WMTW 017: How to grow your email list [podcast]

Posted by Adam Franklin

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In the last 18 months our email list has grown 3x from ~3,000 to now 10,328 at the time of this podcast. During the previous 8 years our email list grew at a snail’s pace. Here’s what we did to amplify that growth.

Show notes

1. Opt-in form instead of ‘no rego required’

For the first 12 months after we released our flagship Web Strategy Planning Template, we had it available for download with no registration required. This has a 50 per cent conversion rate but we didn’t know who these people were, nor did we have a way to communicate with them again.

Then we followed Hubspot’s advice and tested putting our flagship content up behind an opt-in form. (We are a reseller of Hubspot’s software too). The conversion rate dipped down to 30 per cent but now knew who they were and could communicate with them via email.

This simple step saw our email subscriber list double in 12 months.

2. Landing Page

The basics of an effective landing page are:

Have a simple form that people can fill in to access the content.
Set their expectation as to what happens next (ie, mention how often they will receive your emails)
Once they’ve filled in their details it should trigger a thank you email

4. Home Page

Your home page is usually one of the most trafficked pages on your website, so including a form and call to action on it.

5. Call to action on the blog

Include a call to action (CTA) on your blog — either on the side bar or at the end of the blog post. Toby’s also been using links to flagship content in the blog post itself.

6. Blog pop ups

This is the most controversial one. People do find pop-ups intrusive, so it’s important that you tread carefully here. Even though folks like Dan Zarrella, the social media scientist.

Blog pop up options

Finally

Once you have the opt-in forms and flagship content set up on your website, then it’s time to increase traffic. One of the best ways to do this is by guest blogging (on other people’s sites).

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About Adam Franklin

Adam Franklin is the bestselling author of Web Marketing That Works. He is an international social media speaker and CEO of Bluewire Media. His blog was Australia’s #1 Business Blog and his podcast was #9 on the top marketing podcasts in Entrepreneur magazine.His work has featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post and iTunes.Download the popular Web Strategy Planning Template which has been used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. His weekly ‘Bluewire News’ email goes out to over 32,000 readers.