10 Ways to Build an Email List Fast with AWeber
10 Ways to Build an Email List Fast with AWeber
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links or promo code, at no cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure here. Thanks!
An email list is the foundation for any successful blogger, especially when you can leverage that list through a service like AWeber (affiliate link). However, building that email list also takes work and, all too often, seems kind of random.
The good news is that you don't have to rely on luck to gain new subscribers. That randomness aspect only holds true if you don't have a strategy in place. With the right steps, you can actually build up your email subscribers fast and start moving towards earning a passive income. To help you get there, consider these 10 ways to quickly build your email list with AWeber.
1. Consider Your Niche
It all starts with a purpose. Audiences will gravitate towards you if you offer something that's unique and different, solving their problems and pain points in ways that others can't.
That might be your unique brand of expertise, products you sell, or services you offer. Either way, you need to find what that niche is and focus all of your efforts on it. The more focused, the better.
2. Build a Great Sign-up Form
Next, start with some technical details. AWeber allows you to easily build effective sign-up forms that can help you draw your audience in with just a few bits of information.
As you build that form, keep a few items in mind:
- Stick with a few core form fields, like name and email. The shorter the form, the higher the conversion rate.
- Keep your form's branding consistent, including the right colors and fonts to make it easily recognizable as yours.
- A clear call to action at the end that specifically outlines what your audience gets by signing up (“join the email list!”)
3. Provide Consistent Value
After the technical form comes the value proposition. You can tell your audience exactly what they get by signing up, but actually delivering that value is even more important.
Every email and piece of content you send should be relevant to your audience and their needs. The more value you deliver, the higher the chance becomes that your subscribers engage with your content and encourage others in their network to sign up.
4. Keep the Promotional Balance
It's tempting to overdo it. But in reality, the average business actually loses more than 22% of their email list. A large reason for that churn is spam and an overly promotional emphasis.
Yes, you can talk about yourself and your business on occasion. But you cannot spam your audience with an overt reliance of promotional offers and incentives. Instead, focus on the above-mentioned value first, only sprinkling in promotional messages on occasion.
5. Leverage Your Other Channels
Who said you can only rely on your emails to grow the list? In fact, if you already sell the same message on other channels, you can easily use them to grow your list as well:
- On social media, where you can encourage your followers to sign up.
- On your website, where a natural call to action on your homepage can be your email subscription.
- Offline, on printed materials if you have them. This will require some data entry
Through AWeber, you can build sign-up forms that can easily integrate into all of the above channels. As a result, you won't need to manually manage your data but can continue to rely on the automated database.
6. Encourage Email Sharing
As you build your emails, you should always make sure that it's easy for your audience to share them. Valuable content is the crucial first step, but it's far from your only opportunity.
Through AWeber templates, you can integrate social share buttons in every email. Another option is to allow your email to display as a web page, which gives your audience a link to share directly with their connections.
7. A/B Test Your Sign-Up Messages
Do you know which messaging or value proposition gets the fastest email list growth? You probably have a hunch, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. That's what A/B testing is all about.
You can split test your emails easily through AWeber's tools. Another option is to test the sign-up messages and form itself, checking which iteration works best before you make a commitment.
8. Connect Your Blog and Email List
You might already be making subtle connections between your blog and your email. It doesn't hurt to make those connections obvious and natural to your readers, and that's actually pretty simple.
The key to success is cross-linking. Link directly to your blog in individual emails, and blog about the benefits of joining your email list. Include the sign up form as the last call to action on any post you publish. The closer the connection, the more easily one audience can flow into the other.
9. Consider Partnering Up
You're not in this alone. Other companies and individuals are trying to build their email lists too, and some of them might not actually compete with you for the same audience. So why not partner up?
It can be as simple as placing your sign up form on a partner website in exchange for a similar favor on yours. Guest blogging can be another opportunity to get the word out. These partnerships tend to be significant growth opportunities for little money.
10. Regularly Scrub Your List
Finally, we get to the most counterintuitive point on this list. To grow your list fast, you actually have to make sure you scrub and clean it regularly.
That might not seem to make much sense at first sight, but it's actually a crucial step. Old and inactive members of your list who no longer check your emails or whose address no longer exist drag down your open and delivery rates while increasing your spam and unsubscribe rates. That, in turn, has negative consequences on how email clients treat you. A cleaner list, with more active members, leads to more visibility and ultimately faster growth.
How AWeber Helps You Grow Your Email List
All of the above can work in isolation, but are especially powerful when combined. Of course, you need a reliable email tool that can help you accomplish them all, which is where AWeber comes in.
It's one of the most powerful tools on the web, and one that naturally integrates many of the above-mentioned features. As such, it's the perfect tool to grow your email list. The best news is that you can actually test-drive it for free for 30 days (affiliate link), and find out for yourself.
Looking for more info? Check out my blogging resources or contact me directly. Let's talk about the ways you can leverage your blog to grow your income, and how your email strategy can play into that.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links or promo code, at no cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure here. Thanks!
An email list is the foundation for any successful blogger, especially when you can leverage that list through a service like AWeber (affiliate link). However, building that email list also takes work and, all too often, seems kind of random.
The good news is that you don't have to rely on luck to gain new subscribers. That randomness aspect only holds true if you don't have a strategy in place. With the right steps, you can actually build up your email subscribers fast and start moving towards earning a passive income. To help you get there, consider these 10 ways to quickly build your email list with AWeber.
1. Consider Your Niche
It all starts with a purpose. Audiences will gravitate towards you if you offer something that's unique and different, solving their problems and pain points in ways that others can't.
That might be your unique brand of expertise, products you sell, or services you offer. Either way, you need to find what that niche is and focus all of your efforts on it. The more focused, the better.
2. Build a Great Sign-up Form
Next, start with some technical details. AWeber allows you to easily build effective sign-up forms that can help you draw your audience in with just a few bits of information.
As you build that form, keep a few items in mind:
- Stick with a few core form fields, like name and email. The shorter the form, the higher the conversion rate.
- Keep your form's branding consistent, including the right colors and fonts to make it easily recognizable as yours.
- A clear call to action at the end that specifically outlines what your audience gets by signing up (“join the email list!”)
3. Provide Consistent Value
After the technical form comes the value proposition. You can tell your audience exactly what they get by signing up, but actually delivering that value is even more important.
Every email and piece of content you send should be relevant to your audience and their needs. The more value you deliver, the higher the chance becomes that your subscribers engage with your content and encourage others in their network to sign up.
4. Keep the Promotional Balance
It's tempting to overdo it. But in reality, the average business actually loses more than 22% of their email list. A large reason for that churn is spam and an overly promotional emphasis.
Yes, you can talk about yourself and your business on occasion. But you cannot spam your audience with an overt reliance of promotional offers and incentives. Instead, focus on the above-mentioned value first, only sprinkling in promotional messages on occasion.
5. Leverage Your Other Channels
Who said you can only rely on your emails to grow the list? In fact, if you already sell the same message on other channels, you can easily use them to grow your list as well:
- On social media, where you can encourage your followers to sign up.
- On your website, where a natural call to action on your homepage can be your email subscription.
- Offline, on printed materials if you have them. This will require some data entry
Through AWeber, you can build sign-up forms that can easily integrate into all of the above channels. As a result, you won't need to manually manage your data but can continue to rely on the automated database.
6. Encourage Email Sharing
As you build your emails, you should always make sure that it's easy for your audience to share them. Valuable content is the crucial first step, but it's far from your only opportunity.
Through AWeber templates, you can integrate social share buttons in every email. Another option is to allow your email to display as a web page, which gives your audience a link to share directly with their connections.
7. A/B Test Your Sign-Up Messages
Do you know which messaging or value proposition gets the fastest email list growth? You probably have a hunch, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. That's what A/B testing is all about.
You can split test your emails easily through AWeber's tools. Another option is to test the sign-up messages and form itself, checking which iteration works best before you make a commitment.
8. Connect Your Blog and Email List
You might already be making subtle connections between your blog and your email. It doesn't hurt to make those connections obvious and natural to your readers, and that's actually pretty simple.
The key to success is cross-linking. Link directly to your blog in individual emails, and blog about the benefits of joining your email list. Include the sign up form as the last call to action on any post you publish. The closer the connection, the more easily one audience can flow into the other.
9. Consider Partnering Up
You're not in this alone. Other companies and individuals are trying to build their email lists too, and some of them might not actually compete with you for the same audience. So why not partner up?
It can be as simple as placing your sign up form on a partner website in exchange for a similar favor on yours. Guest blogging can be another opportunity to get the word out. These partnerships tend to be significant growth opportunities for little money.
10. Regularly Scrub Your List
Finally, we get to the most counterintuitive point on this list. To grow your list fast, you actually have to make sure you scrub and clean it regularly.
That might not seem to make much sense at first sight, but it's actually a crucial step. Old and inactive members of your list who no longer check your emails or whose address no longer exist drag down your open and delivery rates while increasing your spam and unsubscribe rates. That, in turn, has negative consequences on how email clients treat you. A cleaner list, with more active members, leads to more visibility and ultimately faster growth.
How AWeber Helps You Grow Your Email List
All of the above can work in isolation, but are especially powerful when combined. Of course, you need a reliable email tool that can help you accomplish them all, which is where AWeber comes in.
It's one of the most powerful tools on the web, and one that naturally integrates many of the above-mentioned features. As such, it's the perfect tool to grow your email list. The best news is that you can actually test-drive it for free for 30 days (affiliate link), and find out for yourself.
Looking for more info? Check out my blogging resources or contact me directly. Let's talk about the ways you can leverage your blog to grow your income, and how your email strategy can play into that.
Written by Ben Cummings
Cofounder of Sage Wave Media
Ben is a professional blogger who holds an MBA with a specialization in Entrepreneurship. He enjoys teaching, blogging, startups, a hoppy IPA, and college basketball. Whenever he's not blogging, you can find him cruising around sunny San Diego with his amazing family.
Ben, I appreciate your content so much. I am at re-entering the digital marketing arena and wow, I have some catching up to do! My blog is using Chimp Mail forms and I need to figure out how to change them out to AWeber. I hope you show us how to do that in one of your AWeber posts or videos. Thank you for all you do.
Thanks so much, Gina! I really appreciate it! Anytime you re-enter an industry or niche, things are bound to change. However, it sounds like you're well on your way to getting back in the saddle! Keep at it and thanks for stopping by the blog!