How to build an email list from social media

Social media is a great way to gain lots of followers. But what if you could turn those followers into subscribers? 

Your most valuable connections are people who have raised their hands and asked you to keep them updated on your business. But for that to happen, you need to add them to your email list.

Keep reading to learn five steps to build an email list from social media, including why you definitely need an email list and how Kajabi can help you manage it.

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What Is an Email List? 

An email list is a collection of names and email addresses of people who have shown interest in your business. They may have downloaded one of your freebies or bought one of your products. Or they may have read one of your blog posts and liked it so much, they subscribed. 

All of these people are subscribers. Not only have they given you permission to send them updates, discounts, or promotions, they expect it. 

Why Do You Need an Email List?

Email marketing is one of the best ways to acquire new customers and grow your business. In fact, email is almost twice as likely to drive revenue than social media!

Marketers who know how to write good email content are able to target their customers’ interests, building loyalty and engagement. 

With email marketing, you aren’t restricted to generic messages that all your followers will appreciate. You can customize your messages and create email automations that send the right message to the right people at the right time. 

As you’ve likely noticed, people can miss your social media posts. An email waits in their inbox until they have time to read it. 

And unlike social media, you own your email list. On some social platforms, even your followers or fans won't be served up your posts because the platforms want you to pay to sponsor each post.

5 Steps to Build Your Email List

To start building your email list, follow these five steps. At each step, remember to keep your message clear and easy-to-follow — as if you’re lighting a runway to a destination that your subscriber can’t wait to arrive at.

Step 1. Create a Landing Page

Also known as a lead-capture page, a landing page is a page that you build on your website to promote your offer. It includes your sales copy and a lead-capture form.

The landing page is where you promote your newsletter, free course, book or PDF download, or webinar. This page has a single purpose and call-to-action (CTA). For building your email list, the only action you want to drive is signing up for your free offer.

Let’s look at an example.

Sarah Hagstrom’s landing page promotes her weight-loss plan. The message is clear and to-the-point: sign up if you want her free action plan with recipes.

In step 5, we will take a closer look at how to guide people to this landing page, but first, you need to create a lead magnet.

Step 2. Create a Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is an incentive (freebie) that businesses offer in exchange for contact information. To gain access, people sign up with their email. These email addresses are added to your email list so you can stay in touch and inform subscribers of other offers.

Amy Porterfield, for example, has a landing page with a single offer in large font: a 3-step plan to getting your first 1,000 email subscribers. In a smaller font above the main message, she includes the tag, “Free Masterclass.” 

This zero-dollar, low-risk investment is an incentive for people to sign up for the lead magnet. The “Reserve My Seat” button makes the opt-in process clear and easy.

Step 3. Design an Opt-in Form to Collect Email Subscribers

Your opt-in form collects emails for your email list. After creating a lead magnet, you need to create an opt-in form for visitors to request your lead magnet offer. The most important data to collect on this form are: 

• first name 
• email address
  

In the example for step 2 (above), clicking the “Reserve My Seat” button results in an opt-in form that pops up on your screen. The CTA is to “Register Now” for the class. Notice how easy it is to take action and get the freebie:

Step 4. Organize Your List 

After you start growing your list, your email marketing software should help you organize your email list so you can send targeted messages that your subscribers will appreciate.

Kajabi’s email software makes organizing your list effortless. The People tab automatically segments your list into three groups: 

• Contacts: people who subscribed, were granted an offer, purchased an offer, or unsubscribed
• Members: people who were granted an offer or completed a purchase on your site
• Subscribers: people who have opted in to receive your marketing emails

You can add new subscribers to these lists by using the form submission feature. And you can create custom groups to further segment your list.

Step 5. Promote Your Lead Magnet 

By now, you’ve created a lead magnet, a landing page, and an opt-in form to add subscribers to your email list. But you’re not done yet! Now you need to promote your lead magnet.

You can promote it on your website homepage as a pop-up, website graphic, text box, or opt-in form. Add your lead magnet page to your navigation bar with an enticing name like “Free Webinar,” “Free Book,” or “Free Resource.” 

Amy Porterfield promotes her lead magnet with an eye-catching message in a brightly colored banner at the top of her website: “Need a simple, step by step plan to grow your email list? Grab a spot in my free list building masterclass.” 

Click the “Sign Up” button, and you’re taken to her landing page and opt-in form, where she collects emails for her list.

Here are more places where you can promote your lead magnet:

• Your blog's sidebar
• Within your blog posts or guest posts
• In a forum
• In a podcast interview
  

Finally, promote your lead magnet on your social media platforms. 

On social media, you’re talking to warm connections. Your friends, fans, and followers have already shown interest in who you are and what you do. So it only makes sense to promote your lead magnet to them.

Here’s how Amy does it in LinkedIn:

Notice that she writes a post that looks like any other social media post. Then she transitions to her offer and shares a link. 

While it makes absolute sense to use LinkedIn for your promotions with great content, one cannot deny that it works wonders for sales folks as well for their sales outreach campaigns - be it building email lists from LinkedIn or generating leads.

Here are a few more examples from other social channels. As you can see, you can use this same approach, no matter where you’re posting. 

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

Why Should I Build an Email List from My Social Following?

Your social following is your opportunity to build your email list from people already interested in your brand. They know, like, and trust you. Your followers are on social media most days, if not every day. 

As valuable as that is, you’re still using borrowed real estate when you connect with your followers in social media. Algorithms change. And you can’t be certain all your social media posts are shown to your followers.

With email, you decide when to put your message in front of your subscribers. Want more data? No problem. With an email list, you can track email open rates, and click-through and conversion rates, giving you valuable information about what your audience wants to see.

Bottom Line

When you have an email list, you have total control over your marketing campaigns. And there’s no better tool for building and managing your email list than Kajabi. 

Use their landing page builder to create professional landing pages that look great. And use their email software to set up email automations, manage email frequency, send one-time email blasts, and truly engage your email  list. 

Why not get started today? Create a lead magnet that you can use to build an email list, and spread the word on your favorite social media channels. Make sure you implement email warming as well.

With Kajabi, it’s easy to distribute your lead magnets via the Freebie Sales Pipeline.

Still researching? Check out our Kajabi webinars, available Monday through Friday, covering a wide range of topics about using Kajabi or Q&A style sessions.

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