Your email database is 1 of your business’s astir important selling assets. Rather than fleeting postulation from impermanent societal media posts oregon paid ads, these are radical who person engaged with you and you person nonstop entree to.

You tin marque wealth astatine the click of a fastener whenever you request to with a beardown email list. Unlike different selling channels, you person afloat power and ownership here.

So however bash you turn your email list? We’ll spell done the astir effectual tips and tactics I’ve learned by increasing aggregate email lists successful the tens of thousands.

Before we dive into the enactment steps, let’s get your caput straight. When it comes to increasing an email list, you don’t conscionable privation arsenic galore earthy numbers arsenic possible.

Not lone does this get costly fast, it besides hurts your email deliverability erstwhile you nonstop contented to tons of unengaged (and downright non-existent) email addresses.

Instead, you privation to absorption connected increasing a highly engaged email list. Quality AND quantity.

That means you should clean your list often, ne'er bargain generic lists, and ever connection thing of worth to your newsletter subscribers. I’ll speech much astir that past point later.

Now that I’ve got you reasoning astir quality leads, let’s speech astir the tried and tested tactics for increasing your email list.

1. Put your opt-ins successful each the close places

Start with each your bases covered. Make definite you person email opt-ins successful the accustomed places: 

• On your homepage
• In your sidebar
• At the extremity of your blog content

These are evident places, but they tin beryllium overlooked—we privation to commencement with a beardown baseline earlier we get into the much precocious tactics.

Something similar this works well:

What should you accidental successful your opt-in? 

While you tin person a wide “Join 7,000+ superb minds similar yourself,” it’s amended to person thing much targeted to your audience’s desires. 

Unless your contented is thing peculiar to your readers (which, let’s beryllium honest, it amended beryllium if you privation to turn an online business), nary 1 is going to motion up for different generic email spam list.

2. Attract high-quality website traffic

The prime of your email database starts with the prime of your website traffic. No substance however good your opt-ins convert, it won’t substance if the close radical aren’t visiting your website.

That’s wherever SEO and contented selling travel in. Great contented targeting applicable keywords tin pull prime postulation connected autopilot from hunt engines similar Google.

SEO has a learning curve and takes clip to work, but it’s 1 of the astir effectual forms of contented selling to turn your email list.

It starts with keyword research—knowing what keywords your perfect customers are searching for and however to fertile for those keywords.

You tin bash this rapidly with a rival contented spread analysis. Simply benignant your website into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and click the Content gap fastener astatine the bottommost of the left-hand menu here.

Then, plug successful 3 oregon much of your competitors. If you don’t cognize who your competitors are, you tin find them with the Competing Domains study close supra the Content Gap report.

Once you deed Show keywords, you’ll get a database of each the keywords your competitors fertile for, but you don’t. That tin sometimes beryllium tens of thousands of keywords, truthful you’re amended disconnected starting with keywords that each the competitors fertile for to get the astir applicable results: 

From here, you’ll person a coagulated database of ideas for what you request to make contented for.

Want to larn more? Start with these SEO guides:

• SEO Basics: Beginner’s Guide to SEO Success
• How to Create Relevant Content That Ranks

3. Create contented upgrades

A contented upgrade is precisely what it sounds like—an “upgrade” to the contented you’re presently reading.

A fewer examples of this can be:

• An “ultimate guide” to burning abdominous connected an nonfiction astir exercises to suffer weight.
• A budgeting spreadsheet connected an nonfiction astir however to make a budget.
• A video bid astir however to play the ukulele connected an nonfiction astir the champion ukuleles for beginners.

You tin get arsenic originative arsenic you privation with this. What’s thing you tin springiness your readers that volition beryllium truly invaluable to them and applicable to what they’re presently reading?

For example, I’ve got thousands of emails by creating a spreadsheet comparing implicit 50 antithetic tiny campers arsenic a contented upgrade connected my usher to the champion tiny campers.

Here’s what the opt-in signifier looks like:

And here’s a look astatine the spreadsheet they get erstwhile they sign up:

My readers were much apt to subscribe to my database due to the fact that they got thing applicable that was truly utile during their probe to fig retired which camper to buy.

Ready to bash this yourself?

To fig retired which pages you should make upgrades for, instrumentality a look astatine your highest-trafficked pages successful Google Analytics. Just spell to “Pages and screens” successful GA4 (or Behavior > All Content > Landing Pages successful the aged GA), and it automatically sorts by fig of views.

Then make contented upgrades that marque consciousness for your highest-trafficked pages.

Try to deliberation of upgrades you tin usage crossed aggregate pages to prevention connected clip and costs. For example, an eventual usher to value nonaccomplishment tin beryllium promoted crossed articles astir champion foods for value loss, champion exercises for value loss, etc.

Again, hunt motor optimization is going to beryllium your champion person with this tactic. If you harvester contented upgrades with posts that are ranking connected Google, you’ll turn your email database connected autopilot.

4. Host giveaways

Let maine commencement with a elephantine disclaimer: Generic giveaways are a large mode to turn an email list… afloat of fake oregon unengaged emails.

Many radical make emails (that they ne'er really cheque oregon use) for the sole intent of signing up for giveaways. Or they motion up and past instantly unsubscribe aft the giveaway is over.

Instead of giving distant thing generic, specified arsenic currency oregon immoderate fancy electronics, instrumentality with giving distant thing straight related to your people market.

For example, if you’re successful the fittingness space, springiness distant fittingness equipment. If you’re successful the woodworking space, springiness distant woodworking equipment. You get the idea.

Better yet, if you merchantability products of your own, springiness distant your ain products. That way, adjacent if idiosyncratic leaves your email list, you’re inactive astatine slightest connected their caput whenever they usage your stuff.

One illustration of a well-done giveaway is this 1 by iKamper:

Here’s what makes it good:

• It’s giving distant its ain products.
• It partnered with different large brands successful the outdoor camping space.
• All of the products successful the giveaway are applicable to iKamper’s customers (no generic products or cash).

In different words, lone radical who whitethorn beryllium imaginable iKamper customers are really signing up for the giveaway. 

Plus, by partnering with different brands, it’s expanding its scope portion besides gathering relationships with almighty partners.

If you’re going to bash a giveaway, marque definite you bash it legally. Notice however it says successful the station that Instagram isn’t endorsing its giveaway. This is conscionable 1 of the things you request to bash to legally clasp a giveaway. These rules disagree from state to country.

5. Use exit-intent pop-ups

Pop-ups are annoying, right?

Of course—if it’s thing you don’t care about.

That’s wherefore you should lone usage exit-intent pop-ups with, well, intention. Don’t conscionable spam your readers with “Hey! Sign up for my list!” without offering them thing they care about.

Instead, lone usage exit-intent pop-ups to springiness your readers thing they truly want. A discount codification tin work, though that doesn’t warrant lawsuit retention.

The attack I’ve recovered to enactment the champion is to harvester these pop-ups with the contented upgrades we went done successful maneuver #3. It makes your upgrade evident and lowers your chances of the pop-up being truly annoying.

Speaking of being little annoying… present are immoderate different tips to debar aggravating your readers:

• Make definite your pop-up is casual and evident to adjacent out. Make the “X” successful the country casual to spot and guarantee the pop-up closes if they click extracurricular the box. 
• Only show the pop-up aft a definite magnitude of clip connected a leafage oregon aft a definite scroll extent truthful it doesn’t show close distant and marque radical instantly leave. You should beryllium capable to acceptable these conditions successful the pop-up settings of most tools.

That way, you maximize the benefits of the pop-up and minimize the annoyance.

Here’s a large illustration of an exit-intent pop-up:

It’s bully because:

• It’s casual to close. (There’s a disposable “X” and a “No, thanks” option.)
• It’s offering thing of value, not conscionable asking you to subscribe.
• It’s highly applicable for Tim Ferriss’ assemblage (he talks a batch astir however to amended your life).

There are galore tools and plugins you tin usage to make the pop-up and negociate your subscribers. I personally usage ConvertKit to negociate my database and Thrive Lightboxes to marque my pop-ups, but usage immoderate you prefer.

6. Never spam your list

OK, this is an evident tip. But it can’t beryllium overstated to not exhaust your database with useless emails. This boils down to:

1. Not sending thing your database won’t care about.
2. Only sending 2 to 4 emails per period unless your emails are astir thing time-sensitive that radical evidently privation much predominant updates connected (like quality oregon marketplace updates).

Subscriber retention besides hugely contributes to sustainable growth. That’s it—on to #7.

7. Utilize a drip feed

The past happening you privation to bash is fto your hard-earned email database spell cold. It tin beryllium casual to hide to nonstop consistently—besides, not everyone connected your database is astatine the aforesaid signifier of your marketing funnel.

That’s wherever a drip provender comes in. This is simply a bid of emails you acceptable up up of clip to “drip” retired to your database implicit time. It’s fundamentally a mode to guarantee you’re sending to your database consistently without needing to constitute a caller broadcast email every week.

For example, your drip run tin look like this:

1. A scholar subscribes to your database to get their eventual usher to value loss.
2. Your email selling bundle sends them a invited email on with their PDF.
3. The adjacent day, your caller subscriber gets “dripped” different email with a video mentation of their usher that besides promotes your products.
4. A week later, they get a check-in email asking however they’re doing with their goals.
5. Etc.

These “dripped out” emails tin beforehand your older content, stock your caller content, springiness tips and champion practices, and occasionally beforehand applicable products to your list. 

Plus, they springiness you the added payment of lone needing to docket the emails once, past fto the automation grip things for you from there.

Speaking of automation…

8. Segment your list

Would you privation to get an email astir value nonaccomplishment tips if you’re trying to bulk up? Probably not. That’s wherefore if you connection contented connected antithetic topics wrong a niche, it’s champion to conception your database truthful your readers lone get the emails that are astir applicable to what they care about.

There are respective ways you tin conception your list:

• Segment based connected which contented upgrade they signed up for (i.e., value nonaccomplishment usher gets into the value nonaccomplishment segment, musculus gathering usher gets into the musculus gathering segment).
• Simply inquire your subscribers their preferences successful the invited email. Give them a bulleted database of topics that are hyperlinked with antithetic tags for antithetic segments. For example, you could marque a database like this:
  • I’m funny successful losing weight.
  • I’m funny successful gathering muscle.
  • I’m funny successful having much vigor and being mostly healthier.
• Segment based connected which product(s) the subscriber purchased.

Each email automation bundle is antithetic successful however it handles these types of automations and tags. But for ConvertKit (the 1 that I use), here’s however to do this:

Click the Automate dropdown, past Rules.

Click + New Rule successful the apical right, and you’ll beryllium prompted to take a Trigger and an Action. Depending connected which segmentation strategy you privation to usage from the 3 I mentioned above, you’ll request to bash a antithetic trigger.

For this example, I’ll support it simple—click Subscribes to a form arsenic a trigger and Subscribe to a sequence arsenic an action. (Note that you’ll request to acceptable up the signifier and series earlier this for it to work.) This makes it truthful whenever idiosyncratic subscribes via the signifier you chose, they volition beryllium added to the series (the “drip feed”) you selected.

Additionally, click the + under the Subscribe to a sequence enactment and adhd the 2nd enactment Add tag with the corresponding conception tag for that peculiar form. This volition adhd a tag to anyone who subscribes to that form, frankincense allowing you to “segment” them.

When you’re blessed with the settings, click Save Rule. That’s each you person to do.

Final thoughts

Again, your email database is arguably 1 of your business’s biggest assets. It’s a lawsuit database that you person power of—unlike different marketing channels. 

The tactics I’ve outlined supra person helped maine physique respective lists successful the tens of thousands, with radical who enactment engaged and attraction erstwhile I nonstop retired an email.

Treat your database similar gold, ne'er instrumentality vantage of it, and retrieve that determination are existent radical astatine the different extremity of those emails. That’s the mode to turn and support a high-quality email list.