5 Blogging Tools To Help You Grow Your Email List
Anyone who is anyone will tell you how important it is for you to grow your email list as a blogger. It’s the only ‘following’ you have any ownership over and can help you ride out any Facebook algorithm change or Pinterest smart feed shake-up. Therefore growing your email list should be a high priority – and of course, there are tools for that.
Because there literally are hundreds of shiny objects when it comes to tools to help you grow your email list (and I’ve tried way, way too many of them) I decided I’d cut right to the chase and share with you exactly what you need in order to grow your email list and grow it fast.
I’m not going to sit here and try to sell you expensive products and tell you that this is the only way. I’m just sharing what I’ve used that works and has worked on multiple sites I’ve created and grown.
They’re not all fancy, they’re not all glamorous, but they all work to help you grow your email list.
1 – Your Content
I’m not even kidding. Your content is your #1 tool on your blog to grow your email list and it’s so, so often overlooked.
Your content is what is going to inspire your opt-ins, what you’re going to give your audience in exchange for their email.
Your content is what drives people to your site, it’s what makes them fall in love with you and it’s what makes them say ‘heck yeah, I want to hear more from this person’.
And your contents is what positions you as an ‘expert’ or as a person who has something valuable to offer.
Keep in mind how you’re going to use your content to grow your email list as your planning your posts and writing your articles. Knowing that your aim for every post is to have your reader opt-in will make you more aware of how you write and structure your content as well as what value you are delivering to your audience.
2 – ConvertKit
I know every Tom, Dick and Harry are raving about ConvertKit and just about every post about growing your email list talks about ConvertKit, but here’s the thing – that’s because it’s pretty frickin amazing.
Truth time (because that’s what I do) – I don’t use ConvertKit for this site. I used to, but I switched to ActiveCampaign. You see, ConvertKit is the baby of the email marketing world, and 18 months ago it didn’t have all the bells and whistles I need it to have. But ActiveCampaign did. So I made the painful switch over and have since created a seriously complex email marketing system (it makes me cross-eyed).
Now, ConvertKit have really upped their game and they haven’t upped their price. But ActiveCampaign has.
So, while I LOVE ConvertKit, it makes financial sense for me to keep this site with ActiveCampaign (and will save my sanity of changing my 50+ email sequences and 40+ tags over).
BUT – new sites I create are using ConvertKit to grow the email list.
3 – ConvertPlus
ConvertPlus is a powerful little plugin that will allow you to put an opt-in form just about anywhere on your site. I spent way too long and way too much money on subscription services to try and find a software that would allow me to do everything from infield subscription boxes, through to full page take over opt-ins and they all cost a small fortune each month.
Then, I came across ConvertPlus and was totally blown away. One plugin, one payment (for less than what I was paying monthly for the others) and it does everything I needed it to do! Happy!
4 – Pinterest
It’s no secret, I absolutely love Pinterest and I still believe it is one of the most underestimated growth tools in the blogging world (I don’t get why so many people invest so much time in Facebook when Pinterest has a far greater return).
Not only will Pinterest help you build your email list by driving traffic to your website, but it can also help you drive traffic directly to your opt-ins.
By creating dedicated landing pages for your opt-ins (you can do a singular one, a group of opt-ins or even a ‘library/collection’ of all of your resources) you can then create pinnable images that link directly to that page.
Pin those images on your boards and your group boards and get more traffic to your free opt-ins than you thought was possible.
Read More: How To Use Pinterest To Grow Your Email List
5 – LeadPages
The truth is, you don’t need LeadPages. You could hack together a few different bits and pieces that will make things work for you in a LeadPages like way. Which is what I was doing… and then I figured I was spending so much of my time ‘hacking’ these opt-ins together that I was working against myself.
Things that were taking me 30 mins to an hour before now only take 10 – 15 mins in LeadPages – max. It might not seem much but when you add that time together, each day, each week, each month… it really starts to add up.
I chose to pay for LeadPages for two years in advance which is by far the most cost-efficient option, but if you don’t have that kinda cashola to invest, you can go on a month to month subscription until you do…
LeadPages helps you create dedicated landing pages for your opt-ins so, so easily, which you can then create pins for and promote on Pinterest.
It’s like list building on steroids.
BONUS: Lumen5
Video is such a powerful way to reach your audience and is so incredibly versatile, so why not use it to grow your email list? You can create videos about your optin, explaining the benefits of it, or simply to encourage readers to sign up in just a few minutes with Lumen5.
You can create the perfect sized video for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or anywhere else you want to share your video and it literally takes a few clicks, even if you have no video editing experience. And they offer a free plan where you can create up to 5 videos a month!
So if you’re ready to get super serious about growing your email list, use these tools and see just how fast your email subscribers start coming in!