How to Build an Email List from Scratch
Are you ready to find out what to do and what’s needed so that you can start building your email list?
Even if you are starting from 0 this process will help you build a community of people that are interested in you, your business, and what you have to offer.
If you prefer to watch, check out this 9-minute video instead.
One of the most valuable assets that you can have in your coaching business is an email list. This is an asset that you’ll want to continuously put in effort to grow throughout the course of your business. Here’s why…
You want to own your audience. I’ll explain.
Your favorite social media platform could easily close the doors at any time without warning and without your vote.
I would hope that this doesn’t happen anytime soon or in the near future, but the 2021 Facebook outage reminded us all that we were not in control.
It wasn’t only Facebook that went down, but also the popular divisions of the company, such as Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It didn’t matter how many times you hit the refresh button, there was no access to any of those sites and this lasted for almost 6 hours!
While that may not seem like a ton of time, it stopped many small businesses in their tracks.
Believe it or not, there are many businesses who have depended strictly on social media to run their business, so what happens when they no longer have access to connect with their audience to make sales?
The answer is… They don’t. They don’t make sales.
It’s not a great way to run a business, and for those of you who have allowed social media to control your business, let’s vow to not ever let that happen again.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to use social media to reach our audience, but we have to start using it as the resource that it actually is that helps us with our visibility to get in front of our audience.
Once you’re directly in front of your audience, leverage that engagement to send people to your own database that you DO have complete control over.
From there, begin sharing more, connecting and establishing yourself as a credible expert in your field so that they want more and buy more.
The goal here is not to put all of your eggs in one basket, but to fill YOUR basket with many eggs.
Make sense?
In this post, I’ll share with you 5-steps you can use to start building your email list using social media as the resource to fill your basket:
1. Create Compelling Content with a Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Keep in mind, all content that you create and use for social media is for your audience and should always be centered around topic ideas that will appeal to that ideal audience. This content should also be relatable to what you’re offering.
For example, in my business I support other coaches with marketing strategies to grow their coaching business, so it wouldn’t really make sense for me to create content around beauty tips.
The point here is to attract the right audience, not push them away or have them confused about what your business is about.
2. Create a Landing Page to Collect Subscribers
Once you have your compelling content with an action oriented CTA, your audience will need a place to go to sign up for your offer. This page will let them add their name and email address to receive your offer.
On this page, you’ll want to describe what that offer is and why they should provide you with their email address to receive it. It takes a little convincing because we’re all a little apprehensive about giving away information that allows others to have access to us, but when you offer someone something that is going to help them that apprehension will no longer exist.
My magic formula for creating content for landing pages, sales pages, and other action-oriented content is a little secret that we all learned back in middle school and high school that I’ve always remembered because it’s been so good to me.
Now, do you remember the 5 W’s and the H principle?
This principle is one of the best practices to follow because it summarizes everything a reader wants to know as they read or skim through content.
This principle includes: who, what, when, where, why and how
• Who is your offer for?
• What will it help them to achieve?
• When will they need it?
• Where can they get it?
• Why do they need it now?
• How can they apply this to get a transformation or a solution to their problem?
If you aren’t able to identify these questions for your ideal audience, chances are they won’t know it’s for them either.
Are you finding this content helpful?
If you want to learn more about how to put this 5-step process into practice, sign-up below to download my free guide and checklist to help you create your sales funnel to grow your email list.
3. Use an Email Service Provider (ESP)
The purpose of the ESP is that it helps you to manage multiple subscriber lists and evaluate the success and metrics of your email marketing campaigns.
There are many ESP companies that support small businesses, so it’s best to select one that can grow with your business.
My top ESP to use for my business and one that I recommend to other coaches is Convertkit*.
Convertkit works for new coaching businesses as well as existing businesses that sell services, programs, and courses.
The best part… you get to own your relationship with your audience.
You’re not bound or limited to any algorithm. Instead, you customize the path so that your audience is nurtured and educated with content that will support them on their journey.
They’ve made it very inexpensive to get started with a free account to start creating landing pages to deliver your lead magnets as well as having the ability to send emails to your audience.
You can use the link here to get started with a free Convertkit account.
Quick note: Although Yahoo and Gmail are considered email service providers, these mail services are for personal use only. Emails that you send from your business from an ESP will need the ability to send emails from a professional email address.
For example a business email address will look something like yourname@yourbusiness.com, NOT yourname@gmail.com.
When it comes to sending marketing emails you have to stay compliant with email regulations.
4. Have an Offer
Have you heard the phrase “the money is in the list”?
Well, I believe this to be true as well, but only if you have an offer to sell to your audience.
If you’re building your list just for the sake of building a list and you aren’t really sure what your offer is yet, you may be attracting the wrong audience until you figure it out.
I believe when it comes to list building, you must start with the end in mind.
If the end goal is to offer your audience a 6-week program that helps them with a desired transformation, you must work backwards by sending content that is aligned with that specific goal.
Your lead magnet should work in tandem with your offer so that it nurtures and educates them prior to you sharing that offer.
You don’t want to have subscribers join your list from your lead magnet then offer them something that’s completely unrelated.
This usually results in high unsubscribe rates and because you’re building a list, you want to keep those your subscribers happy and provide them with relatable content.
5. Create a Sales Page
After you’ve shared content with your subscribers on how you’re able to support them and they’ve gotten to know you and trust that you are able to support them with their problem or transformation, you can share your offer with a sales page.
A sales page is very similar to the landing pages that I shared with you earlier, except this time, we’re converting our subscribers to buyers once again including the 5 W’s and the H principle.
Your sales page can act as an application page to qualify for a call with you to make sure that you both are fit to work together. It can also be a paid training or course, or even a deposit page for 1:1 support.
There are many creative ways to convert a subscriber and it isn’t a one size fits all. It will depend on your business, so be sure to do what you feel works best for your business and your audience.
I hope this process provided you with a deeper understanding and perspective on how you can get creative with your content to offer a lead magnet to grow your email list.
Comment below where you are in the process of creating your sales funnel to grow your list!
