3 Freebie Ideas To Grow Your Email List (Quicker!)
You might’ve been wondering what are some great ways to not only grow your email list, but connect and show your expertise to your, to your audience, to your existing followers and new followers. And guess what? This can all be done with one simple tool called an opt-in page, or in other words, a freebie.
A freebie is a powerful tool that takes your audience off of social media, and onto your email list so you can engage with them regardless of what happens to social media platforms, and which can stand the test of time.
For example, two of my friends and clients, their Facebook got hacked the other day and they lost so many people from groups they had been building. And the first thing I asked them was, “Hey, have you been getting people onto your email list?”
Because the best thing about an email list is that it’s yours. It’s not owned by a third party and it’s not subject to a specific platform. Basically, all your eggs aren’t in one basket.
So imagine TikTok goes away and you lose a hundred thousand followers, or Instagram goes away and you can’t communicate with your 2,000 followers? How would you sell your products and services? What would happen to your business? It’s time to make business platform proof and also a place where you give your followers exclusive access to your content and offers… meaning, you’re not subject to an algorithm since they are willingly saying: “please have my email and I’ll see you in my inbox.”
And consider this… you’re giving people a valuable GIFT in exchange for their email! To me, this is a win win!
Another super important reason why having an email list is so clutch is because it actually serves as clout and is great when you’re ready to start running Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Briefly I realized you also might have said… “Ari, who reads emails anymore? Everyone is on social media!”. I am here to tell you – I read emails, good emails that is. I buy stuff from those good emails I get sent and most of the time, I actually don’t see those people in my social media, which I spend quite a bit of time on (shame on me for not always working on my business!).
We’ll get into email writing tactics on another blog post, but for now, let’s focus on growing your email because without at least 100 subscribers, creating lengthy and value rich email campaigns won’t be your best ROT (return on time!).
Now here are some freebie ideas to showcase your expertise and truly serve your audience the best way you know how!
Freebie 1: A Checklist
It could be a wellness checklist. It could be a diet checklist. It could be a lifestyle checklist. People love to know about themselves. And they love to know if they’re doing things right.
And remember, since you are the expert, you have all the knowledge. People want to get their sources from a trusted individual and you are that person.
A checklist can be easily created on Canva, or you can even start it in a word document!
So now, how do people get this checklist? Well, number one, you could simply ask people to DM you or leave a comment and then you DM them.
You don’t need a whole opt-in page and a landing page, an email sequence, not in the beginning. I love to say, “how can I run my business on bare bones?“
Well, this is one of those ways you could just say, “Hey, whoever wants this checklist, DM me your email.”
Number two, if you are looking to start your digital marketing portfolio, then you’ll want a simple opt-in page where people can leave their name, email and a phone (optional), then get a very simple automated email sequence that delivers the freebie and follow up emails that help the prospective client to get to know you better and nurture the relationship. You’d use softwares like: Go High Level or Active Campaign which are my personal favorites.
Freebie 2: A Quiz
Do you guys remember when we had the Cosmo magazines or like 17 magazines? And there was always a quiz, like an astrology quiz or the love quiz, and you would take it and tallied up all your points. Then you read the results, super excited! This is the energy that we are building with our potential clients. We are creating excitement based on a quiz.
Like I said, people love to learn about themselves. I do too. I still take quizzes!!!
I recently created an awesome quiz with a client of mine called: “What are your love blocks?” And, so far, she’s been able to grow over 180 people onto her email list, just from organic social media from TikTok and Instagram in 2 weeks.
So what does it take to build a quiz? There are some softwares you can build them with like TryInteract and Typeform.
Now the cool part about the quizzes is that then you show up as the one who gives them the results. You create the results based on the questions that they answered. And it gives you a chance to show off again, your expertise and be able to really connect with that person and help them out and give them those initial suggestions on how to be a better lover, how to be healthier, how to sleep better, how to detox their bodies, etc.
Freebie 3: A How to Guide or Mistakes to Avoid
I love my really easy to follow guides that help me avoid blunders and that help me learn something. These guides can be PDF’s or even videos. To me, videos are quicker to make but this is not the case for all. Also, you have to know your audience well- will they consume a video or rather read… OMG you can maybe even do BOTH!
We’ll talk about content repurposing later down the line.
But for real, a good guide that shows me the way to achieve a micro win and how to potentially not make some crazy mistakes is extremely valuable and honestly for you as the expert, might even be easy to make since you’ve worked with clients before and know how you’ve helped them avoid things and at the same time reach certain goals or milestones.
So go back into your client rolodex and start putting together some good ideas!
Freebie 4: A Challenge
Now there’s paid challenges and there’s free challenges. Free challenges are a great way to indoctrinate and work with people. These could be prerecorded or these could be live.
When you look at a challenge because it’s a more of a time investment and it’s a longer build out of the project. And at the end of the challenge, you are selling a higher level offering or service. Whether it’s a physical product, an online course, coaching, retained services, or an experience – all of it can be sold in a challenge.
Think about the challenge as a very invested experience. It’s a wonderful way to generate leads and to have them experience a transformation over a series of days so that they get a result, they get quick wins and gives you the opportunity to really show up as the expert that you are and offer your services
Freebie 5: A Video Series
A video series creates education and solution-awareness. It could perhaps be three training videos, or a recording from a recent talk you gave. It’s very easy to reach out to your audience and say, “Hey, put your name and email here and get these three training videos to help you XYZ.”
I always tell people to give the transformation, the benefit of what’s going to happen when they watch these videos. And you could once again, let the videos come via email, or you give them access to a little online course or membership site, and they can experience the videos, maybe have a question or two that they answer and then see what the next steps are
Remember, it’s your responsibility and opportunity as the entrepreneur to keep the connections with your audience alive, strong, and really meaningful.
Here’s your call to action: what can you be doing to grow your email list? What are the steps you can take to create a meaningful relationship with your audience via their inbox?
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