GUEST POST BY Mauricio Cardenal
Lets talk about the past for a brief second.
Thinking about over the past 20 years... do know which online marketing strategy has the highest return on investment?
It’s email marketing.
Although its reputation has been damaged by a lot of spammers over the years, it still remains the single best online strategy to grow a business.
The main problem isn’t about how to market to your list once you’ve got them. You’d be surprised how easy it is to sell to an email list that have opted in and that have been provided value to, by yourself.
The main problem here is how to go about building this email list in the first place.
As a Fit Pro, you should use every marketing channel you have to build your email list.
So, why exactly should I build an email list?
Well, apart from the simple fact that (as mentioned above) it’s proven to be the most effective form of marketing (which should convince the majority of people to start the journey of email list building) here’s an explanation of why this is the case and why you need one:
By building a list of people that are interested in you, it gives you the ability to develop online, trustworthy relationships with your leads.
By developing these types of relationships, you get to directly market your services and products to your subscribers.
The people who are most likely to buy from you!
Not everyone checks their Facebook daily (especially for the purpose of looking at ads!… no-one does that!)
However, nearly everyone checks their email every day.
The only problem is, is that over the last few years, acquiring emails has only gotten harder.
There are a lot of reasons for this like increase in online marketers, spammers and people seemingly always wanting leads’ emails… but don’t worry… by the end of this post you’ll have learned a few proven strategies on how to grow your email list while you sleep.
Just imagine waking up and looking at how your subscriber numbers doubled while you slept.
So, let’s get to it:
9 Proven Strategies that will Grow Your Email List as you Sleep
- Facebook Ads
As a Fit Pro, where do you think most of your clients hang out?
Facebook.
If you don’t have an effective Facebook strategy in place then it’s likely that you are losing potential clients and ultimately, money.
Every Facebook campaign you create should be used to grow your email list.
It’s not a good strategy to sell directly to new prospects in Facebook because most of them won’t buy from you until they know, like, and trust you. Especially when it’s a big purchase.
Think about it… people are on Facebook to socialize and take a look at what their friends are up to (or stalk people… but that’s a whole different topic!) the point is that people are not ready to make an impulse buy.
You wouldn’t expect to be sold something at a party so it should be the same for Facebook, right?
Instead, you may exchange phone numbers with someone after providing some type of valuable, interesting conversation.
Just like the phone number, you are get their email address and just like the valuable conversation, you are providing valuable content that they will learn from!
Okay… so how do I Get Prospects to Know, Like, and Trust Me?
By nurturing them.
If you combine an effective Facebook strategy with an effective email campaign then you’ll get better results than blindly just trying to sell anyone.
Fact.
You can get prospects to know, like and trust you by providing lots of value. Videos, articles, images, infographics, and free training demos – You name it! Provide lots of value (2-5+ emails of pure value) followed by a selling proposition.
- Create a Compelling Lead magnet
A lead-magnet (otherwise known as an ethical “bribe”) is used to exchange a user’s personal information (name and email address) for a free gift such as:
- Grocery Shopping Lists
- 30 Day Fat Shredding Program
- Free Training Videos
Just some type of value.
Before we can create a compelling lead magnet we have to know what your target client finds valuable.
This is where you must think like your target client.
What kind of gift do you think they would seriously consider buying under normal circumstances?
The only way you can do this is by understanding your client’s deepest desires.
Try asking your current / past clients questions like:
- Why did you decide to train with me?
- What made you pick me over the competition?
- What sealed the deal for you?
These are some good examples of types of questions to get started with.
Once you’ve got some feedback, you can now create the Lead Magnet with a compelling title.
It’s all about the title.
Here are some examples of compelling titles:
- Strength Training Secrets Finally Exposed
- 3 Myths of Strength Training Finally Shattered
- Discover The 5 Critical Questions You Must Ask Before You Even Think About Hiring A Personal Trainer
- Use the SumoMe Plugin to grow your email list
SumoMe is an awesome WordPress plugin designed to grow your email list.
I use it on my own site.
It has several list building features like:
- Welcome mat
- Scroll box
- Pop-ups
- Smart bar
It’s free to use but if you want to add more features and customize the forms, you’ll need to start paying for the premium features.
You don’t need to go from using none to all of them at once… it can come across spammy. Try introducing one at a time.
Yes, I agree, Pop-ups are annoying… but the fact is, they work.
You can use SumoMe’s features to do this.
- Create Awesome Guides
Another awesome way to not only make a name for yourself, but to build a list is to create epic guides on your site.
People will appreciate the value… it’s why blogs like Neil Patels (array of them) are so successful… the content is valuable!
By creating epic guides on your site, you will get more shares.
It’s a proven fact that blog posts that are at least 2,000 words get read the most.
Value, value, value.
It’s hard work but it pays off especially if your content is evergreen. Two fitness pros that have done a fantastic job in building a huge online following are Andy Morgan and Bret Contreras.
Andy’s How to Bulk guide and Bret’s glute guides have driven millions of visitors to their sites.
You could do the same.
By creating epic guides and driving traffic to your site, this allows you to convert your website visitors to email subscribers.
- Place your opt-in form inside your content
Did you know you can create opt-in pages right inside any blog post or page on your site?
For example:
It’s a fantastic way for users to opt in your email list without being too pushy. You have different tools that you can use to deliver the “freebie”
I use Leadpages and Bloom to create these opt-in forms. Just remember to make sure that your offer aligns with what you’re writing about. The “freebie” can be as simple as a cheat sheet, or a pdf of the blog post.
The great way about adding opt-in forms inside your content is that MANY more readers are going to read and see them.
Over the years, we have adapted to finding and zoning in on exactly what we want to see and are oblivious to everything else.
For example, this means missing the opt-in form on the write and zoning in at the content. With the ability to add opt-in forms where the reader is looking, we up our chances of opting in considerably.
Checklist for Inside-Content Opt-ins
- Make sure it’s relevant to the blog post / content
- Use your brand colors in the opt-in form background but if they are too dull, use an inviting, happy color such as baby blue or a light green.
- Don’t add too many – For a short post (500 words) 1 or 2 are fine
- Adding links at the exact point of talking about a related subject are the best times to add one.
- Include social sharing buttons in your emails
By including social sharing buttons at the end of each email or blog post give your audience a way to show their appreciation for your valuable content.
People often feel a sense of “I owe you one” and this is gives them a great way for them to help you back.
Make sure you encourage your subscribers to share with their friends. Adding a social sharing button like “share to friends” is a great way to do this.
Often, you will find that you get much better results when you ask… in all aspects of life but especially when it comes to marketing and in this case, social sharing buttons.
Ask or you won’t often get.
Ask your email subscribers to share if they find it valuable.
You’d be surprised how many will do it. (If it actually is…)
- Add a CTA (call to action) on your Facebook page
If you have popular Facebook page, then this another great way for your fans to sign up for your email list.
Facebook even allows you to promote your CTA button to your fans.
This is extremely powerful.
Every piece of content you create or on any page that you own, there should always be another “call to action” if, after you’ve provided an amazing blog posts, there is no call to action, people are not going to go out of their way to share your post.
- Insert a link to your landing page on your Instagram bio
Instagram doesn’t allow you to post links in any of your pictures or videos but they do allow you to post a link on your homepage.
You’ve spent the time growing it, providing quality pictures and content….
So why not use Instagram to build your email list?
A good example is shown from Frank Medrano’s Instagram page below:
Always mention “the link in your bio” when advertising something. You should keep the link generally to something that lots of things can be done from. For example, don’t leave a link to one of your best blogs posts forever and ever. A better choice would be to your website in general, or page in general that has lots of links sprouting off of it.
- Offer a giveaway
I recently ran a Facebook campaign where we offered a giveaway to a free 28 day Bootcamp. It’s generated 74 leads in less than 30 days:
You don’t have to use Facebook for this. You can use google to run a similar campaign to drive traffic to a landing page.
Giving away something of value, can always work.
This type of value is different, however.
This prize is a lot more valuable than what you get in exchange for your email although it is not guaranteed for performing an action.
A great way to run a competition like this is for people to be entered into the campaign by a) getting an email address off of somebody or b) Entering them into the competition once they share it to their friends on FB.
Conclusion
There are a lot more ways to grow an email list and there’s always new strategies that become popular.
This is a list of some of the best current ones. Try implementing at least one today and let us know how it goes. You’ll be surprised at the results!
One thing never changes, and that’s the value of a qualified email list.
Mauricio Cardenal is the founder of The PT Advisor. He’s been helping fitness pros grow their businesses using online marketing strategies since 2014.
Maan says
Amazing training