Hi there, Wellpreneur! Welcome back.
I was going to do a blog on just growing your email list, but it didn’t feel quite right because nurturing and caring for those on your list once they get there is equally if not important. So today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about how to grow your email list and how to nurture and really care for those who are already on your email list so they become more than just that email that you’re acquiring to get.
It's Not Easy To Get Email Addresses Nowadays
Truthfully, an e-mail address is a sacred thing these days. People are less likely to input their e-mail address, one could say, than previous years, maybe a decade or so ago, for good reason. Because people are getting many more e-mails in their e-mail inbox. And this is just me, but a zero inbox really seems unrealistic these days and a thing of the past, unless you’re really not subscribed to barely anything or anyone.
In fact, I know people, myself might be included here, that have separate e-mails for their free downloads and lists that they’re subscribed to. And for me personally, it didn’t start out that way. My list for my opt-ins really evolved over time to become just that, only because my emails evolved as my business evolved and I kept the older emails.
Ways To Grow An Email List
So if you want to grow your e-mail list, it really comes down to a few things: developing connection, trust, in a real reason why someone should share with you their e-mail address. It’s become almost like a telephone number where you’re only going to give it out to a select valued view because you know that when they do reach out to you, it’s going to be for a good reason.
If you want to grow your email list with clients from social media be sure to read this blog here: https://igniteurwellness.com/get-clients-from-social-media/
What’s In It For Them
So let’s talk about the ways to grow an email list. It’s really simple. Just tell them why it’s worth giving up their e-mail address or sharing their email address with you. What are they going to get for that? What type of value? So that famous phrase on the website, “Subscribe to my list here” with the arrow and a button that doesn’t work so much these days anymore. It might work for someone who already has a built in trust, has a large following, or maybe they are a household name. So someone automatically knows when they subscribe to the list, they know what they’re going to get.
But most of us, in fact, if you’re reading this blog, I can pretty much guarantee that you’re not a household name right now. So you have to meet them where they’re at, tell them what’s in it for them for subscribing to your list, and don’t use the word subscribe or opt in, just tell them why they want to receive your weekly emails in their inbox or however much you write to them.
You don’t even have to call them emails, you can call them whatever it is you think that you’re writing. Maybe love letters, maybe philosophical articles, whatever you write weekly. Tell them why they need to receive that and have that in their life. Tell them specifically how you’ll make their day-to-day easier, simpler, or seamless.
Or maybe you give yoga sequences out each week or a weekly recipe, an insight, an inspirational story. You talk about the books you read, you talk about your life, you tell about your own transformations, you describe your client’s transformations. So you give stories of possibility, potential for the future. Tell them any or all of that. You just want to give them a reason so they’re not just giving up their email address to receive, in their mind, they might think more spam. No one wants more spam. No one really wants more emails.
People Want Solution For Their Problems
Say that again. No one really wants more emails, but people do want solutions to their problems. Make your e-mail the solution to their problem and don’t worry, you won’t give away too much for free. In fact, they’ll want to work with you more the more they get to know and trust you. That is for sure. So step one is creating valuable content for your people. Step number two is believing in your body. Feel it deep down in your bone that it is valuable. You want to believe this to be a hundred percent true. And then step three, tell everybody everywhere. It’s that simple.
Telling Everybody, Everywhere About Your Valuable Content
Tell people about your valuable content on Instagram, in stories, in posts, in reels, tell on Facebook, in stories, in reels, in posts. Tell them through your e-mail. You’ll never underestimate the power of referrals, you’ll never know who’s reading it. And we’ll find your content valuable and share it with a friend. If you go to an in-person networking meeting, share it with the people there. Share it through direct message why someone might want to become a loyal follower and listener to the content you put out in the world.
So yes, you can invite people to your list to subscribe to your free content and whatever words you choose to use. And we can get more into that copy tips down the road through post e-mails. So in a group form talking to the masses, or you can do it via one-to-one. Yes, you can do it one-to-one just like you would be inviting someone to a consultation call or a session or to work with you.
If you want to learn how to create valuable content be sure to read this blog here: https://igniteurwellness.com/content-creation/
A Great Intermediary Step
Let me tell you about a great intermediary step. For example, let’s say you are talking to a yoga studio outside of class and they’re seeming interested in your work, but you can tell maybe through body language or the words they’re saying that they’re not quite ready for a consultation because sometimes some people aren’t, right? Even though the consultation is already free.
If you’re doing free consultations, I know a lot of you do, it’s still an investment of their time. And even though you might say there’s no obligation and all the things, they still might be hesitant because they don’t want to feel obligated to say yes. And that’s more having to do with them and trust. But that’s just where they are. So a good in between step is to tell them, “Oh, well if you’re not ready for a consultation yet, I see that da da da da, maybe so we can stay in touch.” Or you can say, “A good way to stay in-touch is to sign up for my e-mail list, because I go through a bunch of weekly topics and themes and I talk about specific poses, physical asanas or meditations that can help with specific problems. So if you can’t make my class, you can still receive some of the benefits of yoga by opening my weekly e-mails.” You can say something like that that was just on the fly, but it’s a great in between step. So for sure the invitation can be done one-to-one.
Learn more about how to structure a consultation through this blog here: https://igniteurwellness.com/how-to-lead-a-successful-consultation-call/
You Can Grow Your List Without Opt-ins Or Webinars
Now I haven’t mentioned yet, you might be kind of curious, but I am hinting that you can grow your list without a free opt-in or challenge or webinar or any of those. So it can be done just through one-to-one post and sharing and asking for referrals through your own e-mail list and any other way that your creative mind might suggest to you. It’s really limitless.
And if you’re in the place, you can also add a free opt-in. So for example, right now, I have a free opt-in I just created a couple months ago. The Get Clients blueprint is free and I made it for two reasons. Number one, to support and nurture loyal followers and listeners. And number two, to get more loyal followers and listeners.
Get the Get Clients Blueprint here: https://igniteurwellness.com/get-health-coaching-clients/
It’s twofold, which goes back to the whole reason why I wanted this blog to be, how to grow and nurture your list. Because those people that do come to your list, you want to care for them deeply. You want to respect and cherish and honor them. They’re not just an e-mail list, they’re not just a name and they’re definitely not just a number. They’re a person there on the other side of the screen reading your valuable content.
So you really do want to cherish them and we’ll get more into how to nurture them in just a moment. But you can create a free opt-in. There’s so many different types of opt-ins. There’s a PDF hand up, there is a live training, there’s a pre-recorded training through video format, there’s audio opt-ins, any kind of learning style opt-in. You don’t even have to do a training at all. Think about that person, your ideal client and what they struggle with day-to-day, moment-to-moment. And what is one simple doable freebie that you can add into their life? Now when I say the word freebie, I don’t mean make something that’s cheap, not useful, or that’s already been done a million times over and many other people’s free opt-ins. You know what I’m talking about. Make something valuable.
When Not Charging Is Beneficial For You And Your Client
Back to The Get Client’s blueprint, I could easily charge for that. In fact, I’ve thought about charging for that. But I want my clients to be on the better end of the ratio. So if you came to me already making 1-2K per month, then my one-to-one program is a no brainer because I can then easily get you, scale you, scale’s used relatively here, but I can easily get you to 4 to 5k. But if you’re not making any money really or less than 1K a month, it could be a stretch to invest in my program unless you have the savings or the resources, which I do have some clients that do that and they quickly get clients and revenue.
So I’m not saying that it’s wrong to do it that way. You can, but sometimes for some people it can seem like a big leap of faith to invest with me. And I don’t want to stress you out. There is stress, that’s good. However, there’s stress that’ll send you into that fight or flight response or freeze response and there’s no benefit to being in that place as an entrepreneur all of the time because you’re not going to move forward. So I’d rather have you come to the place where I’m going to push you in your growth edge.
Yes, there’s going to be some discomfort. However, it’s not going to be so much so that you’re going to be frozen or fleeing and flying because you’re in a triggered nervous system response. So if I can help you to make that 1-2K a month through my free content, so then you’re ready to work with me faster, you hop on my consult calls already because you’ve gotten wins in my free content, so then you trust me more and think, “Wow, if I got the wins with her free content, what’ll it be like if I pay her?” Then hell yes, I’m going to create a free resource for you that I could charge for and not charge. It benefits everyone.
Options You Can Do To Grow Your E-mail List That Are Free
Other options of ideas are creating a challenge, partnering with someone, a one-time collaboration. I’ve got a whole host of thoughts on having a partner for your business. But a one-time collaboration with someone where you are exposed to each other’s list is a great way to build your list.
So you can do a five-day challenge with someone or a Facebook Live or an Instagram Live with someone and get exposed to each other’s list. There’s so many ways. It can be a webinar, a workshop. I grew my list personally by doing a bit of all of this, talking to my students at the end of yoga class, doing workshops on my own, partnering with yoga studios for sure. So I always got exposed repeatedly to their list, talking about it through Facebook, Instagram, reminding my own list that they can refer me people. And all of this was without paid advertising. There was a time I did do paid advertising for a few webinars I did, but I know exactly how many people that brought in. About 200. I grew my list over a thousand people just in a couple years through all these methodologies, which some people might consider fast, some people might consider slow. It is what it is. Definitely enough to make six figures and more.
And then I did it again with the same skills organically to build the business coaching side of things to a thousand people or more. So bit by bit it grew. And really, the best way for you to think about how to grow your list is just think about your people, what they’re struggling with, where they’re hanging out and seeking their answers and be the solution for them in all the ways and just tell them why they need it in their life. And when they do sign-up for your list, nurture them, care for them, treat them right, treat them with the utmost respect, treat them how you would want to be treated. Don’t be that friend who only reaches out when they need something like a sale or a consult.
When you’re the friend who only reaches out when they need something, when your card is opening or you need a consult, that’s when you’re going to get a whole bunch of unsubscribes. And here’s the thing about the unsubscribes, they’re always going to be there no matter how valuable your content is. So just don’t take it personally. You never know why someone’s unsubscribing. It’s none of your business. Really just focus on the people who are staying, the ones who want to be there.
How to Nurture People On Your Email List
So here are some ways to nurture your people when you think about their struggles and how you can help them. You can think about what they’re actually feeling prior to signing up for your e-mail list. Were they feeling stressed out in their morning? Can’t they get out the door without their kids yelling and screaming or them yelling and screaming at their kids? And how do you want them to feel after signing up for your e-mail list? Maybe you want them to feel confident that they’re a great mom, that they have the ability to pause and know exactly what to say to help their child get out the door on time for school and in such a way that leaves everyone feeling empowered, confident, feel relief, knowing that they’ll be in good hands, someone that will support them and continue to give them helpful advice along their journey through motherhood.
So what emotions do they feel before and what do they think and feel after? What kind of experience do you want to take your people on when they sign up for your list? Have you ever considered it that way? I love thinking of it that way, and that’s from the world of working with a bunch of my coaches truthfully. And you always want to follow through with your promise, so make it immediate.
Importance Of Testing Your Email Sequence Tech Wise
So for example, if you have a statement, sign-up for my free opt-in, whatever it is, let’s say yoga poses or low back helps or to decrease low back pain, you’re going to get a 10-post series sequence to reduce low back pain. As soon as they put that e-mail address in that 10-series sequence, that’ll be showing up in their inbox. And you want to have a thank you page, if you can, saying, go to your inbox, this series is that, so they immediately begin to trust you because you’re following through with their problems. So that means you’ve got to test it out, test out your own sequences.
Sometimes there are tech hang-ups and things get lost in the ether. That’s okay. I’ve had forms on my sites before that led to nowhere and people reached out and requested to work with me or requested one of my free opt-ins and it didn’t work for a period of time, but that’s okay. I’ve learned the hard way.
And I’ll tell you from my own experience, test your sequences. Make sure that you’re following through with your promise that they are receiving what you promise and make that promise and how they receive it. Simple, clear and straightforward. Meaning, they put an e-mail in and they’re going to receive something in their inbox and there’s a thank you page confirming all of that. And it’s also repeated. I do this on my form. So you can go to my website right now and see. I repeat it on my forms exactly what they’re going to get. So it’s all very concise and clear and straightforward, which makes it easier for me to deliver on the promise because they know what the promise is, they know what they’re expecting to receive.
Now a couple of my thank you pages need to be cleared up a little bit, but that’s work in progress and that’s why it’s important to learn the tech world. You might think as an entrepreneur, I’m going to just work with the people and I’m going to hire someone to do all the tech stuff. Tech stuff takes up too much of my time. If the tech stuff is taking up too much of your time in the beginning, then it’s going to take up too much of your time, even when you’re at 102K, because you don’t want to be outsourcing all the little things all of the time. You want to know how to do some of your backend tech stuff. And I promise you, when you begin to learn the tech stuff, your thoughts about tech stuff will change. You’ll begin to get better at it. It’s a skill just like anything else. Some of us are not just innately built forward being good at tech stuff. Well, I guess maybe that’s true. Some are wired differently than others, but it’s still a skill. You can still learn it. I promise. I don’t think I’m a techie. I think I learned it just like everyone else and I’m not great at it either.
Give Them Love Once They Enter Your List, Not An Ask
Okay, that was a little side note there. So, again, follow through with your promise. Next, once they’ve entered your list, once they’ve given you their e-mail, give them love first thing. Beyond that freebie, give them love once they enter, not an ask.
So what does that mean? It means give them more value. Don’t just hit them up with a sale right off the bat or hit them up with an open cart for a program or a consultation. Give them more value once they enter your list, not an ask. So they look forward to opening your e-mails. Opening your e-mails in their brain for their nervous system is considered safe. Not that asks are not unsafe. It’s just like dating, right? There’s an appropriate time to do an ask or a relationship to take to the next stage when everyone’s a consenting party.
So you want them to be a consenting party to your ask, which means they need to be ready for it. So allow that time and valuable content. Make the ask a very natural next best step. And you might say, “Well, how can I ensure that if I’m offering workshops and free webinars and free consults, if they opt into my opt-in on Wednesday, and my e-mails go out on Monday, and there’s always a PS?” Yeah, that’s the case. But there should be valuable content in that first e-mail. I know for me, I’ll get people that opt into that Get Client’s blueprint any day of the week because my website’s open 24/7 and they could opt-in Monday morning and then an hour later, get my normal Monday e-mail. Actually, that wouldn’t happen because of the timing and the tagging of things. But let’s just say hypothetically, they would still be receiving valuable content because my Monday e-mails highlight the podcast of the week. So they would get a valuable e-mail highlighting the content for the podcast and for sure, if they opt over here to the podcast and they receive more value, it’s value upon value upon value. I like that value stack.
Go Through Your Welcome Email Sequence Again From Your Client's Perspective
The third step is, and I said this already, go through your welcome sequence, but I said it before from a technological perspective. Let’s say go through your welcome sequence this second time around from your client’s perspective. And remember, think about what I said, what are they feeling before they enter your e-mail list and how do you want them to feel once they enter it? So go through it from that perspective.
Can you take yourself on that journey? Do you feel that experience from the journey from them, from the moment that they hit the form? What did the word say on that form? Entering in the e-mail address to the thank you page, if you have one to actually receiving a free opt-in if you have them, or if not that very first e-mail, what is the experience like every step for that person? Make it extraordinary. Make them look forward to opening every e-mail.
I literally sit down and think about this and have gone through so many of my own e-mail sequences that I receive multiple emails in my own e-mails because I’ve opted in so many times for myself. The nice thing is that your heart should be happy to hear is that I’m always thinking about you and your experience that I’m taking you upon because I want you to feel supported and I do want you to feel relieved that you’re in the right place.
Avoid Empty Filler Opt-Ins, Baiting And Switching, Empty Promises
Lastly, avoid the empty filler opt-ins, avoid the baiting and switching, avoid the empty promises and you’ll have a list that you love and your list will love you back and when your list loves you back, then the size won’t matter so much because you’ll see each person and the potential that person could bring for themselves and into your world. Not from a graspy attachment type of way, like so and so susieg@gmail.com better sign-up and work with you or else, no. It’s just loving on susieg@gmail.com. And knowing that if and when she ever becomes ready, you’re there. And in the meantime, you’re going to love up on her. And you just never know the way that Susie G will give back. You’ll just never know how she might return the favor, and maybe she won’t, right? Because there is no attachment. But more than likely, most people will.
Conclusion
So there you have it. A few ways to grow and nurture your list. So get out there and go get some more people on your list and then give out a whole bunch of love. Because really, it helps. Truly, it does make the world go route.
Alrighty, I’ll see you next week. Bye for now!
If you want my help to grow your email list then book your free consultation call here: https://igniteurwellness.com/business-coach-for-health-coaches/
