How to Grow Your Email List in 2022 and Why It’s Important

I know, I know - you already have so much on your plate with your business, the idea of adding one more thing to your strategy seems a bit overwhelming, but if email marketing isn’t in your current strategy, it needs to be! We talk a lot about growing your community on social media here on this podcast, but there is one major problem with social media - you don’t own those platforms. They could shut down at any time and you could lose everything you worked so hard to grow. That is why you should be sending over your followers and subscribers to your email list, so if something crazy happens one day and your social media platform of choice explodes, you have your core audience on your email list. Today we are going to be breaking down why email marketing is so important and how to grow your email list! Let’s do this!

What is email marketing (and why is it important)?

Email marketing is best explained as going from friends to besties with your online community. This is an opportunity to dive even deeper with your audience by inviting them to this exclusive platform, where you can provide even more free value and advertise products and services in a relatable way.

Tell me this (and be honest), when you scrolling through social media and see an advertisement, what is your reaction? I don’t know about you, but I am guilty of occasionally scrolling past just because I see it is an ad. The true question is - who would you trust more, an advertisement or a friend? By deepening your relationship with your audience through email marketing, you are building that friendship and trust with your community - and because of that, they are more likely to purchase items you recommend or purchase your own products and services. Email marketing isn’t just about monetizing, though that is obviously an important aspect of building an online business - it’s also about having that direct contact with your community.

As I mentioned earlier in this episode, we don’t own social media. If you are building an audience on Instagram and suddenly Instagram shut down or your account gets hacked, you are left with nothing. By building your email list, you are able to still have open communication with your email subscribers no matter what happens to your social media accounts.

But, how do you build your email list?

Okay, now you know the importance of having an email list, but how do you build it? Let’s talk about the strategy behind building an email list.

Creating a lead magnet.

Before doing anything, you need to create what is called a “lead magnet”. This is a freebie that you offer your audience in exchange for their email address. Just to get you started, here are a few different freebies I offer to my audience, that are super high-value but completely free for you to get your hands on.

⭐ The Perfect Post Email Course

This is a week-long, free email course that will take you through everything you need to know to craft a killer Instagram post every single time.

⭐ Notion Content Calendar Template

This is a free, simplified version of my Notion Content Calendar. I have a paid version of this as well that is a lot more extensive, but if you want to get your hands on a simple content calendar template for Notion, that’s something I offer.

⭐ Instagram Engagement Checklist

This is a detailed checklist you can reference every week to make sure you are hitting your engagement goals - the most important move you can make to grow your Instagram.

I will have linked in the show notes for you, if you want to grab them for yourself for inspiration and because hey, they might be helpful for you! But the first step is creating your first freebie. You need to make sure it is full of value and worth the person's time, because if not - they will be disappointed and unsubscribe.

Now let’s talk about how we can get folks to sign up for these freebies.

Pop-Ups

One great way to grab someone’s attention is by setting up pop-ups on your website. There are two different ways people do this. Some just have a pop-up that lets you sign up for their email list, but the more effective strategy would be to offer them your freebie in the pop-up! It’s all about user experience. If someone is taking the time to visit your website and just finds an annoying pop-up interrupting their scroll, but it’s just an email sign-up. They might be wondering, “what is in it for me?”.

Social Media

We talk a lot about growing on social media here on this podcast, and though having an email list should be an important part of your long-term business strategy - leveraging your social media presence is a great way to initially build your email list. YouTube and Instagram are both great platforms to offer your lead magnets. Most likely, your freebie will be related to the topic you normally talk about on your platforms - so it should be pretty easy to naturally bring up the freebie on your posts and videos.

Exclusive Bonus Content or Discounts

This method works great for both content creators and someone is has a product-based business. One of the reasons folks will sign up for an email list is the exclusivity. Instead of offering just a one-time freebie, you are selling the idea of getting access to bonus content that you can’t get anywhere else or even coupons for your products that are for subscribers only.

Free Training / Webinars

Would you give your email address for a free webinar or video training? I know I would (and have). This is great because you can offer your potential email subscriber this free training in exchange for their email list, which would be great if you have a paid, more detailed version of a similar training - so you can offer this to them in a future email.

Challenges

I am sure you have seen some of your favorite content creators doing challenges. People do challenges on anything. I have seen people do these on productivity, project management systems, Instagram, self-care, exercise ... I mean anything. They get access to the challenge by providing their email list, you will email them throughout the challenge with reminders, any needed documents or information, etc. Then you will let them know that they are now part of your email newsletter going forward. These are super popular prior to a product launch.

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I could seriously go on and on, so if you would like to see more content on building an email list - shoot us a DM on the Creaotrly Media Instagram, which is @creatorlymedia and we would be happy to talk about this topic more!

Make sure to check out my various lead magnets for some inspiration! I can’t wait to see your email lists thrive this year!