15. The HUMAN Method, Step 1: Build an Email List That Actually Grows Your Business

Hot take: stop obsessing over followers and start collecting email addresses.

In today's episode, I'm sharing exactly how to grow an email list that actually leads to sales. From creating irresistible lead magnets (aka sign up incentives or freebies) to avoiding the biggest list-building mistakes, this is your step-by-step guide to building an audience you actually own.

I also break down why discounts aren't the best way to get subscribers, the simple website changes that can instantly increase signups, and how to create an email list-building strategy that keeps working long after your latest Instagram post disappears from the feed.

I yap about:

• Why your email list is one of the most valuable assets in your business
• The easiest ways to start growing your list today (without overcomplicating it)
• The simple website tweaks that can dramatically increase email signups
• Lead magnets vs discount codes
• The compliance rules you should know before collecting email addresses
• My hot take on unsubscribes
• Where to promote your newsletter beyond social media
• The first action steps you can implement today to start building a list that actually converts

Sources:

• Adding any lead magnet roughly doubles conversion vs. no incentive. One study found mobile went from 3.83% up to 7.73%, and desktop from 1.84% up to 4.7% (My Codeless Website).
• MailerLite's analysis of 41,000+ opt-in forms found the average conversion rate across all forms and pop-ups was 22.16%, with learning/educational offers (courses, workshops, training) as the best-performing category for most businesses at 27.4% overall conversion (MailerLite).
• Mailer discounts tend to be the weakest lead magnet by conversion rate, not the strongest.
  • Discount forms and pop-ups had the lowest conversion rate of any offer type, at just 16.2%. Varying the discount depth (10% vs. 15% vs. 20%) doesn't move the needle much either (MailerLite). 

Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsallmost/

Visit my website: https://www.itsallmost.com

Join The Conversion Club: https://itsallmost.com/the-conversion-club

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, my lovely, beautiful yappers. Welcome back to the Conversation Club. I'm your host, Kieran, and today we are talking about email list building. Getting your newsletter list up so that you can reach more customers and you can start nurturing them towards a sale. I know this podcast is technically supposed to be like more business, email marketing, that kind of thing. I feel like I've been talking a lot more about building the life of my dreams, which I hope helps you build the life of your dreams as well. So I'm trying to trying to get back to basics, which is our email marketing and how we can be using it if you're a business owner or if you're in the marketing space or not. I mean, I think anybody could utilize the power of email marketing for whatever goal that they may have. But today we're talking about how to build that list. Before we get into that, I did want to share my new nails. For those of you who are watching on video on YouTube and Apple Podcasts, you can see the video there. Yeah, my new nails. They're really, really cute. We've got like a little crab on the end. This is a nail file, but I've been telling everyone it's a vibrator because obviously nail files aren't as relevant to me. This little cocktail, your girl, I can't have cocktails right now, so I thought I'd put one on, put one on my nails, a little umbrella, and I believe, oh, there we go. There's a little little Vespa, if you can see that. As promised, I wanted to show you my new set, and we have that. We also are back on my computer. My goodness, finally, we've got the computer back. Hopefully, this recording goes well. You'll have to let me know. But I also wanted to ask you, yappers, before we get into it, the last few weeks have been wild for me. Thank God Mercury retrograde's over. I don't like to blame things on Mercury retrograde. Traditionally, I just don't because I'm like, take accountability for your own shit. You know what I mean? Like, you're late because you're late, not because whatever. But I mean, this last one, the one from July 2026 that everyone's gonna be talking about for years and years, this one showed up with a fucking machine gun, I feel like. It showed up with an automatic weapon and it just blasted through my life. And so I'm really glad that we're still in the shuttle period when I'm recording this, but it's over. It's over, and I don't want to read it. That was the roughest fucking four weeks of my life. Like, truly. Not truly, but it was rough. It's been the roughest for a while. So anyway, we are here, we are past it, and I am ready to get into this email marketing love with all of you. I did want to ask one more thing before we get into it. I promise we're actually gonna get into the topic of this episode. But yappers, this is the Conversation Club. I want to be having conversations with you. It feels a little bit like a one-way street right now, and I would love for it to become a two-way street. For you to be sharing on Instagram or in the YouTube comment section or wherever it is that you would like to share your opinion. I want to know. Do you like the episode topics? Which one is your favorite so far? Do you want to see something different? Do you want to see me talk about other things? Do you have questions? We're gonna probably do an FAQ episode in one of the upcoming ones, maybe an episode like 25 or something like that. We're currently on 15. So I do wanna build this rapport with you. I want to give you an idea of like who I am, what I talk about, the things I'm knowledgeable about. And I feel like you have a good sampling of all the different things that you know we're gonna be talking about here from email marketing to business to building your dream life to current events and pop culture and things like that. I would really love to hear if there's anything else you're looking for, if there's something you want me to explain further, clarify a little bit more. Like I'm here, I'm very, very curious about what you all want to listen to. So please share that with me. But without further ado, let's get into how to build your email list. Now, I'm gonna try to keep this episode as short as I can. I have a lot to say about this, but we will share more resources if we can't get to all of it today. But this is technically step one of the human method. And if you don't know what the human method is, go back and listen to episode three of this podcast. I break down my signature method for email marketing that I use for my clients, that I use to teach my students inside the conversion club membership. And I want to share that with all of you. I want you to know that there is a tangible way to make email marketing easy, to make it accessible, and to make it without AI. And you know me, that's always the goal. So, with the human method, as we know, if we have listened to episode three, if you still don't know what I'm talking about, stop this episode, go listen to episode three, and then come back. But if you're back now from episode three, now that you've listened to it, step one of the human method is H, how to build your list. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. If we want to go over the other steps, you utilizing your essential automations, we'll talk about that in a future episode. M, mastering your content. We'll also talk about that in a future episode. A, activating and optimizing your newsletters. And N, numbers are your friend. So that is the human method. Please, please actually go listen to episode three. I do a great job of breaking it down if I do say so myself. So definitely go check that out. But when we talk about step number one of the human method, how to build your list, we're gonna talk about a couple quick things that you can do right now today. Okay, you know me. I love to make sure you have something that you can walk away with and try and start implementing. But I want you to know these really quick, easy steps for how to start building your list right now, today. I'm gonna talk a little bit about compliance and making sure that we are not breaking any rules because there are rules and regulations when it comes to email marketing, something that people don't know much about. And then I also want to talk about some of the other things, lead magnets. We'll get into that in a second. What is it, how you can implement it, and why it's useful for your email marketing list building. Okay, so we're gonna get into all of that very, very soon. But the first thing that I want to go over is do you tell people you have an email marketing list? Or do you tell people you have a newsletter list? Right? Most people, when I ask them that, most of my clients, most of my students, anyone who asks me, what should I do first when I want to build my email marketing list? I ask them, do you tell people you have a newsletter? Do you tell people that there's a place to sign up? And the answer 80, 90% of the time, is, oh no, I don't. I don't tell people. I don't tell people that I have an email list, that I have a newsletter that they can subscribe to. So that's step number one, a very, very easy step for you to take is to make sure that you are telling people you have a list. Not just once, don't just tell people once. Remember, we wanna tell them multiple times, okay? We want to remind people multiple times on a consistent basis, not just once, not just like for a week and then never mention it again. We want to consistently remind people that we have a newsletter, okay? And in doing that, we wanna make sure it's really easy to find. That's step number two, okay? Make it easy to find, or it could be step number one, technically. You know, we want to make sure it's easy to find first before we start telling people about it. So we want it on our website, right? We want it on the footer of every single page of our website so that when anyone scrolls to the bottom of a blog post, the bottom of a sales page, whatever it is, they see a very, very clear space for them to add their email information and subscribe to your newsletter. Okay, that's step number one. And then we're also going to add a pop-up, okay, to the site. Now, this pop-up should only happen and pop up on the first visit of someone's website. So you don't want to like have it pop up every single time someone visits your website because it kind of just becomes a pain in the ass. And people are like, I don't want to go to this website anymore. Cause every time I go, there's a stupid pop-up that comes up and I have to exit out of it and da-da-da-da-da. So if you're like, hey, maybe I want to do more than just the first time they visit my website, that's okay. You can usually like a Squarespace or a Shopify, like on the back end, you should be able to set first time visit and then like every 90 days or something like that. Some websites don't have that capacity. So if they don't have that capability, just choose first visit. Don't choose every visit, okay? Because, like I said, I don't know about you. But for me, when I go to websites and every single time I have to exit out of a pop-up, it's pretty frustrating, right? But let's make that pop-up enticing. Let's have a clear call to action. Let's make sure that the first time they visit, it's fun, it's engaging, and they're like, oh, I can actually get a lot out of this. And we're gonna talk a little bit about how to do that in just a second. But let's make sure footer of every single page and a pop-up when people first visit our website. We're just collecting emails wherever we can, right? And that people see that this is a place for them to really quickly just type in their information and get something valuable. What is it that's valuable that they're gonna get? We're gonna talk about that in just a moment. Clear call to action. I'm gonna do another episode exactly on what call to action is and what call to action language means and how to use it and how to implement it, but I'm gonna give you a really quick rundown right now. Call to action language is essentially verbs, right? Action verbs, action words that you can be using to encourage people to take whatever action you're asking them to take. Are you asking them to click through? Are you asking them to read? Are you asking them to listen? Are you asking them to buy? Do not use things like explore, learn. Those are really vague. Okay, we want a very specific action for them to take and one thing, one thing for them to do. If you start saying, listen here, watch here, shop here, that's too many things. Okay, ask them for one thing and make it really, really clear what you're asking them to do, which is to sign up for the list, right? To subscribe here. Very, very clear what they're doing. We'll do a whole separate episode on call to action language, though. Don't worry. But once you make it really, really easy to find, because remember, we have short attention spans these days. People do not want to be waiting for something to load or clicking through and being like, I don't know where to go, I don't know what steps to take, I don't know what to do. That's going to prevent them from actually completing the action you want them to take, which is for them to fill out the form and hit the submit button to give you their email address, right? That's what we're trying to do. So, with that goal in mind, we're making it super clear, super easy for them to find, not too many clicks, not too many steps that prevent them along the journey to actually completing what we want them to do, which is say it with me one more time. Hit the submit button. Okay, that's what we're trying to do. So once we have that, and once we start telling people that we have a newsletter, that we have something for them to subscribe to, that they're gonna expect XYZ content, that they're gonna get XYZ value out of it, we're doing that regularly on social media and in other places, right? Wherever we are on at events, on podcast interviews, in press hits, whatever it is. We're gonna tell people that we have a newsletter list, okay? Regular reminders. And then we're also going to, for example, the day before a newsletter goes out or two days before newsletter goes out, we're gonna say, hey, newsletter's going out on Thursday, if it's Tuesday or you know, whatever, add your email here. You can use the question box function on Instagram, you can DM it, ask them to DM it to you, ask them to comment in the section below, whatever it is, and say, Hey, we have a newsletter going out tomorrow or in two days, whatever it is. If you want it in your inbox, drop your email here. And that's a really, really easy way for people. I mean, it's a little work on your end, you're gonna have to go in and manually add them, but it's an easy way for them to get on your list, right? And the goal is just to get the emails. That's the whole point. The email address is the moneymaker, okay? And then we're also gonna talk in our posts, in our reels, in our videos, whatever it is, we're gonna talk about our list. We're gonna talk about our newsletter and its value. What can people expect? What are they gonna get from it, right? So we're gonna talk in as many places as we can about the fact that we have a newsletter and the fact that people should subscribe for whatever reason, because you're delivering this kind of content because they're gonna get exclusive announcement, they're gonna da-da-da-da-da. Okay, so we're gonna talk about all those things regularly, consistently, loudly and clearly. Okay, we're gonna do that. Can we do that? Those are the first two steps. They're very, very easy, very, very simple to actually implement. And I guarantee you, if you actually, actually incorporate those two steps into your website, your social media plan, whatever it is, you will see results. You will see people signing up for your list. Okay, that's like one and two, super easy, done, done, bing, bang, boom, we're good. Before we get into step number three, which is arguably the most important step, I want to talk a little bit about email compliance. Okay, I'm not gonna talk too much about it because I don't want this episode to get crazy long, but I want to talk about email compliance because I think it's important for us to remember that there are rules and regulations when it comes to email marketing, despite the fact that most people do not realize this, andor a lot of people and a lot of brands and a lot of businesses, and I say that in quotes because sometimes they're scammers, don't follow these rules and regulations. And technically that is illegal and it is subject to fines, it's subject to penalties. So I just want to talk about compliance because I think it's important for you as a business owner or someone who's conducting marketing tasks, marketing things, marketing strategies. You know what I'm talking about. I can't think today. My brain is not working with email compliance. We're talking about GDPR, which is the EU, the European Union set of rules. And then we're also talking about CANSPAM, which is the US-Canadian agreement of rules and regulations when it comes to collecting emails, when it comes to sending out newsletters, when it comes to all sorts of things. So I'm gonna talk a little bit very briefly about each of these and how it applies to actually building your list and maintaining your list and continuing to send email marketing out to your customers and your audience. Okay, so GDPR is the EU entity for email compliance. Now, for those of you that have ever seen an email, after you sign up and you get an email that says, hey, just want you to confirm your subscription, and you have to click the button to confirm and actually get added to the list. That is called a double opt-in. Okay. Double opt-in is a requirement for all GDPR email sends. Now, you might be thinking, I am not in the EU. This does not apply to me. That is not true. You may be sending an email to someone who is in the EU. Okay. So I'm from Seattle, I'm signed up to plenty of email newsletter lists from businesses in the states. They are now sending it to me. So it needs to be applicable to all the GDPR email compliance rules as well. Okay. So if I sign up to an American list or a Canadian list or something like a business that is based in the US or Canada that have an email list, if I'm signing up because I'm in the EU, I need to be getting a double opt-in. Okay. Most US and Canadian businesses, because they think that they're supposed to operate on CAN spam rules, which is US Canadian rules, they don't do double opt-ins, which technically is against the rules if they're signing to anybody who is in the EU. So make sure you do a double opt-in. It's really easy. And honestly, if people really do want to be subscribed to your list, it's just one extra click. It's not that hard. Okay. And it definitely does just confirm and reconfirm consent. Okay. That's what we're here for, as we know. Whether it's with emails, whether it's in any other aspect of our lives, consent is key. Consent is important. So we want to make sure that we are implementing that double opt-in. And it can be a really cute email. You know what I mean? Like it can be on brand, it can be like, hey, just want to like make sure you really want to be on our list or whatever it is, or you can just keep it standard, which is please confirm your subscription, right? Very simple, very straightforward. There are a couple other things when it comes to GDPR beyond just double opt-in, but that is the most important. It's also nice to have just like a simple privacy policy page on your website. They're very standard. You could just like literally copy paste the language from a different privacy policy page. There are a lot of templates out there. So definitely think about implementing those because you very well may be sending people emails who are in the EU. Okay, so just keep that in mind. Can spam, on the other hand, doesn't have a double opt-in requirement, but like I said before, it is better to be safe than sorry. So definitely make sure you are implementing double opt-in over single opt-in. With CANSPAM, if you've ever seen a physical address at the bottom of a newsletter, that is CANSPAM regulation because it needs to have a physical address that people can contact you at so that they know that you are quote unquote a legitimate business, that you are not just running something, an entity online that there is actually a physical address for people to send complaints to or whatever it is. So physical address is important to include in all of your emails according to CANSMAM regulations. It is also important not to have deceptive subject lines or sender names. Okay, you cannot pretend to be someone else when it comes to emails that you are sending out to people to like a big list or whatever it is. You cannot be pretending to be, I don't know, Lady Gaga or whatever it is if you are not Lady Gaga. Okay, you cannot say that. And then you can also not have deceptive subject lines like Bayas, for example. Do we remember the whole thing? It's like a suitcase company or whatever. And basically they were like sending like fraud alert or like just like emails that were scaring their customers, that their customers were like, oh my god, like did my information get leaked? Like, did the data get breached? Did it whatever? And so people were getting panicked and they would open the email and they would be like, haha, like just kidding, the fraud is that like our sale got extended, or you know, whatever. Like, you can't do shit like that. I know some people are like, oh, I'm gonna come up with this really clever subject line. We're gonna do a whole other episode on subject lines too, so don't worry. But they're like, oh, you know, I just want to get them to open the email. And it's like you can't be misleading, though. You can't be deceptive when it comes to getting them to open their emails. So we can find better ways, and I'll talk about that in another episode, I promise you. Better ways to get people to open up and use clever subject lines without being deceiving, without being trickster-y, and without ruining the trust between you and your customer. That's not what we want to do, okay? So, quickly, email compliance. Please, please stick to it. Please actually follow it. It is not worth the fines, it is not worth getting in trouble for. The likelihood that you'll get in trouble for it, I don't really know because I've never really seen anybody get in trouble for breaking the rules. Not to say it doesn't happen, but they're simple things to implement. They don't take long. And it's about preventative measures, which is you don't want to be on the other side of it and getting in trouble for it. It's also very, very important that I talk to you about unsubscribes and why we need to be not just legally and compliance-wise honoring all unsubscribes, but why we need to just be releasing the fear of unsubscribes. Okay, I may do a whole other episode on this as well because this is a whole subject that I feel very, very strongly about. But essentially what I'm trying to say is unsubscribes are a good thing, okay? When people leave your list, they are making room for better, more aligned people, people who are actually gonna give you their money to come onto your list to find you, okay? First of all, it's illegal, but I also don't think it's good etiquette for you to be like someone unsubscribes to your list and then you continue to send them newsletters, right? You're like, whatever, they unsubscribed. I could continue sending, they can just keep unsubscribing if they really don't want to be here, right? There are plenty of businesses that do that, unfortunately. Or they make it really hard to like find the unsubscribe link, like they make it the same color as the background. Color or they like hide it in the email, and it's like, don't do that. It's not necessary to do that. If people don't want to be on your list, they don't need to be on your list. Don't make it hard for them to get off of it, okay? Because all you're doing, and this is the woo side of me, the woo side of my business brain, being like that energetic exchange where you're trying to keep someone who doesn't want to be there, there's just friction. We don't need them here. Release them. Say goodbye. Say thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for taking yourself out. You don't need to be here. I don't need you to be here. Okay. So making sure that that clear unsubscribe link exists in your newsletters and also to actually honor all of those unsubscribes. Okay, don't try to add them back to the list. Don't try to be sneaky. Don't try to be whatever. Okay, there is really no point in doing that. It is better to find ways to bring in more aligned customers, more aligned audience members, rather than trying to keep the ones that don't actually want to be there. Okay, great. So let's get into my favorite part of list building, which is step number three, the most important step, as I mentioned earlier, a lead magnet. And I know I'm gonna use some terminology that you're like, what the fuck is a lead magnet? Okay, let me explain to you. Okay, patience, patience. What is it? You might have seen many, many examples of fantastic lead magnets because they are essentially a valuable, free resource that either saves your customers' time, solves a problem, or provides a unique perspective or insight. Okay, I'm gonna say that one more time. I know you can go back and rewind it, but I'm gonna say it one more time. It's a valuable, free, free for free resource that either does one or all three of these things. It either saves your customers time, solves a problem for them, or provides a unique perspective or insight. Usually your unique perspective or insight, right? Now, what are some examples of this? Don't worry, I will get into that. What I want to emphasize with a lead magnet with this free valuable resource is that we are aiming for quick wins. Okay. We're not trying to do like a 75-page ebook. Okay, I mean, if that's what your audience wants and you know that, great. But we want something that's like a one pager, maybe three pages max. Okay. We don't want something that's like crazy intricate. We want people to like take it and be like, oh, that's easy for me to implement. Let me go ahead and implement that really quickly. Oh, I'm gonna get like an endorphin rush, a positive dopamine hit from implementing the free thing that I just downloaded. Boom, that was super helpful. That actually worked. I got something out of it. That was a quick win. I want to keep subscribing to this newsletter. I want to keep learning from this person, from this brand, right? Because they just gave me something for free that all I had to do was pay for with my email. Pay for with my email, right? And now I got something that either saved me time, solved a problem of mine, or gave me something to think about from a different perspective than I'd ever thought about before. Amazing, right? That is what we're aiming for here when it comes to lead magnets. We are not aiming for people to read a whole ass book or follow like a million steps before they actually feel like, oh my god, I got something out of that. We want something that feels really easy, that feels very simple. I have literally given my email for things that I know I could just Google, right? I mean, haven't we all? I remember I gave my email one time for like a net worth calculator. And the thing is, is you can Google any net worth. It literally takes like two seconds to Google a net worth calculator. But because theirs was already packaged, ready to go, ready to deliver to me, and all I needed to give them was my email? Hell yeah. So remember, it doesn't have to be complicated. Okay, and we're gonna talk about some examples in just a second. I know I keep saying in just a second, but we will, I promise. Before we get into that, I am gonna talk a little bit about why a lead magnet is important. Okay. I know a lot of people love a discount code as their like incentive to get people to sign up to the newsletter list. They're like, oh, get 15% off your first order. I don't love discount codes because it eats into your bottom line and it also kind of sets this precedent, right? Of like, you're gonna get a discount when you sign up. You're probably gonna get a discount when Black Friday rolls around, holiday season. And so it kind of already sets this tone of like you could probably expect and wait for some point when I'm gonna offer you a discount, right? So I don't super love setting that tone. I like setting the tone of here, I'm gonna be very helpful. I'm going to do something that's gonna save you time. I'm gonna do something that's gonna solve a problem for you. Okay. That tone that you set is going to build trust so much faster than discount code. And I have the numbers to prove it. Okay. So my beautiful, wonderful assistant has done some wonderful research for us so that I can back up my claims with actual data. Okay. When you add a lead magnet, studies have shown that it actually roughly doubles conversion versus having no incentive. Okay, so one study found that mobile signups for email lists went up from 3.83% to 7.73%. That's about double. Okay. And desktop signups went up from 1.84% to 4.7%. Okay, that's more than double. And so just these numbers alone, we can already see that adding a lead magnet, adding this free valuable resource is already helping more people get on your list. Okay. Mailer Light also did an analysis of about, I think over 41,000 opt-in forms. 41,000 opt-in forms. And they found that the average conversion rate across all forms and all pop-ups was about 22.16%. Okay. With free lead magnets, learning and educational offers being the best performing category for most businesses. Okay. So remember the average was about 22%. With lead magnets, courses, workshops, training, PDFs, one pagers, quick wins. They had an average of 27.4% conversion, which is about 5% more. Okay. 5% might not sound like a lot, but 5% is a lot more when it comes to a conversion rate. Okay. That is the standard for a free resource lead magnet versus the standard conversion rate across all 41,000 of those pop-up and opt-in forms. Okay. Now, discount, discount incentives, where they're like 15% off or whatever your first order, they had the lowest conversion rate. Okay. That Mailer Lite analyzed across all 41,000 plus forms, signup forms for emails. It was not the strongest, it was the weakest, okay? Discount forms and pop-ups had an average conversion rate of just 16.2%. Now remember, the standard was what 22.16%. With a free resource, it was 27.4%. With a discount, 16.2%. Okay. And it didn't matter if it was a 10% discount, a 15% discount, a 20% discount, that doesn't really move the needle. And so all it's doing is eating into your bottom line without actually converting higher. So why would we do a discount code? Why? If you heard those numbers, and I will link these all in the show notes so you can see them, but if we have those numbers, why would we choose for a discount that's already gonna hurt you financially and it's not even gonna convert people as high? Why? And it's gonna set this precedent that I said earlier about discounts versus helpful resources, right? So this is why we want a lead magnet. A lead magnet is going to convert so much higher and so much better than any other sort of signup incentive. So let's talk a little bit about what the flow of a lead magnet looks like. This was the question that I got the most inside the conversion club when I talked about email list building back in January in our workshop. Everyone was like, okay, I guess I understand what a lead magnet is now, but like, how does it work? How do people sign up for it? How do people find it? How do people get it? Do I put it on social media? Do I what? So I want to talk to you about the flow of a lead magnet. Okay, so the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna promote it, right? We're gonna talk about this lead magnet. So if it's like I said earlier, a net worth calculator, right? I'm gonna talk about it on social media. I'm gonna go, do you wanna know what your net worth is? I have a free net worth calculator that you can download right here, right? I'm gonna talk about it on social media regularly. I'm gonna talk about it on my podcast interviews that I go on. When I say, hey, if you want to learn a little bit more from me or if you wanna get more helpful information, I have a really great net worth calculator that you can just plug in your numbers, get your information, and talk about it, right? Talk about it on my podcast interviews. If I do any workshops, if I host any events, if I attend any events, if I go to networking events, if I go to conferences, if I go to whatever, I'm telling people about this lead magnet that I have, about this free resource that I have put together to make their lives easier, to save them time, to solve them a problem, to provide a unique insight, right? And I'm gonna talk about that. That's step number one of the flow. Now, in order for them to get this net worth calculator, to get this thing that I've been promoting and talking about, I'm gonna send them to a link, right? Or a form, and I'm gonna have them either go to the website and go to the footer, right? Or I'm gonna have them go to a specific landing page that has the form on it. I'm gonna send them to a specific place for them to type in their email. They're gonna type in their email, they're gonna hit the subscribe button or the sign up button, whatever, whatever you've labeled it, and then it's gonna be connected to my email marketing platform, my Clavio, my Flowdesk, MailerLite, wherever, MailChimp, wherever I have connected this form, that is going to trigger a welcome email. Now you're gonna have to have a welcome automation set up. We're gonna talk about automations in another episode. But when we have that welcome automation set up and someone gets added to that list, right, that triggers that welcome email, and then they're gonna get the first email that delivers the net worth calculator, that delivers the lead magnet that I've been promoting. So I'm gonna talk about it, I'm gonna send them somewhere, they're gonna sign up. That sign up, as soon as they click that button, it's gonna trigger a welcome email. If I've set it up on the back end of my email marketing platform correctly, that's gonna deliver the first welcome email, which is essentially, hey, here is that thing that you signed up for that you gave us your email for, right? And then we're gonna continue with the welcome series, but that is a different episode. I apologize. I can't talk about everything in one episode. If I did, it would be like a 10-hour episode. And I don't think you want that. So that is the flow, essentially, of your lead magnet. You talk about it, someone signs up for it, it triggers a welcome email. That welcome email delivers them the thing that they signed up for. Okay. I know you're like, just get to the examples already. And I will, I will, I promise you. But before we do, I want to talk to you about one of my wonderful members, one of my wonderful students inside the conversion club. Okay, so before she implemented a lead magnet, the way that we have just been talking about, she had a discount code. My student, my member, she is a knitwear designer. So she designs patterns for people to be able to follow and knit and create their own beautiful garments. Before she came into the conversion club, and before we talked about lead magnets, she had a discount code. Okay. And I don't know what the discount, it was like 10 or 15% or something like that standard. And it was getting, you know, a few subscribers here and there. People would be like, oh yeah, you know, I want a discount. That's great. And then we created a new lead magnet. And the new lead magnet that she created was essentially a guide and a calculator that helped knitters customize the pattern that they had to their own yarn, their own gauge, and their own measurements. That is a super useful resource for all people who knit, right? Having a guide and a calculator that they could just plug their information in and it'll give them what they need to be able to customize the pattern that they have to their own measurements, to their own gauge, to their own yarn. That's a really valuable resource. Okay. And when she first implemented that new lead magnet and she shared it on Ravelry and she told people about it, she got a hundred new subscribers in the first few days. I think she implemented it like Tuesday, and she was like, Yeah, by Saturday, I had like a hundred new subscribers. And I'm like, Yes, that's exactly what we want. That's exactly what we were going for. She also spoke at a virtual conference. It was virtual conference-esque. The structure was a little bit different, but the easiest way for me to explain it is it was a virtual conference, essentially. And so she talked about her resource at it, and she got 500 new subscribers. 500 new subscribers. Now, she wasn't just talking about it on social media. She wasn't just telling people about it on Instagram. She was finding other places, communities, other hubs where she could share this resource and get it in front of more new eyes, more new communities, more new people, right? Because I mean she could share it with her existing audience, but they probably already are subscribed to her newsletter list. Now, it's still a really valuable resource, so she should just be telling everybody everywhere. But she's finding places outside of her existing community to promote this. She's getting it in front of new eyes. And that's what we want to be doing. We want to be finding new places for people to be able to download this wonderful resource and also realize that you are helping them, that you're an expert in this, that you are going to be able to save them time, solve a problem, or provide this unique insight, right? I know you can implement this and get results like this too. Okay. And that's why I want to talk to you about this today. So let's get into some actual examples of lead magnets that you can, you know, use to brainstorm your own. Some easy ideas include, like I mentioned earlier, a PDF, a one-pager, a guide, something simple, right? Like a meal planning guide showing people, okay, here's how you can quickly put a meal plan together for the week, right? Or you can, let's say, put together like a women's health tracking journal, a quick little like printable, or like you can download it and do it on your computer. You can just have people fill out those pages. It's really quick, really easy, right? Or something like your recommended supplies for X activity, your recommended supplies for going to the farmer's market, your recommended supplies for a beach day, whatever it is, relevant to your business, obviously, right? Relevant to your product, relevant to your service. That's a really, really simple, easy idea. Number one. Idea number two is something like a checklist or a worksheet. A checklist or a worksheet. So something like a healthy sleep hygiene worksheet, right? With a tracker that's like, oh, okay, am I sleeping well? Is my sleep hygiene going well? Checklist for that. Or like a meal prep checklist, right? Similar to a meal planning guide, a meal prep checklist, like, oh, okay, I need XYZ to start my meal prep. Or let's say something like a pre or post-chemical peel checklist, right? Steps you can take before a chemical peel and after. Another idea is a holiday hosting checklist, right? And this is probably a little bit more around the holiday season that you would do this. So implement this, you know, maybe in September or October, and you can say, hey, if you've got holiday hosting coming up, here's a checklist that you're gonna need. Download it here, right? Give me your email to get it. Another really easy idea is to just to put a simple quiz together. I know you've seen those on there before where it's like, what money type are you? Or what skin type are you, right? Or like uh which mocktail personality are you? And then it recommends their different canned mocktails or whatever it is, right? Those are really, really simple. We keep it simple. It's just a few questions. There are a lot of platforms these days that you can use to run it through, and it's integratable onto your website, Squarespace or Shopify or whatever it is. It's pretty easy. All you gotta do is implement it, and then you just deliver the results, right? And that is a really nice, fun, like interactive way for people to get on your list. Now, a couple of other ideas, they might be a little bit of a heavier lift, but they are pretty worth it as well, depending on the level of engagement you're looking for with your audience and obviously the capacity that you have. But one of the ones I really, really love is a challenge, right? You've seen those like three-day challenges, weeklong challenges, whatever it is. Those are really great because they help you interact with your audience a little bit more, right? They're a little bit more engaging. You know, you're looking for active participation from people with those challenges and they get you on their list, but you're already starting to like foster community with people through these challenges, right? Which is why I love them. So, for example, like a three-day plant-based eating challenge, right? Where you share recipes and you give them examples and easy ways for them to incorporate plant-based eating into their life or whatever it is, or like a five-day meditation challenge where you record a new meditation for each day with a different intention for each day, or whatever it is. Like things like that where it's a little bit more involved, sure, and you're gonna have more content creation and you're gonna be managing this group chat, and you're gonna be continuing this conversation with these people. But this is a really great way to establish this action, activity, community with your audience, with your potential customers. Okay. I really love a challenge. Another great one, and this is a little bit of a heavier lift because it's gonna take a little bit more like content creation, is doing more of a webinar or like a tutorial, right? So, for example, a home workout, right? Or a cooking demo using your product. Is it a kitchen utens that you have, or is it an ingredient that you sell, right? Or something like an intro to food meditation, for example. So you show people like, okay, with your product, how do I do sort of a very intentional meditative process, right? And that can be with the mats that you sell, with your dry brushing, with you know, whatever it is. You can incorporate your product into these webinars, into these tutorials, into these demo videos and give them an idea of how to incorporate your product or your service into their lives. And then in terms of heavier lift ideas, I do really love a giveaway. And I know that this isn't as popular anymore, but I still really like to implement it because it gets you in front of new audiences in a pretty easy way. So doing a partner giveaway, which is essentially when you partner up with other brands who have probably similar audiences and customer bases to you, who have the same values, who are looking for the same things, and you partner with those brands, usually, hopefully, they have maybe a bigger audience than you do, and you say, Hey, let's all contribute something to this prize giveaway. And everyone who participates also gets the email list for people who sign up for this giveaway, right? And so, in order to enter, you have to enter your email. Not follows, not comments, not any of that. Actually, entering your email. That is the best thing you can collect in any aspect, but especially in a giveaway, okay? That is so much more valuable than any of those other steps that you've seen. I know giveaways aren't as popular anymore. People do love like a freebie roundup. So, like a bunch of lead magnets that you all put together, you pull together, everyone shares, everyone gets their audience to sign up, and then everyone gets the email list. Okay. Now, with this one, obviously you're gonna get maybe a higher unsubscribe rate than some of these other methods, but it is a really nice way to A build community, B, get yourself in front of other people's audiences and C, at the very least, get some emails. Cause usually I get like at least a thousand, even five thousand, sometimes even ten thousand emails from that list. And yes, a lot of people are gonna unsubscribe and a lot of people are gonna get removed from that, but that's still like hundreds more than you were gonna have from this partnership, from this collaboration that you have with these other brands. Okay. So making sure that we are getting ourselves in front of these new audiences. Sometimes the quality of those leads are not as great, but they are leads, right? They are leads that you can nurture into quality leads. And if they don't want to be and they want to unsubscribe, we're gonna release them, we're gonna let them go. We're gonna say goodbye. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for making room for more aligned customers. Okay. So those are some of the easy, simple ways that you can actually start building your email list today. Your homework for today is to number one, set up that site pop-up and that site footer, okay, that I was talking about right at the at the top of the episode. So you're gonna do that. And then the second thing you're gonna do is you're gonna start brainstorming your lead magnet. Okay. Think about what is something that's gonna save my customers' time? What is something that like my customers ask the most about? That's a really great place to start. What are their most frequently asked questions? Use that. Use that as an idea, a nugget for you to say, okay, they ask me a lot about this. Maybe I should put a resource together for them to use to implement to start getting more information about my product as well as how it can be incorporated into their lives, why they need it, why it's useful for them. Okay, so you're gonna start doing that. You're gonna set up the pop-up and you're gonna set up the footer, and then you're gonna start brainstorming your lead magnet. And that is a pretty quick actually overview of email list building. Now, I go into this more extensively in the conversion club. I go into this obviously more extensively with my one-on-one clients. So if you are looking for kind of support beyond just this free resource, this episode that I have for you, I encourage you to come join us in the conversion club to come get on our wait list. Our doors are not open right now, they will be in the fall. If you're listening to this outside of the publishing time, which is, I think, gonna be like in August of 2026. If you're listening to this in 2027 or, you know, whenever this is, come join us in the conversion club. It is a monthly email marketing membership. I will link it in the show notes. And I really, really hope that you found this helpful, that you are gonna go out there and start building your email list because it is actually so much easier than you think it is. I promise you. That is what I'm here to show everyone is that email marketing actually can be really easy, okay? And I'm here, I'm here to help like hold your hand, to help hold you accountable, emotional support, whatever it is you're looking for. Come join us in the conversion club. That is a really great place for us to get questions answered, to brainstorm those lead magnets, for me to look at your newsletters for content ideas, for me to help you see are these subject lines working, what's going on with these analytics, any questions you have, I am here for you inside the conversion club, and also just feel free to DM me or email me. I'm here to help. Thank you so much, Yappers. It has been another wonderful episode of the Conversation Club. I am trying, trying, trying to make these episodes shorter. I really am. I may start splitting them up into part one and part two, but I really want to hear from y'all. So, yappers, please let me know. Do you enjoy these episodes? Do you enjoy the length? Feedback. I need feedback. I just need to hear from y'all, okay? I want this to be a conversation. It is the conversation club. So, yappers, please let me know. I would love to hear from you. It has been a really, really long episode. Thank you so much again for making it all the way to the end. And I will see you next week. Ciao ciao! If this episode gave you something to think about, take it and do something with it. If you want more of this or you just want to see what my life actually looks like, come follow me on Instagram at it's almost with two L's. Be sure to link it in the show notes. You can also follow me at Almost Consulting for some juicier, spicier takes. And if you're serious about getting your emails to convert, you can check out the Conversion Club, our monthly email marketing membership for founders who are ready to turn email into their most profitable and sustainable sales channel with expert guidance, plug and play tools, and strategy you'll actually use. Check it out at the link in the show notes. I'll see you in the next episode, yappers!