Hi there, wellness entrepreneur. Welcome back!
Today, we’re talking about 10 Ways To Grow Your Email List, specifically as a wellness entrepreneur. So yoga teacher, body worker, massage therapist, health coach, life coach, physical therapist, cash-based healthcare provider, wellness practitioner of all the sorts, fitness professionals, I’m talking to you.
This blog compliments “How to Grow Your Email List”. In “How to Grow Your Email List (Episode 165)”, I do talk about how to grow an e-mail list. Today, I’m going to give you additional tactics or techniques to grow your list beyond that first one. So both of these blogs are really required, because the only way that someone will join your e-mail list is if they believe they will get value.
In Blog – How to Grow Your Email List (Episode 165), I talk about all the ways that you can bring value to your e-mail list so you are nurturing them, and how to describe that value when you’re out in the public, and remembering that your e-mail list becomes an asset, it becomes your community.
Holding The Container Of Space for Those On Your List
I think of writing love letters, sometimes to my clients. I think of the people on my e-mail list how I want to inspire them, how I can make their day easier, I think about their problems, I think about their struggles. So you’re holding the container of space for those on your list.
It’s a little bit different than growing a social media following where Facebook and Instagram for example, they can have an off day. Remember that day where Facebook shut down for the day, they had a tech issue, and Facebook wasn’t available. So your e-mail list, you’re in more control over the people on your Facebook page, the people on your Instagram page, they’re actually owned by Meta, not you.
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So the way to get more control of making sure that you always have a way to communicate with your people is to grow an e-mail list. And again, if you are considering selling your business in the future, you can always sell your e-mail list. Again, that’s a whole other practice. For me, that’s not usually my specialty, or what I teach, for sure, because, you know, I had a list of physical therapy patients when I was doing my brick and mortar. And I could have sold it at that time. But it didn’t feel right to me.
So some of those people just migrated over to becoming my business coaching clients. And some people fell off. But I have colleagues and peers who wanted to sell their physical therapy practice, for example. And they did and enabled them to go on to the next phase of their life. And that list is now being cared for by another provider.
So again, there are many opportunities when you have this list, but it’s always remembering they’re a group of people. And if you start with that mindset, first of caring for that group of people, and wanting to provide value for that group of people, then when you go out in the world, and you start implementing these 10 ways that I’m going to go over how to grow your email list, it’s going to feel more authentic, it’ll feel more true, versus just trying to get someone to give you their e-mail.
#1: Talking To People
The number one way to grow your e-mail list is just talking to people, and this is what I really highlighted in How to Grow Your Email List (Episode 165). Now I’m going to talk to you specifically as the wellness entrepreneur.
Because of course, if you’re out in public, if you’re out at a networking event, or you’re just messaging someone back and forth on social media, you can mention, you’re getting the feeling that they’re not quite ready to sign up for a consultation or a discovery visit yet. But you do want them to continue to be part of your world, you recognize that they are in fact, a great fit to you, that you can help them, they have a potential to be a great client, then it’s easy to mention, “Well, you know, every week, I give out tips on this very topic, you can join for free by just, if you shoot over your email, I can add you to the list for me, for example, so you can stay updated on weekly podcast episodes,” or “I give inspiring content each week on how to grow a wellness business focusing on my six pillars of which you know about of marketing, selling, and getting client retentions, and renewals, delivering results to your people, as well as the nervous system, preventing burnout, working on your energy and time management as well as the metrics.” So I’ll highlight the area that they have the most concerning, and I say, “You can receive, you know, details on how to work through this area in your business, if you join my e-mail list.”
Now, for the wellness entrepreneur, you’re going to be highlighting the result that they want to achieve when they’re working with you. So maybe it’s getting more energy, maybe it’s working on their digestion in their gut health, maybe it’s building strength and flexibility in their body, and it’s remembering what will that get them because people don’t necessarily come to yoga because they want to be more flexible, they want to be more flexible, because that flexibility will get them something in their life. Maybe they can sit into their Tesla, which sits lower to the ground with a little bit more ease or don’t feel so clunky trying to get out of their Porsche that sits low to the ground, for example, so they want to feel stronger and move more mobile so they can get in and out of their car with more grace and with more ease and don’t feel like they’re just aging and becoming weak and sedentary, for example.
So what is it that your people want to achieve? And that is the whole reason why they want to get on your e-mail list.
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And one area where I don’t see a lot of wellness practitioners really taking advantage of is mentioning your e-mail list in the classes in the workshops that you talk about. And you might have a good reason for this, you might work for a studio that does not want you to self-promote, okay, that’s fine, and you want to respect their boundaries and the rules. A lot of studios do have that in place.
And, you know, students are coming to your class because they want to practice yoga, or whatever it is that you teach, and they don’t want to be solicited to the whole entire class, that’s totally fine. But there are still ways that you can drop the fact that you do have an e-mail list or highlight that you do communicate with your community on a weekly basis. So many of you are already doing that without even thinking about it. You’re talking about your Instagram page, or you’re talking about your Facebook page, or you’re talking about things that you just naturally do. But you don’t think to mention, “Oh, I send out this e-mail list.” And maybe it’s because you’re not sending out weekly emails.
Okay, go ahead and head to Blog How to Grow Your Email List (Episode 165). There are some ideas in there to help you get more consistent with nurturing your people because if they are on your list, you do want to follow through. Also head to Blog How To Sell Your Wellness Program Without Selling (Episode 148), where I highlight how to sell without selling.
So, for example, when I taught yoga, many yoga classes a week, I would talk about my clients’ stories, I would talk about things I share in my e-mail list, it would just be a quick one-minute little blurb, where when they were holding a stretch, or maybe in a restored pose where it linked with the message that I was teaching the theme of the class, I would highlight a story or highlight an e-mail that I just had sent to my community, and I will get people that would come up to me after class and say, “Oh, how do I join that list?” or “How do I become part of your community? I like your messages. I like what you have to say. I would like to be reminded of these messages throughout my week.”
And so I literally would just write their e-mail in the notepad on my phone, and whenever I returned home or to my office, I would input their e-mail into my software. It was as simple as that. I grew my list one by one, by many people doing that way.
Just start describing your e-mail list, just start mentioning your e-mail list everywhere. Post it on social media right now and Instagram stories, they have the link feature. It’s so easy.
#2: Creating a Free Opt-In
So that brings me to number two, which is creating a free opt-in which I find is the easiest way to get people to join your email list whether they are in person or through social media.
For example, right now, I have the Get Clients blueprint. It’s a free training, it’s five days. By the time you finish this training, you have the potential and the knowledge to sign at least one client. It’s free, go download it right now, the link is (Here).
And that’s exactly how I promote it. I use those words on my Instagram stories. If you follow me there, you can see me doing that. I would opt-in if you haven’t already. I mentioned it to people when I’m out at networking events, so they can join in. And you can create a simple registration page to host your free opt-in or download. Mine is connected to my website. So it depends on how much control you have over your website.
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But some e-mail software platforms like MailChimp, or ConvertKit, I use Ontraport personally, have the ability to create landing pages. And the option to host a free PDF file. If you wanted to create your own opt-in, you can do that quite easily. Or you can create a video series, for example, and host it on YouTube using the unlisted link and have a way where someone can input their email address, maybe just through MailChimp, maybe you do it manually. And then they’re triggered using a tag, and your e-mail list goes out linking them to the videos in YouTube.
So there are many ways to host a free opt-in. It can be a guide, or it can be a video series, you want to just promote it everywhere. And here’s the thing, don’t create a guide that just has fluff. When I was in the physical therapy world, there was so many guides like the 10 steps to reduce low back pain, it was common knowledge, like drink water, get up and walk around, create something that really highlights your expertise, highlights your knowledge in your niche allows them to leave reading your guide with value that they can implement, that they haven’t thought of that might be something new.
And typically, practitioners shy away from doing this because they’re afraid to give away too much information. Because if they have too much information, then they’re not going to pay you, or they’ll be taken advantage of, or all these thought errors come to your mind. And I can tell you that they’re thought errors. It’s the thinking that’s holding you back from signing more clients. Because I give away a ton of free content.
For example, in this blog, today, I’m giving you 10 ways to grow your e-mail list, you can implement them and for sure you can grow your list by 10 subscribers at least this very week. That’s valuable information with a tangible outcome. And it’s for free. And I do it again in my Facebook group. Again, in my e-mail list. There are many ways that I give out so much free content. And I have the thought that it’s helping people know, like, and trust me. They’re getting, if they have the thought that they get wins for me for free, it just increases that trust with me. So when they join my six-month program and pay me $5,500, they’re going to get value, even more value when they pay me.
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So for you, how can you create that win for people for free? So when they come into your world and sign up to work with you, for 12 sessions, six months, it is a no-brainer. That is how you begin to move from onesies and twosies. I call them one or two sessions to delivering and selling packages for three months or 12 weeks, is by helping to secure more wins before they even pay you one cent.
And that is what I learned from being in the coaching world and several masterminds I’ve been in for the past few years, I really had to shift my thinking. Plus, there’s something very different about paying someone, a coach, a practitioner, and it doesn’t matter that container that they’re working with you, whether it’s one-to-one, in person, online, in a group, on-demand, it doesn’t matter. There is something very different when you’re holding the space for someone, a paying customer, and you’re guiding them through a specific process and you have it all laid out and it’s organized and easy to follow, versus consuming free content here or there. And then having to put it together for yourself with no one to hold the space for or get your questions asked consistently.
So, again, it’s just not the same for your potential clients to consume free content. Yes, you want them to get wins, but they’ll get even more wins faster when they’re working with you and you have to really believe that so you can create valuable content, so you can help them to get those wins for free.
Again, number two is create that free opt-in and promote it everywhere in your posts, in your stories, tell people in person, it doesn’t matter. Just do it again and again. And again, people need that repetition. And if you’re out there on Instagram, or growing your e-mail list, there’s always going to be new people coming into your world.
So I even promote my free opt-in to my email list, because sometimes there’s several people that come into my world through which is number three, a workshop or a webinar that I have hosted. But they never even knew that I had this free opt-in to Get Clients Blueprint, for example, or when I was a physical therapist, I had many, a few different options, because I would focus on different areas of the body, like 10 ways to reduce low back pain, how to bring more yoga therapy into your lifestyle, I don’t remember the exact titles, but I had one for upper back and neck, I had one for the hips, what are the common struggles that your people really struggle with and create a solution for them. And that can be your free guide, as simple as that.
And then when I would go to vendor event, I would have flyers of those free guides in those standing plastic flyer things on my table, and I got so many e-mails from that way. So you can promote that free opt-in everywhere.
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#3: Through Workshop or a Webinar
Number three is to host a workshop or a webinar, and these can be free or low-cost. And whenever you do the workshop and webinar, you can do it on your own. And the way that they get access to the webinar, the link or the address, if you’re doing it in-person is by giving how they register when they give you their e-mail, then they get access to the workshop.
Now if it is free or low cost, again, it becomes a low barrier of entry, meaning that there is going to be an investment of their time. Or if it is a workshop, that’s two hours, for example, maybe a low cost, like $35, or $25. But it’s not going to break the bank. It allows them to get a taste of what it’s like to work with you again, maybe even get more wins, maybe experience how you do organize your information or the style of teaching that you teach. Plan and guide them through a process, and they can get wins leaving the workshop.
And if they want more than that, they have a chance to possibly schedule a consultation or a discovery visit. But to get into that workshop or the webinar, they’re going to give you their e-mail. That’s also how I’ve grown my list. We know getting 20 to 50 plus people at a time when they sign up for my webinars. So for my webinars, definitely that is free, I definitely get more e-mails joining than a workshop that’s paying is going to be a lower number of e-mails, but maybe people that are more likely to take that next step.
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So I play around with doing both. There’s no right or wrong answer. You might find a sweet spot than always doing the two-hour workshop for $25, or one-hour workshop for $25, for example, leads to consistently getting discovery visits and consultation calls. So you continue doing that and don’t even bother with the free one. Or maybe you stick with the free one. Find out what works for you. And what frequency of consistency works for you. Maybe it’s once a quarter, maybe it’s once a month, what will work for you.
Again, there’s no right or wrong way. And along with that, you can also host a challenge, is another free way to, again, it can be free or low cost, another low-cost barrier to entry for people to join your e-mail list.
The difference between a workshop, a webinar, and a challenge, in my mind, or a five-day event is just that is that a workshop or a webinar is a one-hour or two-hour deal done in one time, on one day, where a three-day challenge, a five-day challenge, or a five-day event is hosted over several days. And I’ve done that as well. Again, it’s up to you, what works in your schedule, what’s the best format to deliver the content so your people get the best results, what your people may like.
So, for example, if you work with busy moms, and they really have a difficult time carving out two hours because they have several kids have to drop off at school, and then before they know it, they have to turn around and pick up another from preschool from their half day, and then they have to do all the things that it’s really hard for them to carve out two hours at one chunk. Maybe doing a five-day some type of challenge for them, where they just jump on for 15 or 20 minutes, the first thing in the morning, might serve their schedule better. And they might have a higher chance of actually showing up live to the event.
Well, think of your people and what works for them. For me, personally, I’ve done many five-day challenges or a five-day free event, and five days of doing something for you, it ends up being a little too much for me and my nervous system and where I am right now, and the schedule of clients that I have. So I like three-day events. So play around and try out what works for you.
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#4: Doing Vendor Events
And number four, I hinted to already, is doing vendor events. So maybe it’s at your health fair, or when I was a physical therapist yoga teacher, there was a company actually that I signed a contract with. And every month, they would send me vendor events at corporate health fairs. So once or twice a month, I would have a table at a health fair that was at a company, and it was during our lunchtime, and I kept a box of my vendor supplies in my car. And I would just show up and set my table up, I would talk to a bunch of people. I had a whole process of where I did get a bunch of e-mails, and I got people signing up for discovery visits right there at that vendor event.
So it’s a great way to get both e-mails and potential clients right there in the moment. So you can look at farmer’s markets, you can look at any street fairs in your area, again, you might find a corporation that does scout out all the health fairs that companies are putting on, and you pay them, and they just tell you when to show up and the location. And that made it very easy for me, and I had a consistent and reliable way to get to build my list and get clients monthly, which I thought was a perfect combo of doing that.
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And workshops, I always had a consistent source of new patients coming into my world from both of those, and then the sprinkling of social media helped me to generate six figures and more consistently.
So there you have it, just do those things. And you’ll grow your list and get some patients and clients. And again, you don’t have to have a brick and mortar. This works online too. You can go to vendor events, and yes, you’re there in person, but you’ll meet your local community. And they might decide, “Okay, maybe I’ll run out of space at a co-working space, and we can meet in person,” or “Let’s just meet on Zoom, and we don’t have to drive.”
So it works either way, whether you’re in-person or online. But vendor events are a great way to grow your list.
#5: Collaborating with Other Entrepreneurs
Number five is collaborating with other entrepreneurs in your niche or can complement your niche. So for example, I love to collaborate with other entrepreneurs that maybe specialize in Google ads or specialize in websites for wellness entrepreneurs because they provide a service that I can’t provide, and they have a specialty in an area that I don’t know as much about. But our clients, our ideal clients are the same.
So to partner with people like that is really great because we can expose, if we do a Facebook Live together or on a podcast or an IG live, or maybe affiliate type promotions, we’re exposing each other to our lists. It’s a great way to grow your own list. But it’s not going to be in competition, because we’re not doing similar things.
So collaborations with other entrepreneurs is a great way to go. I do say be careful with the affiliate promotion. I personally do not do affiliate promotions at this point because I find it confusing if I’m always promoting someone else’s offer, and then I’m having to squeeze in my own offers at the same time. It can lead to confusion in the audience because there might be too many offers, and they get overwhelmed, and then they don’t know what to do. And so they end up not taking as much action.
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I want to keep my offers very crystal clear. Right now, the next best step is to work with me through The Awaken Container. And that’s all I promote unless I am doing a challenge or a workshop or something like that. But you do you. For some people, affiliate promotions work very well. And it’s a great way to grow the list, and they’re able to space it out with their own offers. Maybe I’ll do them in the future. Who knows, but do be aware of how much you’re promoting someone else’s service or product versus your own. Of course, you want to make sure that yours is the star, and you are promoting that more.
#6: Have a Referral Program
Number six, you can have a referral program. So that can be for your current clients and patients. If they refer you something, they get some kind of reward or bonus. And so then you’re growing your list by referrals through your current clients.
Whenever I host a workshop, I have an e-mail in my leading up to the workshop, where I tell them that things are more fun with friends, because personally, I feel that things aren’t more fun with friends. And so I tell them to invite a friend and show up to the workshop, live together so they can support each other. So you can even do it before they become a client. By having people just invite their friends, if you have a brick and mortar, you can host an open house, for example. And again, that’s a great way to grow your list, have your clients come and have them bring a friend.
So there are many ways where the people in your community currently can refer you to their family and friends. And you want to do it in a way that is a bonus for your people. Because people in your community, if you are delivering those wins, if you are delivering great content in great value, they will want to talk you up they their friends who are looking for help. And it’s an easy win too for them to refer their friends. People who can help them in an area of their life that they’re struggling with because then they don’t have to do the research on their own. They already have someone that they can trust, and it saves them a lot of time and maybe heartache and money by not having to find the right practitioner for them. So it really is a win-win for everyone in a referral program.
However, you don’t want to depend on that only because then that puts a lot of pressure on your current clients and customers and your potential clients and patients. You don’t want to have them doing all your marketing for them. It just leads to kind of an achy dynamic energetically. So you can put it out there in the world and know that if you are delivering a high value service and in wins and providing a great service for your people that they’ll just naturally tell people and just make it easier for them.
For me, I include in the e-mail where I say things are more fun with friends, it’s a gentle reminder. And I tell them exactly how to invite their friends too by just forwarding the e-mail and then the friend clicks on the link to register. So just make it easy for them and natural, but avoid being awkward and too spammy with your community.
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#7: Do A Contest or A Giveaway
Number seven is you can do a contest or a giveaway. Though, if you decide to run a contest or giveaway, you can give away a free session, and I don’t mean a consultation, I mean an actual free session, don’t bait and switch them.
Or maybe some products that are related to the work that you do. For example, if you are a pelvic health specialist or working women’s health, maybe you want to give a female care package and talk about that contest and giveaway everywhere. Your Instagram, your Facebook, tell your friends your e-mail list, have your e-mail list tell their friends and just talk about it every way.
#8: Highlight Joining Your List On Your Website
This can be another way to bring more people to your e-mail list. You can highlight joining your list on your website. So just have a pop-up encouraging people to join your e-mail list. I wouldn’t actually use those words, like “Subscribe” or “Join the e-mail list” because again, if you read “How to Grow Your Email List”, most people are very leery these days of giving out their e-mail only because people’s e-mail inboxes are full. So you have to give them a reason as to why they want to join your list. How will it benefit their life and tell them like what exactly they’re going to get, what’s in it for them, for joining your list and have that be a pop-up or do a Facebook ad or a Google Ad again, highlighting the value of joining your list or send the Facebook and Google ad to your free opt-in or that free webinar or workshop that you’re teaching is another way to grow your list.
#9: Highlight a Special
Another way is to highlight special in a bonus content that people can only see when they are on your e-mail list. For example, it can be an insider’s Sneak Peek or an extra special meditation, or an extra 20-minute yoga flow each week, or it doesn’t have to be something that takes a lot of your time. Maybe you can just give them a sneak peek into your day-to-day diet of what you eat.
If you’re a weight loss expert or a nutrition expert, or for me, I like to share stories about my personal life that I don’t necessarily share on Instagram or Facebook, or I tell the stories with a little bit more detail or a little bit more insight, and I share my lessons and learnings from all that, and I share it with my e-mail list more than I might on Facebook or Instagram.
So what is some special bonus content that only your subscribers get then talk about that and share that everywhere to get more people on your list.
#10: Highlighting Your Current And Future Clients
And number 10 is highlighting your current and future clients to be. Have them share their story and their wins. And for example, on Instagram, I just started sharing new clients that have just hired me and I do it to promote their business, and also just inspire others with what they hope to get out of working with me for the next six months, what are their goals. So just beginning to share their story.
I also share current clients’ wins and successes. And I highlight that in both my social media and my newsletters. And again, if you are highlighting people, you can ask those clients that you are featuring to share the newsletter that they’re featured in and have them share the newsletter that they’re featured in with their friends, and that can have people subscribing to your list as well.
Conclusion
So there you have it, I’ll run through the list. 10 ways to grow your email list is number one, the simplest is just talk to everyone everywhere, when appropriate. Everything from networking events, when you’re meeting someone out in the real world, post stories, all the places, any of the platforms, just share people and tell them again, why they should join your list and refer to blog “How to Grow Your Email List (Episode 165)”, where I go a little bit more on why you want to have an e-mail list and how to nurture it, as well as blog – How To Sell Your Wellness Program Without Selling (Episode 148), where I talk about how to sell without selling so you don’t have to feel spammy. Or if you do teach classes out in the public, so you’re not breaking the rules. If you work for a studio that says you can’t self-promote yourself, because you want to stay a teacher there, please don’t break the rules.
Number two, create a free opt-in. Number three, host a workshop or webinar free or low cost. Number four, do a vendor event like a street fair or a health fair. Number five, collaborate with other entrepreneurs that have the same client, your same ideal client, but are doing different services. Number six, have a referral program just for current clients as well as your own friends and family. Number seven, do a contest or a giveaway. Number eight, highlight your list and why someone would want to get on it through your website or run Facebook and Google ads to your free opt-in, or your free webinar or low-cost workshop. Number nine, offer special content to your list and tell everyone why they need that special bonus content. And number ten, highlight and feature your clients to be and your current clients and have them share their feature.
So there you have it, get out there. Just pause right now and make a commitment to yourself. What’s one, pick one, that you’re going to do this week? What’s a small step that can help you to start implementing that one? So just pick one out of the ten, and then think about what’s the next smallest step that you need to do right now or that you can plan to do later today or tomorrow and commit to yourself and do it?
Let me know your results! DM me.
Speaking of referrals, share this blog with your friends, if any of your friends could benefit with growing their list, and of course, leave a review I would love it, and tell me your wins and successes. I would love to hear that. you can write that in a review as well.
And I will see you next week. Bye for now!
One to One Wellness Business Coaching: https://igniteurwellness.com/one-to-one-business-coaching/
Book Your Free Consultation with Alison here: https://igniteurwellness.com/business-coach-for-health-coaches/
