10 Ways to Build Your List - Every Month
In this solo podcast episode of the Launch Your Box series, host Sarah Williams explains why continuous list‑building is essential for subscription‑box businesses and presents ten concrete tactics that can be used year‑round. She begins by sharing her own experience of trying to double her email list in 2023 and stresses that without a steady influx of new contacts, the pool of potential customers shrinks, making launches harder. She then walks through each method: (1) keeping a website pop‑up active and optimized; (2) creating dedicated opt‑in pages or blog‑post lead magnets such as packaging cheat sheets, checklists, or printable guides; (3) running giveaways that align with the box’s theme; (4) promoting a lead magnet on social media and using paid ads to attract cold traffic; (5) adding a pre‑checked email opt‑in box at checkout; (6) building a fun, shareable quiz that requires an email to receive results; (7) offering a free gift (or occasional discount) with purchase instead of constant coupons; (8) hosting events, workshops, challenges, or bootcamps that capture emails at registration; (9) teasing sneak‑peeks or behind‑the‑scenes content behind an email wall; and (10) collaborating with complementary brands, influencers, or appearing on other podcasts to reach new audiences. Sarah repeatedly encourages listeners to pick a few tactics to implement immediately, emphasizing that consistent, small daily actions compound into a larger, more engaged list, which in turn fuels subscription growth. She closes by inviting listeners to join the Launch Your Box waitlist for additional resources.
If you ask me what one thing can I do in my business every single day that would help me be the most successful, I would tell you it's our topic of discussion today on the podcast, and I'm going to give you 10 different ways that you can do it. Come listen.
Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.
Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. I am excited to be here with you today. As I'm recording this, I just got back from my mastermind event out in California where I was hosting a 2-day mastermind for my mastermind members, and it was so, so good. But I shared with them one of my main goals for 2023 was to double my email list, and I talked a lot about how I want this to be one of their goals, not only doubling it, but just building their list, building their following all year round, so that when it comes to launch time, when it comes to new products or offerings, that we have consistently built a new list. What I know is that If you don't focus on building a list year round, the pool of people that you have to launch your subscription box to and to sell your subscription box to over and over becomes smaller and smaller if we're not replenishing that pool of people that we are selling to. And so what I want you to, to get out of today on this episode is I put together 10 ways that you could be building a list And there are different ways. I'm not saying that you need to do all of these. I want you to think about these as your mission for the year. Like, how am I going to continue to build my list so I have a bigger pool of people to market to every time I launch, or every month if I have an open subscription when I'm showing my new thing? I have to get in front of new people. You have to get in front of new people. Whether you're brand new to subscription box business or if you're seasoned like me, I'm going into my 6th year of having my subscription box, but I constantly have to focus on building my list. And if you can focus on building your list every single month of the year and every single day, you should have some list building effort just working in the background for you. You're gonna be in a better position when you go to launch, when you go to increase, when you go to show the next box. To create signups. Okay, so I put together 10 different ways to work on list building this year. Number 1, super easy, is adding a popup on your website. I'm just guilty of not having this rolling all year round. It's like I do a popup, it goes really, really well, 3 months, 6 months, and then I feel like it's getting old, so I take it down and then I don't put anything back up for a while. And so this is the biggest lesson I can learn for myself. When my pop-up is up and I have a good pop-up, it's usually converting really well. Why don't I have a pop-up all the time? And so that's something that we can have on our sites all the time, collecting the traffic that we're driving over to our websites. And we do this, we're driving traffic to our websites every day with posts and products and launches and promotions, why aren't we having a way to capture people if they don't purchase? And so getting a pop-up, number one, on your website. We're doing training about pop-ups in Launch Your Box this month. It's called Perfecting Your Pop-up. And so it's just one thing that sometimes we set early on in our business. We don't go back and refresh it and analyze, is it working? Is our offer converting on our pop-up? And are we nurturing those people? So getting a popup on your website, number 1 for list building. Number 2 is I want you to create an opt-in on your website with a way to serve your audience. And you can do this in a couple different ways, but you want to give them more information in exchange for your email address. And I have 2 different ways that I do this for my own business, but, um, For Lunch or Box, a great example is I build a landing page and I have what's called my packaging cheat sheet on a landing page. So it's just a real simple landing page that talks about what is in my cheat sheet, and it's basically all the packaging that I use for my own subscription box and where I buy them from. And that's juicy content. Okay, it's free. So when I talk about, you know, packaging and someone says, oh, where do you get your packaging? Oh, grab my cheat sheet. And then they're opting in to get it. It's just one landing page. It has very little copy on it. Just here's what it is and here's a box to opt in. The other way that I do this, and I do this a lot in my subscription box business, is I'll do a blog. Say this is, you know, my box opening for the month. Every one of you can do a blog once a month with a box opening. And as you're talking through, each piece of the box and how it came together and your theme of your opening, you can offer an opt-in on that page. And it could be like, I like to do a style guide. Here's 5 ways to style your t-shirt for the month. You could do like a free printable to go with the home decor box that you just put out there, and it could be the printable that's in the box too. But now everybody can get that printable for free as an opt-in. It could be a checklist that goes with your beach box. So you— I've done this before too. I had a beach-themed box for the month, and I created a beach checklist, packing a beach packing checklist of things that you need. So they can get that checklist for free by giving their email. This could be like tips on caring for your pet. If you have a pet box, think about the industry that you're in, and what could you provide that would help serve your audience. So the beach packing checklist, 100% serving my audience. Okay. They can download it. It's for free, a printable, 100% free. And that would serve them because it would go with the things in your box. So think about how you can create an opt-in on your website or on its own, on a blog or on its own landing page that you can get people's email address. To give them a freebie. So number 2, that's an opt-in. Okay. Number 3, this is something that everybody can do no matter what stage they're at in their business. And I encourage you to do it right away as you're starting your business to build your list. But I also encourage seasoned box owners to do it periodically through the year to continue to grow their lists. Okay. And that's run a giveaway. Number 3 is run a giveaway. We can do this. We have training on this inside Launch Your Box on how to set up a giveaway, even if you don't have a website yet. Um, but this is the first step. If you're trying to build a list from scratch, you can do this with a giveaway. It needs to align with your subscription box. So you wanna make sure that whatever you're giving away goes with what is in the box. Like you don't wanna give away like a $100 gift card to Amazon. Because you're gonna attract people that may or may not like your box. So we wanna, we wanna put together something that aligns with what you would ship in your subscription boxes. But running a giveaway is the best place to start building your list. When you're starting from scratch, it's really hard. So running a giveaway is easy. And then as you grow, if you continue to run giveaways periodically throughout the year, It's a way that you can continually funnel new people into that email list all year long. So number 3, run a giveaway. Number 4 is post a lead magnet on social media and run ads to it. Now, one of the questions that I get sometimes is, what is the difference between an opt-in and a lead magnet? They're virtually the same thing, but they're positioned differently. Okay, so an opt-in would be something that I put inside something else. Like you're coming to my website to look at my box opening, right? You wanna, you wanna go through my box opening. So you're coming to my blog to read about the box opening and while you're there, there's an opt-in for more. Okay, so that would be an opt-in. A lead magnet is something something that you're going to attract people to one-to-one. They're not coming in for something else and then opting in. It is a magnet. You're pulling people in for this thing. So your lead magnet and your opt-in could be the same thing, right? So if I put a printable as an opt-in in my box opening blog, okay, so free printable, it goes with the box this month. I could also put— use that printable as a lead magnet to draw you into my email list alone. So I would just post this cute printable on my social media. I would run paid ads to that, primarily to cold traffic, so that I can get new people on my list. And it's called a magnet because I'm attracting you to opt in with this item. You're not going to something else and then finding an opt-in. The magnet part is I'm attracting you to do this. You can do this with an ebook, you can do this with a checklist. I did this with my cheat sheet. So you can use a lead magnet and an opt-in the same way. You just call them something different based on the way you're using it. So it could be the same thing. So like in my coaching business, I have about 5 different things, 5 different lead magnets that are also opt-ins to blogs or podcasts. And so I can create these 5 things and then they're interchangeable with other things that I talk about. So they can be ran as lead magnets. They can also be inserted into other material that people are consuming as an opt-in. So number 4, you'd wanna post a lead magnet on your social media. And you could run ads to that lead. This could be lots of different things. This could be a free gift with purchase. This could be, be an ebook about, say you have a craft box and you want to— my top 10 crafting supplies that I have in stock all the time. Great lead magnet. This could be different things that would serve your audience. So think about the type of box that you have and how it would— how something like this could serve them. And then that's a great indication of they will like your things because your lead magnet aligns with your box. And so they would also like your box. Okay, number 4, lead magnet. Number 5 would be having an email opt-in at checkout. So when someone goes to your shop and they buy a product for the first time, there needs to be a little box at checkout that says, I want to sign up for email marketing with you, and it needs to be checked. And so what we like to do is have it automatically checked. And then if that person doesn't want emails from us, they can uncheck it. What we can't do is just take, uh, download an email list from all of our buyers and start marketing to them. They have to opt in, and it can be automatically checked for them and they can uncheck it. But they have to opt in to get marketing emails from us. So one of the best ways we can do that is just by having that little box at checkout saying they want to get our marketing offers in their email box, and that will fill your list every day. If you're making sales every day, that will add emails to your list every single day. Number 5, add an email opt-in at checkout. Okay, so let's go back on the first 5. We did add a popup to your website. Number 2, create an opt-in with a landing page or a blog on your website. Number 3, run a giveaway. Number 4, create a lead magnet and run paid ads to it. And number 5, add an email opt-in box at checkout. Okay, so that was our first 5. Number 6 is to create a fun quiz that they need to give you their email address to get the answers to. You see these all over. I see them all over Facebook all the time. Just a fun quiz that they can opt in. We're working on one right now for my subscription box business, and it's called, um, what style monogram are you? And they'll go through and answer a series of questions, and then questions, and then we'll pair them with a monogram style. And these are just what I've picked out. It's just something fun. It's not super technical, but people that love monograms are going to fill out this quiz, and then to understand what kind of style of monogram they are, they're gonna have to give me their email address to get the answers. Okay? So it's just a fun way for people. You can— then they'll share it with, look what style monogram I am. It's a fun way to get email opt-ins. So you wanna have it aligned with your subscription box and what your products are. I did one a few months ago and it was like, what potato chip are you? And it's super fun. So people just do it and they're like, oh, I'm a salt and vinegar potato chip, or I'm a barbecue or whatever that is. That's more fun. But I can't do a quiz like that because that doesn't align with my ideal customer. I'm going to get every Joe filling this thing out to see what potato chip they are and not person that loves monograms. So it has to be aligned with your offer, but those things are so shareable. So you could put together a quiz and create an opt-in with a quiz. Number 7, this is probably my least favorite. I know that it works, but it's my least favorite for a couple reasons, and that's offering a discount. I don't love to offer discounts. Or maybe a free gift. Free gift always feels better to me, but I'm gonna tell you why this is not my favorite, and I, I'm probably gonna age myself a little bit here. But back in the day, back in the day, if we wanted to order pizza, my mom says we gotta find a coupon. So we went and looked at the Yellow Pages, and we cut out a coupon so that we could call Pizza Hut and order our pizza. Okay, that was back in the day. We couldn't order a pizza unless we had a coupon. Like, that was the rule in our household. Like, if we didn't have a coupon, we couldn't have pizza for dinner. Another one, and this is also going to age me a little bit, but, um, I specifically remember we couldn't go to JCPenney unless we had a coupon. Like, they would send coupons in the mail all the time, and we would only go to JCPenney's if we had a coupon. And what those two things did, and I don't know why those things have stuck in my mind as a young kid or a young teenager, but it, it made it to where we couldn't shop places without a discount. It trained us that there would always be a discount, and we couldn't buy those things without the discount, without the coupon. And so if you don't— if you're not old enough to know those things, ask your parents, because it's kind of funny. But also, we don't want to train people. We don't want to train people to only shop with us when we have a sale or we have a discount. How many of you only shop Victoria's Secret during their semi-annual sale? You only shop with them twice a year because because you know you're going to get good bargains and it's going to be a sale. That might be the only time you shop there. So we want to not offer a discount all the time. That's why I love the free gift better, because we can say, grab a free gift with your purchase. So we know they're going to purchase. They're going to feel good because they have a free gift. We have some extra inventory off our hands that we would probably it's probably less than a discount that we would offer anyway. And so I would love for you to offer a free gift. You can do this in a pop-up, you can do it in an opt-in, you can do it as a lead magnet. But that's one way that you can build a list is with like a free gift with purchase. Number 8, I love this one. I do this one a lot with my coaching business. Um, I don't do it with my subscription box only because I don't teach anything with my box, but I feel like this would be a great one for all the DIY boxes or the art boxes, or any box that you have that would be teaching something like a fitness box or a health and wellness box where you could teach like meal prep or something like that. But number 8 is to host an event or or a workshop. This could be free. It could be a low-dollar offer. I see a lot of, of the craft, you know, world do this with like a challenge or a boot camp. I do this with my coaching week, but basically I charge $10 to come to coaching week and we fill it with thousands of people when I do that once a year. And there's wording, there's verbiage when you check out that says you will be added to our email list. By checking out, you agree to be added. And you can do the same thing with a workshop or a class or a challenge or a bootcamp. And you can just funnel people into that free thing and get hundreds or thousands of new people on your email list by hosting an event of some sort. But make sure you have the verbiage there so that you can then funnel all those purchases into your email list. But number 8 is to host an event, workshop, challenge, bootcamp, masterclass, whatever that is, and make sure the verbiage is there to be added to your email list. That will give you a lot of traction fast. And if it's something related to what you're putting in your box, you know that that's the perfect person to be on your list. Number 9. Number 9 is a great way. I have seen members inside Launch Your Box do this and I love it. It's an easy way that you could create create some fun, some exclusiveness. But number 9 is to tease a sneak peek or a behind-the-scenes content with an opt-in. And so what that means is, you know, I always put together a sneak peek of what's coming out in the box, and you, you can see the colors, and you can see the monogram color, and you can see different objects, but you don't quite know exactly what it is. Cause they get really close. What I've seen is that subscription box owners can like pixelate or blur that out a little bit and ask for your email address to see the picture. Wanna see the sneak peek? You know, opt in here and I'll send it to your email box. Or you can even have it go on the next page, the graphic, like after they put in Klaviyo, it's called the success page, but they can put their email. Address in, and then when they hit submit, the, the success page, you can put the image non-pixelated so they can see it immediately. And now they're on your email list. You just have to make sure the wording is on there that you're opting into our email list so that they know. But you could do this with like not only the sneak peek, but you could do this with like a behind-the-scenes tour. You could take a picture of you packing the boxes. Don't show anything, but you could say, hey, you want to see me pack your box? Drop your email below and I'll send you the video. And then you could make a short video of you packing a row of boxes. They're gonna see some of the pieces going into that, but that would be another great opt-in to kind of tease a sneak peek or some exclusive behind-the-scenes content with an email opt-in wall in front of it. Number 10. Number 10 is a great, great way to work on building your list, not only your list, but your following as well. But number 10 is getting in front of new audiences. And the way that you can do that is collaborate with other brands, other businesses, maybe influencers that have your ideal customer in their audience, but maybe they sell different things. You could do this in a lot of different ways. Um, you could run a joint giveaway. So say that I want to get in front of other people. I could— I've done a giveaway before with some local businesses, and one of them sold jewelry, so she did jewelry. One of them sold some signs like little home decor signs. And then there was me. I had my monogram box. And so we each contributed some items for a large giveaway, and then we shared it on our pages and did a giveaway. But you had to follow each of our pages. You could create an opt-in around that, enter the giveaway this way, and share that email opt-in list. The goal is really to partner with someone that has an audience size similar to, to you. And that makes it mutually beneficial. So like, if I have 20,000 followers and I want to partner with someone with 100,000 followers, that might not be exactly a win-win for them. They might be like, well, I have 5 times more followers than you do. How does this benefit me? One, they would get in front of my 20,000 followers, but I'm going to benefit more probably because they have more followers and I would get in front of more people. So that might not feel like a win. Instead, I want to go partner with someone that has 15,000 followers or 25,000 followers, or some 3 of us that have similar following counts so that we can benefit each other. So I want you to think about how you can benefit each other, not just yourself in these situations. Another thing that I do, and many of you can do if you teach something, but I, I try to get on a new podcast once a month, so I am typically a guest on someone else's podcast once a month. Some of you listening right now have probably come from hearing me on someone else's podcast, and I do this in a way that serves people. Okay, I'm not doing it in there to be salesy. I'm not going on someone else's podcast or teaching in someone's membership or anything like that. To sell something. I'm doing it to serve their audience. And in there, I will take one of my free opt-ins that I've created up in number 2 or number 4, and I will offer it to their, to their people, to their audience. I'm like, yes, if you wanna know where I get my packaging, I've got this free packaging cheat sheet. I'll give it to everybody, drop the link for them. They're opting into my list. They're saying, I'm interested in where she gets her packaging. That shows me that they ship products and they might be a good person to be in my membership launcher box. So think about that for you too. If you created your top 10 craft tools like we talked about in number 4, and you're going in someone else's audience and they're like, oh my gosh, that glue stick is awesome that you're using to teach us. Where did you get this? I'm like, oh, it's in my top 10 tools. Here's, here's my list. Drop the link for them. You're serving them. The intent is to serve someone else's audience, not to sell to someone else's audience. Then they will be on your list. Then you can nurture and you can follow up and eventually sell to them as well. So that's number 10. Get in front of new audiences. You can do it by serving another audience, collaborating with other brands, doing a collaborative giveaway with other businesses. There's lots of different ways that you can get in front of new audiences. So that's my list. That's my top 10. Let's go back over it one more time. But I want you to focus on building your list year round this year. If you can focus on these things, just take some of them like right now today. What could I do to start building my list? If that's a pop-up, great. That'll work for you every day of the year. If that's a giveaway, great, let's run a giveaway this month. Maybe it's, I've got a popup, I just ran a giveaway. What can you do next? Maybe that's developing a lead magnet or creating an opt-in on your website. There, keep going through this list because every one of these points is gonna lead to you list building. The further that you deep dive deep into this list of 10, the more you're gonna grow your audience. The more your audience grows, the more your subscription grows. So I'm going to quickly go back 1 through 10 and we're going to wrap it up. Number 1, add a pop-up to your website. Number 2, create an opt-in on your website. Number 3, run a giveaway. Number 4, run ads to a lead magnet. Number 5, add an email opt-in at checkout. Number 6, create a fun quiz. Number 7, offer a discount or a free gift. And number 8, host an event or a workshop. Number 9, tease sneak peeks or exclusive behind the scenes. And number 10, get in front of new audiences. Go get some work done. Start building your list because we're going to grow our subscriptions this year. If the idea of creating a subscription box is swirling around in your head, I encourage you to head over to launchyourboxwithsarah.com, get on our waitlist, and grab some of our free downloads to help you get started. That's launchyourboxwithsarah.com.
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