June 16, 2017

Image courtesy of (Stuart Miles)/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A vast majority of the most famous Internet marketers ask for your e-mail address for a precious giveaway. Their posts also highlight the importance of a massive list of e-mail subscribers. Many brands offer serious discounts for subscribing to their e-mail newsletter. Should an e-mail address be so important that brands ask for it?

The answer is a big and bold YES! E-mail matters more than you think. I strongly recommend checking out this compiled research by Adobe, Adestra, and E-mail Monday about how Europeans use their e-mails. Briefly, people check their e-mail first thing in the morning by using Smartphones, and e-mail has the biggest ROI (Return on Investment) from all marketing channels.

There are tons of reasons to collect e-mail addresses. As with everything in this world, beginning is the hardest part. It’s simpler to get another 1,000 subscribers when you already have 1,000 than to get 500 when you have zero.

One of the solutions to getting the first 1,000 e-mail subscribers is to create an excellent piece of content. Add it to your blog, and deliver it into the inboxes of people who ask for it. The better your giveaway is, the more e-mail addresses you’ll get.

Without any further ado, here is a complete, simple, and actionable plan to get your first 1,000 e-mail subscribers.

1. Prepare Your Mentality

There are two strategies to reach this achievement. The first one is to game Internet users with various tricks or even buy lists of e-mail addresses. It may have instant results, but don’t do it! You are more or less stealing e-mail addresses and invading people’s personal space.

The successful strategy is to convince people to give you their e-mails. It means more effort and a constant struggle, but it’s more profitable in the long run. Before triggering your campaign of acquiring subscribers, you should have a clear answer to these questions:

Am I ready to invest my time in this challenge?

Some marketers have achieved 1,000-plus subscribers from a single blog post. Others got 700 subscribers from a guest post. These successful stories are aimed to show that it’s possible to get subscribers with valuable content. Unfortunately, such tales disappoint those who work hard but receive significantly fewer subscribers. These case studies are exceptions; the norm is to invest much time and get a small but constant flow of subscribers.

Am I able to create an irresistible giveaway?

Neil Patel and Brian Dean have stressed many times in all speeches and articles that the core of their success lies in the principle, “provide value before asking for value.” You must embrace the same mindset to reach the 1,000 e-mail subscribers milestone. The biggest issue is to be able to create that irresistible giveaway. It should resolve a subscribers’ problem. Here are some giveaway suggestions:

• PDF guides;

• Useful spreadsheets;

• List of items;

• Various files (PSD files, code snippets).

Do I have a public target for the giveaway?

The success of your giveaway and your campaign heavily relies on identifying people who genuinely need what you offer. They will interact with and buy from you. It is wrong to blog about vegan food and try to attract people by providing a free guide about semantic SEO. Instead, it makes sense to offer such a giveaway if your blog is about Web design and Internet marketing.

Once you have a decent answer to all the above questions, you should head to the next phase.

2. Content Production

Creating an irresistible giveaway requires a lot of research and many resources. People won’t give you their e-mail addresses unless you offer something useful. Don’t cut corners at this stage; try your best. Here are some tips that will help you create good content.

Don’t re-invent the wheel; just make it better.

Creating a 100 percent original giveaway is awesome. However, it’s almost impossible. Don’t strive for impossible things, just craft the best content.

After you have decided what kind of content to offer, start doing comprehensive research. Don’t be afraid to spend a lot of time on it. For instance, Brian Dean spends more than 30 hours for a lead magnet.

Use the proper tools.

Content production is a difficult task, and you should use tools to help you in this regard. Luckily, the Internet is full of such tools.

Finally, after many struggles, you have created the first giveaway! It’s a huge step forward, but it’s not enough. The next step is the technical implementation. Its role is simple—to automate the giveaway delivery to subscribers.

3. Technical Implementation

Even though it sounds complicated for non-techy individuals, this automation process is fairly straightforward. All you need to do is select a marketing automation platform and get your hands dirty with it. MailChimp has exhaustive support for automation, and Sumo holds webinars showing how to use its tools. Other companies combine both approaches. What matters is that you have at your disposal many technical solutions to automate the subscription process.

Wrapping Up

Depending on your traffic, getting 1,000 e-mail subscribers may happen in a few hours or in a month. Make a good first impression by sending a nice e-mail containing your gift for the subscribers. Check this detailed guide about e-mail structure and layout before sending your first message.

I hope that these tips will help you, but none of them should replace your effort. Be aware—no pain, no gain!

Roland Pokornyik is the CEO and co-founder of Chamaileon.io — e-mail builder for teams, and EDMdesigner.com — responsive e-mail editor API. His company helps marketers to create high-quality responsive e-mail templates without writing a single line of code.