How to Grow an Email List Without Freebies

Freebies Don’t Work: How I’m Building a High-Intent Email List

You’re doing what all the experts say—create a freebie, grow your list, start selling. But the subscribers you attract with lead magnets? They’re not opening your emails. They’re not buying. And they don’t even remember who you are.

In this episode of Ditch the Chaos, I’m breaking down why I stopped offering freebies to grow my email list—and what I do instead to attract subscribers who actually want to hear from me. You’ll learn:

– Why lead magnets often attract the wrong audience

– How to nurture your audience before they subscribe

– Better alternatives to freebies for coaches and service-based businesses

– My waitlist-first strategy and how it increased open rates to 60%

– Why this email approach works for Type-A women and mom entrepreneurs

– A realistic action step to simplify your email list today

These lessons come straight from what I teach in Chaos Detox—because productivity doesn’t start with planners. It starts with daily resets that keep you calm and steady—even when life gets messy.

Want to read the original blog version of this episode?

CLICK HERE → Why I Ditched Freebies to Build a Better Email List

Transcript

# (25) Freebies Don’t Work: How I’m Building a High-Intent Email List

[00:00:00] What if the lead magnet that's supposed to grow your business is actually attracting the wrong people? In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on why I stopped using freebies to grow my email list, even though it's the first thing every online business expert tells you to do. If you've ever downloaded a lead magnet and forgotten it five minutes later, you already know why.

[00:00:24] Welcome to Ditch the Chaos, A snackable podcast for busy women who are done with burnout, rigid routines and productivity guilt. You'll get clear, actionable strategies to reclaim your time and energy without planners pressure or one size fits all systems. I'm Cara Chace, entrepreneur since 2015. Mom of two wife to one, and I'm unapologetically caffeinated.

[00:00:46] Let's dive in.

[00:00:48] From the moment we step into the world of online business, the same advice echoes everywhere. Build your email list as fast as possible. Offer a freebie. Create a lead magnet. Run a challenge. [00:01:00] It's the only way to grow. You have to. I believed it too. For almost 10 years, I played along creating opt-ins and free resources like my life depended on it.

[00:01:11] But after a decade of chasing numbers, I've stopped using freebies to grow my email list, and here's why. Let's start with this. As a Type A woman, we don't need another freebie. Our lives are already overflowing between color-coded calendars, juggling kids' activities, meal planning, maybe running an online business or building a career.

[00:01:31] Who has time to download another PDF just to forget it exists. We don't need another checklist that feels like a to-do list in disguise. What we need are strategies that actually work. Solutions that cut through the noise, simplify our lives, and help us align our choices with the way we want to feel every day.

[00:01:51] And here's what I realized. Freebies weren't helping me deliver that. When I offered a freebie, I wasn't necessarily attracting people [00:02:00] who are ready to implement meaningful change. I was attracting people looking for quick fixes, or more often people who forgot they even downloaded the resource in the first place.

[00:02:10] So does this sound familiar? You downloaded a freebie, but it never makes it past your downloads folder. You print it out, but you never have time to look at it again, or you feel a pang of guilt every time you stumble across it, unopened weeks later. If that's how I feel about most freebies, why would I build my business around them?

[00:02:30] So here's what shifted everything for me. After years of building my list with freebies, I started noticing a few patterns that were hard to ignore. The first was email crickets. People downloaded the freebie, and then nothing tire kickers. My follow-up emails went unopened, and when I finally shared an offer, the silence was deafening.

[00:02:53] It was obvious they weren't invested in how I could help them. They just wanted the shiny resource, hoping it would make [00:03:00] their life easier without a lot of effort. Second, minimal impact. Freebies are free. There's no skin in the game.

[00:03:08] People would download my resource, skim it, and move on. Very few actually took action or followed through. And the third is the who is this moment? Raise your hand if you've ever downloaded a freebie while multitasking, only to find an email in your inbox a week later and think, who is this? Why am I on this list?

[00:03:28] It happens all the time. And that's not how I want my audience to experience my work. So I made a bold question. Everything change. I stopped offering freebies. I also said goodbye to complicated freebie email sequence grinds. Now instead of dangling freebies, here's what I do instead, I invite my audience to join my wait list if they wanna be notified when my programs and offers are open.

[00:03:56] That's it. No cookie cutter. Welcome funnels, [00:04:00] no generic value pack sequences that feels like one size fits all spam. I focus on nurturing my audience before they ever subscribe through in-depth blog posts. This binge-worthy podcast and limited intentional social media people get a sense of who I am and what I stand for.

[00:04:19] That shift has changed everything. My email list might be smaller now, but it's full of people who actually want to hear from me. And when I share an offer, my audience is already primed to say yes. Because they've taken the time to know me first and best of all, I no longer feel pressured to crank out content that doesn't resonate.

[00:04:42] I get to show up authentically sharing when and how it feels right, and it's not just a feel good shift, it's measurable. Since ditching freebies and shifting my email marketing strategy, my open rates now average around 60 to 70%, [00:05:00] which is unheard of in online business. That's because I'm no longer funneling in cold, unqualified leads instead of trying to warm up people who aren't ready.

[00:05:11] I've repositioned my emails as mid funnel content for folks who already understand what I do and are actively considering what support they need from me. It eliminates fluff. It respects my audience time, and it delivers better conversions without the constant grind of warming up cold leads who are never going to convert.

[00:05:32] So here's the mindset shift. I wanna offer you. Nurturing starts before they subscribe. We've all heard the advice, nurture your email list, but for me, that begins before someone even joins it. If someone's going to invite me into their inbox, a space that's already overcrowded with school newsletters, Amazon receipts, urgent work emails, I want that to be intentional and I want them to want me [00:06:00] there.

[00:06:00] Here's how I nurture my audience before they opt in. First, I create free ungated content. I don't hide my best insights behind a signup wall. I share them openly through blog posts, this podcast and social media that gives people a chance to engage with my ideas and decide if they align with their needs.

[00:06:21] Second, I focus on actionable steps. I share content that helps people take immediate, tangible action, like rethinking how they structure their day or setting boundaries with their time. That builds trust and it proves that my advice actually works. And finally, I invite, I don't push. My call to action isn't Get this free thing.

[00:06:44] Now it's when you're ready to take the next step. Here's how I can help. Whether that's joining my wait list or enrolling in a course, I want that decision to feel aligned and empowering. If you are overwhelmed by rigid strategies that [00:07:00] never seem to stick or work for you, you're not alone in online business.

[00:07:04] You don't have to keep forcing what clearly isn't working. Chaos Detox will show you how to make your own rules, especially when it comes to time management, productivity and the systems you use in life and business. You can find out more about this course in the show notes, and if you're wondering why this strategy works especially well for Type A moms, let's talk about it.

[00:07:26] We live in a constant state of overachievement. We manage businesses, careers, families, personal goals with military level precision. But the endless demands often leave us stretched so thin. So when it comes to personal growth or business tools, we need things that work not another time waster that gets lost in the shuffle.

[00:07:49] This strategy works because it honors how we operate, value, intentionality. Everything we do from the meals we plan to, the systems we build is about being [00:08:00] efficient and purposeful. We don't subscribe to email lists just for the hell of it. We need to see clear value. We also hate clutter, digital or otherwise.

[00:08:12] Our inboxes are already slammed. The last thing we want is another stream of irrelevant emails from someone we don't remember subscribing to. We need solutions that save time, not waste it. Freebies often promise big results, but require a bunch of extra effort, or they're just fluff. When we join a list, we're working for insights we can use now, and we prefer quality over quantity.

[00:08:39] A few valuable ideas are way better than a flood of generic freebies.

[00:08:44] This approach of having your email marketing be mid funnel instead of freebie driven respects those qualities. It gives value upfront, it builds trust. And it attracts people who are ready to say yes when the time is right. So here's [00:09:00] your reset and reclaim action step for the week. Pick one of your current freebies and ask yourself this.

[00:09:06] Is this actually converting into the kind of people I want to work with? That's it. Just one open the doc, the landing page, whatever it is you've got, and get honest. If it's not aligned and not super helpful, that's your sign that it might be time to let it go. Here's a quick recap of this episode.

[00:09:25] Freebies often attract people who aren't ready and who never convert. Shifting to ungated content in a non-funnel email strategy means you're building trust before they opt in, not after that one. Change has led to better open rates, better conversions. In an email list full of people who actually want to hear from me.

[00:09:45] Thanks for tuning in. If this episode helped you leave a quick review, it helps other women find the show. For more resources, show notes and my chaos detox course, visit Cara Chace.com. Until next time, I'm Cara Chace reminding you to keep [00:10:00] questioning the rules and making your own.