![Top 10 Email List Building Strategies [No-Website Complete Guide]](https://createandearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Email-List-Building-Strategies-Blog-Banner.jpg)
In reality, you don’t need a website to build an email list.
You need only two things…
A great offer and a landing page.
And finally, a method to bring visitors to your landing page.
In this post, I’ll show you 10 of the best email list building strategies without the use of a website, tell you exactly how to craft a great offer, and give you one (landing page + offer) you can just download and copy.
I will start by explaining how to craft an irresistible offer that will build your email list in no time.
I will also let you download a copy of my own offer to get you started.
Crafting an Irresistible Offer to Build Your List
Creating an offer for which people won’t be able to resist exchanging their email address for doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming.
In fact, most of the times it can be as easy as repurposing something you already have and placing it strategically.
My first Niche Website was focused on Natural Parenting practices.
When it Comes to List Building – What you think doesn’t matter…
I first created an offer to attract people to my email list which, as a father, I thought it would be very useful to any new parent.
An infographic explaining which strange things are normal in a baby and when should you see a doctor.
It took me countless hours of research…
And I got… 0 subscribers…
They’re interested just not right now
After some research, I noted that one of the biggest struggles for new parents was how to get their babies to sleep through the night.
I adjusted my list building strategy and created an email course on baby sleep that would help both parents and baby sleep better using only natural practices.
It took me almost 6 months to create the best course I could.
I launched it and…
It got me 1 subscriber for every 1000 visitors…
I could do better!
The Best Email List Building Strategy Could be Easier Than You Think…
Since the majority of my website visitors were landing on a post describing a method to shower a baby, I thought I needed something more targeted.
If my visitors were interested in learning how I easily showered with my baby daughter, how could I help them beyond the article? (Provide more value…)
Parents are busy, sometimes they don’t have the time to read.
So I recorded a quick video of this same method and created a landing page where I asked for their email to watch the video…
My opt-ins more than 20xed. I started averaging 25 subs per 1000 visitors.
Making this video and setting up its landing page took me only a few hours!
Designing an Attractive Landing Page for List Building
Once you have an offer your audience can’t resist, you need to present it to them in a way they feel compelled to offer their email address.
The email list building strategy without a website (or even with) is to use a landing page!
Why a Landing Page?
People get distracted easily nowadays.
I’m sure you’ve heard the typical “Human’s attention spans are down to 8-9s. Shorter than a goldfish.”.
Well, yeah, but we have way too many things to focus on, so less time for each.
What does this mean for you?
As irresistible as your offer might be, you need to show that to your audience. If they don’t understand how good it is, then it’s not good at all.
A well-designed landing page and a subsequent funnel will focus your visitor’s attention on what matters at the time.
Hours of training would be necessary to explain what composes a good landing page, but understanding why they are important is the first step to growing a huge list.
What exactly is a Landing Page?
A landing page is different than a regular website page because it has no distractions.
It focuses the visitor’s attention on a specific offer presented in an attractive way and asks them to take the desired action through a well placed and visible button.
A landing page has no menus and allows only for the one action (i.e. subscribe to the email list) or leave.
When all the criteria are right a well-crafted landing page can convert more than 50% of visitors into email list subscribers.
How YOU Can Create a Landing Page to Build Your List
You don’t need to learn everything about landing pages just now. In fact, I have one already created for you, which you can copy.
The first thing you need is software to create one. Unless you can code… I can’t!
And I also don’t want to spend days building something I can do in 30 minutes.
There are many options. I use Clickfunnels. It’s absolutely the best and easiest to use without any technical skills.
If you choose to use Clickfunnels to craft your landing page and funnels, you can click below to simply download a copy of my sample landing page to your account and then use the drag-and-drop editor to make changes.
You’ll get a 14-day free trial to get you started, and with an already designed and tested funnel (and following the tips you’ll learn in that training), you can get a lot of subscribers in just 14 days – and turn them into commissions.
In case you want to go with another software, you can and should still copy the layout of my page.
Where Does Your Audience Hang Out?
Before we get into the actual email list building traffic strategies, it’s important to understand that any method to drive traffic to a page will be:
Paid or Free (organic)
Every platform where you can get organic traffic will also give you the option to pay for Ads. That’s usually their top monetization strategy.
There’s a correlation you also need to understand: money vs time.
These two currencies are inversely proportional. The more money you can invest, the less time you need.
The quickest way to build a list is through paid traffic, but for each of these strategies, I will share also its free component.
Nevertheless, the best strategy to go about building a targeted email list fast is a mix of both.
For better results, you should also start with one or two of these methods. Don’t try to do all of it.
Search or Social (or both)
Understanding what the audience you’re targeting is doing is the key to communicating your message effectively.
If you’re targeting search traffic, since they’re already searching for something, all you have to do is find out what that is and offer them an answer.
However, if you’re going for social, keep in mind that your message will be disruptive for the user.
They are scrolling mindlessly through their feeds and don’t wish to be interrupted.
Most are even blind to anything that sounds like an Ad or sales pitch.
Make sure you craft your message like a social media post and make it disruptive enough to draw attention. But most importantly, make it worth their while!
Email List Building Strategies: 10 Traffic Sources
Facebook (Social)
You might have heard that Facebook has become completely “pay to play”, what you probably don’t know is that there is still a way to get free traffic from it.
There are over 2.38 Billion Facebook (March 2019) users Worldwide, out of which 1.56 Billion log-in daily.
It’s not hard to see why Facebook is still the juiciest source of traffic out there…
#1 – Facebook Ads (Paid)
Start with Facebook’s Audience Insights!
This tool will be useful to build your list no matter your chosen traffic source. With it, you can find your perfect audience (or ideal customer).
Read more about how to use this tool in this post: “Ideal Customer Profile to Start a Business”
Then get into Facebook’s business manager and create an Ad targeting the audience you just found by using the interests you found in the Audience Insights.
Powerful, right?
Keep in mind that this Ad should be disruptive enough to stop the user from scrolling but have a similar language to what they’ll see on your landing page.
You can see it’s landing page here.
#2 – Facebook Groups (Free)
Mr. Zuckerberg has announced he’ll focus on promoting groups more, which is where Facebook thrives these days.
Yes, you should still create a page for your business but it’s through your profile and group that you’ll get that free targeted traffic.
Your Profile:
Optimize your profile as if it were a landing page:
- Insert a link to your group with a benefit-driven call-to-action. (e.g. “Join my group to receive a free course on email marketing”)
- Create attractive photos for your profile with the same call-to-action.
Notice how this profile is optimized to send people to his Facebook group.
Once you have a great profile like this one, you can start to be helpful in other groups. Don’t try to send people to yours… Just provide value. People will look at your profile and land on your group.
Your Group:
Focus your group on helping people in your niche and make it very clear what it is about:
- Use keywords when choosing your group name.
- Group cover photo similar to profile cover.
- Have a welcome post telling people what to expect.
- Try to create some helpful video training.
- Have a pinned post telling people what to expect.
- Create 3 questions for those requesting to join, in 1 ask for their email in exchange for your offer.
- Create posts often offering value and engaging with the members (ask about their struggles and how you can help).
- Go live at least once per week.
#3 – Twitter or Instagram (Social)
Regardless of the email list building strategies you choose, you need to be on one of these.
Decide which one’s your favorite and go all-in.
Most people choose IG for its reach (most trendy and wider audience).
I’m a Twitter person myself.
With both, and similarly to Facebook, make sure you set up a profile that informs about what you do and leads people to your desired action (landing page or Facebook group).
These two will require daily work to reach your audience and you should be aiming for engagement and ultimately action (click to landing page).
Instagram only allows for one link (in your profile), link to your landing page or Facebook group.
- Previously research hashtags your audience might be looking for.
- For each type of content, you’ll be posting have a series of 10 to 20 related hashtags (go after smaller audiences).
- Follow other accounts in your niche and their followers (found during hashtag research).
- Engage with other people’s posts (like, comment, start conversations)
- Create a branded hashtag that no one else is using and include it in every post.
- Post at least once per day and include your hashtags.
- Plan for daily stories and be consistent with these.
- Consider using IGTV.
- For every post, story, etc, naturally include a call-to-action (for example: “for [BENEFIT GAINED FROM YOUR OFFER] follow the link in my profile”).
You can create IG Ads from your Facebook Ad account.
Design your profile similarly to Facebook. Include a call-to-action everywhere.
Even though on Twitter you can include links in every post, your profile should still be perfectly optimized.
- Research hashtags similarly to IG.
- Here, you’ll use only 2 or 3 #s per post.
- Ideally, create a short 1 to 2 minute video, talking about how you can help people and your free offer (call them to action by talking about the benefit).
- Follow big names in your niche and especially their followers (avoid dead accounts).
- Follow more people every day (up to 50).
- Create a Branded hashtag and include it in your profile and each of your posts.
- Tweet 10 to 20 times per day (tweets live an average of 10 minutes).
- If you don’t have content of your own, curate and share from authority sources.
- Attempt to engage in conversations with other people’s tweets.
- Retweet everything you find useful for your audience.
You can also pay for advertising on Twitter.
YouTube (Search)
Youtube is the second most used search engine in the World and the third most visited site.
Understanding why and how people use Youtube is paramount and might make it your top email list building strategy.
Your audience will go to Youtube looking for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.
If you find a subject they need help with and create videos around that subject, you’ll get thousands of views.
Then, all you have to do is direct them to your awesome offer.
#4 – YouTube Videos (Free)
- Set up your channel art with your message and call to action (similarly to Facebook).
- Find something your audience might be looking for help with (for example: how to use a specific software). Use the same method I teach in this post: “How to do Keyword Research for Free”.
- Start making videos on the topic you found (as many as possible) – stay on subject until you reach 10,000 subscribers.
- For each video include a call to action for your offer – link in the description and mention the benefit of the offer in the video (make sure it’s relevant).
- Make as many videos as possible and as consistently as you can. (Ideally 1 per day in the beginning).
You’ll see your email list growing in no time!
#5 – YouTube Ads (Paid)
You can use Ads together with building you channel for organic reach.
Or if you’re just looking to invest money and grow your list fast without spending much time creating videos, make one or two short videos and start paying for Youtube to show them to your audience.
Before you do anything, make sure you target the right audience – use the Facebook Audience Insights tool to find interests.
Pro Tip: Start paying attention to the Ads that draw your attention enough to hold on pressing the skip button.
Keep in mind:
- Your Ads are disruptive for the user experience, they’re eager to click the “skip” button to watch the video they want.
- You have 6 seconds or less to get their attention – use curiosity.
- After you get their attention you must get their interest fast – make your promise (tell them what they can gain with your offer).
- Mention that it’s free and you want to help (make sure you do want to help).
- Use 3 to 4 calls-to-action throughout the video.
Youtube Ads are created within your Google Ad account, create one if you don’t have it yet.
#6 – Google Ads (Paid)
These will also be created in your Google Ad account.
The main differences are that you’ll be targeting keywords instead of interests and your Ad will look like a Google search result.
You’ll need:
- An awesome headline.
- A description that describes the benefit of your offer.
Try to create your Ad as close to an organic search result as possible.
When targeting a keyword make sure you understand what answers is the user looking for when typing it to Google and use the headline and description to show then you can help them – make sure to only promise what you can deliver.
If you don’t know how to find the right keywords, give this post a read: “How to do Keyword Research for Free”
#7 – Google Organic (Free)
Since you don’t have a website or blog, you’d probably think you can’t target Google’s organic results.
Well, you can!
You can write guest posts on other people’s blogs. You’d be surprised how many bloggers accept and appreciate guest posts.
The advantage of this is that you’ll take advantage of these bloggers’ site rank in Google and it will be much easier to show up on those top Google spots.
Here are a few tools to help you find websites where it’d be worth to guest post:
#8 – Answering questions on Quora (Search + Social)
Quora is an incredible resource for both marketers and the general public.
People go on Quora to ask questions. Any question…
If you have the answers, you’ll be loved!
- Create a profile.
- Add credentials that are useful to your niche – related only to the subjects you want to answer about. (Don’t add anything unrelated).
- Add your landing page URL as your website.
- Look for some of your keywords in the search bar – Quora will suggest related questions.
- Start answering some of these questions – be helpful.
- Whenever you find a question where your offer can help, give an extensive answer and then include a link to your landing page (for example: if you’d like to know how 15 super affiliates went full-time online in know 100 days, click here).
- Never link to your landing page without giving the answer first – it goes against Quora’s TOS to link without providing value.
- Don’t be afraid of answering questions and not linking. Value comes first!
- Answer as many questions as you can.
- Quora will start to send you notifications of questions related to others you’ve answered and your credentials.
- People will also start asking you for direct answers to questions.
- Provide as much value as you can!
- Use the questions you see as ideas to create new offers.
Personally, because I have a website and write articles on it, I link people to my articles whenever they help answer their question.
I still answer the question on Quora before linking to the full article though.
This is one extra step. Because I already write very extensive articles (like this one) where I send people to my landing page.
In your case, you should attempt to compose your answers almost as if they were a blog post.
Cover the subject as in-depth as possible!
Treat this as a guest post with the extra advantage that Quora answers rank very easily on Google.
#9 – Pinterest
I used to get bored just thinking of Pinterest when I started using it. Now I love it!
This is like a Google with images where people can share your stuff with others – which makes for a much wider reach in a shorter amount of time.
The main difference being that to rank on Google, you need to have a lengthy post. To gain visibility on Pinterest all you need is a good headline with appealing visuals.
- Create an account only for your business. Make it a business account and keep it relevant at all times. (You can use a photo or logo)
- Perform keyword research in the Pinterest search bar to find the most used keywords.
- Set up your account using keywords in the description, boards, even in the account name.
- Create 10 or more boards with relevant subjects.
- Look for pins in the feed and start filling up your boards.
- Find relevant Group Boards and request to join.
- Start Pinning your Pins to your boards and the group boards.
- Consider getting a Free Tailwind trial account to schedule your pins. (I advise starting with 15 – 20 Pins daily and increasing weekly)
- Join Tailwind Tribes to get major exposure (you can join 5 with your free account).
- Re-pin from others more than you Pin your own stuff.
Continue creating Pins linking to your offer (landing page). Change the headline, change the design, etc…
The more Pins you create, the more chances you have that one will go viral!
You can also use Pinterest promoted Pins to gain traction and visits to your landing page.
Powerful Tip: Sometimes, the simple fact that you promote a Pin with $5 or $10 will get it to go viral and keep running organically after the promotion ends.
#10 – Solo Ads
Solo Ads are the fastest and easiest email list building strategy out there.
Using other people’s lists to build your own…
You pay someone to send an email to their list in order to get them to visit your landing page.
The good thing here is that these people are email action takers. They open and click emails. That’s how they see your offer in the first place.
It’s extremely important to buy solo ads from a reputable 3rd party like Udimi which will keep your visitors legit.
In Udimi 100 visits average around $40, and you can get a $5 discount on your first order if you create your free account here.
However, solo ad traffic is cold traffic.
The only thing they’ve seen from you was your landing page.
You need to make sure your email follow-up is stellar in order to create a relationship with your new subs before they forget about you!
Learn all about Email List Nurturing in Step 4 of my Guide: “Email List for Affiliate Marketing [Complete Actionable Guide]”
The process is quite simple:
Which of These Email List Building Strategies Will You Try First?
As you can see from this post, some will take more effort than others… Some will even start growing your list today!
But one important thing to keep in mind is to not try everything at once. Master one of two methods before trying the next one.
Mastery is the key to success in anything Marketing related.
Let us know which list building strategies you’ll start using right away, or ask any questions you might have. I promise I’ll answer!
![Email List Building Strategies [Pinterest]](https://createandearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Email-List-Building-Strategies-Pinterest-683x1024.png)
![How to Build a Website for Dummies [The Easiest Step-By-Step Guide]](https://createandearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/How-to-Build-a-Website-for-Dummies-Blog-Banner.jpg)
![What Is The Best List Building Software [Beginners Guide]](https://createandearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/What-is-The-Best-List-Building-Software-Post-Banner-1.jpg)
