If you have ever tried to build an email list you know that it can be a bit overwhelming.

You read tons of blog post that tells you “the money is in the list” and that you should add pop-ups and sidebar opt-in forms on your site.

You get excited and do exactly as you are told, but then…

Nothing happened… Crickets… Nobody signs up to your email list… What next?

You get overwhelmed and feel like your doing something wrong but here’s the deal:

Just adding opt-in forms on your site will not solve your email list building problem.

So, what will? keep reading because I will be sharing with you 7 Actionable strategies you can use to build your email list.

Before we dive in, you might be wondering why building an email list is so important.

Let me explain. With an email list, you can communicate with your audience directly. (no algorithm).

I think this is said best by Ryan Robinson:

“Bloggers need to invest in email marketing because it’s the one direct channel you can own between yourself and your readers.”

In fact, when it comes to converting browsers into customers, nothing beats email because email converts 40x more lead into customers than Facebook and Twitter combined — McKinsey…

Now that you understand why building an email list is important, it’s time to dive into the 7 proven strategies you can use to build your email list.

1. Leverage Video Marketing To Earn More Subscribers.

Videos marketing is rising in popularity very fast in fact, 72% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service according to a study done by Wyxowl.

With that in mind. The question is how do you use videos to convert prospects into email subscribers? Simple.

Here’s how it works, If you add videos in your blog content the first thing you want to do is use Wistia to host your videos. Once you upload your videos to Wistia the next step is to use Wistia’s Turnstile email collector.

This will allow you to add Optin form in your videos so that anyone that clicks on your videos to watch it will be prompted to enter their email address to finish watching the video.

The more value you add to your videos the more emails you will collect using this technique.

2. Use VIP Content Strategy.

This technique has been used on multiple websites around the web. The main idea is to compile some of your best resources it could be a checklist, case studies or other resources that you someone would pay a premium price for.

Once you have all the content that you will be giving away, The next step is to create a Squeeze page for it.

You can use a Squeeze page builder like Thrive Architect to build a dedicated squeeze page where visitors will subscribe to get your VIP content.

For example on Nathan use this technique on his HomePage to give away a free SEO Case Study.

Pro Tip: The VIP content that you give away should solve a problem your target audience is facing in their journey.

3. Use Locked Content Technique.

Similar to the VIP content technique. The lock content technique allows you to lock specific blog post on your site where visitors will be able to get access if they enter their email address.

Here’s how to implement this technique: The first step is to find a common problem that your blog readers are trying to solve.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to pay attention to the comments that they leave on your articles or on other blogs in your niche. Most of the time these comments can give you a lot of insight into your audience’s pain and frustrations.

Once you have identified the main problem they are having the next step is to brainstorm the best solution that will help them overcome this problem…

Once you have a solid solution you can offer the next step is to write an article with actionable tips showing your readers how to solve this problem.

But instead of publishing this as a regular blog post you will instead use a tool like Thrive Leads or Optinmonster. To add the lock feature to the content that way when subscribers visit your blog they will get the option to opt-in to get the full content.

4. Use Content Upgrades.

Content upgrades are one of my all-time favorite email marketing strategies.

Here’s why.

Unlike the other list building techniques that you can use to build a profitable email list. The content upgrade strategy allows you to turn readers that are already interested in your content into email subscribers.

Here’s how it works. The first step is to find blog posts that have proven to drive lots of traffic to your site.

You can use Google Analytics to do this.

Once you have identified the best performing content in terms of the number of traffic it drives to your site.

The next step is to create a resource that complements the content. For example, let’s say the best-performing blog post on your site a blog post is about “10 ways to increase your website traffic”, the complementary resource that you would create would be a checklist for the tips you shared in the blog post.

The resource you create should be offered as a call to action (CTA) at the end of the blog post to get your readers to sign up to get the checklist.

5. Conversions Focus HomePage.

The homepage of your site should be your welcome message to give someone a quick summary of what you do and how you can help them.

But what if there was a way to convert website visitors when they land on your homepage? In Fact, there is…

Here’s how it works…

Using a tool like Clickfunnels or LeadPages you can create a conversion focus homepage for your website.

If you use WordPress the best option is to use Thrive Architect WordPress Plugin.

Here’s an example of a conversion focus homepage in action.

6. Convert Twitter Followers Into subscribers.

Social media is a great way to increase your website traffic but it’s hard to get a steady flow of social media traffic with all these algorithm updates.

So the best option is to turn social media followers into email subscribers, Specifically, I will show you how to convert Twitter followers into email subscribers with just 1 simple technique.

The first step is to create a twitter card for your squeeze page or any page that you use to convert website visitors into email subscribers on your site.

Next share the page on twitter and add it as a pinned tweet to your twitter profile.

This will allow you to funnel traffic from your twitter page straight to the squeeze page of your choice.

Converting twitter traffic something that I am always testing to find new ways to convert twitter followers to email subscribers. So far this strategy has been the best in terms of conversion rate.

7. The Mini Email Course.

Email courses are a great type of lead magnet that you can use to get more email subscribers to sign up for your email list.

One of the reasons the mini-email course works so well is because it has high engagement.

For example, instead of sending your subscribers 1 email which would be the email with the download link to your lead magnet, your subscriber will get an email each day showing them how to achieve a specific goal.
Take a look at this example from Adam Enfroy where he offers a 7-day email course.

Pro Tip: Your Email course should solve 1 specific problem that your subscribers are facing the only difference is that you will break up the lessons into multiple parts so that each email is a small action your subscribers will do every day to solve the problem.

Conclusion.

With the 7 tips, you will be able to start building your email list if you don’t have one already.

If you are confused and not sure which of these tips to implement first I would recommend using the content upgrade. it is by far the easiest technique to implement with the highest impact.

Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
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