5 Simple Ways to Grow an Engaging Email List

Growing an email list continues to be one of the best ways to market your business online.

Do you believe that? You have probably heard the phrase “the money’s in the list” meaning that your email list is one of your business’s most valuable assets. This is true for all types of businesses, whether you have a physical location and meet with people in person, or your coaching business is 100% virtual and online. Whether you offer in-person or online services, and whether you offer online courses or not.

If you are unsure of the value that an email list has, I encourage you to read the article - Is Email Marketing Dead?, where I share 5 reasons email marketing continues to be one of the best ways to market and grow your business online.

An email list can and should be, one of your most valuable assets. But it has to be something you are investing into. It will only be an asset if you are taking the time to grow an email list full of subscribers (aka potential leads) who are eager to learn from you, who are engaged and who are willing to buy your products or services.

Now, how do we do this? How do we, firstly, get people onto our email list and then turn them into engaged subscribers who become potential leads for our business? Let’s take a look at 5 ways you can start growing an email list today.

Here are 5 simple ways to build a growing email list that can work for you and your business.

1. Create a compelling offer

Let’s start with the most important element to growing your email list - creating a free offer (also referred to as a lead magnet or freebie) that is compelling and provides your subscribers with valuable content.

You want to create a free offer that will benefit their life and/or business, encourage them to achieve a goal, or provide transformation from something they are struggling with. What are some of the biggest struggles or pain points that your ideal client is struggling with?

What is one quick-win or simple solution that you can share to bring them the results they are looking for?

When you can answer these questions, you can create a compelling free offer that will entice people to share their email addresses with you in exchange for that amazing solution!

And don’t be afraid to try out a few different offers to see which one performs best. Who knows? That crazy idea you thought wouldn’t convert may end up being the best opt-in you have! You will never know until you start trying.

(Not sure where to start in creating your free offer? Check out this article, 4 Compelling Types of Lead Magnets to Grow Your Email List to learn more about the different types of lead magnets you can create to grow your email list.)

2. Make it easy for people to sign up to your email list

The more complicated you make it for someone to sign up to your email list, or the more steps you have in your opt-in process, the quicker you will turn people away from completing the process to sign up for your free offer.

You want to make the process as easy as possible for people to exchange their email addresses, especially as we tend to be more guarded with who we share our email address with.

There is a debate between marketing experts as to whether you should include a first name field as well as the email address field on opt-in forms. Leaving out the first name field will simplify the process for subscribers as they will only have to type in their email address, however a huge benefit of including the first name field is that you can personalize your future emails to that person.

At the end of the day, keeping your opt-in form simple with the fewest steps possible between having someone interested and becoming a subscriber will grow your email list.

Pro Tip –> Remember to test the opt-in process yourself. Sign up for your own email address (using an email address different from your business one) to make sure everything is connected and working properly. Chances are, someone is not going to take the time to find out how to contact you to let you know your form is broken. They will just move on and maybe find their answer with one of your competitors. So, always test! And even make it a quarterly task.

3. Use your social media channels to promote your compelling offer

One of the biggest mistakes coaches and small business owners make is to not tell people about their free offer. You have invested so much time into creating an amazing mini-course, workbook, or challenge and yet, if you are not promoting it people won’t know about it, even those that are a part of your online community.

Most coaches and small business owners have followers on their social media channels that are not signed up to their email list. These are people who are interested in your business and what you have to offer, so why not encourage them to sign up to your email list? Use your social media channels to bring attention to your compelling offer and encourage people to sign-up by:

• Creating an attention-grabbing image for your social media cover images.
• Including the link to the landing page on social media profiles.
• Scheduling promotion posts into your content marketing plan to encourage people to check out your free offer.

People won’t sign up for your free compelling offer if they don’t know about it. If you don’t share your free offer with your followers, they won’t know how you can help them with this pain point or challenge.

4. Add a Call-to-Action at the end of your blog posts or podcast shownotes page.

There is so much decision fatigue today that visitors to your website or followers on your social media channel require a little direction on what you would like them to do next. This is why using strong, persuasive calls to action (CTA) is so important.

Just as it’s important to have a strong CTA on your sign-up form, you want to include some type of call-to-action at the bottom of relevant blog posts or podcast shownotes pages - ones that fit within the same topic of your free offer.

How can you convert a website visitor into a subscriber? Through providing engaging content with a strong, persuasive CTA to your compelling free offer. Think of each website visitor as someone who has come into your store – your online store. When you enter a little boutique shop, you are often greeted with a “Hello” and maybe followed with information on featured items or items on sale.

You want to do the same with your website visitors – you want to acknowledge, nurture and encourage them to stay connected by joining your email list. The best way to encourage this visitor to become a subscriber to your email list and stay in touch with you is to have a specific and persuasive CTA to your free offer.

5. Promote your compelling offer across your website

Many small business owners have a sign-up form for their compelling offer on the home page of their website, yet they forget to promote this compelling offer across their website.

Yes, many website visitors land on your home page when visiting your website. But what if they don’t? What if they follow a link to your About page or your contact page and don’t actually end up on your home page? You have missed out on the opportunity to gain that visitor as a subscriber.

Promote your compelling offer across your website by:

• Creating CTA’s that link to your compelling offer on relevant website pages throughout your website, i.e. if you have a free offer that is similar to your services, include that CTA towards the bottom of the page as an alternative option if someone isn’t quite ready to work directly with you yet.
• Using the pop-up feature to have a sign-up form for your free offer displayed on the screen after a couple of seconds of someone landing on your website.
• Including a CTA on the sidebar of your website pages to your compelling offer.

To recap, the 5 simple ways to growing an engaged email list for your coaching business are:

1. Create a compelling offer.
2. Make it easy for people to sign up to your email list.
3. Use your social media channels to promote your compelling offer.
4. Add a Call-to-Action at the end of your blog posts or podcast shownotes page.
5. Promote your compelling offer across your website.

These 5 simple ways to grow your email list are a great place to start growing your list whether you have a small list or a large list that you need to re-engage. Do you have any other tips for growing an engaging email list? Share them in the comments below or reach out to me on Instagram.

Are you struggling to grow your email list? Grab this FREE guide and learn how you can start booking more clients every day with 5 simple steps – including growing your email list with a free offer - to growing your business online.

With these 5 simple steps, you can grow your business online with a process that will help you be consistent and save you time … all while filling your courses and programs!

Check out this FREE guide where I walk you through 5 simple steps and start growing your business online today!