9 Ways to Grow Your Email List Quickly

As a new or experienced blogger, you know driving traffic to your site is key to success. 

One of the most important tactics for increasing traffic and revenue is having and growing an email list.

Sending emails promoting your most recent blog posts or products will help generate more ad impressions, product sales, and affiliate marketing revenue.

So, having a list of email addresses of your blog readers and website visitors is crucial. 

Even if you have just started your blog, building an email list is extremely important. It will help you increase traffic to your blog and turn one-time visitors into repeat visitors. 

When someone clicks through to visit your blog from a social media post or Pinterest pin, chances are high that they will read that one post and then bounce back to Pinterest.

But, if you can get them to sign up for communications from you, then you can attract them to come back to your site.

You can email them your latest blog posts, an affiliate review that could make you money, or a coupon code for an item you are selling. 

The point is knowing how to create and grow an email list has a direct effect on the traffic and revenue your blog can generate!

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If you’re in a rush at the moment, don’t sweat it! You can always download this post as a PDF and come back to these 9 ways to grow your email list later.

9 Ways to grow your email list

It is never too late or too early to start growing your list of blog subscribers!

What is an email list and what is email marketing?

When readers or customers come to your website or blog, you want to capture their email addresses if possible. This allows you to email them new posts and information to keep them coming back to your site.

Your email list is just a list of emails captured from visitors to your site. 

Email marketing is how you communicate with your email list of blog readers and visitors to promote your blog or website. You can leverage email marketing to sell products or increase money-generating traffic to your blog.

It also helps you create a relationship with your readers. Relationships will keep readers coming back for more!

How can you create an email list?

The first thing you need in order to start (and grow) an email list, is a way to collect email addresses from your site.

It needs to be something you set up once, and then it works automatically. The right email list-building service will help you do this.

To get that, you need to sign up for an email automation service that has list-building software and tools to do this.

Signing up for an email marketing service is a must-do, and the only way to start your subscriber list. 

Here are some popular email services providers among bloggers:

• Mailchimp
• Mailerlite (recommended)
• ConvertKit (recommended – what we use and LOVE)

You will also have to have a privacy policy, and a postal address for your email marketing, and you are ready to go!

Give visitors an opt-in freebie

One of the most powerful tactics you can leverage to grow your email list is to offer an opt-in freebie. Also called a lead magnet, it is just an item you are offering people for free in exchange for their email address to add to your list.

If you are giving them something in return, people are much more likely to give you their email address and opt-in to your email communications.

There are many options for what you offer as well. You can create something related to your niche, so if you are a beauty blogger you might offer a pdf of the best beauty tips. Or, if you are a personal finance blogger you can give them a free budget or financial planner. 

Here are some ideas for a freebie:

• Educational or helpful eGuide that solves an issue or provides valuable information
• Statistical report of facts and data your readers would find interesting
• Worksheet to help your readers track something or meet specific goals or plans
• Online tutorial or course
• Dedicated coaching session with you
• Contest for a giveaway

You will have to spend some time actually creating the freebie. But, it’s pretty easy to do it on Canva and if you need help there are sites out there like Fiverr where you can hire a designer to create it. 

Once you create your freebie, don’t forget to include a copyright notice. You can grab a copyright notice template for FREE from us!

Email sign-up forms and widgets

Make sure you have an email opt-in form that permanently lives on your website. Something prominent, that attracts attention.

However, it shouldn’t be so intrusive that it annoys your website visitors (sidenote: I hate pop-ups – they work though!)

Many of the email marketing companies out there now will provide you with a few different visual options, or you can use something like Elementor.

Creating an opt-in form, or ribbon for your site, allows you to take advantage of all the traffic your site receives. You can hopefully keep these visitors coming back with engaging emails.

You can create a standard ribbon form for the top of your website that will show up on all pages. You can also add a widget email sign-up form to your sidebar. And a sign-up form at the bottom of your posts.

Whatever you choose, make sure it stands out and makes it easy for visitors to sign up.

Offer an online tool or resource

Another way to grow your email list is to offer something your visitors want to access and are willing to give their email address in exchange for.

It might be some type of calculator or a helpful tool like this Website Grader from HubSpot. 

The point is, it needs to be high-value and interesting. Enough that your visitors will sign up to get access.

Create a lead-generation landing page

Another way to grow your email list is to have a dedicated landing page that is built expressly for the purpose of increasing your list of email subscribers. 

You can build the page to encourage “conversion” of readers providing their email address to you and opting in to your newsletter. 

You can do this by offering them something of value for free. Maybe you have an eBook you are offering or a free downloadable planner. A landing page will help you really “sell” the ebook.

You can sell your free item by talking about its benefits. Include images and even testimonials from people who loved the ebook. The more reasons you give someone to want your free download, the more email subscribers you will get!

You can promote the landing on your website, within your blog posts, in the bio of your Pinterest, Instagram, and other social media accounts, through social media posts, and more.

Facebook join my email list app

You can also leverage your social media to grow your email list. 

Some of the automated email marketing services include apps that make this even easier.

For instance, you can add the Facebook app integration to your blog Facebook page. It provides a very visible, easy, and fast way for visitors to your Facebook page to sign up for your email list.

Another way to leverage social media to grow your list is with an actual ad. You will need a little budget to run an ad promoting your email sign-up, but it will help grow your subscriber list.

Text to join

You can also get readers to sign up for your email communications with text. It is another feature included with marketing automation services like ConvertKit.

You choose a keyword to use and all your readers have to do is text that keyword to a specific number and they are added to your list!

You can promote that text number on your website or social media pages.

Include a share and forward button

One way to grow your email list is to encourage your current subscribers to share your emails.

I personally try to keep the links within my emails to a minimum to ensure higher deliverability but you could also include a social share button as well as something that makes it easy for them to “forward to a friend.” 

If your content is unique and helpful, your subscribers may be more inclined to share. If you like this strategy, make sure all your emails have a text link at the bottom for subscribing to your newsletter.

Use an in-person app

This may not be a tool you can use for your website or blog as it is for in-person sign-ups.

But, if you sell products or services and will be on-site at a local fair or trade show, a list builder helps you grab email sign-ups in person.

Final thoughts

Any of these tactics will help you start and grow your email list.

No matter which tips you use, start today! You want to leverage every bit of blog traffic you are receiving. So, even if your site is brand new, make sure you have a way to capture and inspire email sign-ups.

Related Posts to 9 ways to grow your email list

• How to drive organic Traffic to Your Blog By Targeting Long-tail Keywords
• Do You Need an Address for Your Privacy Policy and Email Marketing?
• 7 Smart Tips to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
• The Secret to Growing Your Email List Fast

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