Building A Subscriber List For Your Online Store

I grew an email list from 0 to 500K subscribers in just 10 months for a weekly travel email series. Here’s exactly how we did it: First, nail your strategy. → Identify scalable acquisition channels (cold email, giveaways, social media). → Focus on creating top-notch content that people love. Second, here’s a list of do’s and don’ts based on our success: 1. COLD EMAIL: DON’T: Treat cold email like spam. DO: Use data to personalize at scale. We built a tool that searched Instagram for public data: - Hashtags (like #travel or #wanderlust). - Geotags (places they visited). - Followed accounts (@natgeo, etc.). This allowed us to write hyper-personalized emails with subject lines like: - “Your #hashtag photo” - “Came across your Instagram” Results: 45-50% open rates, 10-15% CTRs, and 200K subscribers from this channel alone. Pro Tip: Warm up your email servers before scaling. Platforms like Gmass + SendGrid worked wonders for us. 2. GIVEAWAYS: DON’T: Run generic giveaways that only attract freebie hunters. DO: Offer niche rewards your audience actually wants. We gave away free flights and hotel stays (funded by rewards miles) and incentivized sharing. Every referral earned bonus entries, creating a viral loop. Results: 5K-15K new subscribers per giveaway, with tools like Gleam and ViralLoops doing the heavy lifting. 3. SOCIAL MEDIA: DON’T: Spend months building social accounts from scratch. DO: Buy and rebrand existing accounts in your niche. We acquired travel-themed Instagram accounts with 700K followers for $10K, then grew the network to 2.2M followers. Here’s how we used them: - Drove traffic to our website, giveaways, and landing pages. - Automated email collection through DMs using tools like MassPlanner. - Created Facebook Groups (30K members), collecting emails via sign-up questions. 4. AMBASSADOR PROGRAM: DON’T: Waste money on influencers who don’t convert. DO: Partner with micro-influencers and reward them based on performance. We recruited 100s of travel influencers from our email data and incentivized them with swag and free travel. Results: Tens of thousands of new subscribers at a cost of just a few cents per email. --- To recap: 1. Personalize cold emails with data. 2. Use giveaways and social proof to fuel virality. 3. Build or buy niche audiences and grow from there. These strategies helped us scale fast. Your email list is one of the best assets you can build. Start experimenting and watch it grow.

Your email list is your most valuable marketing asset. So here are 5 funnels you can use to build it starting today: Template 1: The Bare Bones The simplest one: you post content, drive it to your profile where they can join your email list. It works well as long as: - You’re attracting the right crowd with your content. - You’re having enough traction to get meaningful signups daily. The problem is that beyond the qualify of your content and your profile, your audience doesn’t have an incentive to join your email list. Which brings us to number 2: Template 2: The Magnetized I call it “Magnetized” because it involves a lead magnet: a valuable, free resource that your subscribers get in exchange for their email. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow: - It must be so valuable people would willingly pay for it. - It must solve a specific problem your audience is facing. - It should tie directly to your core offer. That will increase the number of conversions. But it doesn’t solve for the amount of traffic. Which brings us to number 3... Template 3: Augmented I like ads for 4 reasons: 1. They allow you to increase traffic 2. They allow you to do that quickly 3. They allow you to do that without relying on other creators. 4. They also allow you to target specific people (either via targeting or specific copy) Those get more people to see your lead magnet, download it and join your email list. Template 4: Collab The next level is to leverage other people’s audiences via guest posting. Here’s how it works: 1. Make a list of newsletters in your niche 2. Guest-write an issue of that newsletter 3. Add your lead magnet link to the bottom 4. Make sure to offer the owner of the newsletter to do the same with your audience. Just like collabs in music: this tactic allows you to get in front of a qualified warm audience. The only problem is that you have to rely on someone else’s goodwill. Template 5: Viral Who are your best sales reps? Happy customers. How do you make them promote your newsletter? Do this: - Create newsletter-specific content (not recycled stuff) - Provide non-obvious insights - Make it actionable. - Incentivize them By doing all 4 you’ll create growth loops that will allow your newsletter to grow on autopilot. Template 6: Pinnacle Combine all of the above. Complex, but unstoppable.

When I worked at Attentive and then eventually Sendlane, I reviewed 100s of brands' email marketing campaigns every quarter. Here are 3 things they did that built high conversion email lists. So many marketers focus their energy on email flows and perfecting everything else, but if you’re sending them to a list that doesn’t care…wyd? And if you say you’re dropping a pixel and sending unsolicited emails to site visitors, unfollow me rn. Ok kidding, but it isn’t how to build a list that’ll convert and it will kill your deliverability. Do these 3 things instead: 1️⃣ Test different incentives. What incentivizes you to give your email? Think about it: If you’re asking people to provide their email, figure out what will convince them to do it. News and updates aren’t mission critical unless there’s some exclusive event or VIP offer. So test different offers like discount incentives, a free gift, giveaways etc., to see which collects the most. That’ll show you their buying behavior and what exactly they’re looking for from your brand. 2️⃣ Collect email & SMS on & off site. Whether you’re at an in person event or your products are in retail, throw a QR code on everything. 2 actionable tips on how to frame a QR code today: → For field events, attach a QR code to a “Spin To Win.” Easy way to get sign ups from people that are actually interested in your brand. → For your packaging, provide value to your audience and gate it behind an email wall. For example, supplement companies’ audiences are often health conscious individuals that are most likely looking for weight loss or healthier lifestyle solutions. So, advertise workout plans and recipes that only people on the email list can get access to. 3️⃣ Don’t forget about Instagram & TikTok. Remember, impulse buying is real. 73% of Americans’ purchases are unplanned and 89% of shoppers have a history of impulse buying. And social media is the breeding ground for exactly that. Make sure email signups are prevalent somewhere in that customer experience. Because creating content builds trust in your product → trust with a mix of impulse brings that buyer to checkout → and your tailored emails boost LTV. 💡 Fun fact, there are tools out there where if a customer comments a certain keyword, they’ll get an autoDM that lets them enter in their email. The email automatically gets pushed into your ESP. These are 3 easy tips every brand can start applying today to their marketing efforts. Email doesn’t have to be hard, but if you’re attracting the wrong people, then it’ll feel impossible.