MBA1076 5 Effective Email List Growth Strategies

Hey O. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show Powerful Bursts of business knowledge every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn 5 effective email list Growth strategies. These are not just some run of the mill typical email list growth strategies. I'm not going to tell you, just put an opt in box on your page or on your website. These strategies are meant to get you lots of subscribers with each effort. In fact, most of them combine two aspects of marketing to get you targeted audience members to subscribe to your newsletter. Subscribe to your email list so you can build a relationship with them, build trust and eventually turn them into customers. I found that email marketing is the most powerful marketing available. When somebody's on your email list, it's a lot more powerful than social media marketing, paid ads, Google, AdWords, whatever. We all covet our inbox. So if you have access to somebody's inbox, that's gold. You have to deal with email, you have to open it, you have to archive it, you have to reply to it. You got to do something with it. You can't just scroll past it like a newsfeed in Facebook. This is why it's so critical for you to start building your email list today if you have not already. If you are building your email list, today's episode is going to show you ways to boost your growth instantly. I know that's a big promise, but I will deliver. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Support for today's show is provided by wgu. WGU is an online university that's changing lives by changing higher education. WGU is affordable and offers degrees in business, it, teaching and nursing. Their innovative model is designed to fit the lives of busy adults like you and I. Study anywhere, anytime your schedule allows. Move through the material you already know so you can finish faster and graduate with less debt. WGU's degrees are current and relevant so you'll get the skills and credentials employers are seeking. You also get personalized one to one faculty mentors. From day one, get your $65 application fee waived at WGU.edu 100 MBA. Again, that's WGU edu 100 MBA. I promised you five EPIC email list growth strategies that will boost your subscribers. So let's get into it. Strategy number one and this is epic Post plus a content Upgrade. Let me explain. This is one of the most effective email list growth strategies I've ever tried. And that's writing an absolute epic blog post. I'm not talking about 500 words here. I'm talking about 2,500, 3,000, 4,000. I recently wrote a 9,000 word blog post for webinar Ninja. It was the definitive guide of running a webinar. What you want to do here is you want to write the posts in your area of expertise at a certain subject. I'm talking about the guide, the thing that people need to know something that is so good they can't help but share it with others. Now, writing a great blog post is. It's going to take you some time, but the investment is going to be worth it. If you go to webinar ninja.com blog, you'll see the definitive guide. On our blog, you'll see how long it is, how detailed it is. We have images, we have infographics, we have videos inserted in there. It's a lot. I mean, it could be an ebook on its own. It took me about eight weeks to create that blog post, but it's generated so many subscribers and so many people sign up for a free trial because it's such a great post. People love it. And it's found on search engines easily because Google rewards you. Search engines reward you for great content, for long form content. Don't believe me? Our post that I just mentioned on webinar ninja.com on how to run a webinar is ranked 2 on Google for the keyword how to run a webinar, an incredibly competitive keyword. But because our post is so big, so epic, and we put so much into it, it ranks number two on Google. Now what does this have to do with growing your email list? Well, at the bottom of this epic post, you need to add a content upgrade. A content upgrade is basically a piece of content that they can grab, that they can get, that will help them implement what that blog post you know is talking about, what it actually explains. This could be a workbook, this could be a course, this could be even a piece of software. And how do they get this content upgrade? Well, they give their email address for it. And because the post is quite long and by the time they get to the bottom of the email, that means they're serious, they're a great lead. We've gotten so many leads just off this one post and I've done this tons of times on other sites on the $100 MBA and it just Works. I actually learned this from Brian Dean from Backlinko.com Brian Dean is an SEO expert. This is actually his whole business model. He writes epic posts every month, one post a month. And he grows his email list like that with content upgrades. And he builds a community with that email list and then offers his products to them. This is an incredibly powerful strategy. That's why I wanted to kick off with this one. Epic posts plus content upgrade. All right, strategy number two, Mini video courses with lead gates. Let me explain. You're going to create a small course, something that they can digest, that they can actually consume within about 20 minutes. This could be a single video and broken up into chapters. This is very easy to do with a hosting platform like Wistia. Wistia is a great video hosting platform. We use them, we love them to death. And with their video player, you can create chapters so you can break up the video into different parts. So the point of having a short 20 minute video broken into parts is because you want people to get a quick win. If they watch this video, they're gonna actually get something out of it. But it's enough content for it to be valuable. And bringing up into chapters allows them to know what each part is going to be about. Now, I mentioned a lead gate. Now, a lead gate is basically a gate that stops them from watching the video at a certain point unless they give their email address. It basically freezes the video and puts a opt in box. So say for example, your video is 20 minutes and you have five chapters. So at the four minute mark, maybe at the end of the first chapter, you could put a lead gate, you could say at four minutes, stop the video and put this opt in box in the video area. Now how can you do this technically? Well, again, Wistia does this for you, allows you to collect email addresses at any point of the actual video. Once they pop in their email address, the video continues. So you're giving them a bit of content with that first chapter and the video will keep playing once they just pop in their email. Some people, they put that lead gate, that opt in box at the start of the video. I don't recommend that because you want to give them something. You want to give them a reason to actually put their email address. They want to watch a little bit, see if this is even interesting or worth their while. If your first chapter is fantastic and gives lots of value, they're going to be like, I want more. Here's my email. I trust you with my email. Let's keep going. With this course. Go to wistia.com to check out how to do that. But this is a fantastic strategy. Mini courses with lead gates. Strategy number three, Be a podcast guest and then invite the audience to a webinar. I love podcasting, but I also enjoy being on other people's podcast as a guest. I love to share my story as well as give as much value as possible to other audiences, audiences that would be interested in what we do. So if you're in the health and fitness industry, then get on health and fitness podcasts. Reach out to them, see if they need guests. A lot of these podcasts are interview podcasts and they live and breathe by getting guests. They need guests, so you're doing them a favor. So check out their show, listen to a few episodes and email them and tell them what kind of unique value you can add to their audience. Often on these shows, the host will ask you, is there something you want to give our audience as a free gift? So. So when you're on the show, you're gonna be interviewed or be giving great value in your area of expertise. And then at the end of the show you can say, hey, I wanna continue this conversation. I wanna continue giving value. I'd like to invite you to my free webinar. And this webinar could be live or it could be recorded. And you just give a link like webinarninja.comworkshop. make it an easy link they can remember. And then go to your website, create a page called Workshop, right? Then have that page do a redirect. If you don't know how to do this, just ask the person that's managing your website. Or you can Google it. Super simple. You basically are telling your website, when anybody goes to this page on my website, take them to this page. And what's this page? Well, it's your registration page for your webinar now. Shameless plug. If you're looking for an easy way to run webinars, we have a software called Webinar Ninja. That's fantastic. And another cool, cool feature about Webinar Ninja is that even if the webinar is over, your live webinar has passed, the date has passed. If you allow to have a replay and we record your webinar automatically and there's a replay right there. Even if they stumble upon this link, later on, they could register for the replay. So you get the email address. Webinars are an email growth monster and they have an intrinsic value because people feel like they're getting a live workshop or A valuable workshop for a period of time, even if it's recorded. So reach out to podcasts, add value on that show, and then invite them to a live or recorded webinar. All right, strategy number four Ebook plus lead magnet. There are people that are in the business of just writing ebooks. I'm talking about real ebooks that they sell on Amazon. And they don't really make a lot of money on the ebook itself. They use the ebook as a marketing platform, so they'll sell the book for a dollar. But the book is extremely valuable. It doesn't have to be too long, it'd be 50 pages. And what they do is at the start of the ebook, they put a link to their website that allows them to download the workbook to this ebook or a course that goes along with this ebook. They click a link to take them to the website where they just pop in their email address to grab that workbook or course. And you can create all different types of ebooks and put them on Amazon or put them on your website. And the point of the ebook is not to make money. The point of the book is to get the word out, to give value and to convert those readers into subscribers. I know one of our guest teachers in the past, Chandler Bolt from self publishing school, does this in an epic way. He has some really good ebooks out there, books that are worth their weight in gold. Amazing. But he converts his readers into subscribers with this opt in strategy ebook plus lead magnet. Guys, I got one more strategy. One epic strategy that a lot of people forget about. But before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Today's episode is supported by NetSuite. Has your company outgrown? QuickBooks? Are shared spreadsheets and manual processes and legacy systems costing you time and money? Well, let me introduce you to netsuite by Oracle, the business management software that handles every aspect of of your business in an easy to use cloud platform. With NetSuite, you could save time, money and unneeded headaches by managing sales, HR and finance and accounting instantly, right from your desk or even your phone. Thousands of the best known and fast growing companies use NetSuite to manage their business. And now it's available to you. Better yet, it's more affordable than you think. Because right now NetSuite is offering you valuable insights to help you overcome the obstacles that are holding you back for free. Don't miss out on unleashing your business's full potential with this free guide crushing the five barriers to growth. You'll learn how to acquire new customers, increase profits, and finally get real visibility into your cash flow. We all want that. Get NetSuite's guide Crushing the Five Barriers of Growth at netsuite.com mba that's netsuite.com mba to download the free Crushing the Five Barriers to Growth guide today. Netsuite.com NBA all right, a quick recap before we do strategy Number five. Number one was epic post plus a content upgrade. Number two was a video course plus a lead gate. Number three is be a podcast guest and invite them to a webinar. Number four is ebook plus a lead magnet inside the ebook and number five and this one is seriously being slept on in the industry and it's actually pretty, pretty powerful. And that's simply asking your existing email subscribers to tell their friends in your regular newsletter every so often, maybe every two months or so at the top of the newsletter or as a P.S. if you like, you could say, hey, if you enjoy this newsletter, if you enjoy the value that I provide through this newsletter, through the blog post, through my podcast, through my whatever, then would you mind sharing this link and you're going to provide a link with your friends on social media, with your friends via email, whatever you like. And that link is basically the link on your website that allows people to sign up for your newsletter or for an ebook or for any kind of opt in that puts them on your email list. Your subscribers are your biggest fans and they could be your best salespeople. And it's okay to be honest, just to be like, hey, if you want to support what we do, you support what I do. You taking 2 minutes to share this on social media with your friends and family makes a huge difference. And even if you just get 10% of people doing that, that is huge. Get others to help you grow your list. No one does it alone where they have it. Guys, those are my five powerful epic email list growth strategies. Put them to use today. Choose one and get started. These really work and I really highly recommend you give them a shot. Before I go, I want to leave you with this email list. Growth and all kinds of marketing is a full time job. You got to keep on doing it. So once you finish one strategy and you put into place work on the next one. The good thing is that these things can be evergreen. They can keep working for you, but somebody's got to build these things out. You got to build that course, you got to write that ebook, you got to create that webinar, you got to make it happen. Add a to do list. Add it to your to do list. Put a deadline against it, and make it happen. Without marketing, without sales, your business is just not going to grow. So make it a priority. All right. I'll check you in. Tomorrow's episode. Free ride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care, Sa.