One of the biggest challenges for new bloggers is getting their first email subscribers. While getting the first 1000 subscribers can be tough, I’ve found that list growth comes much easier and more naturally once you reach that point.
So what’s the best way for a new blogger get their first 1,000 subscribers?
I decided to ask some successful bloggers what they did to get their first 1,000 subscribers and what they would do if they had to start all over again today. Here’s the question I asked:
“How did you get your first 1000 email subscribers? And if you had to start over again, what would you do today to get your first 1000 email subscribers as quickly as possible?”
I’ll go first…
“I got my first 100 subscribers to Small Business Ideas Blog by doing an expert roundup similar to this one. After that, I did some guest blogging with a call to action to visit a landing page to get to 1,000. I would probably use a similar approach today, except I’d create more content, use at least 1 or 2 content amplifiers to expand my reach and do more social media promotion, specifically on Pinterest.”
I also asked several other bloggers who are still working their way up to 1,000 to see what strategies are currently working for them.
So what creative ways are people using to build their email lists? Here are their answers:
Blogging
- Andrew M Warner – Content creation and influence blogger
- Eli Seekins – Blogging expert and lifestyle blogger
- Janice Wald – Blogging expert
- Michael Pozdnev – Blogging and SEO expert
- Ryan Biddulph – Author, writer and travel blogger
- Zac Johnson – Full time affiliate marketer and founder of Blogging.org
Business
- Bill Gassett – #3 Re-Max Real Estate Agent
- Carly Taber – Experienced digital marketer, coach and lifestyle blogger
- Larry Kim – Founder of Wordstream and Mobile Monkey
- Ross Simmonds – 6-figure marketing consultant and entrepreneur
- Sophie Lizard – Freelancing expert and blogger
- Srish Agrawal – Founder of Logo Design Team
- Tariehk Geter – Founder of OSI Affiliate, e-commerce affiliate software
Digital Marketing
- Aaron Agius – SEO expert and digital marketing consultant
- Adam White – Founder of SEO Jet and Guest Post Tracker
- Andy Crestodina – Founder of Orbit Media
- Cameron Conaway – Content Marketing Manager at Klipfolio
- Dmitry Dragilev – PR and Social Media expert
- Joshua Earl – Lead generation expert
- Jaykishan Panchal – SEO Manager at E2M
- Jason Acidre – SEO Expert and consultant
- John Hall – Founder and CEO of Influence and Co
- Sean Si – Author and Founder of SEO Hacker
- Shane Barker – High profile digital marketing consultant
- Venchito Tampon – Founder of Sharp Rocket, an SEO agency
Social Media
- Anna Bennett – Pinterest marketing expert
- Jeff Bullas – Top social media influencer
- John Nemo – Best selling author, LinkedIn marketing and webinar expert
- Lilach Bullock – Social media consultant and influencer
- Marc Guberti – Teenage entrepreneur and social media expert
- Mike Kawula – Founder of Social Quant
- Sam Hurley – Social media influencer and lead generation expert
Summary (TL/DR) – A summary of the most popular tips.
Bill Gassett
While many people use fancy tactics to get blog subscribers, I have never gone out of my way to get people to want to read my content. In fact, the only real substantive thing I have done to get people to subscribe to my real estate blog, Maximum Real Estate Exposure, is to have a graphic at the bottom of each post suggesting readers can subscribe. While I could probably dramatically expand my horizons by doing other kinds of promotions I have chosen not to.
The people who subscribe to my blog are doing so because they really want to read exceptional real estate content. They are not doing so because they are going to get some fluff in their inbox. This has allowed my fan base to remain very loyal. They are getting my material for one reason – to learn the best tips on buying and selling homes. By visiting my site you can see the Opt in form I am using. It is a WordPress plugin called Optinskin. It is highly customizable and worth having if you would like to get more people subscribing to your blog.
Bio: Bill Gassett is the founder of Maximum Real Estate Exposure and the #3 RE-MAX Realtor in all of New England for 2016 .
Sophie Lizard
My first thought when you asked me how I got to 1,000 subscribers was, “I got them by guest posting.”
But then I thought a bit harder and realized that no, the guest posting isn’t the real answer. I also had a free Ultimate List of Better-Paid Blogging Gigs to give away to my subscribers (I still do – it’s now in its 4th edition), and I spent a good bit of time getting to know my ideal customers by hanging out in freelance writing groups, reading other members’ posts there, and offering advice when asked.
So the true answer is more like this: “I started talking to my ideal audience and getting to know their problems and desires, then I created an opt-in incentive that they’d told me they needed, then i used guest posting as a way to share that incentive. Oh, and I also built relationships with experts in the blogging industry, such as Jon Morrow and Danny Iny, and they were kind enough to share my stuff with *their* audiences. Damn, getting your first 1,000 subscribers is a lot of work!”
The other thing I guess I should point out is that I got my first 1,000 subscribers without actually having a live blog of my own. All I had was a landing page, my free Ultimate List to give away, and a lot of new friends who wanted freelance blogging advice. (Imagine how much more work it would’ve taken if I’d been publishing thrice-weekly blog posts at the same time as all that guest posting and forum lurking!)
I hope my long-winded answer helps remind you that, no matter what anyone else may have done to grow their email list, the best option is always to offer your audience what they want and need.
And don’t stress while you collect subscribers – there’s a snowball effect at work that means you can keep building momentum, so that your *next* thousand subscribers are easier to find, every time. 😉
Bio: Sophie Lizard is the founder of Be A Freelance Blogger, a blog that helps people discover how to successfully get freelance work and make a living as a freelancer.
Ryan Biddulph
I attracted my first 1000 email subscribers by solving specific problems related to the blogging niche, by guest posting and by blog commenting. This trio drew in folks who wanted to get my updates via email, through the power of adding specific value beneficial to a particular reader and through leveraging.
If I wanted to build my list quickly today I would do it slowly. Impatience is fear, and fear scares off success. Be patient, list building grasshoppers. If you take your time, have fun, create and connect and enjoy this ride, you will build an engaged, quality list versus the house of cards, crappy lists that many marketers boast of that yield poor results.
Bio: Ryan Biddulph is the founder of Blogging from Paradise and a full time travel blogger and author.
Tariehk Geter
“In the early 2000’s we were giving away free website templates and email templates on one of our websites.
Using this method, we were able to create an email list of over 10k. It worked like magic. We did not put a lot of thought into it. Emails just got added to the list daily.
Here’s the secret of why this method worked. We ranked highly for free templates and website template downloads.
We would do the same thing today. Just offer something of value to your audience in exchange of their email.
Then make sure you are driving traffic to the page where you are collecting the emails.”
Bio: Tariehk Geter is the founder of OSI Affiliate, which provides affiliate marketing software for e-commerce and other businesses. Their blog features e-commerce tips and advice, including their popular e-commerce marketing guide.
Larry Kim
If you have a few thousand dollars to spend, Facebook lead ads could generate emails for $1-5 each. You just need a compelling offer and specific Ad targeting.
Bio: Larry Kim is the founder of Wordstream and recently founded Mobile Monkey, software that turns mobile visitors into leads.
John Nemo
I got my first 1,000 email subscribers by doing a ton of blogging, and then inviting readers to opt-in to receive my blog updates via email. Later, I created a few lead magnets (eBooks, video courses, etc.) that helped grow the list as well. Once I started doing webinars, especially joint venture (JV) webinars where others shared my free trainings with their audiences, my email list really exploded.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d start with what I do now – using specific landing pages for different types of lead magnets, and then linking back to those lead magnets via guest blogging, Facebook Ads, Podcasts, social media and other methods. The key is targeting niche audiences, pinpointing a specific problem or challenge that niche audience wants help with, and creating a lead magnet to meet that need.
I’ve also found that, as an author, giving away my entire book for free works incredibly well to build my email list – and doesn’t cost me any sales over on Amazon! Because Amazon.com is essentially one of the world’s largest search engines, with a built-in audience of people who use Amazon instead of Google to look for resources and training, I still sell just as many copies of my bestselling book, LinkedIn Riches, on Amazon as I did before I made the entire book available for free as a lead magnet on my website.
Bio: John Nemo is a Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and Online Course Creator who writes regularly for Inc. Magazine, American City Business Journals and others. His areas of expertise including LinkedIn lead generation training courses and webinar training courses.
Andy Crestodina
My first few hundred subscribers were people I invited personally during conversations. I didn’t get to 1000 until I learned how to conversion optimize my email signup form. The key is to add the three P’s to your signup box:
- Prominence: make the form visually obvious, as in a contrasting color, sticky footer or popover window
- Promise: tell the visitor what they’ll get and how often
- Proof: add some social proof by using a testimonial or showing how many other people have subscribed
If your audience is very concerned about privacy, you can add that as the fourth P. Once we added these elements, the impact was huge. We saw a 1400% increase in the conversion rate. Here’s the data…
(image source: Email Signup Forms: 4 Things that Lead to Huge Results or Total Failure)
Later that number increase to 1900%. So if you’re looking for list growth, add the three P’s!
Bio: Andy Crestodina is one of the co-founders of Orbit Media, an agency that provides web development and marketing services. He is also a popular content marketing speaker at conferences.
Janice Wald
I realize many people struggle to get 1,000 email subscribers, but this is an easy question.
The longer I blogged, the more I realized what bloggers needed. I made those things my optins. I filled bloggers’ needs in exchange for email addresses. I still do. Ask yourself what would readers gladly pay for? Then, you give them that thing for free.
I realize optins may vary depending on the blogging niche. I recently published a post containing 37 ideas for optins applicable to any niche. http://www.mostlyblogging.com/blog-subscribers-optins/
Many people use LeadPages to offer their optins in exchange for catching email addresses. It’s a wonderful tool, but it’s expensive. I use Rapidology, a free tool, to capture emails.
“And if you had to start over again, what would you do today to get your first 1000 email subscribers as efficiently as possible?”
The more optins I offered readers, the quicker my list grew. Today, I have a total of 7 optins. Many people have only one and don’t understand why their list is growing slowly. The more optins you offer, the quicker your list will grow. What would I do if I had to start over? I’d offer more optins sooner.
Bio: Janice Wald is the founder of Mostly Blogging, a blog that provides tips and information for people that want to learn more about blogging.
Joshua Earl
My first 5,000 email subscribers came almost exclusively from Twitter—and I got them by using other people’s content. I would follow the followers of other Twitter accounts in my niche. Around 20% would follow me back. Several times a day I’d tweet “curated” content—links to blog posts that I thought my followers would benefit from. I grew a Twitter following of nearly 50K subscribers this way. Then a few times a week I’d tweet out a link to my “lead magnet,” and I’d get dozens of signups.
Today the biggest opportunity I see for traffic and list building is YouTube. Many niches are still wide open and unclaimed on YouTube, since it has a higher barrier to entry—you have to do video. If I were starting from scratch today I’d record 2-3 short YouTube videos every day, and then include a link to my optin page in the video description. The amount of traffic available on YouTube is staggering—and I don’t see it going anywhere but up.
Bio: Joshua Earl is an expert copywriter, programmer and internet marketer who has studied under Perry Marshall and Ben Settle.
Sam Hurley
I’ve never had a functional website, only a splash page up until now!
Despite this, I have managed to gain nearly 2,000 email subscribers.
I applied a combination of many techniques, but mainly coupled content marketing (epic, educational articles) to build my personal brand, with content curation in conjunction with a tool called StartAFire. Unfortunately, they suddenly closed down, so now I use a tool called Backly.
It allows you to share others’ helpful content — while also directing people back to your own content, with a cool pop-up that appears on the content you originally shared.
In my case, I pointed them back to my splash page!
If I was to do it all again and focus solely on email subscribers? I would simply do the same AND have a live website in the first place — providing tonnes of valuable, gated content and other awesome offerings!
Bio: Sam Hurley was listed in Brand24’s top 100 marketing influencers of 2017 and has been featured on sites like Forbes, Fast Company and Entrepreneur. He is fhe founder of Optim-Eyez.
Michael Pozdnev
I got my first 1,000 subscribers thanks to my SEO analysis of online marketing experts’ blogs.
Then I emailed these influencers saying that I’d analyzed their blogs, found some mistakes, and learned their secrets. And of course, I asked them to share that post. 🙂
But the biggest part of my success was brought to me by my BFF Commenter technique.
I would type in Google relevant keywords and find articles that had more commenters on my topic (using the Google search operator: keyword + “10..10000 comments”).
Then I’d contact commenters who were interested in my topic.
If I had to start all over again, I’d pay more attention to this technique as it leads to stunning results.
Because you not only get subscribers but friends too! (Thanks to this technique I even met my girlfriend!)
In my blogger outreach case study you may learn in greater detail the specific steps that lead to success.
Bio: Michael Pozdnev is the founder of I Wanna Be a Blogger, a blog that gives tips and advice to bloggers on how to grow their audience.
Marc Guberti
I got my first 1000 email subscribers by creating a landing page and repeatedly promoting it to my Twitter audience. I scheduled many tweets and still schedule tweets to this day. If I had to start over again, I would still grow my presence on Twitter and use that to grow my email list as it led to extraordinary opportunities, but I would have jumped into the virtual summit scene much faster. After hosting my first virtual summit in June, I am hosting another virtual summit in September. The goal for 2018 is to host 3-4 virtual summits as they are the quickest way to grow an email list (but they also require a lot of work on your end).
Bio: Marc Guberti is a teenage entrepreneur and social media expert that has grown his Twitter account to over 250,000 followers and gets over 250,000 visitors to his blog each month.
Venchito Tampon
Produce 10x content that can pull your targeted audience to subscribe to your email newsletter. Advice like adding exit pop ups and image links pointing to email capturing pages can only do so well if the visitor has gained so much value from your brand – which in most cases, can be attributed to information-driven content.
In that sense, it’s still vital to add an email capturing form on your page and other methods to make email forms visible.
A few things to keep in mind when creating a high-quality content that can 20x provide value to its audience:
- Capture interests of your audience in the first few sentences of your content (you should definitely answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”).
- Add other content formats besides text, like videos and slides that can serve as references/validations to your ideas. This would allow your audience to get in-depth information on the topic (pushing them to wanting more of your content which leads to subscribing to your newsletter).
- Long-form isn’t anymore a best practice. A content that serves its audience’s intent is what matters. If it’s 500 or 1000 words, then so be it.
- On top of your main content, you can create a content upgrade (a pdf, file or any content formats that includes other tips/information not found on your main content).
Bio: Venchito Tampon is the CEO and Co-Founder of SharpRocket, a link building company that provides top-notch link building services to international clients from small to medium-sized businesses to enterprise clients. He is also a Filipino motivational speaker for companies and organizations in the Philippines.
Jeff Bullas
I just used a banner with no offer of free ebooks or premium content.
It was a slow process. But finally worked out to offer a free ebook with a pop up was the fastest way to grow my list. The most powerful process I have discovered since was to use a welcome mat pop-up by SumoMe.
This exploded my list.
Bio: Jeff Bullas started his blog in 2009 and is frequently recognized as one of the top social media and content marketing influencers. He teaches people how to use social media to grow their business.
Sean Si
I recently ran a campaign for my book, CEO at 22 (Published April 8, 2017). I published an e-book version and a hardcopy version. I built the email list from essentially zero subscribers to now 2,380 people in the list. Approximately 95% of the people in the list are my target market – Filipinos who are keen on starting up their own business.
Seeing that June has just ended, I got the 2,380 subscribers within the span of 2 full months. That’s more than 1,000 subscribers per month. I’m quite happy with that seeing as the Philippines is more social media oriented rather than an email-based country.
What I did was:
Create a page to sell my book with all the details, testimonials, videos, etc – and gave the entire chapter 1 of my book for free in exchange for a name and email.
Ran retargeted ads on Facebook to people who downloaded the chapter 1 – to encourage them to purchase the entire story.
Ran an awesome tool by AppSumo: Kingsumo giveaways (thanks Noah Kagan!). That got me 890 emails for me in 20 days time.
Ran Facebook ads to bring in traffic to my Kingsumo giveaway landing page.
Created a video about the giveaway that encouraged more people to join and share.
Created a 6-series drip email to all who signed up – giving them a copy-paste option to share to their social media platforms on each email.
Made sure to ask people to share with the hashtag #ceoat22 – followed those who did that and engaged with them so they would share more.
Ran retargeted ads on Facebook to the people who shared – so they would be reminded to share more and get more chances of winning the book.
That’s a lot of work. But now I got more than two thousand people who knows my story, who knows that the book is available to order on my website and, some of whom have already bought their own copies of the book.
This strategy can definitely be replicated for different industries. It would come with different results, of course. But it easily got the word out about me and my book to the startup community.
So there you have it. A real case study for something that happened just recently. Hope it helps.
Bio: Sean Si is the CEO and Founder of SEO Hacker, an SEO company in the Philippines and Qeryz. A start-up, data analysis and urgency junkie who spends his time inspiring young entrepreneurs through talks and seminars. Check out his personal blog where he writes about starting up two companies and life in general.
Jason Acidre
I didn’t have a squeeze page on my site, and I didn’t offer any freemium downloadable content (free ebooks, newsletter guides, etc…) to attract new email subscribers when I started blogging. I got my first 1,000 email subscribers through consistently writing actionable guides on my blog. I mainly focused on ideas that I rarely see elsewhere. That’s probably one of the main reasons why people were attracted in signing up for my newsletter (to get updated on my future articles).
If I have to do it again, I’d definitely do the same. I will still focus on creating high-utility content assets and drive a ton of targeted traffic to them, and make sure that I have the email opt-in very visible on each high traffic page on the site (I actually wrote a guide/case study related to this – on how to build an email list using ManyContacts).
Bio: Jason Acidre is the Co-founder & CEO at Xight Interactive. And the author of Kaiserthesage – an SEO blog.
Mike Kawula
I’m a big believer in building both your email list and social media following at the very start of your new business (preferably before).
For both my current and previous businesses, Twitter has been the driving force behind building our first 1000 email subscribers and beyond. If you’re just getting started and/or you’re ready to focus on list-building as a means of growing your business, here’s my four-step process to implement immediately:
1) Create a Killer Piece of Gated Content
Create your first piece of gated content that answers your target customer’s biggest pain point.
Make sure this content is gold, ideally something people would even consider paying for to access.
Take some time to ensure the headline copy is amazing. I recommend going to others in your niche who have great website traffic and looking at their pop-ups. These businesses have already done the home-work on what copy converts well and what doesn’t.
For instance, our most recent welcome mat converts at over eight percent for new visitors. This means that for every 1000 new visitors each day we capture 80 email addresses. The copy: “We’ve analyzed over 1 Billion Tweets! Here’s the most comprehensive list of Twitter Marketing Tips (on Earth)”
That copy was generated based on something similar from Buffer, which we changed to fit our business (thanks Buffer…You ROCK).
2) Optimize your Twitter profile
This means creating a great-looking Twitter cover as well as a profile picture of you (not your businesses logo). It also means creating a good profile description using all 160 characters that connects with people professionally as well as on a personal level. And of course, don’t forget a link to your website.
When you’re done with that, create a Pinned Tweet of your new piece of gated content. Use the amazing copy you came up with in step one, share a great looking image and link to the landing page to get people to opt in to your list.
3) Focus on growth
Get eyeballs to your optimized Twitter profile by going out and following people who are actively discussing keywords around your niche or who share the content of other Twitter accounts similar to yours. Follow at least 250 accounts a day and, if you’re following relevant followers, over 20% will come back, look at your profile, follow you back and click on that pinned Tweet.
A percentage will go to that landing page for your gated content and give you their email address each and every day. This works particularly well if you’re following people who are actively discussing the topic that matches your pinned Tweet.
4) Tweet consistently
Share 20-50 Tweets per day to stay in front of your new followers. (Yes, that much, we’ve done the research after analyzing over 2 billion Tweet impressions). Make sure you’re sharing good content and that you’re sharing your gated content several times a day to get traffic to your landing page.
This strategy alone drives Social Quant several thousand new email addresses each month and will also help you get your first 1000 email subscribers in under 30 days.
I’m such a big believer of this strategy that in September I’ll be launching a podcast called Dinner Table MBA, and beginning in July we’ll be building our first 10,000 email subscribers with this exact outline.
Bio: Mike Kawula is the founder of Social Quant, a tool that helps Twitter users grow their followers and engagement.
Dmitry Dragilev
I would execute a skyscraper technique much like I did for the term “sales management” for which we outrank wikipedia now. I wrote a case study about the entire process on Moz recently. I use guest posting as a link building strategy to help rank my content, I wrote an article about this on SEMRush recently. Once I rank for the term I would optimize for CTAs to convert visitors into email subscribers.
A quick tip: I use MarketMuse to find holes in my content and competitor content. I check which topics (related to the subject of my blog post) are already covered by my competitors in their blog post which outranks me. It’s important to see what they have which I do not have in my post.
Similarly I check which related topics they have not covered in their post so I can add them into my post. This type of analysis helps me find holes which I need to fill with my content to outrank them.
Bio: Two years ago Dmitry single-handedly grew a startup from zero to 40 million page views through SEO/PR outreach and got acquired by Google. Now he has translated his know-how into an SEO and PR coaching program PRThatConverts and a SaaS JustReachOut which is used by 4,000+ professionals and entrepreneurs to pitch relevant influencers and bloggers to gain exposure and traffic. In his spare time he documents his experiments on his blog CriminallyProlific.
Anna Bennett
I received my first 1000 email subscribers by creating an opt-in box on my home page and offering massive free value in exchange for their email address. Plus we worked hard to make sure we ranked # 1 on Google under our most important keywords.
You want to collect as many email addresses as you can, as quickly as you can. This will help you make more sales. The opt-in box is the “tool” that helps you collect email addresses. I also include an opt-in box at the end of all of my blog posts.
If I had to do it over again I would do the same thing I did originally because it has worked amazingly well. Put an opt-in box on your home page, offer massive free value, have a strong call to action. Strongly SEO your site so you rank # 1 in organic search. (The opt-in box has little value if no one sees your offer.)
Bio: Anna Bennett is the founder of White Glove Social Media, which helps businesses with their Pinterest marketing as well as provide Pinterest marketing articles on th.
Carly Taber
5 key ways I reached my first 1000 subscribers was through:
- Set up a pop-up offering a relevant/related free eBook upon subscription.
- Added email sign up invite to the bottom of articles and my email signature.
- Ran competitions with (non-competing) brands in the same industry and got them to share the competitions with their database.
- Requested that the people I collaborate share the content with their tribe also.
- Ran Facebook advertising campaigns to promote invite to sign up, and the competitions.
If I had my time again, to reach my first 1000 subscribers, 3 things I’d do differently are:
- Offer a webinar/video rather than an eBook – they’re time consuming to create.
- Serve the pop-up to all users immediately (whilst personally I’m not a pop-up fan and understand the various repercussions, I now get a lot more subscribers this way than serving it after 2 page views / upon exit which is what I did before).
- Direct the Facebook spend to encouraging video training/webinar sign up/join a private Facebook group rather than general sign up, this way more of a commitment is required they’re a warmer lead – going for quality over quantity.
Bio: With over 8 years in marketing and management positions, Carly has spent the last 4 years growing digital brands in the beauty, trade media and publishing industries; and more recently started her own venture, casadekarma.com.au. Carly specialises in starting, growing and commercialising personal and professional businesses online, through a holistic strategy covering traffic acquisition, visitor retention and loyalty & engagement, innovation, partnerships, social media, product & content creation, branding and more.
Cameron Conaway
For our team at Klipfolio it’s a one-two punch:
- Create the definitive piece of organic evergreen content on a particular topic.
- Embed within that content an interesting, relevant, subscription-based content upgrade.
For example, we’ve created what has perhaps become the web’s most viewed page about KPIs (key performance indicators). Here is that page.
Because we know people visiting that page are in some stage of their quest for knowledge about KPIs, we created a free 5-day email course about KPIs. We place the CTA for the course once in the beginning of the page and once at the end—and have had great results.
If we had to do it all again, frankly, we would have incorporated this method as a fundamental component of our content strategy far earlier than we did (and rather than having our primary CTA be a guide to KPIs that readers may download once and forget about).
And, as we are working on now, we would have built out a beautiful landing page for this email course so that we could also promote it on social and to readers who have engaged with our other content on KPIs.
Bio: Cameron Conway is the Content Marketing Manager at Klipfolio, which provides a dashboard for monitoring business metrics and website analytics.
Lilach Bullock
www.lilachbullock.comIt was years ago, I created a free e-book that helped business owners drive more traffic to their websites. I didn’t invest in any advertising to promote it, I just used social media to drive lots of traffic to it – and it worked!
If I had to start all over again, I would probably create more targeted content downloads. While my site-wide opt-in incentive is one of the top performing opt-ins on my website, it’s with content downloads that I get the most targeted leads. To give an example, I recently created a guide on how to promote blog posts. Alongside it, I also created a blog promotion checklist that my readers can download for free, and because it is so targeted (after all, they’re reading about promoting a blog post), it led to a higher conversion rate and I gathered more targeted leads.
The thing is, I think it’s worth looking beyond numbers; sure, it’s great to have tens or hundreds of thousands of email subscribers, but ultimately the quality of your subscribers is much more important. If they’re not opening the emails, if they’re not coming back to your website or they’re only looking for freebies, then you don’t get much value. But if they’re truly interested in what you can do for them, in your blog content and so on, then that makes a true difference to your businesses’ success.
Bio: Lilach Bullock is a social media expert and was featured on Forbes Top 20 Women Social Media Influencers. She helps small businesses with marketing and lead generation.
Jaykishan Panchal
If I have to begin from the ground up again and build a subscriber base, then I will make sure to do the following:
- Invest in Good Email List Software
From what I’ve experienced, every digital marketer needs two kinds of software: One that adds complexity to tasks, and another that simplifies them. I’ve realized that MailChimp makes email marketing easy, especially in terms of automating emails.
- Welcome Every Subscriber
The good news is that most marketing software enable marketers to send out a ‘Welcome’ email to their subscribers. This works well as it is akin to welcoming a new visitor to your home in the best possible manner.
- Offer Free Resources
It is a great idea to offer incentives to your audience for signing up to your mailing list. These incentives can be helpful resources in the form of:
- PDFs
- Checklists
- Toolkits/Resource Guides
- Free Video Courses
- Discount Coupons
How do you offer these? By adding a download link either to your lead magnet on the ‘Thank You’ page or in your ‘Welcome’ email.
- Share High-Quality Blog Posts
Blogs posts that offer great information and engage audiences work like a charm in getting people to sign up with you. Create attractive content in various formats such as infographics, videos, HD images, and GIFs. These elements supplement your website’s user experience and keep subscribers on your page for longer. This, in turn, augments your SEO rank.
- Place A/B Testing Signup Form Strategically
Depending on the dimension, design, and the audience of your website (and your industry), it is important to determine the ideal placement for your newsletter. A/B testing can help determine this. Some of the options to try include:
- Top of the sidebar
- Top header
- After a post
- Footer
- Pop-up box
Trying multiple newsletter signup options at once can help in adding authenticity to the content.
- Harness Facebook to Grow Email List
Facebook is great if you want to grow your email list by converting your existing followers. Simply add a call-to-action button on your Facebook subscriber page for your followers to click on, and generate a huge email list.
- Track Sign-ups with Google Analytics
Doing this entails a simple process. As soon as your subscribers sign up to your mailing list, send them a ‘Thank You’ email and track the number of people that visit this page. By doing so, you can determine the total number of signups.
So these are the steps I would take if I were to work towards earning my first 1000 subscribers today. All of these are actionable and practical, and save time and effort. Fortunately, technology supports digital marketers better today than ever before. Not capitalizing on it will mean wasted opportunities. Anyone who uses the above steps to their advantage stands to achieve their email marketing goal in no time.
Bio: Jaykishan Panchal is the SEO Team Lead at E2M (e2msolutions.com), a full service digital marketing agency serving over 500 clients.
Aaron Agius
It’s not a “hack” or anything, but guest posting – especially on major sites in my industry like Entrepreneur, Hubspot, etc – is what’s made the biggest difference in growing my email list. One of my biggest regrets is not starting it sooner, so if I had to start over again today, I’d invest heavily in guest posting right off the bat. It’s a little more work upfront, but it makes such a huge difference in your perceived authority and gives you assets that’ll drive results (whether email subscribers or anything else) again and again over time.
Bio: Aaron Agius is the managing director and co-founder of Louder Online, a marketing a web technology agency that specializes in search, social and content marketing.
Ross Simmonds
The first 1,000 subscribers seemed (at the time) like an impossible goal to reach. The approach I took was very passive and was certainly limited by my own ego. I was afraid to look silly in front of my friends by promoting my mailing list, sharing my blog posts or asking people to download new resources. Instead, I sat back, crossed my fingers and simply hoped that people would come across my content.
At some point, probably at around 400 subscribers, I realized that this passive approach wasn’t working. So, I decided I was going to much more aggressive and committed myself to promoting my content relentlessly in as many channels possible and without letting my ego hold me back. I shared my content via Twitter, Facebook, on Quora, Slideshare, Reddit, Guest Blogging and every community I could think of. And when I started seeing results, I quickly realized that content isn’t really king, distribution is…
If I could start all over again, the process I would take to reach my first 1000 subscribers would be straight forward:
- Create great content that goes deep on the subjects that your target audience cares about. Do research. Create compelling visuals. Go above and beyond the status quo.
- Once you’ve published 2 or 3 of these on your own website, take the next one and submit it to be published as guest blog on a top site that your audience is reading. Include a call to action in that content telling people to sign up for your newsletter.
- Take all of this content that you’ve published and invest in content distribution.
- Start all over again.
Bio: Ross Simmonds is a digital markeing strategist, 6-figure consultant and the founder of Hustle and Grind (e-commerce store for entrepreneurs) and Crate (content marketing software).
John Hall
We started our subscriber list at the same time we updated our website. So we reached out to our contacts to reconnect with them, introduce our new branding, and ask for feedback on the site design, which allowed us to pretty naturally encourage subscriptions for more content from us at the same time.
A great way we’ve found to continue growing that base of subscribers is to build a funnel by creating engaging, high-quality content and publishing it in the online publications your audience already reads. Include relevant links to educational blog content in your guest posts to lead readers back to your site and offer more value. Make sure your blog content includes calls to action that give readers the chance to download gated content, too, so you can capture contact information to build your list.
Something I recommend doing that I wish we would have done sooner, is adding pop-up forms to your site pages that ask visitors to subscribe, and consider featuring a piece of gated content for download directly on your homepage.
Bio: John Hall is the CEO and co-founder of Influence and Co, an agency that helps businesses with their content marketing. Influence and Co was ranked #72 in Forbes “Most Promising Companies” in 2014 and John has contributed to over 50 publications including Inc, Harvard Business Review and the Washington Post.
Adam White
My strategy to get my first 1000 email subscribers for GuestPostTracker.com was to create 5 or 6 really in depth blog posts and use SEO to drive users to those posts. The posts shared really actionable information on guest posting. Then I created a lead magnet ebook of how to get published in the big business blogs like Forbes etc. I used Sumo.me to run the pop up ad that pushes the ebook. Using this strategy quickly got me to 1000+ subscribers.
The one thing I would have changed to get the subscribers more quickly is I would have included in content upgrades on each of the posts. I only had the popup running but on SEOJet I use a lot of in content upgrades as lead magnets and the conversion rate on them is ridiculously high.
Bio: Adam White is the founder of Guest Post Tracker, which maintains an updated list of over 1200 authority blogs that accept guest posts and SEOJet, SEO software that helps people improve their search engine rankings.
Eli Seekins
I got my first 1,000 subscribers by making people important. And if I had to start over again I’d do it the exact same way. First, do your research, right? Pick your niche & build your brand. Find your tribe. And find a problem you can fix for them. After that it’s easy. Just take it step-by-step and cultivate relationships.
Once you know what your tribe wants, create a lead magnet to help them. Then drive traffic to that lead magnet. Start with friends and family, and even people you know online. Then do some blogger outreach, move on to roundup posts and guest blogging – and then even work your way up to things like podcasting, videos, virtual summits, and viral giveaways.
After that you sort of rinse and repeat. Do some split testing and experiment. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. And hitting your first 1k email subs is a great feeling.
Bio: Eli Seekins is the founder of Launch Your Dream, a site that provides articles to help other bloggers and inspire people to pursue their dreams.
Shane Barker
It wasn’t easy, especially since I didn’t use any paid ads. My main focus was on content marketing, and I believe that’s what helped me get valuable and relevant email subscribers.
I submitted guest posts to relevant, high-authority websites, which helped me gain high-quality traffic. When people land on my website through the author bios on those sites, they immediately see an option to sign up for a free consultation. That’s how I initially started gaining subscribers and traction.
I also enriched my own blog with valuable content that includes actionable ideas relevant to my niche. So those who didn’t sign up for the consultation can still check out my content to understand my expertise in the field. And after reading my blog posts, visitors have the option to sign up for my newsletter.
In addition to this, I occasionally produce more in-depth resources, like ebooks, that can help my target audience with their digital marketing campaigns. I use a pop-up to invite people to download these ebooks when they visit my website. They just have to enter their email addresses to get access.
Although it took me awhile to get my first 1000 email subscribers through these steps, the subscribers I got are highly relevant. So if I had to start over again, I would follow the same strategy.
Bio: Shane Barker is an experienced marketing consultant that helps companies and individuals with lead generation, conversion optimization, management consulting and more.
Andrew M Warner
Ever since I started my new site 8 months ago, I wanted to put a focus on building a quality list. There’s three ways I build my list:
1. Post specific content upgrades.
2. Guest posting on sites related to my niche.
3. I do local freelance work and network with local businesses in my area. I pass out business cards with my website on it as well. This has worked very well and has gotten my some client work also.
Bio: Andrew M Warner is the founder of Content Ranked, a blog that provides tips on creating great content and building influence.
Zac Johnson
I can actually answer this question in a few different ways, as I’ve been in the industry for nearly 20 years now. Way before I got into the world of blogging, I was actually in the email and free stuff/sweepstakes space. I eventually grew my mailing list to around 2 million subscribers, and this was a daily mailing of subscribers that wanted the latest free stuff offers and sweepstakes sent to them daily. It was a great money maker as many of the offers were affiliate campaigns as well. To build such a massive list, I actually had a few sweepstakes and free stuff sites of my own where site visitors could enter a contest or fill out a form to get something for free. I also had an affiliate program in place for each site as well, so other free stuff sites were sending a lot of traffic my way as well.
As for how I would build a list from scratch today, I would reflect back on what has worked really well for me through my blogs. Create a few pieces of content that are extremely valuable and make sure they become your sites ‘pillar content’, that other sites will continually reference to, and that you can also link back to from your own content. In addition to offering this content, offer it as a PDF or have something extra to offer only to your mailing list subscribers. Then just setup a great call to action subscription form using a tool like OptinMonster. Once all of this is in place, all you need to do is get your content and site in front of the right audience and make sure it’s getting the promotion it deserves.
Bio: Zac Johnson is the founder of ZacJohnson.com and Blogging.org, where he shares tips for blogging and affiliate marketing.
Srish Agrawal
Something that has worked extremely well for us, is creating really detailed and beautiful PDF guides for our audience. Since we are in the web design and logo space, it’s all about visualization and branding. Each week we created two new blog posts on each of our sites, then have a call to action at the top and bottom of our posts to join our mailing list. The most effective method so far has been to create exit-intent pop-ups and grabbing the subscribers information before they leave the site. This implementation in itself has helped grow our daily subscriber count by more than 3X.
If we had to start over again, we would likely go with the “expert roundup” approach and offer the content in a downloadable format. You can see an example of how we are currently doing this here. Each month we release a new expert roundup post with around 50+ experts providing their own advice on a specific topic. These work extremely well for social shares, traffic, and backlinks… but they can also do wonders for list building as well. In short, look at how you can use your existing content to provide incentives to get users to enter their email address to get a little bonus or to simply download your content in another format to be accessed later.
Bio: Srish Agrawal is the founder of Logo Design Team, a business that sells logos for companies.
To Sum It Up
If you are stuck on lead generation, then try out some of the above tips. Although there were a lot of unique responses, here are some common tactics that seem to be popular:
- Drive traffic to a landing page that offers something of high value for free
- Guest post to drive traffic to landing pages
- Increase opt-ins with pop-ups and welcome mat
- Drive leads through Twitter and content curation
- Use Facebook and paid ads to send traffic to a landing page and generate leads quickly
- Use SEO to drive traffic to top content and landing pages
- Use email outreach to connect with other bloggers and promote content
- Use giveaways and competitions
- Host a virtual summit
- Just focus on creating great content consistently
What creative techniques have you used to grow your email list?
Hi Brian,
Thank you for including me in your interview. You did a wonderful job with your round up.
I agree with the tips I read here. I have observed the more I tweet my lead magnets, the more sign-ups I get. However, all the tips were valuable.
Thank you again for including me. I have shared on my social media.
Janice
Welcome, Janice! Great to have you!
A lot of good tips, thanks for sharing. They are important for me as a starting with my blog 🙂
Welcome, glad you found it useful!
Some great tips here — thank you for publishing. I’ve had good success with paid Facebook advertising to drive a targeted audience (in my case, hyper local) to key landing pages / blog articles on my site.
Happy blogging and thanks again.
Thanks Thomas! That seems to be a popular tactic to get leads efficiently.
Thanks for sharing.
Am still about to start growing my subscribers
Sure thing, Anyaogu!