Let's face it.
You would love to double your email list in the next 90 days.
But there are so many different things you could do to grow your list, you don't know where to start. You're overwhelmed.
Should you run a Facebook ad campaign?
Guest blog?
Host a Twitter Q&A session?
Start doing more YouTube videos?
Create a 30 day challenge?
Use pop-ups?
Just looking at all those options, I'm overwhelmed – and that isn't even a quarter of the tactics you could try!
What should you do? Should you do all of these? None of these? Some of these?
I have the answer for you, but first I want to prove to you that what I have to share works.
The truth is, in the last 90 days, I was able to more than double my email list for a free offering I created.
Why less really is more
Contrary to what you might think, my list didn't grow because I tried a bunch of different tactics.
My list grew because I practiced the Pareto Principle.
This idea was introduced in the 1790s by the man himself, Vilfredo Pareto.
It's based on the idea that 20% of our effort produces 80% of our results.
In other words, whatever our goals are, there are a small handful of strategies that give us most of our results.
This means that, instead of trying to do a ton of different tactics to grow our email list, it's smart to focus on 1Â or 2 key things that'll give us the most bang for our buck.
Think about it.
Say you decide that, over the next 90 days, you're going to try to do all 6 tactics that I described above. Maybe you've even decided you'll try more ideas than that.
The more tactics you try, the better your chances of getting the results you want, right?
Nope.
The truth is, doing more stuff doesn't automatically equal better results.
And if you try to do all of those tactics all at once, you'll probably end up with mediocre results at best.
When our energy is spread out in a bunch of different directions, it's impossible for us to get the best results imaginable. We're just stretched too thin.
But when we focus on 1 or 2 things that we're confident will work – because we've done the research so we know what action makes the most sense for us to take – we can make incredible strides.
It's not about doing more.
It's about doing less. And doing it to the absolute best of our abilities.
So if you want to double your email list in the next 90 days, here's what I want you to do…
Step 1: Choose a clear, specific goal
In order to reach your goal of growing your list, you first need to get clear on what that'll look like.
Do you want to add 20? 100? 1,000? 3,000 more people to your list?
And what's your deadline?
A fluffy, hard-to-achieve goal might look something like this: I want to grow my email list.
Okay… But how much? And by when?
A better goal – that's measurable so it's easier to know if you're making progress and when you've actually achieved it – looks something like this: I want to add 1,000 unique subscribers to my email list by March 15th.
Step 2: Pick One tactic that has worked for you (or someone else)
When I wanted to double my email list, I decided my best bet for making that happen would be guest blogging. I'd had some success with guest blogging in the past, and I knew that it was a smart idea to get in front of other people's audiences as much as possible.
If someone had a bigger list than me, guest blogging was a great way to get access to that large list of potentially ideal subscribers.
So I started sending out pitches and within 4 weeks I had 5 guest posts published.
I made sure to craft a compelling offer in my guest post bio to entice people back to my website. I offered the readers something that would encourage them to come sign up for my email list.
Sure enough, my email list began growing at a much more rapid pace than if I had just stuck to blogging on my own blog.
I could have scattered my energy around and tried a bunch of different things, but I knew guest posting worked. And I knew that if I spread myself too thin, I wouldn't get the results I wanted.
So I focused and put my full attention on guest posting.
I want you to focus your attention on 1 strategy too.
Step 3: Map out your game plan – week-by-week
Once you know the tactic you'll use to grow your list – whether it's guest blogging or something else – it's time to get clear on the specific steps you need to take each week to make that happen.
Break it down into digestible parts.
For example, for guest blogging I knew I needed to do these things:
- Pick the websites I wanted to pitch to
- Research each site
- Pick 3 topics I wanted to pitch
- Write an email, or fill out a form and pitch my ideas
- Follow-up if I haven't heard back after a week
- If it's accepted, write the post
- If not, go back to the drawing board and come up with some more ideas and send another pitch to them or someone else
You'll have a list of things you need to do too.
Break down each step of the process.
What needs to happen?
And, super important, when does it need to happen by? Make sure you put deadlines on each step so you're not leaving it up to chance. You want to be focused on making a certain amount of progress by a certain date.
Step 4: Implement
Now that you've done all the prep work, it's time to just do it.
Take the plan you created and run with it.
The best part is that you won't wonder what you should do each day. You have a prioritized list of to-dos based on deadlines – just follow it step-by-step.
Step 5: Stay the course or jump ship
If it's been 4-8 weeks and you haven't seen the spike in subscribers that you were hoping for, it's time to re-evaluate.
Maybe this isn't the best strategy for you.
Keep in mind that some strategies might take longer than others. If you're pitching and writing guest posts, you won't see that rush of subscribers until after your post is published – which could take a while.
The idea is that you want to be constantly evaluating your progress.
The good news is that it'll be easier to see what's working and not working when you're not trying a bunch of different tactics. By focusing on 1 or 2 tactics at a time, you'll be able to figure out where things are breaking down a lot easier.
But if you're trying to use 6+ tactics, it'll be really hard to figure out what went wrong.
This is why scientists only test one hypothesis at a time. If they try to test multiple ideas at once, things will get mighty confusing very fast.
They'll have no idea what variable caused the change.
Just like you'll have no idea what strategy worked best if you're trying a whole whack-load of strategies.
So keep track of your progress and make an informed decision to either stay the course or jump ship and try something else.
Ready to melt away the overwhelm and get big results?
At the end of the day, it's not about making sure you choose the perfect tactic.
Sometimes it's simply about choosing one that you know works. One that you know you have the ability and grit to follow-through on. And then giving it 100%.
Not only does this strategy work, but it also melts away the overwhelm.
Instead of feeling like you need to be everywhere at all times, you know you can focus on one area and still get amazing results – maybe even better results than if you had tried to do multiple things at once.
So I challenge you to give this a try.
Get clear on your goal, pick a tactic you know will work – because it's worked for you or someone else in the past – and one that feels like a good fit for you, and run with it.
I know you can do this.
Sometimes it just takes a bit of moxie, a great plan, and steadfast determination.
So get started. You've got the plan, now it's time to run with it.
Jenna email marketing is very essential part of seo as per me. I started this on 1 Jan 2013. I got very good result. I do this twice a week. I also get some tips from this article.
Email marketing is definitely a smart tool to have in your toolbox, Sudheer.
Great post. I have heard of the 80 -20 rule many times before such as in T Ferriss’s book, but you broke it down in a great and easy to understand way.
Thanks, Ben. Yes – the 80/20 rule is an oldie but a goodie. Glad that you found it easy to understand. Good luck implementing it!
Even though I learned years ago that spreading your energy over to many areas is counterproductive, my problem has always been trying to do to much at one time. Not just different marketing tactics, but for a ton of different blogs and projects too!
This year I’ve narrowed down my focus and I’m really trying to keep my attention on one blog with a few different marketing avenues. But, guest blogging is something I need to get doing. It really is the best way to reach new people.
I hear you, Bellaisa. It can be easy to go into what I call To-Do List Mode where you basically are running around like crazy trying to tick things off your to-do list.
I think it’s smart that you’ve narrowed your focus. When you’re clear what the top 1-2 things that you want to accomplish are, you have an easier time accomplishing them. You can let everything else go simply by asking yourself, “Does doing _____ help me accomplish (your 1-3 goals)?” If the answer is no, it’s easier to let that to-do go, get someone else to do it, or postpone it until a later date.
Good luck getting out there and guest blogging!
people just won’t subscribe to my newsletter no matter how much i push it on them ;(
I hear you, Mylan. It’s tough when you’re not getting the response you want.
The problem is, you don’t want to “push” your newsletter on anyone. The point of your blog and newsletter is to help your audience – not become a pushy sales person.
You want to ask yourself, “What’s in it for them? How can I position it in a way that gets them excited to sign up? What can I offer them that’ll give them a ton of benefit?”
Focus on helping people, making clear and compelling opt-in offerings, and giving as much value as possible. Once you’ve got this underway, drive traffic to your site through things like guest blogging and I’m confident you’ll start to see the results you’re hoping for.
Good luck!
I think that email marketing is exceptionally piece of seo according to me. I began it from few months ago. I had got great result. I do this twice a week. I likewise get a few tips from this article.
Hey Nicole, glad you got some tips and that you’re taking action with email marketing.
Hi Ileane,
Hi Jenna,
Your timing is perfect. One of my goals for 2015 is to significantly increase my email list. I know that I need to offer something free. (So, I need to start there.) I don’t do much guest blogging but it makes sense that if I was to start that I should do what you’re suggesting and craft a compelling offer in my guest post bio. That’s an excellent idea.
I agree completely with you about practicing the Pareto principal. If you try too many things at once, not only can it be overwhelming but (as you say) it becomes almost impossible to know which tactic caused the effect.
Thanks for sharing your common-sense strategy with us.
I’m happy that this post came to you at the right time, Sherryl. That’s definitely a great goal to have, and you’re right, making sure you have an enticing free offering is a good first step.
Keep in mind though that your free offering doesn’t have to take tons of time to create – especially the first one you create. It can be super simple. I wrote a piece on Boost Blog Traffic about creating a simple free offering that might be helpful for you as well – http://boostblogtraffic.com/subscriber-bribe/
Yup – the Pareto Principle is simple yet super effective. Good luck giving it a go!
Hi,
Email marketing is one of the best teachnique to generate more sales and drive instant traffic but it is possible only when we have targeted email list. All steps are very unique to double email marketing list. I will use to double my list.
Thanks to share this quality stuff with us:)
You’re right, Sonam – we want to make sure we have a targeted email list so we know who we’re trying to attract and where we can find them. That’s definitely key.
Hi Jenna, I really enjoyed reading your post here because the strategy you talk about is very similar to something I’ve tried before and guess what… It works, it really does.
In the past I used to implement so many different tactics and get so frustrated by the measly results, then I picked just one that was producing half decent results and made it better, I worked on it and fine tuned it, and I was able to triple my email opt-ins.
One thing you’re right on emphasising though, is that you have to keep in your mind that who ever is going to consider signing up to your email list will be asking “What’s in it for me”, I’ve learned if you can give your audience something they truly want, or I should say they need, they’ll signup like there’s no tomorrow. Perfect post, thanks again.
Have an awesome week Jenna đŸ™‚
Fabrizio
So glad to hear that you’ve tried this before and it worked for you, Fabrizio. And that’s even more awesome that you were able to triple your email opt-ins because of it.
And yes – that’s exactly it – people are always consciously or unconsciously asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” We only have so much time and we want to make sure we’re spending it wisely. That means we want to make sure that signing up for someone’s email list is gonna be worth our while.
Thank you for sharing. You have an awesome week too!
Very interesting point. I think that once you engage your audience on your website they will sign up for free email list etc. Offering something free as well makes people jump into it.
I definitely agree with you, Gene. Engagement is key. The more your community is buzzing about you and your ideas, the easier it’ll be to attract others.
Hi Jenna,
Actually I have stared a new blog from scratch and one of my milestone to achieve is get Email subscriber and market it to get some results.
I hope I will be able to do this.
Congratulations on the new blog, Dipendra. Just remember – focus your attention. Choose 1-2 tactics you’ll try and follow-through like crazy. Good luck!
This is so timely. Thank you Jenna. I love the way you broke this down, and the reminders to both focus on one thing and also reevaluate at regular intervals (4-8 weeks out) are so helpful. There are so many different techniques that can work well, so focusing on one and then reevaluating after a time, allows us to actually see which of those really work for us and our business. Great article.
Thank you, Claudia. You’re so right – there really are so many different techniques that can work well. And that’s the key: to be able to figure out which ones really work for yours (and my) unique business. Thank you for sharing!
Hay, I am looking for a free auto responder to collect my mails. I have seen many of them but they are not effective. Can you give me tip which one works like Getresponse? Thanks
Hey Ramesh, one of the most popular email marketing providers that is free up to 2,000 subscribers is Mailchimp. Just remember – it’s not necessarily about the technology. It’s how you use it đŸ™‚
I agree , it is totally true. Thanks for sharing Jenna đŸ˜‰
You’re welcome, Chicas. Thanks for reading and commenting đŸ™‚
I have been failing miserably at this! Thank you for the tips!
I hear you, Nelieta. It can be tough to build your email list – especially when it feels like there’s not enough time in the day to do everything you “need” to do, and so much competition out there. My advice?
1. Set a clear, specific goal.
2. Figure out a plan of attack to get there.
3. Focus on the small steps you can take each day to make it happen.
Good luck!
Hi Jenna,
Good to see somebody preaching a sensible approach. I think overwhelm is the big barrier for many people starting out. Guest posting is an ideal starting point, people just have to be patient with the process of finding good sites and blogs to post on, it can feel like hard work and it takes some time. But as a free way of getting more visitors and broadening your visibility it certainly works.
I absolutely agree with you, Dave – overwhelm is such a paralyzing problem for a lot of us. Especially when we were (or are) newbies to the whole “building an online business” thing.
Thanks for your two-cents. I appreciate it đŸ™‚
This year I’ve narrowed down my focus and I’m really trying to keep my attention on one blog with a few different marketing avenues. But, guest blogging is something I need to get doing. It really is the best way to reach new people.
Sounds like you’ve got a clear plan in place, Nandani. I obviously think guest blogging can be super valuable so I’m happy you’re going to give it a try. Good luck!
this is always a challenging part to rank a blog, New beginners don’t know the right way how to use social signal to your site. but experience make everyone great .. great article really interesting to read
You’re right, Arjun. If I’m correctly understanding what you’re saying, it can be tough for newbie bloggers to rank blogs and see whether one would be good for a guest posting opportunity.
One thing I like to look for is engagement – are their a good amount of comments and social media shares? That’s one of the first steps to telling whether a blog would bring in lots of subscribers if you did a guest post for them.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Hi Jenna,
Great post on increasing email subscribers. Personally I gain a lot of quick subscribers by actually giving them a “bribe”.
Anything like a free eBook, video, plugin etc. could work to instantly turn your visitors into subscribers. The only important factor is the autoresponder you choose. Always use the premium email autoresponders like GetResponse, AWeber etc over free one’s.
You’re right Anil. That’s a powerful piece to the puzzle. Once you’re driving more traffic to your site – through guest posting or something else – you want to make sure you’ve got something for them to sign up for that they’ll want/need.
And yes, choosing the right autoresponder – one that actually works, and you’ll actually use – is also key.
Great points!
Hi Jenna,
Thanks for this incredibly awesome post. This has open my eyes to some possibilities about what I can achieve in my online career.
Thank you.
You’re welcome, Edos. Glad your eyes have been opened đŸ™‚
Thanks again, Jenna. đŸ™‚
Great read! I’m struggling to get people to subscribe in good numbers. Its almost like people don’t like sharing there email! đŸ™‚
Glad you liked it, Frazer. A couple things to keep in mind is to…
1. know who you’re trying to attract so you can more easily attract them (you know where to find them, how to talk to them, etc.).
2. Come from a place of giving/helping. Remember, it’s not about you getting subscribers. It’s about you helping people and because you’re so helpful, they want to sign up for your email list. There’s a big difference in the vibe you put out there when you come from one place, or the other.
3. Do things that drive traffic to your site – like guest posting. Networking and developing relationships with others is also a big thing. Referrals from others can be a huge email list builder.
Enjoy getting those subscribers!
As a most useful and powerful trick of offering something free to your visitors can turn them to subscription and increase the mailing list. But at the same time we should also think of differentiating between genuine subscribers and spammers. Don’t know exactly how can we do that and stop spammers but thanks for this Great Post.
I hear you, Zino. Making sure spammers don’t sign up for your list can be tough. One way to do it is to have a double opt-in – where people need to click a link in a follow-up email to actually get on your list.
The other thing to keep in mind is that for every 1 spammer, you’ll get at least 100 genuine wanna-be-on-your-email-list-for-the-right-reason subscribers. So I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
P.S. If you’re worried about spam comments, you can use a program like Akismet to help. đŸ™‚
Totally Agreed….. Thanks for your response Jenna
I agree completely with you about practicing the Pareto principal. If you try too many things at once, not only can it be overwhelming but (as you say) it becomes almost impossible to know which tactic caused the effect.
Glad you see how helpful this can be, Ailash. đŸ™‚
I found your website through a guest post that you wrote for BoostBlogTraffic. I’ve been focusing this year on building a large email list and ultimately I hope to be less dependent on search engine traffic. So, thanks for the great list of resources on BBT and this article. Sounds like I need to get more serious about guest posting, it’s not something that I’ve much of in the past, but there is definitely a technique to hack growth quickly.
Glad you were able to find Ileane’s blog – and this post I wrote – through the post I wrote for BBT, Kenneth!
You’re right – there IS a technique to guest posting to make sure you get the most out of each post and grow your list as quickly as possible. But it’s absolutely doable and definitely worth it.
Enjoy diving in and growing your list đŸ™‚
I agree on the work on what is already working part. Sometimes we tend to get curious on what outcome a different strategy has to offer, and so we try it out and we lost our focus.
Wonderful guide and advice. Thank you for sharing.