How to Build an Email List for Your Next Launch in 2024

Alright so unless you've been living under a rock you know that recently Instagram & Facebook both recently went down for an extended amount of time.

And IG influencers everywhere were flipping the freak out. 

And I hate to say it but email marketers everywhere told them so... 

Having all your eggs in IG basket & prioritizing social media over building your list is a dangerous game to play. Why?

1. Because you don't own the social program - they could disappear tomorrow and you'd be SOL.
2. You give up control - (I've had several good friends get banned or hacked and have to start from scratch just this month)

Now, I'm not trying to freak you out but as savvy business owners, it is up to us to anticipate these things and protect our business babies.

So if you haven't jumped on the email list building bandwagon yet, consider this your sign!

Lucky for you, your favorite Launch Manager (moi!) has been working on an epic blog post about list building so read on....

Before I begin I'd like to shout out Rachel over at Gal Agency I took her email course earlier this year and she and my friends the Zook's at Wandering Aimfully have taught me everything I know. 

So without further ado....

EMAIL LIST BUILDING 101:

There’s a lot I don’t know in the world, but there’s one thing I know for sure, if you want to make things easier to sell your online offer, you have to build an engaged email list. I  dare say that email lists building THE most important component of building a sustainable & profitable online business. 

Here’s why, when you start growing your list consistently, when you have an audience that is engaged and wants to hear from you everything gets easier. Engaging with your audience gets easier, figuring out what offer to create next gets easier, and ultimately selling gets easier. 

There is a direct correlation between growing your email list & your bank account growing. So when I say this list building is an important part of your business, believe me, it's an important part of your business.  In fact, your email list is an asset & probably the most important asset in your business. Imagine what it would feel like if you knew you had an asset in your business that could generate revenue for you at any time. That’s what an engaged email list can do for you.

Have I sold you yet?

Great then read my friend because today, I’m breaking it down how to make list building easier and less time-consuming. Read on for some list building challenges 

The secret to growing an engaged email list who is ready to buy your online course:

And I hate this word because it’s my biggest struggle as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, but  CONSISTENCY.

You should look at your email list subscribers as your new biz besties. Your goal is to build a relationship with them. Just like nurturing a new friendship, it's important to connect with them on a regular basis and add value to their life. I recommend emailing your subscribers once a week to connect, engage, and add value. (  NOTE: This does not include promo emails.) The easiest way to do this is via an email newsletter.

So what the heck do you write to your email list about? 

My advice is to keep it simple; think back to the past week, what did your audience or clients ask you about. What obstacles do you know your subscribers are currently struggling with? 

Just starting out; Do a little research & check out Facebook groups related to your niche and see what questions are being asked. 

 From here’s there is a couple of routes you can take:

•  You can develop the content ideas that you came up with from the research you did & create contention for the medium of your choice. And email your list to tell them about it with a link to it.
•  Or your newsletter can be the primary source of content.

 My  formula for my weekly newsletter is kinda a hybrid of both ( which gets rave reviews BTW - SHAMELESS PLUG _ Click here to join) goes like this:

Part 1: My Weekly Musing - An update about what I am currently thinking or working on in my business

Part 2: An action challenge - I share an action that I’ve taken in my business recently to help grow my business and challenge my subscribers to do the same.

Part 3: Intentional Business Resources - I share blog posts, podcasts, and resources I’ve come across or written myself that I think that my subscribers would find valuable.

Your weekly newsletter doesn’t have to be this intense just sharing one of these items would do but I hope they give you a jumping-off point. 

How to grow your email list. 

Let's start with lead magnets.

What is a lead magnet?

 A lead magnet is a valuable piece of content that you give to your audience for free in exchange for the name and email address. 

PRO TIP: You want your lead magnet to knock your audience's socks off. Like you want it to be sooooo packed with value that they say OMG I can’t believe how much value is in here. If this is free imagine what the paid stuff looks like.

Lead Magnet Ideas:

My favorite lead magnet is value-packed PDFs like guides, checklists, and cheat sheets. They are easy to create and can add a ton of value to your audience.

Lead Magnets should be short, sweet, and simple around 8 pages. You don’t want them to spend weeks going through your lead magnet but you also want to make sure that it is value-packed so that you leave your audience wanting to learn more from you.

Other types of lead magnets are :

• Audio Training
• Action-packed challenges
• Video & Min Course
• Free Ebook
• Demos or Free Trial 
• Free  Samples
• Live Events or Webinar

 Remember the goal of your lead magnet is to give your audience a quick win. This instant satisfaction will help you build your know, like, and trust factor.

 Here are some questions for you to ponder as you are coming up with ideas for your lead magnet:

• What frustration is your ideal subscriber currently experiencing?
• What is something you can teach them that will help them get over that first roadblock?

Need a little more inspo? Swipe Ideas from these examples:

• 5 Mistakes People make with {your niche}} 
• Building your dream { insert niche} - 10 things to get right before you build
• {Niche} Club - Learn to make one new { niche} every month
• Becoming a { what you help people with }

How to promote your lead magnet or freebie to grow your email list

Alright, so you’ve got your lead magnet.

Now, how the heck do you get people to sign up for it?

Here’s a list of the basic places where you should be promoting your lead magnet to grow your email list: 

• Social media - Talk about your lead magnet in a way that resonates with your audience and also is sure to place a link to your lead magnet in your social media bio
• Banner Opt-In - Place a signup banner at the top of all of your website pages
• Create inline opt-ins on your home & about page.
• Pop up on your website - Create a pop-up feature on our site that after 10 seconds or so offers your resource to your visitor
• Write value-packed article SEO, optimize articles & promote your lead magnet on your blog post page, in the sidebar of your blog, and embed links in your blog post itself.
• Promote your lead magnets through pins  on Pinterest

If you are just starting out you may need to get more a little more scrappy & try these techniques to get more visibility initially:

• Write a guest email on a biz besties email list.
• Reach out to someone in your industry that hosts webinars and asks to be guest
• Do you know someone with a blog in your zone of genius? Can you ask to be guest writer?
• Do you listen to podcasts in your industry that have guests? Pitch yourself to them!

The super-important part of any of those existing audiences is to ensure you’re offering value to their audience. There has to be a reason they let you get in front of their audience. Then after you add value & establish your authority, give their audience a compelling reason to sign up for your lead magnet.

Paid Advertising for Email List Building

If you have the budget, paying to advertise is a great way to build an email list rapidly. Paid advertising is not in my zone of genius but my clients have outsourced this in the past with success. I recommend you do the same if you have no knowledge about using paid advertising to grow your list. 

How to pick an email service provider? 

Ok, so instead of providing you the typical review of everyone in existence. I’m going to give you some choices based on where you are currently at. 

Are you an email newbie?

Then I definitely recommend a service like FloDesk, basically because it’s super intuitive to use & allows you to easily create beautiful landing pages & emails.

<<You can get a 30-day free trial & 50% off an annual membership by clicking this link.>>

Are you a coach, course creator, or online educator?

Then I totally recommend using the ESP in Kajabi. Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for knowledge-based business owners. It is designed so that everything you need to grow your business online is all in one place which includes a native email service provider that lets you quickly create and send gorgeous messages that integrate video, countdown timers, automation, and more... building strong audience relationships.

<<Get a 30-day free trial of Kajabi here. >>

Does your business require a lot of automation?

Then I recommend something more robust like Active Campaign, it makes it easy to segment and tag audience members based on actions they take & also I’ve found their automation to be the most user friendly. They also have a beyond amazing analytics dashboard.

My recommendation for all of these is don’t let yourself get too caught up in trying to decide this portion of your business. Switch ESP is fairly easy-breezy & usually just involves downloading your current list via a CSV file and uploading it to the new platform. 

<<You can sign up  with active campaign here for just $9/month.>>

 How to measure your email marketing success?  

Ok, some I’m going to be a little contradictory & tell you to not focus on the numbers but to also focus on the numbers.

The number I don’t want you to focus on is subscriber numbers. You do not need a HUGE list to make $$$. Fun fact I launched a course with a client that had less than 1000 subscribers & that generated over $150,000 in revenue. You don’t need a huge list but you do need an engaged list. Her list was very engaged and primed for her offer.

So let that subscriber number go and just focus on loving the heck out of your list out the list you have.

 Here are some numbers that you do want to take a look at semi-regularly: 

• Sign-up page conversion rate: This will tell you if your messaging is resonating with your audience. If this number is less than 30% I’d recommend playing with the messaging or evaluating if your lead magnet is valuable for your audience.
• Open Rate: I like to keep this above 30 % as well if you not see this type of open rate it could be time to clean up your list through a re-engagement campaign or you may need to work on writing a more compelling subject line. I love using the co-schedule free email tool for this.
• Click through rate: This is amount people that click through your email in order to purchase or visit another resource that you linked to. I like to keep this number between 1-3 percent and it is a good indicator of how engaged your list is.  
• Replies: This is the number one metric I use to indicator where my list is engaged and actually reading and finding value in what I’m sending to them.

Alright, there you have everything I’ve learned about building and growing an engaged email list. I'd love to hear if you try any of these tactics out.