In my recently published blog post: How To Setup Email Marketing On A WordPress Blog, I have explained the reasons why an email list is the most important tool for digital marketing. Some of which include building strong relationships with your audience, liklihood of your subscribers buying from you and the fact that you own your audience. It is therefore very important that you build and grow your email list.
When I started Luminous Blogging, one of my major challenges was getting people to sign up to my list. I had everything I thought was needed in order to start collecting emails. I was always looking forward to seeing new sign ups every morning. Even if it was just a single sign up.
I can remember collecting 42 emails in my first month of operation. It was an amazing experience. But I wanted more. I wanted more subscribers. 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, or even over 300k like other veteran bloggers.
After four months, my email list had grown to over 3k unique email subscribers. One thing I learnt is that getting your first 1000 subscribers is not as difficult as you may think. It’s not easy either.
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you various ways through which you can be able to get your first 1000 subscribers.
Without further or do, let’s get started.
1. Add Email Opt-Ins To Your Site
I believe this is the simplest way to getting your first 1000 email subscribers.
It is easy to set up email marketing on your site. To be able to collect lots of emails, place your optin forms where they can be easily accessed.
Sidebars, headers, footers and in between the blog posts are the most strategic places to put (embed) your optin forms.
Use your web analytics data to identify popular blog posts and pages within your site. Place optin forms in between or at the end of these blog posts. Also, add optin forms on pages like About Us.
Apart from embedded forms, pop up forms also convert so well.
Pop up forms are forms that appear from nowhere when you are visiting a site asking you to provide your email and name in order to get what they are offering. Some of them cover the whole screen while others cover only a fraction of the screen.
You can set a pop form to show up when a visitor has stayed on your site for a certain amount of time or when they are about to exit your blog.
A pop up form that shows up to a visitor who has stayed on your site for more than 5 minutes is more likely to convert. Those that show up immediately may chase away your visitors since some blog readers consider these kind of pop up forms very annoying. Try not to annoy your blog visitors.
2. Guest Blogging
Guest posting can be a great way to bring more traffic to your site but when done well, it can also be used to grow your email list.
Find blogs within your niche that accept guest posting.
You will need to contribute your best content and then ask to link an email optin form within the post or link it back to your site. While doing this, make sure that you have an offer that is clearly presented to make people sign up to your email list.
If used properly, guest posting can be a great opportunity to getting your first 1000 email subscribers.
3. Run a Giveaway
People love getting free stuffs. I love getting free stuffs.
You can give away your favourite products or even your own services. To participate, ask people to sign up for your email list and also share the giveaway on social media.
With the help of sites like Rafflecopter, you will be able to setup your giveaways very easily and allow people to complete these tasks to enter and boost their chances of winning.
I have seen already established sites giving away fancy laptops or even money. You don’t have to go for something too expensive. Think of what you can afford and can also add value to your users. Like your own services or your best selling ebook or a masterclass.
4. Do a Webinar.
Hosting a Webinar is another awesome way to get your first 1000 subscribers.
I know it’s overwhelming and you are already asking yourself what you will be saying to the people who will attend your Webinar.
Well, here is what to do: If you are having a valuable information on a subject that you can teach, package it into a 30-45 minutes engaging Webinar session that people can sign up to at no cost.
Advertise your Webinar on social media, on your blog and even through paid advertisement if it’s okay with your budget.
Sites like webinarjam will help you setup and host a Webinar.
Conclusion
Getting your first 1000 email subscribers can happen faster than you may think.
All you need to do is think about what you can offer to people to make them sign up for your email list and pick on one or two or all of these methods to start collecting your first 1000 email subscribers.
That’s all.
Question: Do you collect emails on your site? If yes, what was your biggest challenge when you were starting out? If NO, why are you not collecting emails?
Please give your feedback in the commenting section below.
Thank you for the great guide!
Thanks a lot for stopping by.