Creative Ways To Build Your List

Once you decide to expand your coaching business beyond your local area to the world wide web, you open up a world of opportunities to help people… and expand your earning potential.

Building your list is a key component to getting people into your programs and having a successful online business. When people join your list, it not only allows people to learn about you and your business but builds your relationship as well.

Fortunately there are plenty of fun and creative ways to build your list. I’m sharing several strategies below. I recommend that you start with ONE strategy. Stick with it for a few weeks before trying another strategy. This will help you be more effective AND avoid overwhelm.

Host A Webinar

Webinars are a great way to quickly share a TON of content and value with your audience.

Create a landing page so that visitors can sign up to attend the webinar and you can add them to your list. Share the landing page on social media, with your personal and professional networks, and in groups you’re a part of. You can also ask everyone who signs up to share the webinar with their friends – instant ‘word of mouth’ marketing.

Bonus tip: if you have a small list, try co-hosting the webinar with someone who serves the same niche. You’ll cross-promote to each other’s audiences to reach more people.

Run A Free Challenge

As I shared last week, running a free challenge is a powerful marketing strategy. It’s a quick and exciting way to get attention on your business while building your list and providing a ton of value to your audience right out of the gate. Challenges are more engaging than almost any other traffic/list building method around, but they’re definitely a bit more work.

A successful challenge requires a landing page, an email series, some bonus handouts and a Facebook group. Read more about setting up your own challenge right here.

Start Blogging

I recently posted about how blogging can help grow your business. Blogging can also be a great tool for growing your list.

In order to use your blog to grow your list, you want to give visitors multiple ways to join your list. This way, when people come across your post, they have a way to stay connected.

Here’s what I recommend:

• at the bottom of your blog posts, be sure to have an opt-in to join your list
• promote your free opt-in gift prominently on your blog, such as the the upper right corner of the page
• add an exit pop-up that promotes your free gift

Once you’ve set-up a few ways for visitors to join your list, here are a few ways to drive traffic to your blog posts.

Post To Social Media

Create a social media schedule to share valuable and engaging content with your audience. If your audience loves what you are sharing, they’ll pass it on and share it with their own networks.

When you post your content, be sure to include a clear CTA (call to action) that drives people to click and go to your website, where they can opt-in to join your list. I also recommend including an image in your post. Posts with images are much more likely get engagement.

You can create images, gifs, videos, lists, polls, recipes, workouts, inspirational quotes, memes, and more. This guide will help you create a plan that builds your audience and drives traffic back to your site.

Create Your Social Media ‘Wolf Pack’

Your content will be seen by more people if it isn’t only being shared by you. That’s why it’s important to find people to share your content for you. Get a group of friends and colleagues with similar audiences (and whose work you believe in) to commit to sharing each other’s content with their audiences. They share your content and you share theirs. You all get a wider reach and new fans! Win win for everyone.

Write Guest Posts

Spend some time researching other blogs, magazines, websites, publications, etc., that your audience reads and is interested in. Brainstorm a few ideas of articles that you could write for that site then send an email to the owner pitching the collaboration.

Most website owners and publishers are always looking for more content, so they’ll be open to the idea if you can provide value for their audience.

Make sure to include a brief bio about yourself at the end of the post and include your website URL, so that people can go to your website to learn more about you.

Check out my step-by-step post on getting guest posts.

Create SEO Friendly Content

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a huge topic – there are marketing experts and consultants that only focus on SEO. But even beginners can take advantage of some simple SEO tactics.

Start by doing a little keyword research to identify what your target audience is searching for. Once you have a list of keywords, brainstorm a list of blog topics you can write about that include those keywords.

Try to post content regularly that contains those keywords to increase your SEO. Include a variation of your keyword in these places:

• Your title
• Your meta description (Search engines show the meta description in search results.)
• Image alt-tags (This is text that appears if an image can’t load)
• In the first paragraph or two of text
• Once or twice more in the body

Writing for search engines and humans doesn’t have to be that tricky. Here’s an in-depth guide from CoSchedule to get you started.

If you have a WordPress website, you can download a plugin like Yoast to help you with your SEO.

Get Referral Partners

Similar to the ‘wolf pack’ idea, referral partners are people who share your content and programs with their own audience. The difference is that referral partners usually have some sort of deal with you where they get a commission or fee for sending business your way.

Referral partners are more likely to share your content, promotions and any PAID offers you have because they will get a commission. In order to focus on list building, ask referral partners to promote your free gift and any webinars or talks you’re hosting.

Do Podcast Interviews

Similar to writing guest posts, being a guest on someone’s podcast allows you to share your expertise with their audience. Plus, you don’t have to write anything! Do a search in iTunes for podcasts that your audience would find interesting and find out if they interview guests.

When doing a guest post or podcast interview, create a free downloadable gift and landing page that readers/listeners can go to to sign-up for your free gift and join your list.

Hold A Giveaway

Giveaways can add a lot of people to your list in a very short time. Using a giveaway tool like KingSumo increases the viral nature of your contest by giving entrants extra chances to win by sharing the contest with their networks.

For this to work, you have to choose the right prize. It should be something that your audience really wants, that specifically relates to the work you do, but won’t break the bank for you.

Brainstorm a list of things your audience would get excited about, like a fitness app subscription, a couple of books, a piece of gear, or even an online program. If you want to give a prize that is not something that you’ve created, it’s worth a shot to send an email to the company and ask if they’d be willing to donate it to you (especially if it’s something digital).

There are so many ways to build your list. The entrepreneurs that are most successful at list building pick one strategy at a time and focus all their efforts there. I recommend you do the same.

Start with the strategy that you feel aligns best with your skills. For example, if you are a great talker try to get some podcast interviews. If you love writing focus on guest blogging.

Set a goal for yourself, make a plan, and see it through for at least 3-4 weeks to start seeing results.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
Which of these methods sounds the most fun for you, and what would you like to implement? What have you implemented already and how did it go for you?