15-minute Hack to Increase Your Email List
Surveys consistently show that email marketing offers a high ROI and can supercharge your business’s growth. That’s great news, but first, you need email subscribers.
One of the best ways to grow an email list is to provide plenty of value in exchange for subscribing. My 15-minute hacks will help you do just that with micro-content upgrades.
These content upgrades are a kind of lead magnet, but they aren’t an eBook that takes you 20 hours to write, edit, and format. Instead, you’ll make your marketing a tiny bit smarter by repurposing assets that you already have.
I’ll walk you through three different types of micro-content upgrades. By setting these up as gated content, you can quickly create a library of lead magnets, grow your list, and increase your business with email marketing.
What is gated content?
When content is “gated,” it simply means that the resource is behind a landing page “gate” that requires an email to unlock it. In this case, the gate is an email subscription. You increase subscribers by giving them valuable content in exchange for their email addresses.
To make any kind of content gated, you’ll set up a landing page where visitors input their email addresses and agree to receive emails from you. Once they’ve agreed, they get access to the content. You can set this up through Mailchimp or any other email marketing system. Mailchimp has a helpful guide to using landing pages.
3 Micro Content Upgrades to Increase Your Email List
Share your templates as gated resources
If you’ve been following along with me, you know that I’m all about streamlining work with templates and systems. Templates are a sure-fire way to boost productivity, but we’re going to go further.
Look through the templates that you use. Which ones would be appealing to your ideal clients?
Let’s look at an example. Whenever I cook up a new email campaign, I start with a Trello template. I know the template is valuable because I use it all the time.
To turn my Trello template into a resource for email subscribers, I simply copy it, make it public, grab the link, and create the landing page. The Trello link is the resource that I’ll share with a subscriber.
There’s one more step. You need to make sure that your landing page isn’t just a random URL floating around the internet. You can do this by creating a pop-up on your website, sharing it in a social media post, or attaching it to a blog. In my example, I’d use a blog post on email marketing. Within the post, I’d insert a call to action like “Use my Trello template to streamline your next email campaign,” which links to the landing page.
2. Create worksheets from blog posts
How many times have you read an article that was full of great tips but then had no clue how to start implementing the advice?
Downloadable worksheets are one of my favorite content upgrades. Worksheets take the valuable, expert information you’ve put into a blog post and make it actionable for your readers.
To create a worksheet, start by copying your blog post into an editing tool of your choice. My favorite is Canva, but this could also be Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
For each section, step, or tip in the blog post, create 1-3 questions. Put in a blank spot where the reader can fill in their answers.
Once you’ve finished, it’s time for a landing page. Make the worksheet available to download, or send it as an email attachment in an automated email. Link your landing page to the related blog with a strong call to action.
Need more help designing a worksheet? Check out this in-depth guide to creating worksheets with Canva.
3. Bundle your content on a single topic
One last way to create micro-content upgrades: collect resources that you have on a single topic and bundle them together. You’re not creating anything completely new, but you’re making all that information easy to consume.
For example, imagine a financial planner named Kate. She created a webinar series for small business owners, focused on planning for retirement. Kate could upload those videos into a tool like Teachable and turn them into a micro-course, available only to email subscribers.
Bundled content can be multi-media as well. Let’s say that Kate has several blog posts about retirement, a worksheet specifically for small business owners, and a video case study. To create “The Small Business Owner’s Retirement Guide,” Kate could combine the blog posts into a PDF, add the worksheet and video file, and share the content as a ZIP file.
The information isn’t new — it was already on Kate’s blog and YouTube channel. However, she’s now provided an easier way to get it by curating and packaging the content.
Content upgrades grow your list efficiently
Email marketing is a proven way to increase your business. Lead magnets can grow your subscribers. But the hours you spend on marketing are hours that you’re not available to your customers.
You don’t need to set aside 20 hours to create a new eBook. I love these micro-content upgrades because they expand on work you’ve already done while creating value for your email subscribers.
The point of Tiny Marketing isn’t to hustle harder. It’s to maximize your impact with smarter, smaller efforts.
How do you turn new subscribers into customers?
Remember, your email list is a tool. The goal isn’t to have a big list but to have an engaged list that converts.
To help a subscriber become a customer, you’ll need to nurture them with a compelling email welcome series.
