How to Start an Email List From Scratch

Heyo,

Welcome back to another edition of the Digital Brand Builders newsletter, a newsletter teaching you one actionable lesson you can use each week to build and grow your own brand online.

I want to teach from my own experience, so I’ll be sharing everything I’ve learned about starting and growing my personal brand and online business over the past several months in the hopes that it helps you do the same.

And by the end of every edition, I’ll leave you with a few action steps you can take to get one step closer to building your own digital brand this upcoming week.

Sound like a plan?

Alrighty, let’s dive right into this one!

Here’s what we’ll be covering this week:

How (and why) to start building your email list today.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Your email list is the most important thing you own as a brand, and a newsletter is the quickest way to build your brand.

Now, I’ve covered building your newsletter in the past (you can read more about that here).

But today we’ll be going over how to get started with your email list.

And while similar, I see an email list and newsletter as two separate things.

A newsletter’s usually sent once a week and is typically a bit longer than any other email you’d send (think about this newsletter you’re reading right now).

But an email list is:

And since I’m going to start sending weekly emails aside from this newsletter, I wanted to walk you through the process I’m going through.

So here we gooooo ↓

An email service provider’s just a fancy name for where you’ll collect and send emails from.

Look, there are plenty of platforms you could choose and plenty of opinions all over the internet. But in my honest opinion, I’d only choose one of the below:

• MailerLite (which is what I use and has an insane free plan) • ConvertKit (I don’t use it but have heard fantastic things)

Don’t overcomplicate it. Spend maybeeee ten minutes comparing the two options and then pick whichever one you want to go with.

Truth is, most people aren’t just willingly going to give you their email address.

So what can you do to incentivize people to share their email with you?

Create a free resource and share it in exchange for emails.

I’ve gone over this in the past (click here to read more), so I won’t go over it in too much detail.

But essentially, a lead magnet is meant to attract people to your email list (hence the magnet part of the name) and get them interested in your content and offers.

“But Connor, what type of lead magnet can I create?”

Think of what knowledge, experience, or expertise you already have. And then choose one of the following formats to package it up:

I chose a case study as my own lead magnet (more on that in a minute).

Remember, you don’t have to be an expert. You just have to know a little more than the person you’re trying to teach.

Now comes the hardest part in my opinion… deciding on what you’re actually going to write about!

Just like the previous step, think about your:

Got them?

Next, sit down for a few minutes and write out a bunch of different ideas you could talk about in your emails.

I’d recommend choosing three broad buckets, then going from there.

What results have you gotten in the past? What are you learning right now that you could teach others? What skills do you have? What funny or interesting stories would your readers enjoy hearing?

The thing is, we all have knowledge and experience and lessons we can teach others. It’s just a matter of figuring out what those things are… and then writing about them.

As for me, I chose the topics of marketing, writing, and email marketing because I have knowledge and experience in those.

Once you’ve figured out what type of ideas you’re going to write about, it’s time to create a landing page to actually start capturing emails.

Most email software provider’s have a landing page function built in.

But I’d recommend using Carrd to build a simple (emphasis on simple) one to capture emails, as they’ve got some really great templates to choose from and you can integrate all the major ESP’s.

Start with a value-driven headline. What’s in it for your readers?

Then add a simple subheading explaining what type of emails they’ll get and how frequently you’ll send them.

Finally, end with a call-to-action that encourages your visitors to sign up (this can be your lead magnet).

Here’s what my landing page looks like as an example ↓

[IMAGE OF LANDING PAGE]

And if you want to sign up to that email list and get the free case study, click here.

Your welcome email is the first interaction your reader has with you and your content. So you gotta make it count!

Here are a few things to add:

Pretty simple, huh?

If you want to learn more about how to write a welcome email that will turn readers into customers, click here.

Alright, you’ve set everything up and are ready to start collecting emails (exciting!).

Now all that’s left to do is promote your email list so people actually know it exists.

There are a few ways you can do that:

Add a link to all your socials. Promote your lead magnet wherever you can. Use Auto DM’s to grow your list on auto-pilot. Tell everybody and their mothers about how great your newsletter is and why they should join (okay, this one might be a bit over the top).

Some great platforms you can use to promote your email list include are…

Truth is, you could have the best newsletter in the world. But it won’t mean a thing if nobody knows it exists.

So get out there and start promoting it to the world!

Then once you have some subscribers, you’re ready to start sending emails.

Think back to all the different ideas you wrote out in step 3. Then pick a few days (or every day if you want to commit to that) to send your emails and get writing!

Annnndddd… there you have it!

6 steps you can take to start building and growing your email list today.

Here are your action steps for this week:

As always, let me know if you have any questions :)

✌🏼

Connor “build your list” Flynn

“Everything in life that’s hard is just a series of things that are easy.”