How to Build an Email List from Scratch

PodcastMarketing

Jul 29

Episode 869: Show Notes

With email marketing, you get to drive traffic way more directly than you can with social posts. So many of you have been asking how to build an email list from scratch and today I want to dive right into this discussion! I’m sure so many of you are wondering why an email list is even effective so I want to share a couple of reasons it is a powerful way to convert leads! An email list is direct access to 100% of your audience, unlike a social media post that will only be seen by 10%. You also own this list and you have control over how you engage. Email lists have more engagement than social media posts and you have the opportunity to segment and personalize your marketing and ultimately, build relationships with your audience. This year alone, I have added nearly 10,000 new subscribers to my email list and I want to give you all of the details in a free case study I have created for you!

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The Most Important Thing to Consider When Choosing an Email Provider

I know you must be wondering how you do this so let’s dig into it. The first thing you need to do is pick an email service provider and there are so many out there! When you shop around and consider all of the various email providers, the one thing I want you to consider is cost. Ultimately, if you’re a small business starting an email list for the first time, your main priority is keeping your email costs low. Flodesk is a service provider that has absolutely blown me away! The cost is not extreme at all and doesn’t increase as your list increases which makes it really accessible for small business owners. So many people have also been asking me if using the email providers that are built into the web service themselves. I have always been hesitant about using any kind of all-in-one provider because usually, they do a lot of things okay but not a lot of things great!

When it comes to the key features of an email subscription service, I want you to pay attention to ease of use. How easy is it for you to onboard, maintain, and send emails and does it look the way you want it to look to represent your brand? Those are incredibly important things to consider but first and foremost, consider price-point. A lot of them will have incredibly similar features and while some will be more robust than others, you don’t need to overcomplicate things. You can send incredibly powerful emails with very simple workflows and I often find that the more complicated the workflow, the lower it’s converting because people have to jump through too many hoops. People love transparency and when you can deliver what they’re looking for, people tend to trust you more!

Figuring Out How to Get People onto Your List

Once you’ve picked your email service provider, you need to find a way to get people on your list. The first thing I would do is set up a general sign-up with no exchange, just a form for people to join your list. It is possible to do this without any form of deliverable but with that being said, the only people who are going to utilize that are going to be your ‘warm’ audience. It’s a great way to get that list going but it won’t carry you long term. You also need to have something that attracts people to you and gives them a reason to want to be on your list. That reason could be the communication through the newsletter but I find that the more popular way to get started is through developing a lead magnet, opt-in, or freebie. Someone will give you their name and email for a free offer and ultimately, this is a value exchange.

You just have to decide what you are going to offer people for free that is either going to be informational or solve a problem they may have. To find out what they need, you can create a form for them to fill out but for many of you, I would start with a landing page. Many of the email service providers I mentioned already have this built-in and in particular, with Flodesk, you have an opportunity to build a static landing page and therefore, even if you don’t already have a website, you can start collecting leads and communicating with them on a regular basis. It should be a simple page that needs to be really clear on what they’re getting! Beyond that, you can use something called a thank you message that will auto-populate after they submit their email addresses. You can also redirect them to another page of yours! You also need to send some sort of confirmation email to them as they sign up.

The Two Main Things You Have to Set Up Next

Once your lead magnet, landing page, and confirmation emails are set up, your main job is to send traffic to your sign-up page. I want you to utilize all means of contacting your audience to tell them why they need to sign up for your emails. And once you have a subscriber, they need to be receiving emails from you! You cannot start an email list without a plan to communicate with these people. You need to have a plan on the other side of a sign-up. You may have some automated emails that are set up based on the subscriber and then you will also have ‘live communication’ where you will write an email to a certain group of people or your whole list that is scheduled to be sent on a certain day and at a certain time. Live emails are a very important starting point and as you grow, you can incorporate more automated emails.

The way to get consistent results from your email list is if you create consistency for yourself! You need to have a rhythm in which you regularly communicate with these people and one that they get used to. In an ideal world, that should be at least once a week and if you cannot commit to sending an email at least every other week, I would say that you’re probably not ready to start an email list. On an average week, I usually send about 4 emails but you should start small and find a cadence you can maintain and stay on top of. This may feel like a lot of information, especially if it’s all new to you, but if you follow these steps, it is actually so simple. If you want a little more encouragement or some ideas on driving traffic and finding ways to deliver value, I would love to give you my entire case study on every single thing I did to add nearly 10,000 subscribers to my list this year alone. You can get it all for free right here!

Quote This

The average post on social is going reach up to 10% of your total audience… but when you send an email, it goes out to 100% of your audience!

Highlights

The Most Important Thing to Consider When Choosing an Email Provider. [0:08:23]
Figuring Out How to Get People onto Your List. [0:20:33]
The Two Main Things You Have to Set Up Next. [0:28:44]

OUR HOST:

Abagail Pumphrey

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Boss Project on Instagram | Facebook

Abagail Pumphrey, the Co-Founder & CEO of Boss Project, has been a driving force in the creative entrepreneur industry since 2015. With a passion for empowering service-based business owners around the globe, she became internet-famous after the launch of the transformative training, "Trello for Business." This innovative system revitalized the operations of over 10,000 business owners, making a significant impact on the online business landscape.

Under Abagail's leadership, Boss Project has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Marie Claire, INC, and HuffPost. Her twice-weekly podcast, The Strategy Hour, is a staple in the business community, continuously topping Business and Management Charts on Apple with millions of listeners from around the world.

Abagail's superpower lies in her ability to break down complex concepts into easy-to-implement, duplicatable systems. As an expert in online sales and a data-driven strategist, she has turned a layoff into a 7-figure work-from-home business. Abagail's mission to help more female founders become financially free, without letting their businesses take over their lives, continues to inspire and guide entrepreneurs on their path to success.