5. Your first 100 subscribers

I was in this webinar a while ago with one of the top copywriters in the world. The first part of the webinar was on content creation, promotion, and building authority. For content promotion they used an example of an epic post for which they were able to get 25k pageviews. Their only promotion was a single tweet, which led to the post getting listed and upvoted on Hacker News.

The post was excellent and deserved every bit of attention it got. But our expert’s recommendation boiled down to, “just keep publishing high-quality content and over time you’ll get noticed.” LOL. There are over 2 million blog posts published on the internet every single day. Nobody’s gonna give a s*** about you until you make them.

Did I mention our expert’s been in the Game for over a decade? Massive, globally recognized personal brand. Not a ginormous social media following, but super-high authority and credibility. So of course they can do f***all to promote their content. If I promoted a blog post with a single tweet I’d get less than 100 pageviews. What works for them won’t work for you… especially when you’re just starting out. Which got me thinking…

“How would I grow an email list from ZERO?”

Your first 10-20 subscribers

This is something I learned from Noah Kagan. He said it’ll get you your first 100, but I’m gonna be conservative. Don’t worry, all the other tactics I’ll mention will get you the remaining 80-90. Realistically, no one starts from zero; we’ve all got a social media network across one or more platforms.

So here’s the trick: You take a selfie and post it on your social channels with the caption, “I’m starting an email list on [topic]. If you want to receive emails from me, sign up here [link].” Then link to your opt-in form. Or you can ask people to reply if they want the link and DM em them.

Optimize your social profiles to grow your list

This is a direct response fundamental: Only sell one thing at a time. When people read your posts and visit your profile, they should be direct to only do one thing, and that’s subscribe to your email list. Wherever you can include links, send them straight to an opt-in form. Do not put links any of your products or your other social accounts. All roads lead to your email list.

Sees your post, visits your profile, subscribes to your list

That’s the funnel, and it applies across every platform. You engage with other users on the platform. They, and the people in their audience, see your post. Some of them will be interested enough to visit your profile. And some of those who visit your profile will subscribe.

Leaving thoughtful, sincere replies to other people’s content is the surest way to grow your audience and your email list.

Focus on one traffic source at a time

This is mostly an issue of time-management. If you have 3-5 hours a day for social media activity, you could easily grow your list via multiple platforms. There is, however, the overlooked benefit of reaching exponential growth faster if you focus on one platform at a time.

I’m partial to YouTube because your content there is evergreen and not ephemeral like other platforms. And your reach isn’t affected by putting links in your video description, the way posting an external link does on other social media sites. And you have many more options to link out to your newsletter opt-in.

  • Channel description link
  • Video descriptions
  • Pinned comments
  • Cards at one or more points during a video

Ask your audience to subscribe to your list every day

Here’s a neat tactic I learned from Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes: Post the subject line of your daily email, tell them when the email will be broadcast, ask them to subscribe to your list if they want to read it. Then, after you send the email, announce it and tell your subscribers to go read it.

When I first started doing this, it would get me 1-3 new subscribers a day. One day it got me 29 new subscribers. Another day, 20. This adds up fast. And imagine if you did this on all your social media profiles (if you have more than one.)

Guest post + freebie

This is the tried-and-true method for big boosts to your email list size. You look for websites with readers you want to attract and pitch them on writing a guest post. If they agree, you write the best g**damn post you’ve ever written in your life. At the end of the post you offer readers exclusive bonus content with a link to a landing page. They click-through and subscribe if they’re interested. Even though this tactic has the potential for the biggest gains, control is ultimately in the hands of the website owner you’re pitching.

And you’re not limited to articles. You can do a guest video, guest tweet thread, guest Instagram/LinkedIn carousel, etc.

I’ll be honest, if you’re starting from zero subscribers it’s going to be a grind. You need to do something to grow your list every day. And some days you’ll only add 1 new subscriber. But hey, +1 a day is +365 at the end of the year. And along the way, s*** happens and you’ll have days where you get lucky with +20 or +100 subscribers. Focus on the process and the results will follow.

And if you want to grow your email list even faster, go check out your bonus lesson, “[7LBL] Bonus tip 5: Advertising.”

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Nabeel writes a daily email to an audience of business owners, marketers and copywriters. Subscribe and get instant access to “Letters From Yours Beardly”, an archive of every email he’s written to his list since 2017. Click here to opt in to Nabeel’s daily email newsletter.