So recently, I talked to y’all about Email List Growth. If you haven’t read that yet, go check it out now and then come on back. I promise I will wait. Alright, now that you have checked that out, it is time to get a bit more in-depth and talk about some really great opt-in ideas. If you want to really explode your email list, you are going to need some really helpful and well-targeted opt-ins.
Email Opt-In Ideas
If you have been blogging for any amount of time, you know just how important an email list can be. There are many ways to build an email list and today we are going to focus on a few different opt-in ideas that can be tailored to just about any niche! The purpose behind these opt-in ideas is to get you, subscribers, to your email list that truly wants to hear what you have to say. It is more about quality over quantity. You can have a huge list, but if the people on it aren’t interested in what you have to say, then those numbers don’t mean much. Using targeted opt-ins can help you get real people on your list who truly want what you are selling.
Free Email Course
Everyone loves to get something for free. So offering a free email course is a great way to get people to sign up for your list. No matter your niche, there is probably something that you can teach your readers. One that I have done is a free email course on Sponsored Posts. I offer information about how I get my sponsored content and how you can do it too. The people who sign up for this are truly interested in blogging and making money online. Now that they are on my list, I know that I can send them helpful emails in the future about other blogging-related information.
Another wonderful thing about offering these free courses is that those who sign up are more likely to purchase a similarly themed paid course should you develop one. You know that they like this particular type of content, so they are the perfect audience to market a paid product to.
Any niche can come up with a course idea. There are parenting courses, crafting courses, and of course your blogging courses. They are also a great way to get feedback for potential paid courses in the future.
You can easily create one with a service like Mailer Lite ( which is what I did). You just use their automation software and when someone signs up they automatically get an email a day for so many days. This only has to be created one time and then boom, autopilot!
Make a Challenge
Challenges are a great way to engage with your audience. I have a Frugal Living Challenge that is in the Frugal Living section of my blog. Challenges can be really fun, and you get to learn what your audience really needs. My challenge is 7 days worth ofthings for my readers to try and do. They are simple ways to start saving money, like adding a dollar a day to a change jar or stopping buying a daily cup of coffee. I also tend to pose a question within the challenge, so readers will email me back and we can connect more that way on an individual level. Because of this challenge, I now have a specific list set up of individuals interesting in saving money and frugal living. I can now tailor emails just to them and share the products that they would be interested in.
Again, this is a great way to get targeted subscribers, which is what you want. You know they have a need and you can be there to fill it.
Content Upgrades
Do you have a post that is out-preforming many of your others? This would be a perfect opportunity to create a content upgrade! What I mean by that, is something that adds more detail and relevant information to the post for people who sign up for your list. I have a post about sponsored posts where I talk about influencer networks you can join. In that post, I offer a content upgrade of an even larger list of influencer networks.
This works because people are already on the page looking for information. They get some information, but have to sign up to get even more! Another example could be a post on meal planning where you offer a 7-day meal plan to those who sign up. So if you have a really popular post of two, just think of something that you can add to it for more information.
E-Book Chapter
I don’t personally have an E-book (yet anyway), but one really great opt-in would be offering a free chapter of your E-book. I would not recommend offering an entire book, but a chapter or two will really get those who sign up interested and wanting more. By doing this, you are more likely to sell the book to those who got the free chapter. You can even offer a discount to those who signed up. The subscribers are getting a taste of your book, and a discount, so they are then more likely to purchase your work.
Resource Library
Resource libraries are excellent opt-in ideas. You can compile a large number of relevant and useful information and offer it to your subscribers in one easy to get to the location. One idea would be to create a password-protected page on your blog and send out the password to those who sign up. These libraries can really vary depending on your niche. For food bloggers, you can offer a library of exclusive recipes and cooking tips. Parenting bloggers can offer a number of things from printables to kid-friendly activities.
Useful Printables
I love a good free printable. They can be fun and really helpful. Any niche can really take advantage of adding a printable to their blog posts as a way to attract more email sign-ups. Crafting blogger? Include a free printable template! Parenting blogger? Make a free printable chore chart! These are great if they are placed into specific posts to target a specific audience. They don’t even have to be crazy or elaborate. Something simple and helpful will attract just the right people.
Webinars
I love a good webinar and I am typically willing to sign up for a useful free one. Not only are these great ways to get sign-ups, but they are also a great way to gauge your audience. You can offer a free webinar to teach something, maybe couponing or crocheting. These people who sign up you know are interested, and you can now use this to create paid content that they will be willing to purchase. Webinars don’t have to be fancy or super long either. I personally like when they are 30 minutes to an hour. You can do a one-time offer, or offer a webinar a month. If you have something to teach, this is a great way to get people really engaged.
Video Series
People will also be willing to sign up for a free video series. This is similar to the E-mail course, only you will send videos to your subscribers. You can do a few short videos on any step-by-step process and send those out daily. Personally, I am a visual learner so I love these. Signing up for a video series that will teach me to create a craft, learn to sew, basics of couponing… you can count me in! Again, this adds to building your target audience so you can create products that they would pay for later down the road.
Email Opt-Ins
As you can see, the email subscribers are really where a large amount of focus should be. These are the people who want what you have. They are the ones who will be most likely to purchase your products in the future as well. Targeting specific areas will really help you grow as a blogger and a business.
Now that you know my top 8 opt-in ideas to build a targeted email list, I want to hear what you think! What are some ways that you plan to really engage your audience and get them to sign up for more?
Jessi is the creative mind behind The Coffee Mom, a popular blog that combines parenting advice, travel tips, and a love for all things Disney. As a trusted Disney influencer and passionate storyteller, Jessi’s authentic insights and relatable content resonate with readers worldwide.
I love the opt-in idea. I don;t have an email list and I am still on the fence about it, but if I decide to start one, I am definitely doing an opt-in.
I say go for it and start one! It is an excellent way to build readership and engage your audience š
Anyone who are in or wanting to dig in the e-commerce industry needs to read this! Very clear and knowledgeable.
Unfortunately I am not familiar with the blogger platform. I personally use WordPress .
Thanks for sharing these great ideas. I’ve had trouble getting my email list off the ground but I might give some of these ideas a try and see how I go!
These are good ideas! I have a really simple opt-in, but I’ve been trying to think of something better after the holidays are over. Maybe I can come up with a challenge.
I don’t have an email list that i use regularly but it seems like a great idea. I love all these tips and will consider this option.
I’m glad you liked it. I love having my email list to send exclusives to and it is a really easy way to get to know readers and engage in conversations with them
Great tips! It’s not exactly easy to build a list so this post is definitely going to help. It’s important to mix things up for your subscribers. It keeps them interested.
Love these ideas! I’ve been working on an opt in for awhile and it can be so difficult to get people to sign up to your email list without a good enticement!
I have just added a couple new opt-ins to my parenting blog as I am completely focusing on email marketing now. I need to build my list and start actually emailing versus my current RSS feed.
These are all really great ideas. I have been blogging for a little over three years, and have yet to implement a opt in. I want to create an ebook! I really need to make that my top priority for 2018.
I do have a form for people to subscribe to when they want to get up dates but I’ve never done opt in before. It’s definitely going to help grow your blog and your following!
Such great tips! I actually have a significant email list over 5,000 subscribers but it’s so dang expensive to email anything over 2K that I just froze my Constant Contact account. Unless you’re creating enough new content to warrant sending emails multiple times a month, it can be expensive for a blogger’s budget.
I love these ideas!! I will have to put a opt in for my email list on my blog to-do list!
There are some great ideas on this list. An email opt in is so important!
I am finding it hard to grow my email list so I like the idea of creating a printable or email course. What a great idea!
These are such great tips! I love email opt ins and they get me excited when Iām going to join a list.
These are some great opt-in ideas! I’m working on a batch of free (and useful, haha) printables to start using as an opt-in. The one I have on my site now has gotten me more subscribers than anything else, so sticking with what works! I need to bookmark this list for a reference because there are other really smart ideas here that I want to look into. Thank you for sharing!! š
Thanks for the information and great for people who haven’t made one yet. This post could help make mine a bit better.
I am always unsure on opt in ideas. Thank you. I need to really get to work and give these a try.
All very very good idea. When I signed up for Drip, they created an email course for me. Haven’t used it yet though
This is so helpful. Thanks for putting all of this info in one place and in such a straight forward way. Great for any blogger.
I have been slowly growing my email list, but would love to see it go farther. These are all such great ideas! Thank you!
These are great ideas for those that want to get a great email list established. Can sound a little difficult but it’s easy and definitely can be worth it!!
These tips are all very helpful! I am going to pin this to refer to…great info!!!
Great ideas. I write for beauty blogs so the printables and videos might be helpful, especially for tutorials or guides to buying products for the holidays.
A video tutorial type course would be fun , especially for those like me who are not great at makeup
These are great ideas! I’ve said for years I need to do something more with this but just keep neglecting it.
Great ideas! I use a Facebook group as an opt in incentive and it works really well!
These are some great ideas! I especially love the idea of doing a challenge and having people participate.
Very interesting & great ideas.
I just started one and I’m putting ideas together for a resource library/weekly writing challenge thing. I also try to write something every week that’s email list only.
That’s awesome! Yea I love to give exclusives to just those on my email list
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