How to build an email list that gets 35% open rate? (As explained by a full-time blogger)

Blogging has come past its identity as a hobby. Today, in 2020, it is a serious and definite source of income for many.

Full-time blogging is not easy and it is exactly for the same reason that not many people are able to create sustainable income out of it.

Opt-in forms are one of the simplest yet effective ways of building an email list for your blog. It’s a medium through which you can convert visitors on your blog to your subscribers.

All you need to do is to place an opt-in option for the visitor on your blog and watch your subscription rise organically.

You can place the opt-in form at various strategic points on your blog where the attention of the reader would be at its heights. take for instance, the footer, menu tab, sidebar, pop up form, welcome page etc.

Jeff Bullas manages to get maximum sign-ups and even downloads for gated content by placing an opt-in form that you cannot to miss to see. 

If pictures can speak a thousand words, a 30-second video can speak a million unspoken words. The communicative power of videos can be used as a tool to gather engagement and building up your email list.

Full-time bloggers can lean on the power of videos to attract and make blog visitors dwell more time on the blog. it can also be used as a medium to direct them to long-form content.

When people see interactive content, they are automatically drawn towards it. You can You can host a webinar or talk about your next post in engaging videos. It can help you build trust in the market and earn a reputation.

See How Luisa Zhou does this:

Yet another way of building your email list through videos is to gate important videos. When you lure audiences with free videos and offer something valuable through gated videos, they agree to provide you with their contact information.

Take for instance signing up for a webinar, a product launch, a demo video, celebrity launch and so on.

All you need to make sure is that the content that you’re offering is valuable and helpful to your audience.

Landing pages are powerful representations of your brand. They are the first space your blog visitors ‘land on’ by clicking on some external link or reference. Since landing pages are visited with a strong intent, they have the ability to convert visitors better than any other page in your website. So, make sure you put your best efforts to your landing page and present the call to action in a clear and crisp manner. 

For example, the landing page of Unbounce clearly shows what it has for its readers. It then asks them to sign up to read more of its content. This strategy can work wonders in building your email list when you draft an engaging title for your blog.

Unbounce also offers several pre-built landing page templates that you can use for your marketing campaigns or for signups.

Most of the bloggers on the internet have witnessed a 31 percent increased traffic to their blogs coming from social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, Pinterest etc.

The power of social media can help full-time bloggers create a niche for themselves on various platforms. It is also a great way to attract leads and build your email list. There are different ways of building your email list through social media channels. (Proven results)

• Promote an online contest such as a giveaway in exchange for their contact information from people.

• Create a campaign such as early access to your eBook or free resources that require readers to sign up in return.

• Add a Signup button to your brand page on Facebook, so that when customers like the content on your page, they don’t have to go anywhere to register.

• If you have an awesome visual content for your blog, use Pinterest to get the most out of it. It can be a tremendous platform to highlight your content and attract new leads.

See how Ramit did this on his Facebook Page:

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”– Bill Gates

if you don’t collect feedback for your blogs and how they are adding value to your visitors, how can you improve your blog quality? Hence, the need to request feedback.

Also, feedbacks are an excellent way of gathering engagement. These are one of the self-promotion strategies that not just firm your online presence but also help you build a concrete email list.

People love to share thoughts on elements that concern them. As a blogger, you can take the best advantage of this fact and add a comment option or chat besides your post. You can invite commenters to subscribe to your blog.

As more and more people talk about your post, it will help you reach out to a much wider audience and thus, gather more possibilities for building your email list.

Alex does a great job on his blog Ride The Pen:

Partnerships can work s magic for full-time bloggers. Guest blogging can help you generate leads for your brand and build your email list instantly.

You can act as a guest writer and collaborate with other writers that share the similar flair as yours. It can gather engagement and also establish your presence among the audience of the partner blogger. Agree to promote each other’s newsletters and request for contact information.

Similarly, you can invite experienced and skilled writers in different fields to write a guest post for your blog. Use social media promotion strategies to engage more and more people around it and ask for their email addresses. You can also run webinars with other bloggers and split leads later.

Blogging is a fun experience and an excellent platform to reach out to people. Recent research by Statista states that the number of bloggers is estimated to reach close to 31.7 million by the year 2020.

In a race like that, there is a need for bloggers to stand out and build email lists with loyal subscribers. These proven techniques can be started by today and easily implemented. Make sure that you attack your target customers from all popular platforms and angles.

Full-time bloggers start facing the hardships of the market, once they step into it. For those who already have an email list, statistics advocate that the marketing database basically degrades by about 22.5 percent every year (might sounds scary). The solution out of it is to update your email list regularly.

Just keep your content engaging and practices smart. Follow this blog and also read about how to create awesome content for your blog (that your audience will love).