I realise the power of an email list more and more every year I spend online. You’ve heard this question on numerous podcasts: “what would you do differently if you were starting out today?” And, 99 times out of 100, the answer is: “I wish I started collecting email addresses earlier”.
The more email addresses you collect, the more sales you make, the more your business grows, the more people you can help. It’s as simple as that.
So, how do we do it? Here are 5 ways that have been working amazingly well for me recently.
1. Create easy-to-remember URLs and domains redirecting to your squeeze page
I stole this one from Steve Scott. His squeeze page can be found at stevescottsite.com/free. There are two powerful forces behind this clever idea.
First, it’s short and easy to remember.
Secondly, it has that magic word “free” in there. It goes without saying that you should have a free offer (“lead magnet”, “bribe”, call it what you will) that people will get when they subscribe to your list. People love “free”. So, rather than /list or /email, the redirect /free is much more appealing.
Furthermore, you can buy a whole new domain specifically for this purpose. FreeFromRob.com, anyone?
You can manage the redirections with WordPress plug-ins like Redirection or Pretty Link Lite.
2. Mention these easy-to-remember redirects on podcasts and in conversations
Now you’ve got these easy-to-remember URLs and domains, use them. You can now easily drop them into a conversation. Maybe not when you’re chatting with your neighbor about house prices but when you’re being interviewed on a podcast or, even better, on your own podcast.
People listen to podcasts while doing other things, travelling, walking, jogging, etc. They’re not near a computer so the only chance you have to get them on your list is to provide an easy-to-remember way of finding the squeeze page.
3. Write a Kindle and promote your email capture offer within the first 10%
This puts your email offer on the biggest shop in the world, Amazon! The beauty of this technique is that people don’t have to buy your Kindle books in order to subscribe.
When you’re not really sure if you want to buy a book on Amazon, you click on the “Look inside!” button on the thumbnail cover of the book you’re interested in.
Make sure, therefore, that the first 10% of your Kindle book is particularly compelling and informs the reader of the benefits of reading the book.
And, don’t forget to include your email capture offer in that first 10% as well. My email capture offer includes two free e-books “How to Market Yourself Online” and “Starting An Online Business” – it’s likely that someone interested in reading one of my Kindles would also be interested in reading those free e-books as well.
They can click the link in Amazon and land directly on the squeeze page.
4. Promote your email capture page with YouTube annotations.
If you have a YouTube channel, and you should, you should associate it with your website. Go to your YouTube Channel’s Advanced Settings and enter your site as an Associated Website.
You will have to validate this through Google Webmaster Tools.
Now you can add annotations (speech bubbles, notes, titles, spotlights, labels) to your YouTube videos. These can add information, links to subscribe to the channel or, in this case, links to your associated website (sign up form).
5. Promote your email list on your video courses
As regular readers of this blog will know, I make passive income from Udemy and Skillfeed. However, online learning sites aren’t just about making money, they’re also fantastic platforms for building a brand and growing a following.
I put a call to action at the end of all my courses. I’ll say, if you want to learn more about the subject of the course, you can join my email list.
At the end of a course you have a enraptured audience. They have gone through hours of your lessons and therefore think your content is worthwhile. So, promoting your email offer is a no-brainer. Use the easy-to-remember redirect in the video to ease the journey to the sign up form.
You can do it
Your email list is one of your biggest business assets. You can build it up through all these channels to create an ever-growing community of fans and consumers.
You forgot to mention offline email gathering:
The easiest ways include Guestbooks, visitor sign in, and newly launched WiFi access points like my ones at ActiveSocialWiFi.com
All ways to capture current customer contact details for follow up conversations.
Well, as you know, Louis, that’s not really my style. I was talking about, although I didn’t specify, permission marketing (with double opt-in) for digital products whereas your product is to capture email addresses at cafes, etc., for sale of physical goods. All the best with it, anyway.
Hi Rob,
Very good advice! 🙂
In the beginning of my blogging I wasn’t gonna do this email list but I heard a lot of people mentioned this over and over again. So I’m sold that the old fashion way of doing it still wins!
I have Pretty Link. I’m glad you mentioned this.
So that’s how the squeeze page looks like! Thanks for showing an image here, I am very visual and this helps a lot.
One thing I have never done podcasts. And where do you host your podcasts? I figure you just create an MP3, right? Ileane Smith just gave me a link regarding this matter but haven’t check out that video. Will do ASAP.
And last but not least, I haven’t done that eBook promotion just yet. I have the outline in my mind but I haven’t even started this yet. Procrastination…I need to get it going. I have a question but I will email you about it. Don’t wanna put it in public.
Anyway, have a great week!
Cheers,
Angela
Hi Angela, I think you’re doing great stuff with your email list. I’m on it and I look forward to your emails. Keep at it, it’ll pay dividends in the future. A squeeze page is a page where you try to collect email addresses, also called lead page, landing page, offer page, etc.
Yes, podcasts are just MP3s. The best place to host them is on Libsyn. I did a podcast introduction and video here.
Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get round to everything. Look forward to your email.
Some cool ways to get subscribers. Placing a page in your ebooks is a good idea. Never knew about the YouTube videos. Never knew what it was. Thanks for pointing it out. Another possible way could be to add a HelloBar and ask for visitors to subscribe.
Namaste, Shalu. Yes, you should definitely do that in the first 10% of your books Shalu. You should have a free offer of a very short e-book or even just a resources list and have a very short squeeze page offering it on your website in return for an email address. Please do this, Shalu, you will collect 100% more email addresses. And, the more email addresses you have the more e-book sales you will make later on.
Yes, I will be experimenting with a HelloBar soon. Thank you. 🙂
wow! Thanks Rob, this is very timely as I started to collect emails, just launch 2 months ago my English-Filipino blog site. And your mentioning of your membership site excite me as I’m planning to launch my own membership site next month (my 1st online product offer) … excited and nervous, haha. Anyway, thanks again for this very helpful tips Rob.
Hey Erwin, thanks for the comment. Best of luck with your membership site. It’s definitely a challenge but well worth it as well. Glad you found the tips helpful.
Do you have any excellent resource post about “How To Create or Manage Membership site? Or any recommended post about it? Thank you Rob.
My experience is only with WishList Member. Here is a free course I made in Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/create-membership-site-wishlist-member-wordpress
Here is a post about it https://robcubbon.com/set-up-wordpress-membership-site-in-minutes-wishlist-member/ with a video http://youtu.be/JuB_43z8ZPQ
And another, I hope this helps: https://robcubbon.com/membership-site-wishlist-wordpress/
I’ll check it now, thank you so much Rob.
Hi Rob,
I recently found your blog and I’m loving it!
I am really working hard to build my list and use new methods so I can stand out from the crowd. I’ve never used this one before…
4. Promote your email capture page with YouTube annotations.
Which I will be now!
Thanks, Naomi
Hey Naomi, I’m delighted that you’re finding the stuff here useful. Let me know if you need any help with YouTube annotations, etc. All the best. Rob 🙂
another great post from my mentor.
thanks for giving the link to affiliate mktg ebook by scott
regards
vinodh
My very great pleasure, Vinodh. Great to hear from you again, my friend.
Great post Rob! Thank you. I’m a new udemy instructor and my question is can you place your email capture info in earlier lectures? Ideally in ones set for free preview? There may be lots of people who dont’ get to last video. Thanks! James
It’s worth a try, James. I do that on some of my courses.