I often talk about email marketing being a great back up, should things go wrong with your social media marketing. On Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – whatever social media you choose – you don’t own your audience. You don’t own their data, so if it all disappeared tomorrow, how would you reach that audience? If you have captured their email address on your email marketing list, you do own that data so if things should go wrong, you can still easily communicate with them.

So, where do you even start in building an email list. It can seem quite a daunting task, but here are a few tips and tricks I’ve found have really worked well in building my email list.

1 – Tell people

The easiest thing you can do to start building your email list is to tell people that you have one. Who is going to know you send emails if you don’t tell them? Add it to your website, your email signature, put it in social media posts, tell your clients or customers. It is the easiest way to start building that list.

Remember that you do actually need to communicate with people, so as you build your list, start thinking about how you are going to use email marketing going forward.

2 – Create a freebie

Another great way to get people to subscribe to your email list is to create a freebie, also known as a lead magnet.

Think about what your audience wants to know from you? What problems do you help them solve?  What are they struggling with or to do? Think about three to five tips that you can give away that will appeal to your audience. They can download your freebie in exchange for their email address.  You know that they are your ideal client as your freebie will directly help them, so then you are getting good quality sign-ups to your email list.

3 – Breadcrumb

Now you are armed with your freebie and you’re telling people you have an email list they can subscribe to, you can do something called ‘breadcrumbing’. This means visiting other groups on Facebook, or maybe even LinkedIn and sharing your freebie with them too. However, you need to remember to add value to the groups you visit. Comment on people’s posts, give advice and tips don’t just drop your freebie link and run. Spend time in groups, make connections and help people – they are more likely to sign up to your mailing list, or download your freebie if they feel they know you.

Let me know if these tips helped you, or if you have any other top tips to share.

If you found this interesting, you may like to check out the replay of my Email Marketing Mini Marketing Masterclass to help you with your email marketing even more– click here to buy now.