6. The 2-Step: A Stealth List-Building Tactic

Straight-up asking your audience to sign up to your list works. It just does. I went from 12 subscribers to 800+ in a year just tweeting out a link 30-60 minutes before my daily email was scheduled to go out. FYI, that list growth is not impressive AT ALL. What is impressive, however, is how little effort I had to put in for that growth.

Our little corner of X (formerly Twitter) has been doing this for a while in various forms. I believe I was the first one to tease the subject of the email and add urgency. “Today’s email is about X. Going out in 1 hour. Get on the list NOW.” In fact, entire SaaS businesses have been built off the back the marketing strategies used by X power users. Like Hypefury.

But there’s a problem: Diminishing returns. Eventually, your audience will experience Ad Fatigue. Seeing the same call-to-action over and over, they will start to ignore it. Especially if you share audiences with people who are doing the same thing. This being the case, you must develop more creative ways of building your list.

Today I’m going to teach you the 2-Step

It’s a “stealth” list-building technique. I learned the 2-Step from Taylor Welch and Chris Evans (formerly of Traffic and Funnels). It’s one of the organic marketing lessons in a program I paid $9,800 for. That’s Nine Thousand Eight Hundred United States Dollars And Zero Cents. And I’m about to teach it to you for FREE.

It works well for:

  • Growing your audience on social media (you’ll see why in a minute)
  • Getting high-quality subscribers to sign up (not the throwaway kind that sign up for the sake of it)

The best part is, it works on ANY social media platform.

Here’s what you’re going to do:

  1. Create a google doc (or upload a doc to dropbox) – a free report or guide that will serve as your lead magnet
  2. The lead magnet can be the one you already offer, or you can create a new one (recommended)
  3. [THIS IS THE STEALTHY BIT] At the end of the report, you add a call-to-action asking people to sign up to your list. “If you find this report valuable, you will enjoy being on my email list. Sign up here [link]”
  4. You make a post on your social media saying something like. “I’ve been working on a new report on [insert the topic]. Still an early draft, so I’d love to get your feedback on it. If you want access, let me know and I’ll send it over. On me. No email opt-in required. Just wanna help out the people ;)”
  5. People who are interested will comment on your post
  6. DM the link to people who comment

Et voilà!

Why is this technique so powerful?

  1. Only people who care enough about your topic will comment. You’re pre-qualifying the people who get to join your community.
  2. Every comment is engagement. More engagement means more reach. The algorithm will show your post to more people
  3. You’re delivering the benefit up-front, with no expectation on the audience – this triggers RECIPROCITY
  4. Only the most highly-engaged readers will subscribe to your list because you’ve deliberately placed 7 hoops for them to jump through:
    1. Comment on your post
    2. Read your DM
    3. Click on the document link
    4. Read your report
    5. Click on the call-to-action inside the report
    6. Read your landing page
    7. Enter their email address and click submit
  5. Even if they don’t subscribe, they leave the report with a good impression of you, likely subscribing in the future

How to boost conversions on the final step

Do you want to qualify subscribers even more aggressively? Add another hurdle to the final step. Now, unless they are EXACTLY the type of person you serve, they won’t sign up.

Here’s how:

Instead of the most basic call-to-action, offer an “upgrade” to the report OR something directly or indirectly related to it. For example, let’s say your report is, “The 3P’s of Seduction: How to Master the Fundamentals and Become Irresistible.” and you have a book for sale on Amazon about Text Game.

Your upgrade CTA could be:

“Learn how James, a dorky accountant with ZERO dates in the past 6 months, mastered the 3 Ps and started pulling 7s and 8s AT WILL. Get the FREE case study when you sign up here: [LINK]”

Or, if you have a book for sale on Amazon about Text Game, you can offer the pdf for free:

“Get my book on Text Game, normally $9.99 on Kindle, FOR FREE when you sign up to my newsletter: [LINK]”

How’d you like them apples? Now, go try it. And then tell me about your results.

And if you want to AUTOMATE this entire process, go read the bonus lesson “[7LBL] Bonus tip 6: Automated 2-Steps”.

Join Write Yourself Rich & Claim Your Bonuses

My friend Chris Orzechowski launched a brand new course on building a 7-figure email-based business. It’s called Write Yourself Rich. I’m offering 5 exclusive bonuses if you join Write Yourself Rich using my affiliate link.

Here’s how to claim your bonuses:

  • Bonus #1: Simply enter your email address in the form below and you’ll get instant access via email. No purchase necessary. Please use your primary email address, the one you check daily. You’ll be redirected to the Write Yourself Rich sales page.
  • Bonuses #2-4: After you join Write Yourself Rich, email a screenshot of your receipt to nabeel@nabeelazeez.com with the subject line “WYR bonuses”. I will reply with next steps.
  • Bonus #5: Same as bonuses #2-4 but this bonus will only unlock when I win the Write Yourself Rich affiliate contest during the launch. I’ll announce this on October 26 2024 after the launch promotion ends.
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Here’s the full list of bonuses and their details:

  1. List Building Lessons – A free email course with 7 lessons from 7+ years of building my list and mailing it daily. 100% free, no purchase necessary. Get instant access as a “thank you” for reading my review.
  2. The List Enlarger – A semi-automated campaign for a bigger list and stronger earnings per subscriber. I’ll show you the tools you need and exactly how to set up the campaign. Landing pages, automations, social media, email flows, etc. All you have to do is write the content. I plan to sell this as a standalone product for $95-$195 but you’ll get it for free when you join Write Yourself Rich.
  3. 30-minute quick start call and 30 days of email follow-up so you can implement Write Yourself Rich fast and start seeing results. People have paid me $750 for 45 minutes of my time.
  4. One-year scholarship to Copyskills, my coaching community. This retails for $222.22 per year. So when you’re done with Orzy’s 8 weeks of group coaching, you’ll still have someone you can come to for support. You’ll get access to a discussion forum, copy critiques, weekly office hours, courses, guest lectures and much more.
  5. [Only available if you help me win Orzy’s Write Yourself Rich Affiliate Contest which ends on October 25 2024] Affiliate Aristocrat – My course on how to run affiliate promotions as a side hustle for easy 5k-10k paydays. I’ll give you the entire campaign and show you how to implement it, step by step, with no steps skipped. Simply run this campaign whenever you want a quick cash infusion that will also produce passive income.