Have you ever wondered by some bloggers seem to build their mailing lists quickly and generate a healthy income, while others struggle to get anyone to even notice them?
Hey, I know you might be having issues. We all have them! But I’m also betting you love your blog and want to see it thrive! I feel the same way!
So let’s talk all about the MANY ways you can build your mailing list — there are really quite a lot! You’ll also learn how powerful a mailing list can be for your blog and how it can monetize your efforts faster and better than other methods. Once you’ve got a great mailing list, you’ll can drive traffic to your blog and boost all of your income streams! And, best of all, you can connect better with your reader.
That means if you are a blogger who is struggling with this whole “mailing list” thing, you’re going to be able to start building a mailing list right away with these powerful ideas.
Quick Links to Information in this Post
Throwdowns and Pop Ups
So this refers to anything where you’re just putting a signup link out there, popping it up in front of them, or just prominently ASKING for a signup.
- Ask people to subscribe in a blog post or on social media
- Put a “hello bar” at the top of your blog with a signup form, so it’s always visible anywhere on your blog
- Put a large and compelling opt-in on your home page, front and center, so it’s the first thing your visitor sees (this is often called a “welcome mat”)
- Pop-up a subscribe window when people visit your blog
- Pop-up a subscribe window when your readers are about to leave your site (this is known as an “exit-intent popup”)
- Put your signup link on your business cards
- Put your subscribe link in your email signature, Twitter bio, or Instagram bio
- Put an autoresponder on your emails with your signup link
- Put a sign-up box at the top of your sidebar and/or in your footer.
These techniques utilize other platforms to create your own.
- Add a “Sign Up” button to your Facebook page
- Partner up with a fellow blogger to cross-promote each other
- Partner with an influencer or guest post on a bigger blog
- Start a Facebook group and ask people if they want to opt-in at the time they join
- Buy Facebook or Google ads that lead to signup pages
- Put a ”forward to a friend” link in your newsletters and make sure the link directs newcomers to your opt-in form
- Feature testimonials about how awesome your newsletter or opt-in is.
- Display your “social proof” near your opt-in form (add up all of your various subscribers and social media followers — like right now I have 25,000 email subscribers, 26,000 Instagram followers, 39,000 Pinterest followers, 9000 Twitter followers, 8000 followers on Facebook, and 4000 followers on YouTube — that adds up to 114,000!)
- Promote a value-added opt-in in a Facebook group
- Buy Facebook or Google ads that lead to signup pages
- Host an event or webinar, and ask them to signup to your list to get into it (or simply invite them)
- Be a guest on a podcast and mention an easy-to-remember link to your opt-in page
- Offer exclusive content (posts, videos, etc.) only to subscribers
- Offer a Free Newsletter
- Start a subscribers-only Facebook group
- Create a Pinterest board and make it a prerequisite for contributors to subscribe to your list.
- Offer a coupon or a discount for your products to anyone who subscribes
- Offer a deals-only newsletter
- Link an old newsletter on social media to show people what they are missing out on
- Offer subscribers access to a free resource library stocked with all of your freebies
- Host a one-time giveaway or contest
- Offer a monthly giveaway to anyone who signs up for your mailing list
Freebies (Downloadables, Challenges, and Courses)
- Offer a digital freebie (also known as a lead magnet or content upgrade) which can be about nearly anything
- Host a free email challenge
- Offer a free email course
- Build a web tool that requires an email address to use (like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer)
- Create a quiz and require that quiz-takers put their email address in to get their results.
Signup Links in Unusual Places
- Include a signup option on another form, like a checkout screen or your blog comment form
- Put a signup option on your 404 page (Page Not Found)
- Use a landing page optimized for list signups with testimonials
- Use a Blog Post Teaser and ask people to subscribe to get the full blog post (also known as a “content locker”)
- Turn your “About” page into an email subscriber squeeze page (a squeeze page is a landing page designed to capture email addresses from visitors)
- Add an opt-in form at the end of your blog posts … maybe even in the middle!
- Write a book, sell it for super-cheap on Amazon (like $1), and encourage signups
- Add a strong call-to-action at the start and end of a video
- Email your friends and family and ask if they want to be included in your awesome information via email
- Get subscribers through videos using a service like Wistia
Plus a Few Extra Things You Can Do….
- Make it super easy to signup and ask for only an email and first name, and nothing else.
- Keep the readers you have by warming them up with a sequence of welcome email filled with awesome things
- Increase your site speed so people are more likely to visit and read — 40% of visitors will abandon a site after just 2 seconds of load time
- Reassure your visitors you won’t spam them and be transparent about what you’re doing
That’s a LOT of different ways to build a mailing list! Some are going to be harder than others, and some will work better than others. Some may not work for your blog’s personality, but others will be a perfect fit!
So now that we’ve identified the many ways you can build your list, the BIG question is, how do you evaluate and identify the ways that are right for YOUR blog?
49 ideas is a LOT of list-building ideas, and you can’t (nor should you) try all to do all of them at once. Some are going to be a lot better for you and your blog than others, and will yield better results and more signups to your mailing list in the end.
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