My #1 Strategy to Grow Your Email List from Your Blog

Attention: This post includes affiliate links. I will earn a small commission if you decide to buy the service (e.g. the web hosting) over one of these links.

If your email list is zero (or close), then this post is for you.

I, too, have been where you now are.

I’ve faced the challenge of building an email list from nothing. And believe me, I’ve read almost every strategy on the internet on how to convert subscribers.

But it wasn’t until I tried this one simple trick that I started making real strides.

It took my teeny-tiny emal list from only 32 subscribers last year to over 500!

If you want to know why an email list is important for your blog at all – I wrote about this in-depth in my recent post, 3 Reasons You Need An Email List for your Blog.

Check it out for some information about why EVERY blogger should have one. Because at the end of the day, without an email list it’s way more difficult to build a profitable blog.

So, let’s dive into it. Here’s my go-to strategy for grabbing more email list subscribers quickly…

The Best Strategy to Gain More Email List Subscribers Quickly

The single most important thing I have learnt from building my email list: People love free stuff.

You do, I know I do. I love it when I receive free gifts, coupons, and of course FREE information! And your audience does too.

They trust you as an authority in your niche. And they want to know what you have to say and how you can help them uplevel and become a better version of themselves.

So, please keep this in mind: What a freebie is all about is value.

Unfortunately, many creative types struggle with asking their audience to take action. Don’t! If you think in terms of value, you’ll be happy to create a freebie.

Once you’ve pulled together a killer free offer, download, or product, the next step is using a popup on your blog to offer it.

This is the magic trick that did it for me! I had been implementing opt-in forms in blog posts, on the homepage, on special landing pages – you name it. But I always refused to create a popup because I, personally, find them super annyoing.

Well, I found out that luckily most people are not like me.

Ask your readers to subscribe to your mailing list in a popup and offer them a freebie full of extra value as an exchange for their email address.

I gain more than 100 new subscribers every month with this simple popup trick!

If you’re trying to kick off your email list, this is hands-down the best way to do it.

Why Popups Convert Better Than Static Opt-in Forms

Popups work.

The proof is in the success me and other bloggers have with this strategy.

According to CrazyEgg, popups, in comparison to static pages, increase subscribers by 1375%. (Wow, that’s a crazy number!)

My Email Popup Strategy

Now that you know that popups are a good idea, you’ve created a freebie, the next step is setting it up on your blog.

Placement on your blog is important.

I’ve placed our popup on the homepage for first time visitors at 30 seconds after they have landed on the page. I do this because it’s my most visited page on the blog and because it makes the most sense.

I would highly recommend doing the same for your blog.

On top of that, I also have the popup show up on blog posts (where most people land when they come from Pinterest or Google), on archive and category pages and on landing pages that are directly related to the current freebie.

This is our current email popup to capture new leads for our Grow Letter. Have you subscribed yet to get our amazing Blog Style Blueprint?

Another aspect to consider is design.

Your popup should be minimalistic in design, have a clear title and a call-to-action button. You can put the opt-in form directly onto the popup or redirect to an extra sign-up page with more information.

What you show when creating your pop up is basically a teaser. Consider it a small sales pitch. If you feel your freebie needs more explanation, create a separate landing page for it and link the call-to-action button to this page.

Of course, your freebie itself should be valuable – landing page or not. Make sure it makes sense with your pitch, blog niche, and is something your audience actually cares about!

If you find it hard to come up with new freebie ideas, check out my latest post on how to repurpose your blog content.

Tools to Build a Killer Email Popup for Your Blog

There are two critical tools I recommend using to capture your subscribers via an email popup.

One is Mailerlite. It’s the email marketing provider we use on all our platforms. It’s perfect for bloggers to manage an email subscriber list and easily send out an automated email with the freebie. I LOVE using it.

To design your popup, I highly recommend using Elementor Pro. They have a dedicated Popup Builder which I also used to build our Blog Style Blueprint popup.

Do you have an email popup installed on your blog? Which tools did you use to create it? Let me know in the comments and happy email list building!