What are the best ways to build your email list in 2024? What strategies are still relevant? Want to know what's working and what isn't?

We're Kennedy and Carrie, and you're about to get a truckload of value from this episode.

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SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 

(0:33) Want to carry on with the conversation? Join our FREE Facebook group. 
(1:38) Be a guest expert on other people's podcasts. 
(16:00) Speak in other people's memberships and paid groups. 
(21:17) Speak at live events. 
(29:23) Leverage your social media channels. 
(31:03) Ask people to click on the link in your bio. 
(36:18) Leverage a free Facebook group. 
(42:03) Leverage 'swaps' and affiliates. 
(51:49) Join The Email Hero Blueprint. 
(53:36) Subject lines of the week.

1. Be a guest expert on other people’s podcasts

A great way to grow your email list is to leverage other people’s audiences by speaking on their podcasts. So how do you go about this?

• Find a podcast show with an audience that benefits you.
• Don't approach a host saying you can speak about anything and everything. Instead, pick topics that relate to your business and prepare a couple of interesting hooks that get people’s attention.
• When you speak on someone's podcast, have a strong call to action. Prepare a lead magnet that listeners can download in exchange for their email address (because that's how you grow your list!)
• Be a great guest even if the host isn't an experienced interviewer and veers off-topic. If the conversation goes off-track, bring it back to your business and what you do.

How to pick the right podcast shows for you

So how do you go about identifying which podcasts you should be on? First, you don't necessarily have to target the big names! The most important thing is to pick a podcast whose audience is made of your type of people. Podcast shows with a big reach are great, but often smaller or mid-level shows have more engaged audiences of people who are super fans. Decide which shows you want to be on based on the audience – not the host or the podcast size. Also, consider whether the listeners of that podcast are only there for entertainment or whether they're used to buying. You'll want people who take action.

When pitching, make it easy for the host to say yes to you. Give them a few options for topics that are relevant to what they do – talk about something useful and unique to their audience. Prepare a few interesting topics with super hot hooks and pitch them to the host, asking what would be most suitable. Remember you can use your existing content (with different hooks) – you don't have to create something new every time.

A great advantage of doing this is testing out what topics resonate with your audience. We know this because every metaphor or framework we teach inside The Email Hero Blueprint has been developed by talking things through in conversations!

Create your playlist of podcast guest interviews

Here's another hot tip for you. Once you have a few shows you've been a guest on, create a playlist on Spotify. Even if the podcast shows aren't famous, the quantity of interviews you've given shows people you're an experienced guest. Having a handy playlist is also a great way to share free resources to help people who aren't yet ready to commit to working with you.

To spread the word, you can include the link in your email sequences as part of your Super Signature or your Getting to Know You sequence (i.e. your welcome sequence). This also helps you build authority with your potential clients. You can add that link to many more places, such as your New Client Application Form (if you have one), the expiry page for your offers, your unsubscribe page, and even your 404 page.

2. Speak in other people’s memberships and paid group

You can deliver training talks for their audience if you know business owners with memberships, masterminds, or private Facebook groups. The key here is to always mention your resources and website for people who want to hear more from you (because that's how you build your email list!)

So do some research and find paid-for communities whose audiences are similar to yours. Just like podcasts, have a couple of interesting topics (with great hooks) to pitch.

Why is this an awesome strategy? People who belong to paid memberships (and similar services) are willing to invest and pay for content – they’re not just consuming free content on the internet! Speaking to these types of communities also allows you to ‘prove yourself’ – the membership owner has ‘validated' you as someone who can teach their audience. This is powerful because people in the audience trust this person (they buy from them already), and this person trusts you!

How to find the right paid communities for you 

So how do you reach out? Direct outreach is an option, but you should also find opportunities to mention you offer talks on specific topics. For example, use the PS of your emails or your social media. Let people know you have a couple of killer talks up your sleeve, and ask your audience if they know of anyone with a paid membership who would be interested in you teaching this content.

You can also ask your audience if they know of any communities you could pitch to. Are there any memberships they're part of? That allows you to target audiences that are a good fit for your business. When you reach out to the business owner, be clear on what you want in exchange. You may not want payment, but you could ask for a copy of the raw footage of the training or a testimonial that you can use as social proof. Or you could simply let them know this is a lead-generation tool for you. Whatever it is, define your currency.

During the training, don't forget to take a selfie or take a screenshot of the Zoom room. You can even show the comments and how people are going ballistic about how fantastic you are and share it on your channels!

3. Speak at live events

When people see you in real life, you’re no longer just a head and shoulders on the internet – you become real. Speaking on stage is powerful as it shows people you’re trustworthy. Plus, you get to have your audience's full attention in a way that doesn't tend to happen online. Because often people multitask while listening to you in the background.

Should you get paid to speak? Even if you're new to the speaking arena and don't feel confident asking for monetary payment, don't just speak for exposure. Be clear on what your currency is – because exposure doesn’t pay your bills! ‘Payment' could be receiving content (i.e. photos of you speaking on stage) that you can share on social media. You could also agree upfront that you'll sell from the stage as part of your talk or that you'll share your lead magnet and opt-in pages to ensure you capture email addresses to grow your list. At the end of a talk, you want a way to follow up with people. Bring them into your world (i.e. your email list), so you can reach out to them.

As always, make sure the audience you speak to is in line with what you sell. Your talk is the marketing for your product, so if the two aren't aligned, you may need to consider increasing your speaker’s fee. ‘Ego doesn't scale', so ensuring your audience is a good match for you should be your top priority.

With all that in mind, speaking at live events is great. Being on stage makes you an instant celebrity, the energy is good, and it’s a powerful way to build credibility with an audience of the right people.

4. Leverage your social media channels  

If you’re good at social media, post content on your platforms – show your expertise, and share tips and actionable, thought-provoking content. But always give people a call to action – tell them what to do next. What’s the next step? Let them know that if they want to learn more about something, they can opt into your email list. You want to strategically move people off the social media platform and onto your email list.

A straightforward call to action could be to check the link in your bio. Or you could ask people to comment using a specific word and use bots to DM them more information. That's where you'll be asking them to join your email list!

5. Ask people to click on the link in your bio

The content you post on social media needs to leave people wanting you to tell them more about what you do. This is where your ‘link in bio' comes in. You want to use that link to send people to a lead generation page or decision pages. This is where people will make a yes or no decision. Don't send them anywhere where they can click around and get distracted or overwhelmed.

If you're using a third-party service (like Linktree), stop that. You don't want to advertise another tool and leak leads! You don't need it anyway, as you can (and should) use your page builder to create a page with a series of useful links. That's what your ‘link in bio' page should be. And one of the links on there should be an opt-in page, so have a lead magnet ready. One of the options can even be to book a call with you to join your paid programme.

If you want to serve more people and help your audience, follow up with them outside of your social media. Start turning your followers into subscribers and move them into a relationship with you. Because that’s how you get paid. The lead magnets you give in exchange for someone’s email address aren’t freebies – they’re currency. These exchanges are transactions. Get their email address because that’s how you’re going to sell to them.

And by the way, you don’t have to implement all these strategies at once. You don’t even have to do them all – ever! Pick one of these ideas or focus on the fastest one (which is probably changing your ‘link in bio’). And once you’ve finished one, you can move to the next tip.

6. Leverage a free Facebook group

This may not be for everyone, but a free Facebook group can act as a great lead magnet for the other strategies we mentioned. For example, if you’re speaking on someone else’s podcast, on a stage or live event, or sharing content on your social media, take the opportunity to mention your free Facebook group. It’s the lowest resistance lead magnet you can have because people don’t feel joining a Facebook group is a big commitment. When they join, you can ask them to give you their email address (optional), and that helps you grow your list.

Make sure you pick a good name for your group (something your audience will look for) and post engaging content. You want to keep people on the platform because that's what Facebook wants! The more you feed the algorithm, the more Facebook will recommend your group to other people with similar interests. And that's how you grow it.

When people interact with you and answer your questions, you can find out what your audience's problems are. That way, you can put together additional products and services that help your people. Plus, you'll create a sense of community around you – you're no longer this faceless person who just sends them emails.

A Facebook group has no cost involved, it's quick to set up, and there's no technology. Sure – it needs care and nurturing (like most things), but if you have a specific angle in your group and ask questions to make sure you have the right audience, it can be a great way to build your email list.

7. Leverage ‘swaps' and affiliates

Do you know other businesses with an audience who would be interested in what you sell? Could you approach them with the offer of an exchange? You could do a ‘swap'. For example, when Kennedy launched his book in a previous business, he promoted other people’s books to his list, knowing they would do the same for his book in return. You could collaborate with someone on social media and do a training session together for each other's audiences. Affiliate collaborations can be as simple as that.

Or you can go down the route of more ‘commercial’ affiliate schemes where someone promotes your offer, and you give them a percentage of the sale. If you know your numbers and your backend, you’ll know what percentage of a sale you can safely offer so that the deal works for you. You don’t want to offer a percentage that puts your business at risk! And on that note, make sure you only pick collaborations that work for your audience.

How to pick the right affiliate collaborations for you

Smaller lists or audiences might have higher engagement, involvement, and credibility than bigger ones. So never underestimate the power of speaking to the right people at the right time. Carrie, for example, once created a video series on Periscope (when that was a thing) and never went back to it. But one person in that audience happened to be the CEO of a billion-dollar company that was in her target market audience. They got in touch with Carrie and even flew her to Las Vegas a couple of days later so she could do a live stream to their audience. Carrie ended up agreeing to a long-term collaboration with the company to help them with coaching and leadership.

Moral of the story? Don’t dismiss smaller audiences because you never know who’s in there! It’s not about big numbers – it’s about being in front of the right people. We might be teaching email marketing, but we don’t have the biggest email list. We do, however, have the best relationship with our list!

Always remember that people know other people, and you never know who might refer you. So get out there and in front of smaller audiences rather than waiting ‘for the big hit' and never take action. You might be missing out! Plus, if you’re going to make mistakes and test things out in your business, you want to do that in front of a smaller audience first. You don’t want to bomb in front of lots of people, right?

Once you have all this content, you can chop it up, repurpose it, and share it on other platforms (such as your social media) or pitch yourself to other people. So take action. You can’t get better at these strategies if you’re not out there putting these ideas into action in the first place!

Extra tip – use paid advertising!

Paid advertising is still a great and effective way of building your list by directing traffic to lead magnets, webinars, challenges, etc. So if you can, try it out.

Join The Email Hero Blueprint 

Bringing people to your email list is important, but the size of your email list doesn't matter too much. The aim of the game is to convert your subscribers. That should be your focus! Everyone out there is teaching people how to grow email lists, run ads, and have great lead magnets, but in our programme The Email Hero Blueprint, we teach you how to maximise the sales from however many (or few) subscribers you already have. Because when you’re making more money from them, you can invest in more lead generation. So if you haven’t already enrolled go and check out all the details!

Subject line of the week

This week’s subject line is “Bloody cheek”. The reason why the subject line works is that it’s a phrase we say in England to mean that someone’s got a real nerve doing something. But in this case, it was about Kennedy (literally) cutting his cheek while shaving. So while the meaning was literal, the subject line generated a lot of compound curiosity. Kennedy turned a story into a common phrase, and it made people want to know what that was all about. So check it out!

Useful Episode Resources

Related episodes

Landing Pages For Lead Generation – How To Create The Most AMAZING Landing Pages To Attract More Subscribers To Your Email List.

How to Grow your Email List When You Have Less Than 10k Instagram Followers, Helen Perry spills all.

How To Grow Your Email List Using Facebook Pages (Without Ads) – Rachel Miller Moolah Style!

FREE list to improve your email marketing

If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. Here's a list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.

Join the FREE Facebook group

Do you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber? There's a way! Every business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. You'll find a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.

Try ResponseSuite for $1

This content is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.

Join The Email Hero Blueprint 

Want more? Let's say you're a course creator, membership site owner, coach, author, or expert and want to learn about the ethical psychology-based email marketing that turns 60-80% more of your newsletter subscribers into customers (within 60 days). If that's you, then The Email Hero Blueprint is for you.

This is hands down the most predictable, plug-and-play way to double your earnings per email subscriber. It allows you to generate a consistent sales flow without launching another product, service, or offer. Best news yet? You won't have to rely on copywriting, slimy persuasion, NLP, or ‘better' subject lines.

Want to connect with Carrie?

You can find Carrie on her website!

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