What is up everyone?
Welcome back to my channel.
In today's video I'm going to teach you step by step how you can build your email list
from scratch.
Now, before I begin, this video comes at the perfect time because on March 13th 2019, AKA
last Wednesday, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all shut down across the world.
Thankfully those platforms were only shut down for a day, but I believe that that day
alone serves as a huge reminder to a lot of business owners and content creators the importance
of having an email list.
And the reason why having an email list is so important, and I mentioned it in this video
right here, is that one day social media could easily shut down.
And when that happens and you don't have an email list, that means that you will lose
all contact with all of your followers, your customers, your clients, your audience, and
so on and so forth.
Basically if you don't have an email list and you don't have a backup plan for when
social media comes crumbling down one day, if that happens, then you basically risk losing
it all.
Even in my business while I'm creating content and while I'm helping my clients, I'm still
building my email list.
Today in my business I have over 15,000 people in my list, and that's why in today's video
I really want to teach you step by step how you can build an email list from scratch so
that you can protect yourself and your business in case social media doesn't last forever.
So, if you're interested in learning how, then keep on watching.
All right, so the number one way that you can build an email list is actually creating
an opt-in, a lead magnet, or a freebie.
I think that those three words are interchangeable, but the idea is is that you're giving away
something for free in exchange for someone else to give them your email.
Very much like real life, if a stranger went up to you and asked you for your email, or
even your phone number, you probably wouldn't give it to them.
However, if that stranger went up to you and said, "Hey, if you give me your email, I'll
give you a free gift," you'd probably say yes.
So, keep that in mind when you're collecting emails.
You want to make sure that your offer, or your lead magnet, or your freebie, is juicy
enough for them to want to exchange emails with you.
To help you out a bit and give you some inspiration, your opt-in or a lead magnet can be in the
form of a PDF guide.
It could be in the form of a free video training.
Or, it can also be a free audio file.
Regardless of what type of format you want your lead magnet to be in, you need to make
sure that what you're creating is actually what your audience wants.
It needs to be a no brainer freebie that your audience will absolutely want to download
and will want to get in exchange for giving you their email.
Now, once you've created your freebie or your lead magnet, or your opt-in, or whatever you
want to call it, the next thing that you want to do is you want to distribute your freebie.
Now, I'm going to use my channel as an example.
On my end I have four lead magnets in my business so far.
I've got my Instagram guide, I've got my YouTube guide, I've got my startup guide, and I've
also got my coffee chat guide.
And each one of these freebies live in my channel through my content.
Let me explain.
Now, in my business I use YouTube as my main distribution platform in order to grow my
email list.
But for many people it might be different.
First of all, let me just explain how I do it, and then I'll also give you some alternative
options, especially if you aren't on YouTube.
Now, for me, what you'll notice is that in many of my videos I'll actually be plugging
some of my freebies if it's relevant.
For instance if you look at my most popular video on my channel, it's all about how to
grow your Instagram account organically.
And what you'll notice in that video is I also say, "If you like this video, make sure
you download my Instagram guide, which has even more tips and tricks on how you can grow
on Instagram."
This is the same thing with my YouTube guide.
With my YouTube checklist for some of my videos where I'm talking about YouTube, I'm plugging
my lead magnet.
I'm saying things like, "If you really like this video, make sure you download my YouTube
optimization checklist in order to make sure that your bases are covered before you even
post your video."
The same thing with the startup guide, and the same thing with the coffee chat guide.
Each freebie is linked to a certain video, or certain videos that tackle the same subject.
And that's going to ensure that the people that are watching that video are going to
be the most interested in that freebie.
And this kind of goes back to my previous advice about make sure that your freebies
are absolutely relevant to your audience.
For example, it doesn't make sense if I'm doing a video about Instagram, and suddenly
I'm plugging a freebie about how to do a bronze smokey eye.
It just doesn't make sense, and that freebie will probably not perform.
That's why the way that I've been able to successfully grow my email list massively
to over 15,000 people is because I'm very intentional with where I put my lead magnets,
and I make sure that the people who are watching that video will truly appreciate having that
freebie.
Now, if you aren't a content creator on YouTube, do not worry.
There are definitely other ways that you can grow your email list.
For example, you can run Facebook ads, you can put your freebie in a Facebook group.
You can even put your freebie just in your Facebook page, doesn't even have to be ads
or groups.
Another way is also putting it on your website, making it really prominent in the header section
of your website, or even the footer section of your website.
And last but not least, you can also put it in the link in your bio section on Instagram.
Now, the next question that you probably have is, "Okay, great, Vanessa, I've created my
freebie, and I have an idea of where I want to distribute it.
But how do I actually collect the email?"
Now, the first thing that you'll absolutely need other than the freebie itself is actually
having a landing page.
To create your landing page you can do it on Wordpress, SquareSpace, or Wix.
Or you can actually use landing page software, such as LeadPages and Unbounce to do that.
If you want to take it a step further, you can also use ClickFunnels, Kartra, or Kajabi
in order to create this.
Now, I'm going to leave it up to you to do the research, but just know that you're going
to need to have a landing page in order to collect the actual emails.
Because at the end of the day you're not giving away your freebie for absolutely free, you
do need that person to fill out a form, put their name and their email in order for that
to email into your email marketing software so that you've officially collected that email.
Which brings me to my next step.
And that is you need to have email marketing software.
Now, the most common email marketing software that a lot of people use, especially beginners
who are on a budget, is MailChimp.
But just know that there are other great email marketing software platforms out there like
Convert Kit, Drip, Aweber, Get Response, Active Campaign, ClickFunnels, Kajabi.
There's so many different pieces of software out there, so again I really trust you to
do your due diligence to make sure that you're purchasing the one that is best for you, and
that will fit your business goals the best.
However, if you are thinking of building your business in the long run, you're probably
going to need an email software that allows you to do tagging and segmentation.
Now, this is going to be a bonus step for people that are watching this that are a little
bit more advanced, but basically what you need to know with great email marketing is
to make sure that your lists are absolutely segmented, and that people are tagged appropriately.
Now, what this means is that after you've got your freebie, you've got your landing
page, and you've got your email marketing software, and you've googled how to actually
put it all together, because you're going to need to google that and watch some tutorials.
You can just simply call it a day.
But if you want to take it a step further, what you want to do is within the form that
you put on your landing page, you want to actually tag people whenever they download
your freebie.
So, for example whenever someone downloads my Instagram guide, they're going to be tagged
under Instagram.
When someone downloads my freebie about startup costs, they're going to tagged as startup
cost.
When someone downloads my freebie about YouTube optimization, they're going to be tagged as
YouTube optimization.
Meaning that within my list of 15,000 people, I know exactly who downloaded what, which
is going to help me with my email marketing efforts.
Because, if you are simply collecting emails without tagging people, you are going to lose
a lot of visibility in terms of the interests of your audience.
So, for example within my own list of 15,000 people, I know exactly who is interested in
YouTube, versus who is interested in Instagram, based on their download patterns, and based
on what freebies they've downloaded.
This is going to help my email marketing efforts whenever I sent out an email.
For example, to the people who have downloaded my YouTube checklist, in my coffee I'm going
to say, "Hey, Paul, how's your YouTube Channel going?
I hope it's going well."
Versus the person who's downloaded the Instagram guide, I'm going to say, "Hey, Jessica, how's
your Instagram game going?
I hope it's going well."
This is going to increase my open rates whenever I broadcast an email, because that person
when they receive the email, it seems as if it was absolutely tailored to them.
How many of you have actually ignored emails that seem very generic?
Probably all of you, right?
But when a company or when a service provider or when someone sends you an email and it
truly feels like it was meant for you, you are more likely to open it and click on it.
That's why you definitely want to research this step and make sure that you are tagging
people accordingly so that you have more visibility on your email list, and so that you can personalize
your approach whenever you broadcast emails, so that you can increase your open rate.
And when you get to the point when you sell products or services, it's also going to help
you with your conversion rates as well.
Now, obviously this video isn't meant to overwhelm you, so that's why I've created my own freebie,
and my own lead magnet on how you can build an email list step by step.
This video really skims the surface in terms of how to get started, but I really want you
to be on the right path.
So, I've created this checklist so that you can remember all the things that we've talked
about, and also get a little bit more detail to help you out on your journey to collect
emails for your list.
That being said guys, make sure you also check out these two beautiful videos right here
if you want to learn how to level up your social media business and your life.
And as always I hope you guys have a great day, hope you guys have a great week, and
I hope you guys have a great life.
I'll see you in the next one, bye guys.