Social media and newsletters are important for a business, it’s free, it’s organic, it’s a great way to build awareness for your brand, and it’s valuable to have a direct connection with customers. But in order to have that direct connection with customers, they have to follow your business. Which is why you need a strong funnel and a robust email list. So how do you actually build that? And after they subscribe to your newsletter, how do you entice them not to hit the unsubscribe button?
Offer something for free
When businesses or founders craft a lead magnet–that free item or service given away in exchange for contact info–they need to lean into the magnetic part. I have built several different lead magnets for my own business, including How to Use AI to Make Content in a Human Way, 10 Tips to Make Magnet (vs Mediocre) Content & How to Be Confident on Camera. As a video marketing consultant, I lean on social media for brand awareness and lead generation but also recognize the value of the email list as a more direct connection.
Tori Dunlap of The Financial Feminist and HerFirst100k who now has several million followers across her platforms says back in 2021 she was able to get 10,000 news subscribers to her newsletter by creating a quiz. She capitalized on a few of her viral TikTok videos by writing in the post’s caption “take the quiz in our bio for a free personalized money plan.”
The quiz idea came to her because she offered a lot of resources with financial advice on her blog and social media, but people were still asking for answers. She built the quiz to entice people to learn their money personality and get a free personalized money plan. Her advice is to think about what your social media followers or ideal clients are asking for, and you will build trust with them by providing value. And value is what brings them to and keeps them on your newsletter mailing list.
Create a welcome sequence
Online business strategist Gemma Bonham-Carter recommends putting yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer and ask yourself, “what is the most pressing thing that I want to solve for myself right now? What is that immediate pain point, that thing that is just bugging me?”
One of Bonham Carter’s highest-performing free downloads is a string of emails she has used to launch a digital product. As to how to grow your list and keep people on your list, she says that ‘welcome sequence’ of emails is really important because that’s when those leads are the “hottest,” so don’t wait for 2 weeks to say hello. Lastly, she recommends making sure the recipient actually uses the free download – add language like “I just wanted to make sure you opened it up. Did you see email number six?”
And if this all feels overwhelming, Dunlap reminds us to “start small” and don’t overthink it, because you can build it up more over time.
As the prevalence and importance of social media grows, leverage the brand awareness you’re building on social media to establish person-to-person connections. The advice to not ‘overthink’ crafting your free download is just as applicable to the rest of your marketing, where it’s extremely important to both be authentic and execute.
