Got a tiny (or no) email list for your brand? Feeling hazy about how to fix that? That ends today. After sharing this strategy for collecting email leads with fellow members of the Capitalism Incubator, Greg Johnson’s letting us share it with you. You can thank him later.
Everyone says the money’s in the list. When you have a nice, juicy list of people who want to hear from your brand and who want to be first in line to buy what you create next, you stack the deck in your favor. As a result, every email has the potential to start a buying frenzy when you’re ready to launch.
Yeah. We get it: Email List Good.
If you don’t have a list, it’s probably not because you’ve never tried. And it’s not because nobody’s teaching people how.
2,170,000,000 suggestions. Have fun with that.
But here’s the thing with most email list-building tactics. They’re either expensive, require an expert’s help, demand tons of content, or take too long to work. Greg’s tactic has none of those downsides. He used it to grow his business, The Little Catholic Box.
So if you’re ready to finally get your email list going, check this out. It works.
Here’s the high-level plan:
- Choose a giveaway prize.
- Create a landing page.
- Connect your landing page to your email service.
- Run simple ads to send traffic to your landing page.
- Grow your email list.
- Clean your email list.
And there you have it, folks.
Oh. You probably want a little more detail, huh? We aim to serve.
Step #1: Choose Your Prize
We are going to use a giveaway as a means to collect email addresses.
Now, full disclosure: This technique usually has a very high opt-in rate but brings in a lot of “low quality” leads.
MOST of the emails you collect are from people looking for freebies, NOT people who will become passionate about your brand.
That’s ok, though.
You’re about to learn how to “bake in” techniques to sort the good ones from the bad.
Greg says, “In our experience, the 10% GOOD emails that we get from these campaigns are enough to easily pay for the cost of the whole campaign within a couple of weeks.”
Now to select the giveaway prize.
This works best with an item or item bundle with a retail value over $100. (Do what you are comfortable with.)
The item or bundle you pick does NOT strictly need to be products that YOU provide. The goal is to offer something that your TARGET MARKET really wants. Consider buying complementary products from other vendors.
The most critical component is the desirability of the item or bundle to your target market. Once you know who you want on your email list, choose a prize that will attract them.
Step #2: Make Your Giveaway Landing Page
This is just where we send people to collect their email addresses. Simple is best.
The key is simplicity and a clear action you want viewers to take. (This page shouldn’t have a navigation bar or anything else to click on other than a “Submit” button).
(You can do this on any platform you choose or that you have access to, like Clickfunnels, Leadpages, Convertri, etc.)
Landing Page Components:
- A photo of your giveaway item(s) (good cell phone photos are fine)
- Give a quick explanation of WHAT you are offering and WHO it is for
- Add a clear Call to Action
- Include an email capture form and “Submit” button
THAT IS ALL. KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Step #3: Set Your Autoresponder Up
Now you need to collect emails as people sign up and immediately follow up with them.
If you collect an email and don’t do anything with it for weeks or months, they may have no idea who you are when you actually send them something. So they’ll either ignore the email or immediately unsubscribe.
To make sure you engage them right away, build an email autoresponder sequence. This means that you can schedule a series of emails to send automatically based on specific triggers.
The other purpose of this sequence is to begin “cleaning the list immediately.”
Let’s face it, by giving away free stuff, you will attract some folks who are just here for the freebies and will never become paying customers. Some will sign up, then never open another email.
Both of these are bad.
Open rates and engagement rates are important metrics that will affect the “deliverability” of your emails.
Deliverability is super important. If you have a record of sending emails that no one opens, your emails will eventually go directly to the “junk” or “spam” folder.
Basically, you’re canceled.
So, this sequence helps separate interested people from those who are not.
In a nutshell, you’ll incentivize people to make a purchase and encourage them to unsubscribe ASAP if they don’t want to stick around.
By the end, you should have a list of people actually interested in what you have to say and in what you offer.
Want Some Help with That? Here You go
Email #1
Trigger – right after entering the giveaway
Subject – Thanks for entering our giveaway!
Hello!
Thanks for entering our Giveaway!
Our mission at <brand> to help you <mission>.
We will select a winner shortly after <date>, but if you’d like to learn more about our business, feel free to visit our website!
(link to your website, so you get them pixeled!)
Email #2
Trigger – 1 day after receiving email #1
Subject – A BONUS “thank you” for entering our giveaway!
Hello again!
As a reminder, the giveaway drawing will be on <date>.
In the meantime, we wanted to share a special deal with you!
One of our most popular items is <item>
We currently offer these tumblers for $<retail>
From now until <giveaway date>, we are offering an exclusive deal ONLY for giveaway entrants!
As a thank you for joining us here, we are offering YOU $<discount> off!
This deal is limited to inventory on hand, and the offer will expire on <date>.
If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, click the button below!
Email #3
Trigger – 1 day after giveaway finishes AND winner has responded
Subject – And the Giveaway Winner is…
Congratulations to (First name, Last initial)! They won our giveaway!
However, to thank everyone who didn’t win this time, we are offering a special <discount> to everyone who entered.
Just click the button below for the discount to apply.
(By the way, if you don’t feel like sticking around, just click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. It’s ok, no hard feelings!)
This short sequence aims to condition people to open your emails and get rid of people who don’t.
The offers should be very non-threatening. A very low-cost item with high perceived value is best. You can even aim for an offer that’ll get you a break-even point. The second offer is a discount on the giveaway product itself.
Step #4: Drive Traffic to Your Giveaway
“If you build it, they won’t come unless you send them.”
It’s true.
Now that you’ve built the best email lead generation system let’s start sending people to the landing page.
There are two basic ways to do this.
- Organic traffic
- Paid traffic
Obviously, we would all prefer to have as many people land on the landing page for free as possible, so let’s start there.
Organic Traffic
Whatever channel you currently use to talk to your audience, use it to promote the giveaway. Post it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (eww), whatever. Ask your friends to do the same.
If you are using a Facebook page, consider “boosting” the post to reach more of your audience. Again, this is a pretty safe and inexpensive way to dip your toe into paid traffic.
Do you have any friends or peers with large followings in your target market? Ask them to post your giveaway as well. If your giveaway is really good and a good fit for their followers, you can position this as a “give” rather than an “ask.” Help your friend look good in front of their followers, and they’ll never say “no”!
No matter who you are, at some point, you are going to exhaust your organic reach. So then it’s time for paid traffic.
Paid Traffic
First-time paid traffic is scary. It’s even worse if you’ve ever dabbled in Facebook or Google ads only to lose hundreds (or thousands) of dollars with no measurable return or result.
That’s not what we want to do.
That said, paid traffic to collect emails can be incredibly lucrative, but not instantly.
You can build some sales offers into the email autoresponder sequence, but those sales may not cover the entire cost of the campaign. Of course, this isn’t the ultimate goal.
Right now, you want GOOD EMAILS. Plant those seeds, give them some water, and the money tree will start to grow and blossom.
If you have an existing customer list, upload it to Facebook to generate a Lookalike Audience. (You need a minimum number of subscribers for this to work, like 100 – but that can change).
Run your ads to that audience. This targeting method should give you the lowest cost per action and the highest quality leads.
It’s best to split test images and copy, but if you are on a shoestring, you can test one at a time for as little as $5/day.
Sit back, relax, and wait. You will gather more emails every day that the campaign runs. After the giveaway, keep them engaged and interested. Every once in a while, SELL THEM STUFF!
Have Questions about this Strategy? Want to Know More?
So do members of The One Percent and the Capitalism Incubator!
That’s why we’ve asked Greg to join us for a LIVE training and Q&A call (it’ll be recorded) inside The One Percent Facebook community on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 at 7 pm Central.
Join us and you’ll have a front row seat, plus you’ll be able to ask questions about how to use this list-building strategy for your brand.
