Grow Your Email List - 6 Tricks that Work

Monica Pitts 0:00 So I could have sworn that I made this blog post into a podcast. But my friends, alas, I did not I literally was trying to send the podcast out to someone. And I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it in my podcast, and I thought, What in the world is happening? And it turns out that I actually never made the podcast, I just wrote the blog post. So here it goes, how to grow your email list. Six tricks that work. And we have been growing our email list since like the beginning of time, I swear since the dinosaurs. Oh, me and Ellis was probably do 10 years ago. Okay, so 10 years. Okay, so maybe that's not since the dinosaurs, but it's still a really long time of list building experience, put to work, plus some tricks that I initially poopooed and I thought we're stupid, but my clients asked me to do on their websites, and I did it. And then yeah, they weren't, they totally worked. Alright, so now you know exactly what we're doing. In this episode, we're going to talk about growing your email list. And I'm going to give you at least six tricks that work, if not a few more, because we all know that once I get rolling on a list, I usually think of some more. So let's get to business. Monica Pitts 1:20 You're on a mission, and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro, we are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital, I'll share my marketing know how in business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures, I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting, and get moving towards marketing with purpose. Monica Pitts 1:57 And before I dig all into these tricks, what I one thing I really want to encourage you to do is make sure that you number one, have a way for people to sign up for emails on your website, because if you don't have a way for people to sign up for emails on your website, they're never going to sign up. Yeah, I totally learned that one the hard way. Because when we launched our new site, like, and it wasn't this most recent new site, it was probably the site that we launched, seven years ago, we launched the site. And suddenly, the email list just stopped growing. And it turns out, that's because there was not a way for them to sign up on the site. Yeah, we just totally forgot to put it on the new site, way to go us right. Okay. So don't make that mistake, make sure there's a way for people to sign up for your email list on your website. And make sure that it integrates with your email marketing system. Even if embedding that code from your email marketing system is not as sexy as you want it to look, it is better to have it integrate than have to do it on your own. Because it stinks when you have to do it on your own. It is horrible, and I hate it. And it makes me very, very sad. I sometimes do an amazing job of figuring out how to meet people online and get their email addresses. And then I sometimes also completely suck and manage to have one piece of the puzzle broken and have to do with manually. And that is horrible. telling you from experience, okay. So if you learn nothing else from me today, make sure that you do get the two things to integrate, and that you have a way for people to sign up on your website. Okay. Now, how are we going to get their attention and get them to give us that Almighty email? Right? Monica Pitts 3:46 So trick number one, and you're not going to like it because people don't like this suggestion. I think user consider it pop up. Yeah, I know, you hate pop ups, I get it. But here's the deal pop ups work. And I just read an article about how pop ups are terrible and how we shouldn't use them and how it's just rude. And we're interrupting people. And through use of good design, you can actually get people's attention just as effectively as with a pop up. Yeah. And that's great. If you're an amazing designer, that's great. But if you're not an amazing designer, you have to get people's attention somehow, right and a pop up will totally do that. I'm in a complete love hate relationship with them. So we do website planning workshops. That's one of the ways that we build our email list and meet people is by helping them plan their website. Right. So during our last campaign, we had, you know, Facebook ads, we sent out emails for our newsletter and we also had just a pop up that would show up whenever people came to our website. And 13% of our signups came from that pop up 13% And I didn't have to pay for them. They just came to the website and saw the pop up and clicked on it and went and signed up for the workshop. And you know what, I don't feel guilty about that pop up. Because it was considerate people had the ability to close the pop up and walk away from it, we didn't make them feel guilty about walking away from the pop up. In the web design industry, we call that confirm shaming. That's lame, my friends. Nobody likes that. Okay, just know things will do or the X in the corner, make sure that it's clear that they can get out of that pop up, but it will get in front of them. Make it simple. So here's the deal. Storytime, right. So one of my team members added a pop up to a client's website for her email newsletter. And I was the person that was getting the email alerts as people were signing up right and left me it's because they forgot to take my email off of the form. Okay. And I thought, oh my gosh, look, Melanie's list is doing so great. It's growing so incredibly fast. What am I doing wrong? Why am I not getting as many emails on my list as Melanie, my email is just as cool as Melanie's. And I was like, feeling some real this building MB. So I went to her site to check it out. Because I didn't realize that she had asked them to put the pop up on there. And I was presented with the pop up. And then I remembered that we had discussed it at our last meeting. And that's what was building her list. So fast is the pop up. So my friends that pop up, while it's annoying, is actually a very effective way to ask and you're showing up in front of them and asking, you're not making a passive ask. It's not just nestled in the sidebar someplace, though, you should definitely have one of those two. It's actually right in front of them asking, and that's why popups work. But we need to be considerate. Okay. Is that an oxymoron? Maybe, okay, either way, Monica Pitts 6:56 that leads me to trick number two, which is create an offering or a lead magnet or a white paper, or a downloadable resource, whatever you want to call it. Ultimately, what you're doing is offering something that your target market needs or wants, and then you give them the answer to a question that they have. Or your goal is to help them through a problem that they're going through a problem that they need to solve. So that way when at the other end of solving that problem, they're ready to Bri buy your product or service. So you can provide the answer however you want to it could be a video, a podcast, a downloadable eBook, really the sky's the limit whatever works for you in your talent set. And they pay for the answer with their email address. Do you guys hear that clicking in the background? Yeah, that is my eight year old, she decided that she was too sick to stay at school, so I might neglect her. And now she is playing with magnet tiles in my office because I run a web design agencies. So of course, we have toys and markers and crayons and Magna tiles and playdough and slime because sometimes creatives just need to check out for a second, do something tactile then jump back into their desk. Anyway, I digress. I'm kicking you out of the office. So that way, we don't have to hear any more this clicking. Be right back. Did it do I'm back. Now she's out in the conference room playing with the magnet tiles. Okay, so back on topic, you're going to offer a lead magnet, white paper, ebook, whatever you want. whatever format you think makes the most sense in and you're going to have an email form, they're going to fill it out. And then you're going to deliver the item to them either via email or on the success page from filling out the email form. But here's the deal, I think that there's a level of ethics involved with this as well. So obviously, they want this thing from you. They're giving you their email address, yes, that's going to happen. But just because they wanted the answer doesn't necessarily mean that they want to be on your email list. So we need to respect that. And most of the time, what I do is I put a checkbox on all of the download forms. And I say check this box to join our email list. It's that simple. And a lot of people check that box, I mean, a lot of them. And I usually have that box as checked to start off, and then they uncheck it. If they don't want to be on the list. There you go. And here's how I handle emailing the people who have checked that box. If you've checked the box, you get our weekly emails. And if you don't check the box, then I only email you when something really cool is going on. Like if I have another offering that you might be interested in. Or if we're doing a class or an event that you might be interested in that I'm going to email you because I'm not emailing you all the time. It's kind of I feel like you downloaded this thing and if it's related to Who another thing that I have that could educate you about what you're doing or an event that I'm having that might help you grow your business, then I should tell you about it. And if I didn't tell you about it, I would probably be doing you a disservice. And that's why I email, everybody who has downloaded anything about offerings and classes, but I don't email them with our weekly newsletter. And here's the deal, they always have the option to opt out. They can always opt out, and it's okay. And it's automated. And I don't even have to opt them out manually. Okay. All right. Monica Pitts 10:36 So trick number three is, now I just mentioned this with actually the with the offering download form. But Trick number three is add an opt in checkbox, just before every submit button on every form of your website. So a lot of people will have a contact form. And people fill out the contact form. And that's just it. They don't ask them, Hey, would you like to be on our email list to receive our marketing advice, which makes sense that I mean, like, if they're contacting you for your service, they'd probably want to keep in touch with you, right. So just capitalize on that decision and ask them to make one more small decision before they hit submit, which is to opt into your email list. And you'll add the magic checkbox, your email form on your contact page. And also add it to all the other forms for your downloadable offering or for your sales inquiries. You put it right before the submit button, and then once they check the box, it, it opts them in. And it doesn't have to be like super jazzy, it can just be really simple, like sign up for our email newsletter match to sit. And alternately, you could say, sign up for our email newsletter to get weekly tips and tricks you can't live without. I mean, try it both ways. See what works. But it's worked really well I read about this forever ago, when I was looking for different ways that can help boost signups for an email list. And this person said, Hey, this is what you need to do. And I thought, okay, and so I did it, and it totally works. So definitely do it. Now, I don't necessarily have this subscribe to our marketing blog or email list box checked on the email form on my contact page, that one, I don't necessarily have it checked, I would leave it unchecked because I let those people opt in. I know I said on the last one, I keep it checked to make them uncheck it. And on this one, I make them check it. But that's just as me All right, you don't have to do it my way you can do it your way. I'm just telling you how to do it. Monica Pitts 12:45 Okay, Trick number four, add a link to employees email signatures. I mean, remember, your processes are some of your greatest marketing assets. And so every time you have an interaction with a customer or a prospect, it presents an opportunity to communicate about your business, right. So use your normal processes as an opportunity, especially for your people who are on the front lines and talking to prospects and clients continually make sure that you add a link and ask people to sign up for your email list at the bottom of their emails. Now, you might switch up your pitch or the way that you display it from time to time. Because I mean, if they see the exact same thing every single time that they open an email from your project manager say, then they'll just start ignoring it because it just feels normal. But if you switch it up every so often, then they will actually see it and potentially sign up there. Monica Pitts 13:40 So trick number five is partner up. So if you find a person or a business, who also works with your target market, you can team up with them and work together to cross promote your audiences. And partnering up will get you in front of a lot of people at once. So you could write an article for their email newsletter. If the person is sending the newsletter agrees. Then at the bottom of that article, you could invite readers to sign up for your email list. I mean, really partnering up is like a givers gain solution. Their audience is getting valuable information from you about something they're interested in. And you're doing your partner a favor by lightening their content writing load for the month. And we use this same methodology whenever we are interviewing podcast guests, I realized that people in your situation want answers to different questions about marketing their business and growing their business and I don't have all those answers. So I love interviewing guests. And in that way, I'm making a connection with them. And they become a contact that I know and can trust and send people to for business. But then also you get the answer right so so it's beautiful. It's it's a symbiotic relationship and you can do the same thing with your email list. Monica Pitts 14:55 So trick number six is ask in your processes. I feel like processes. Man, we talked about him just a second ago with putting it at the bottom of your email, like in your email signature. But I feel like processes are the most overlooked marketing assets across pretty much every industry. Like when you interact with prospects or clients, you take them through processes over and over again. So where are those processes? Does it make sense to ask them to join your email list? Now for some people, it's not as easy. And for other people, it's very straightforward. So like, for example, let's say that you're a nonprofit, and people are signing up for an event. Yep. On the event signup form, ask them to join your email list. If you're a restaurant and people are checking out at checkout, ask them to join your email list, you could ask them to join your email list at the like front desk of your salon or as they're checking out at your store. There's all kinds of different times you can ask them to join that list. The goal is to ask people when they're the most satisfied with your work. You don't want to ask them while they're frustrated or impatient, or they've been waiting forever, this is a bad plan. Instead, think of when in the process of working with your company, people are happy. And so if their bellies are full, and they were happy with their food at checkout is the right time to ask them to sign up for that list. So figure out where that point is for you in your process and add the ask in right there. And you'll get them on your list. So that was six. Monica Pitts 16:35 And I told you that I would probably think of a seven one and I totally did. Okay, I thought of a seven. And I'm gonna tell you, it's like your bonus. It's a bonus. And this is a good one. Okay, so everybody has assets, marketing assets in their company, right? And good marketing is all about leveraging what you've got to get more of what you want. So a really easy example of an asset is money, right? So you might have money in your marketing budget, and you might run ads on Facebook for an offering that could then get emails on your list. That's pretty straightforward, right? But I think a lot of times people overlook things like, Hey, I've got 1000s of people on social media, have you ask them to join your list yet, you can make it super easy. There's different mic ways that you can even have people sign up for your email list on Facebook. So don't be afraid to leverage your other assets to build your email list. So what assets do you have? There's all kinds of different things that can be considered marketing assets, I actually have a worksheet, it's called the marketing asset discovery guide. Yep. Aha, I'll actually link to it from here. That's a good idea. And you can read through and and really think about all the different things that you might have that are actually assets. So I mean, for example, let's say that you have people who call your office regularly. I mean, what if every time that those people call the office, you just ask them, Hey, would you like to join our email list, you have people calling into your office, that's actually an asset of your business, your customers are an asset of yours. And if you want to start emailing them regularly, and deepening your relationship with them, maybe sell them some additional products that they might need that would help their businesses grow, or make their lives easier. We got to get their email address. And so just ask them, Can we add you to the list, there's nothing wrong with that, right? There's nothing wrong with that you're just you're doing good business. Monica Pitts 18:41 So friends, don't be afraid to ask, that's pretty much the long and the short of all of this, don't be afraid to ask and look at what you've got, and see how you can use it to grow. If you've got a ton of traffic to your website, add a pop up. If you've got a lot of knowledge, create an offering. If you've got a stellar process, ask people during during the process, there's all kinds of different ways that you can leverage what you have to grow your email list. And that my friends really is all seven of my ideas. So I'll list them off really, really fast. So that way, you can hear them one more time. Trick number one is use a considerate pop up. Trick number two, create an offering lead magnet, whatever you want to call it. Trick number three, add an opt in checkbox just before every submit button on every form of your website. Trick number four is add a link to employees email signatures. Trick number five is partner up. Trick number six is asking your processes and Trick number seven was leverage your other marketing assets. Okay, so if you enjoyed this podcast or if you learned a thing or two, Hey, leave me a review. That would be really really awesome because I want to meet more people. Just like you and your review is going to signal to the podcast gods that I'm not that bad. Maybe Maybe I'm actually cool. Actually, that's what it does, it tells them that I'm cool. And then it will show my podcast to more people just like you who are looking for answers. And that's what I want to do is help them find those answers. And if you are looking for more answers, or if you want to download one of our free resources, and hang out on my email list, so that way I can let you know whenever we have new episodes on this podcast. Yeah, that'd be really cool. I'm leveraging an asset here friends, just call myself out. You can hop on over to Mayecreate.com. That's mayecreate.com. And you are going to be plugged on to my business website mayecreate design and you can learn all about our web design services, and get the resources that you need to help your business grow. All right, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose. Transcribed by https://otter.ai