13 Ways To Grow Your List You (Maybe) Haven’t Thought Of

Of course, of course, of course by now you know that 
1. You need an email list or newsletter (it’s where most of your sales come from!)
2. It benefits you to have as many people as possible on that list

And you also probably know all the best, biggest ways to get people on that list. Yes? Yes.
You’ve got a clever opt in. (Mine’s two free ebooks and a free once-over of your site)
You guest post on big-deal site (like this)
And you regularly remind people about said list (LIKE THIS VERY POST THAT I AM RIGHT NOW WRITING)

But over the years I’ve discovered lots of little tweaks and tricks that slowly add up to more subscribers. None of these tips are going to net you 700 new subscribers in one day and I suggest you spread them out over the course of the year so you don’t annoy your readers. But added up? They’ll bring you more subscribers and more sales.

1. Post your signup in multiple places.
I’ve got mine in three places: below my header, in the footer, and on my About page; I noticed a huuuuuge difference when I did added the signup to more places. Most of my opt-ins come from the signup box that’s below my header.

2. Add the image of a book cover next to your signup box.
It’s a lot more engaging than a string of text; I noticed I started getting a lot more signups when Kim added the image.

3. Create pretty images related to the opt-in and use those on social media.
Use tall, long images for Google+ or Pinterest, 440×220 images for Twitter. You can see how I did this here.

4. Create images with pull-quotes from your opt-in and @mention the people who gave you those quotes.
They might re-tweet you! Also: we all love sweet photos with clever quotes. You can see how I did that here.

5. Periodically remind people about your opt-in on social media.
If you’re not doing it already, you can add a widget to your Facebook page so fans can sign up right there. Use Mailchimp’s lead generation cards so followers can sign up right on Twitter.

6. Write blog posts that relate to your opt-in and link to your signup form in those posts.
Is your opt-in a collection of gluten-free recipes? Link to it every time you post a gluten-free recipe. Is your opt-in about building a following on Instagram? Link to it whenever you include a lot of your Instagram photos in a blog post. You can see how wrote content that matches my opt ins  here and here.

7. Allow for the possibility of a popup.
Are popups annoying? Yes. Do they work? Super yes. I’m using an IP-sensitive popup right now. That means once you close my popup, you won’t see it again until you empty your cache or use a different IP.  I like to believe it’s not tooootally annoying

8. When you write a guest post for someone or buy ad space, rather than just linking back to your homepage, link to your newsletter signup page.

9. “P.S. sign up for my newsletter!”
As you’ve probably noticed, I love a good P.S. It’s an old copywriting trick and it works like a charm! Occasionally, at the bottom of posts, do something like ‘P.S. Don’t want to miss the good stuff? Join my list and I’ll send you my best writing once a week!’

10. When people say nice things about your newsletter, be sure to retweet them or post about it on social media - and include a link to the signup page.

11.  If you haven’t already done it, customize your opt-in page, thank you page, and confirmation email.
They should all feel unique, personal, and on-brand. I regularly get compliments on mine!

12. Link to the opt-in in your email signature

13. Link to the signup page in your Twitter bio
Hilary Rushford does a good job with this!

That’s it! Those are all my slowly-but-surely, no-longer-secret tips!

Now tell me, have you done anything special or surprising to grow your list? I’d love to hear your tips in the comments!

P.S. If you’d like more awesome insights like this - but customized for you and your business - you might like my Secret Weapon. I tripled a client’s signups in two months!

photo by Hannah // cc