this will include a link to a website or landing page. It's the perfect way to get people to discover your business and become email subscribers. 

Of course, not everyone is a natural writer. If that is the case, join our ad school and get your copywriting certificate to develop your copywriting skills.

​Use this to help build a robust email list in the future. 

Create a Website Popup

If you are getting traffic to your website, one of the easiest quick wins for email list growth is simply to add a popup to your site.

If you are going to do this, make sure that the popup offers an incentive, freebie, or lead magnet, so that you can get a decent conversion rate.

However, even the most basic popup will allow you to add a small percentage of traffic to your email list. If your traffic is growing, especially if you are getting referrals from Google, it is a highly effective way to get qualified leads.
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Test the headline copy for your popup to boost your conversions. If you can, try two headlines in an A/B test (most platforms support this), so you can get a good idea of what copy works best with your audience. 

Grow Your Social Media Accounts

There are many reasons for establishing a solid social media presence and a large number of followers. Still, one of the most compelling is undoubtedly the ability to turn those followers into email subscribers.

If you can create quality content for your social media accounts, such as videos, behind-the-scenes snippets, and free challenges, you'll develop loyal followers who'll yearn to discover more about you and your business.
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Use a solid call to action in social media posts and your profile to entice those followers to a landing page from which you can add them to your email list.

Test and Optimize

If you already capture your email address, get smart with your data capture. Use analytics to discover how many visitors you are converting and use that information to optimize your email marketing.
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Data can tell you plenty of other valuable bits of information, too, such as where your best leads are coming from and what website copy is most likely to entice them to sign up.

Write Fantastic Email Copy

Sometimes, growing an email list is not about what you do to attract new subscribers and more about what you do to keep hold of those already subscribed.

When you think about it, it takes little effort to nurture that relationship with an existing subscriber compared to the time and effort to sign new people. Not only that, but high unsubscribe rates can affect your deliverability.
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Get good with the copy. Excellent email copy will draw your audience's attention, which means you'll get more email opens, click-throughs, and fewer unsubscribes.

Grow Your Email List Today

An extensive email list is a long-term asset for your business.
Loyal, engaged subscribers are far more likely to buy from you than a passive website visitor or a casual social media follower.

It is worth taking the time to grow that list and nurture that relationship with your subscribers.
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If you want support to create the perfect copy to grow your email list, click here to access our copywriting 101 course, which will set you on the ideal path to success and gaining a copywriting certificate. 

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