How I got 4587 New Email Subscribers in Less than 4 Months

PodcastMarketing

May 1

Episode 844: Show Notes

From January 1st to April 17th, I have added 4587 new email subscribers! Today, I want to talk about the strategy. How I got those people on the list, what’s working, what you should be paying attention to. An email list is incredibly important to your business because it will allow you to reach your audience more consistently. It’s something that you actually own, unlike your social media followers. Email lists are a long-term strategy that adds to the stability of your business.

In the past, I have avoided talking about email lists because I worry that they can become too much of a distraction. Utilizing a list will get you sales but if you are so focused on marketing to bring people onto the list instead of focusing on actual, tangible sales. I’m confident that the majority of these new email subscribers came from seven different kinds of activities that I was doing in my business to attract those leads. Because I focused on visibility, I’m having a significant increase this year – way more so than in 2023. So, let’s dig into how I managed to do it!

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Utilizing Old Training Programs to Attract Quality Leads

The first thing that I did was create a training last fall. It went so well! Because it went so well, I put it on evergreen! I wasn’t necessarily promoting it on social media or marketing it but it was accessible! And granted, it only attracted a few hundred of my 4587 new subscribers but ultimately, a training is an opportunity. You can offer a free and valuable training opportunity and it doesn’t have to be long. Personally, I don’t think this should be your first strategy, though, because it takes so long to develop, but it is a great one to incorporate into your toolkit.

Keeping Up with Trends (When You Feel Inspired to!)

The second strategy I utilized was a trend. You can do this at any time, as long as you’re paying attention to what is going on in the world! I focused on people wanting to set goals in January and made a fun tool for people to use to do that. Using trends is amazing and a great way to bring in leads but doing it all the time is a lot of pressure. Trying to follow trends constantly is a lot of work when you could instead, include this strategy every now and then when you’re feeling inspired which would ultimately make it more concrete.

The Number One Way to Start Building Your Email List

A significant number of my new leads came from sales. I love directing cold traffic to low-priced digital products because it’s a great way to magnetize ideal people to you. And then you get paid to build your list! Since January, I have had well over 1000 transactions. This is my preferred way to start building an email list because it allows you to do a lot of things all at once. If you want to know more about how I do that, head over to bossproject.com/jumpstart!

How Refreshing Old Content Can Bring You Leads Today

So far, our strategies have included a training, a trend and a sale. Now it’s time for a refresh! You can take any lead magnet you’ve ever used before or even content that’s been successful on social media and you can refresh that content into a valuable freebie. The one I did was specific to The Creative Template Shop – a pack of free social media templates. It was a great lead magnet that has gotten me a ton of leads over time and was totally worth refreshing! This isn’t something I’m pushing. It’s an example of my templates and how my service works.

Working Backwards to Gain Better Insight into Your Clients

Believe it or not, most of the leads that I have gotten in the last three and a half months have happened in the last three weeks! I see so many people try to work the other way around and fail because they lack so much insight into what their audience needs from them. I put my primary focus into sales and used that to bring in new, fresh leads while nurturing the people who were active on my list. I designed a course and went into observation mode to see how people responded. Then before doing anything else, I worked on improving the content. I focused on delivering to my clients.

The One Thing that Surprised Me the Most When I Started My Program

What my clients needed most is actually the first step in my program: how to decide what to sell. I managed to solve this problem with a couple of tips and because I had spent so much time getting to know my audience when I posted this, I had hundreds of signups from that one post! Now I want to be clear that not all of that was organic even though it worked very well organically! Because of that, I put fuel on that fire and turned on paid ads. But I didn’t even spend very much and got an additional 700-plus leads after getting 200 or 300.

The Power of a Generic Sign-Up

The next strategy I used was a generic sign-up. I know that sounds boring but it works. I have two generic sign-ups; one that’s just to join my email list and another that’s specifically about reactivating if you are opting out. These things exist as tools primarily for customers at risk. Most of the time I try to bring as much value as possible but I do also have gateways that just bring people onto my list. 32 of those 4587 sign-ups were from my ‘join the newsletter’ gateway and another 33 or so were re-opt-ins.

Using Activation to Add to Your Email List

The last strategy I used was activation. This is even more effective when done in collaboration. This is an opportunity to bring people onto your list via a live call-to-action. If you look back onto the history of my company, the majority of the leads come from sales. But, activations tend to be my biggest spikes. When used appropriately, that activation leads into an actual sales sequence. My activation is called One Day Launch and it’s where I’m going from an idea to concept to launch post in just one day. The goal of an activation should be about bringing value. You can even take an activation and put it on evergreen for people to use on their own later. But, there is so much power in people doing it all together and when people get results, you can use that as momentum to other things that you’re doing.

Now all of this is not to say that this is the only way to build an email list, but I have found this method works incredibly well! The point I want you to take away from here is not the seven different things you can do to grow your email list, but rather that growing your list requires active marketing. Also, if you haven’t yet started your email list, I hands down recommend trying Flo Desk. It’s incredible and the price stays the same no matter how many people you add to your list. If you have more questions about email lists or want to share your thoughts with me, feel free to send me a DM!

Quote This

Growing your email list requires active marketing.

Highlights

Utilizing Old Training Programs to Attract Quality Leads [0:08:40]
Keeping Up with Trends (When You Feel Inspired to!) [0:10:02]
The Number One Way to Start Building Your Email List [0:11:50]
How Refreshing Old Content Can Bring You Leads Today [0:13:38]
Working Backwards to Gain Better Insight into Your Clients [0:16:37]
The One Thing that Surprised Me the Most When I Started My Program [0:18:34]
The Power of a Generic Sign-Up [0:23:13]
Using Activation to Add to Your Email List [0:24:35]

OUR HOST:

Abagail Pumphrey

Abagail on Instagram

Boss Project on Instagram | Facebook

Abagail Pumphrey, the Co-Founder & CEO of Boss Project, has been a driving force in the creative entrepreneur industry since 2015. With a passion for empowering service-based business owners around the globe, she became internet-famous after the launch of the transformative training, "Trello for Business." This innovative system revitalized the operations of over 10,000 business owners, making a significant impact on the online business landscape.

Under Abagail's leadership, Boss Project has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Marie Claire, INC, and HuffPost. Her twice-weekly podcast, The Strategy Hour, is a staple in the business community, continuously topping Business and Management Charts on Apple with millions of listeners from around the world.

Abagail's superpower lies in her ability to break down complex concepts into easy-to-implement, duplicatable systems. As an expert in online sales and a data-driven strategist, she has turned a layoff into a 7-figure work-from-home business. Abagail's mission to help more female founders become financially free, without letting their businesses take over their lives, continues to inspire and guide entrepreneurs on their path to success.