How To Build An Email List From Scratch

My email list is the number one driver of profits in my business by a long shot. And if you've been dying to start your own email list but don't know how this video is for you, I'm gonna take you through the entire process from start to finish. Hey guys, what's up?

It's Alex coming at you this week with a video to help all my fellow copywriters, marketers, and business owners ready to start building their email lists. Now, it's probably no secret that I love email marketing for so many reasons and I truly believe that every brand, business freelancer and service provider should have an email list and communicate with it on a regular basis. I made nearly six figures on the first launch I ever did and I didn't even have a large social following.

In fact, I barely had any YouTube subscribers but I did have a super engaged email list of 2300 people. I sent out eight emails and I brought in $84,000 in revenue. And even to this day with a much larger social media following and hundreds of thousands more YouTube subscribers it is still my email list that brings in the most revenue during promotions.

So if you wanna promote your product or services or you think that maybe one day you might wanna promote your products or services, then having an email list is essential. And today we're gonna talk about the 5 steps you need to start an email list from scratch. And of course, if you wanna see more videos like this one you know what to do, go ahead and hit that subscribe button below, and don't forget to hit that bell to be notified when my next video goes live.

Alright. Now the very first thing you need to do is step number one sign up for an email sender. That one is pretty obvious.

First things first, you need to actually sign up for an email marketing service. Now, there are many out there, MailChimp convert Kit, active campaign, flow desk, Clavio and the list goes on and on. There are a lot of options out there, and I'm not gonna pretend like I know which one is best for you.

So just do your research determine which platform has the capabilities you want and is within your budget. So I started my list on MailChimp but now that my business and my list has grown, I'm looking into switching to a different platform that allows for more segmentation conditional sending, fancier logic and all that stuff. And hey, that is no shade on MailChimp.

I think it is a great tool and a great place to start if you're brand new because there's a free option and it's really easy to use. Every platform will have its pros and cons but ultimately they all do the same thing. So consider your business goals and then select the tool that allows you to get started asap.

Alright, so once you've got that all set up then you wanna move on to step number two create a valuable freebie. Now the next step is to figure out how to actually get people excited about joining your email list. Most people don't go around just looking for email lists to sign up for, right?

We all get enough emails in our inbox as it is, we ain't looking anymore. But what we will do is exchange our email address for something useful, and that's where a valuable freebie often called a lead magnet comes in. So the idea here is that you offer something valuable for free in exchange for an email address on a landing page.

Now, while this free valuable thing is totally up to you it largely depends on what you do, what type of business you're starting, and what you have a lot of knowledge about that you can help others with. You're simply creating something valuable to give your audience. So it could be a free guide or template, a masterclass a webinar, a training video, a mini course, a coupon code or a free sample trial, or even a giveaway.

So once you know what your freebie will be it's time to actually create it. And I have a full tutorial that breaks down my three step formula for creating great lead magnets and I will link to that at the end of this video. Now, when it comes to design if you are designing a pdf, I love to use Canva.

I use it for all of my PDF lead magnets but after you design it doesn't mean you're done yet. You also need to build the landing page. And the landing page is exactly what it sounds like.

It is a page that new leads land on. You'll also hear it sometimes called an opt-in page or a squeeze page. The only purpose of this page is to get the visitor's email address.

They're usually pretty short and sweet and they look a little something like this. So you can see this is the landing page for my ultimate email marketing cheat sheet. There's a headline that clearly outlines the benefit of getting this free guide along with the CTA that's above the fold, so you don't have to scroll to see it followed by a credibility banner and some juicy benefits that really tell you what you're gonna learn inside this free guide followed by an authority bio and ending with another cta.

All the buttons on this page prompt a popup that tells people to sign up to get instant access to this free guide. So you can see it's really simple and straightforward. By the way, if you wanna grab a copy of that free guide you'll find a link to it below.

And if you want more help creating your landing page I have an entire video that breaks down exactly how to create optimized landing pages here on my channel. Alright, so now that you've created a freebie and you have a landing page ready to collect those emails you can start building your list now, right? Wrong there's actually one more thing that you have to do first.

Step number three, write a day zero autoresponder and a welcome sequence. Now, technically you don't have to do this before you start building your list but I highly recommend you set up these emails before you get going because they're likely gonna set you up for success and keep your email list engaged right from the get go. So the day zero autoresponder email is an email that is sent out immediately after a new lead signs up for your list.

It's kind of like a confirmation email, a thank you email. So this email will deliver whatever it is that they signed up for get them excited about how it'll help them, and of course provide a memorable brand experience cuz they're getting to know you for the first time. But don't stop there.

I also recommend that you write 1 to 3 welcome emails which you can also set up to go out automatically after they sign up, maybe 1, 2, 3 days after. Now, welcome emails are sometimes referred to as indoctrination emails. These are emails that welcome new leads to your list or indoctrinate new leads into your brand.

You wanna make them feel as though they're part of something bigger. Let them know what they can expect from you and of course, build rapport. If you've ever signed up for one of my freebies then you've likely received my 3 welcome emails.

The first one is to welcome you to the posse and empathize with where you might be at on your copywriting or business journey. The second is to communicate the copy posse's mission and rally new subscribers around it. And the last one is to add awesome value and offer next steps.

It's in this email that I present an offer. Now I have an entire video about my indoctrination sequence and you can catch that video later right here on my channel. Just remember, the goal of these emails is to nurture your brand new leads on autopilot.

This means that you only have to write these bad boys once and then set 'em and forget 'em. Okay? Okay.

So at this point we've basically done a bunch of backend work, right? You've built your freebie, your landing page, your emails. Now we're ready to finally get to the good stuff.

Step number four, build your list. Now we are ready to rock and roll. It's time to start plugging and promoting your freebie wherever, whenever it's relevant.

Okay? Now, what this looks like will greatly depend on whether or not you already have an established social media following or presence or some other audience that you can leverage. Now, here are some ideas that you can use to promote your new landing page in freebie.

So put it on your website. I mean, obviously, right? But don't make the mistake of just putting it anywhere.

No, no, no. You wanna stand out and capture attention. Marketing 101.

So I would recommend that you put it above the fold just like this example from Jenna Kutcher's website or this one from Marie Forleo. So you can see that they have these opt-in banners right at the very top of their homepage. Basically, it's impossible for you to miss.

Now, another option on your homepage is to create a pop-up invitation like this one on Jay Clouse's website. So it just pops up after the user has been on your website for a few minutes. Now, if you don't have a website, don't worry.

It's not the only place you can promote your freebie. Post about it on your social media Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. You get it?

And yes, even if you don't have a large following post it to your stories and add the link to your bio. Write blog posts about the content that's relevant to your freebie, and then plug it inside your blog post, wherever it makes sense. And ask your friends and family to spread the word and share.

Do you know anyone else with an email list or an audience who might be willing to give you a little shout out? You'd be surprised how many people are more than happy to help a fellow entrepreneur get their start. Now, let me just say, expect this to be a slow process.

If you are not paying for your traffic you can't expect your list to grow to 15,000 people overnight. It takes time. But if you stay consistent you will see your subscribers slowly start ticking up higher and higher.

And that means you're ready to move on to the next step which is number five, show up consistently in the inbox. Add value, and listen. And you guys, this is truly the biggest one of them all.

You can have the best products, the coolest brand the biggest list, but none of it really matters unless your audience is engaging with your emails. Because if you want an email list that actually buys things from you, which I'm assuming you will at one point wanna have, then you have to keep them engaged and clicking and opening and reading your emails. This means you need to show up consistently in their inbox, build trust, create rapport and continue to deliver value in some shape or form.

When I started emailing my list I actually only emailed them once a week, but as my business grew, I started emailing them twice a week. And now I send out three really valuable content emails every single week. I know other people who send out an email every single day and others who only send a newsletter maybe once a month.

Listen, it doesn't really matter how often you send emails in the beginning. What matters first is that you're consistent. So start getting in the habit of sticking to a regular cadence and rhythm.

So pick a frequency and stick with it. And before you know what your audience will start expecting your emails on a regular basis. But this begs the question, what should these emails say?

Well, that's exactly what I talk about in my free email marketing cheat sheet that will help you understand the seven types of emails that people need to send from content emails to sales emails, and everything in between. This breaks down all the types of emails you should be sending to your email list, complete with examples taken directly from the Copy Posse's vault. So you can snag your free copy of that cheat sheet by clicking the link in the description below.

Give me a thumbs up if you found this video helpful and I will see you very soon. Until next time, I'm Alex. Ciao for now.

Alright, guys. If you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here and you can click right here to get a free gift. How do you communicate with brand new leads to increase engagement, deliverabilty and long-term sales?

Keep watching to learn my personal and proven 3-step indoctrination sequence for turning those fresh leads into forever fans.