Free List Building Ideas
Looking for free list building ideas? Aren’t we all? In this article, we look at some simple and creative ways to build an email list so you can get more leads, communicate more effectively with your customers and get better results from your marketing strategies. Best news is: It’s all free.
Get Socially Active
One of the easiest free list building ideas is to use your social media platforms. You can use a single link to connect with your audiences across all of your different channels.
How? Create a landing page with the sole purpose of collecting subscribers. Share that link in all of your profiles. Once people click to that page, they can join your email list and/or view any other information you want to share with them.
Remember that prospects are only going to join your email list if you offer them some type of real value in return.
As an example, let’s say that your audience is most likely interested in how to grow their social media following. Instead of just saying “Sign up for my email list,” offer value by saying “Sign up for my email list and get an exclusive PDF to learn how to grow your social media following.”
Now, the visitor that sees you link knows they are being offered something they can benefit from in exchange for giving your their email address.
Use a Call To Action
We see a lot of copy that just has a link with no call to action. Be sure to let customers know where to click and why.
An example would be: “Click Here To Request Our Free List Building Course“.
Offer Discount Codes To New Subscribers
One of the best free list building ideas we have seen is to offer an exclusive discount available only to your subscribers. A BBQ restaurant started sending our special offers available only to their email subscribers. They would then send out a weekly broadcast to those subscribers offering either a buy one get one free (bogo) deal or a 20% discount on their order. This approach resulted in higher subscription rates and increased sales. Marketing Cost: FREE!
Host Giveaways and Contests
People love free stuff. When you offer visitors the chance to win free stuff, they will be more than happy to give you their email address.
Here’s the catch: If you’re not careful, you might end up with a list of people who are not very engaged since they only signed up just to win a prize, as opposed to signing up to hear from you.
We recommend you take the time to brainstorm ideas for giveaway prizes that would be irresistible to only your best ideal customer.
As an example, if your ideal customer is someone you hope to sell consulting services to, you might give away a free consultation or a free (or discounted) premium package. This way, only people who are truly interested in your consulting service would be inclined to respond. If you are selling products, consider a sample or guide centered around using your product. The thought you put in here can pay off for years to come.
Reach More with Guest Posting and Discussion Groups
Becoming actively involved with discussion groups related to your industry is a great way to build your lists. Much like the social media idea above, you can increase your reach by getting involved with the various discussion groups for your industry. Avoid posting blatant ads. Create your profile with links to your capture page and seek out conversations where you can add real value.
As you begin to establish your credibility, you will find that members of that group begin to seek you out, check out your profile, and ultimately join your list.
Repurpose Your Existing Content
If you’ve been creating content, you’ve got a great resource for reaching more potential subscribers. What we will do from time to time is take one of our articles here on this blog and create a video for our Youtube or TikTok channel. We’re really just reviewing existing content and delivering it in a new way to a new audience. We always invite viewers to follow, subscribe, and request our free report. As a result our follower count and subscriber count continue to climb.
Don’t Forget To Build Offline
On my iPhone, I always have one of my browser windows available and open to my capture page. When I find myself in a conversation with someone who can use my services, I can quickly hand them my iPhone for them to join my list or I can ask them for their name and email to add them. I tell them to check their email to confirm that I got the info right and voila! A new subscriber is added.
If you have a physical store front, offer customers the chance to join your list. Entice them with a discount code that will be emailed to them after they confirm.
If you are attending a trade show, network with others and offer them your information. (Refer to my iPhone strategy above).
Optimize Your Capture Forms
At the very foundation of any successful list building campaign you will find the capture forms on your website or blog.
Having forms is a great start. To maximize your results, test the actual form used and their placement on your site to increase your opt-in rate.
As an example, let’s say that on a single page you get 3 people to sign up for your email list for every 100 visitors to that page. You want that number to be higher. You test the form placement and move it above all of your content on the page. Now you see that you are getting 6 new subscriptions for every 100 visitors.
By simply changing the placement of the form, you have doubled your email subscription rate. We’ve actually seen it happen. The key is to test for maximum impact.
In Conclusion
These free list building ideas are incredibly effective, amazingly simple, and can help you create a killer subscriber list without increasing your costs.
Here is the key: Pick one strategy and take action on it today.
Want faster results? Take action on more of these strategies. Be sure to test your results along the way to get the most from the work you are putting in.
Does one of these strategies stand out more for you than the others? Have you tried any of the above? Share your results, comments, and questions, below!
Start Today With a Free 30 Day Trial
We Are Here To Help
We highly recommend connecting to TrafficWave on your favorite social media sites to stay updated and informed.
Find TrafficWave on our Favorite Social Media Sites
TrafficWave Affiliate Training
Request our free report to receive more details on how you can use email marketing to build your lists and grow your business.
Your information will be kept private.
All Comments
Jose
March 18, 2022
Hi, I’m Jose. Well, I’ve read all of the above. I just want to say that in reality I had a certain imagination about all the ideas that I just read in this article, which for me are really very good, but what is true is that I’m not putting them into It works very quickly, the point is that I am involved in other tactics such as safe lists and traffic exchanges, but it turns out that there is little time to carry out many tasks at the same time, but to summarize, it seems to me that we will have to start with new ideas, thanks and greetings, success!
Brian Rooney
March 18, 2022
Hi, Jose.
The reality is that none of these strategies take that much time but if you do follow the steps, you can implement just one at a time, get it working right and then take on the next one. Growing your business will require an investment of time and effort.
Brian Rooney
March 24, 2022
Hi, Jose… It’s been about a week since your comment. How are you doing following through, so far?
jose Amoros
March 25, 2022
Hello Brian, greetings, well for the moment everything is fine, just a little slow but nothing to worry about, I continue to follow everything to the letter, in this mission it is all about consistency and patience and with time the path becomes shorter, Thank you very much for remembering greetings and much success, Jose
Write a Comment