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An email list is like a giant white elephant in the room.

Everyone can see. We all know it’s important but we never acknowledge it.

I mean really, you’ve probably heard someone say “this is how to build your email list,” or “grow your list from zero to 5,000 in 30 days” ten times today already.

You hear it so often it’s basically white noise.

Or a giant white elephant.

And I get it.

I was like hah I’m good I have social media and a blog, what do I need an email list for.

That’s just more work for me.

So, I didn’t even try to attempt to build one until I had quickly run out of money and motivation.

Lost motivation because my courses weren’t selling…and no money because, well my courses weren’t selling.

Because I had no one to offer them to expect social media which didn’t work out so well.

Once I finally got my head out of the sand I realized I needed to build an email list.

The fact of the matter is, social media can be taken away from us at any time, the algorithms change almost daily and we’ve already seen a decrease in reach on a few platforms.

This isn’t great if your business is solely based on social media reach.

The people that join your email list are your ride or die, they opted in and trusted you with their email.

Social media is free, no one has to give you anything when they follow you so you may not get the targeted audience you desire.

While yes, of course, social media has its perks when used correctly I highly recommend growing an email list and that’s what I’m going to show you today.

*This post contains affiliate links which means I may make a small commission if you choose to use my link at no cost to you. Thank you for your support*

How to Build an Email List for Beginners

1. Buy a Professional Email Adress

The places to actually purchase an email address are endless.

You can get them from your hosting provider, from Google and I’m sure 10 other places.

Just pick one that works best for you. (I’d choose G Suite)

Alright so why can’t you just use your old Gmail account that you had back in kindergarten?

Well, simply put, a professional email looks more professional for your business.

Not only that but emails that have the Yahoo, Gmail or whatever else at the end of them can be flagged by spam more often.

Which means, no one will actually see the emails you are taking precious time out of your day to craft.

2. Pick an Email Provider

Email providers are providers that keep your email subscribers safe, they comply with laws that we all must abide by and they automate pretty much everything you want.

Seriously, who wants to be emailing at 2 am because someone signed up for something and you want to thank them or give them a confirmation their order went through?

That’s what your email provider is for.

So that you can be sipping cocktails on the beach while listening to the waves roll in and see email notifications coming in on your phone without a care in the world.

There are a lot of email providers out there.

I could sit here and list them all off to you but that’s boring so here’s the one I recommend to beginners.

Convertkit.

The reason I recommend Convertkit for beginners is that it’s much simpler to use than other programs like MailChimp, although I do like them too.

Their customer service is great, you have to option to create seamless landing pages and a lot of other features.

But at the end of the day, Convertkit makes email marketing simple and effective for someone just starting out.

3. Create Lead Magnets

Your next step is going to be creating those lead magnets or opt-ins.

This gives your audience an incentive to sign up for your list.

These opt-ins can be whatever you want and of course, it all depends on your niche and what your audience needs. PDFs, worksheets, checklists, ebooks and calendars are all great options to generate excitement to join your list.

My favorite place to create my freemiums for free is on canva.com

I love canva so much because well, it’s free but it’s so user-friendly.

Which is great for us non-techy types.

It’s all drag and drop and they have a ton of templates you can choose from to create really beautiful opt-ins.

Not only that, you can let your creative side come out and it’s a blast to use.

You even create fillable Pdfs using pdfescapes.com once you create a pdf or checklist in canva.

4. Promote Your List

The last and final step of growing your list is to actually get your lead magnets out there and start promoting them.

It’s not as simple as slapping it on the side of your blog and hoping for the best.

You’ve got to show your audience why it’s of value to them.

My favorite way to promote lead magnets for my list is to create a really well-written blog post, create a lead magnet that pertains to that blog post, link the lead magnet in the blog post and then marketing the post on Pinterest.

This works really well because you’re giving your audience value through the blog post then giving them a task to do or a next step with the lead magnet.

They will then be added to your email list where you can email them weekly or bi-weekly and continue that relationship.

Instead of them reading your post or reading your social media page, forgetting about it and moving on with their day.

If you’d like to learn more about Pinterest marketing, go here.

If you want to learn more about blogging and how to start a blog, go here.

You can also let your audience know about your lead magnet, checklist, worksheet, whatever it is by posting on social media or talking about it in a youtube video.

5. Making Money From Your List

As I said earlier, you can’t just slap on a few links around your blog and expect people to sign up for your list right away.

You also can’t just slap down a few affiliate links in an email and expect to make thousands of dollars right off the bat. There’s a strategy involved.

And if you really want to consistent and effortless sales from your list, you need a sales funnel.

Sales funnels are just that, you offer something for free that takes your audience to your email list, once they’re on your email list you prime them with emails which eventually lead to a product.

Oh, and did I mention this is all done on autopilot??

Yeah, that means you can be making money in your sleep.

If you want to learn how to do this on autopilot and make money in your sleep while also providing your audience with a transformation, Feel Good Funnels is your golden ticket.

This course takes a deep dive into what works and what doesn’t in the email marketing world.

No fluff, no theory, just downright facts that work.

Check out Feel Good Funnels here to get started today and start making money from your email list now.