Wouldn’t it be nice if collecting emails for your list was as easy as collecting candy at Halloween? Building a robust email list is one of the most important things you can do to grow and nurture your online educational business, but it can also be time consuming. Email marketing can also be considered more of a marathon than a sprint because you don’t always see the fruits of your labor right away, which can lead to giving up too soon. Here are email list building tips that can grow your engaged subscribers and conversions.
Email list building is incredibly effective and has several advantaged compared to other forms of online promotion. One of my favorite benefits is that you own your list! You can take it with you wherever you go, unlike followers on each social media channel. You also don’t have to worry about changing algorithms or pay-to-play limitations. Email marketing also allows powerful segmentation options, allowing you to target subscribers based on their interests and needs. Finally, email marketing is also a low-cost option per subscriber compared to other paid advertising. Many email marketing plans start out with free tiers while you’re learning the ropes!
But how do you get subscribers in the first place? You need offers that you can use as incentives and the right strategies to effectively promote those offers to attract more subscribers. With a thoughtful email list building growth plan in place, you can cultivate meaningful relationships with subscribers and maximize the opportunities for repeat sales.
Develop Email List Building Offers
There are several types of offers you can provide in your email list building strategy. This is not an exhaustive list, but these ideas are perfect to get started. They include: lead magnets, email mini-courses, coupon codes, contests/giveaways, and quizzes.
Lead Magnet
Lead magnets are pieces of content like checklists, printables, templates, or ebooks that provides immediate, tangible value on a topic. For example, you could create a Parent Communication Template Pack including email and newsletter templates for updating parents on student progress and upcoming events.
Email Mini Course
A mini course delivered over a series of 3-5 emails works well to nurture new subscribers. Each email provides a lesson or tip that builds on the previous one. For instance, you could do a 5-day mini course on classroom management with lessons on creating expectations, reward systems, handling disruptions, involving parents, etc.
Coupon Code
Offering a discount code for 10-25% off a paid product or one-time service offers an immediate incentive to subscribe and purchase. For example, you could offer 15% off a curriculum guide or 25% off your first month of tutoring sessions. Be sure to run your numbers in order to know what you can safely offer while still profiting.
Giveaway
Tools like Rafflecopte or KingSumo make it simple to run contests and giveaways as part of your email list building strategy. The prize could be a free 30-minute tutoring session, a premium resource from your shop, or even a gift card.
Quiz
Creating a quick 5-10 question quiz on a topic relevant to your niche is an engaging offer if you provide customized results. For example, you could have a “What Reading Level Is Your Child” quiz and then provide specific tips based on the results. Be sure to require their email to access the results.
How to Time Offers
It’s important to schedule your offers for maximum benefit. Analyze how your offers relate to certain seasons, months, or events to capitalize on the times when people tend to need your resources or spend more money. For example, the end of this month marks Thanksgiving and Black Friday (the official start of the holiday shopping season!), so it’s the perfect opportunity to provide an enticing lead magnet or coupon code to your audience. How can you save teachers valuable prep time this holiday season with your resources??
You could create a special Black Friday ebook with “25 Educational Black Friday Deals” highlighting the best teacher/tutor discounts and resources available. Short on time? Offer a limited-time Black Friday coupon code for 25% off your online course or tutoring services to attract new leads.
Determining which offers will resonate with your audience requires trial and error. Start by creating a few of each of these various incentives and then monitor your data after a few months to see which ones convert subscribers best. Double down on the higher ranking offers in your promotions moving forward! Keep in mind that your offers should be related to your paid products and service to provide value related to your niche in order to attract leads with the highest conversion rates.
Promote Your Offers to Maximize Subscribers
Unfortunately there’s no magic fairy to deliver your offers to those who are most likely to sign-up for them. This means you need to actively and consistently promote your opt-in offers across various social media channels and your website to maximize email signups.
Simply creating a lead magnet will result in very few list additions if you don’t actively promote it. You’ll need to develop a promotion strategy utilizing various methods to get your offers in front of your audience. Then remind your followers frequently about the value they’ll receive by signing up!
Landing Pages
Create dedicated landing pages on your website for each unique offer. These pages should provide details about the offer, testimonials, images, and an email signup form. Promote the landing pages on social media posts, in your email newsletters, and anywhere else that makes sense for your business (Facebook page, Facebook group, Instagram bio, Twitter bio, LinkedIn, etc.). You can also “pin” an opt-in offer post to the top of your social media feeds so it stays visible as new content is added below it. Remember to update the offers and landing pages periodically to attract both new and existing followers.
Pin Landing Pages on Pinterest
Pinterest is another tool for driving traffic and boosting conversions. With its visually appealing format and massive user base, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity to showcase your landing pages. Start by creating eye-catching graphics that align with your brand and resonate with your target audience. Use persuasive language in your pin descriptions to entice users to click through to your landing page. Include a clear call to action in your pins, directing users to take the desired action on your landing page.
Embedded Signup Forms
Embed email signup forms relevant to specific offers within blog posts, in your sidebar, at the top of content categories, and other locations across your site as appropriate. This way when visitors are reading related content, the form is right there inviting them to sign up for more on that topic.
For example, if you offer online courses on classroom management, you could embed a form in blog posts about behavior challenges that says “Struggling with Classroom Behavior? Get my 5 Tips for Better Classroom Management instantly by joining my email list!”
Because the form is positioned within an article related to a problem the reader has, they will be more likely to sign up for related content. Having embedded forms relevant to the topic helps capture more leads compared to having a generic signup form. Learn more about writing enticing CTAs in this post!
Website Popups
Popups get a bad reputation, but when used politely they can be another effective email list building tool. You can time popup forms for when visitors first arrive at your site, are about to leave (exit intent), or have spent some time engaged (time delay or scroll percentage). Popups make sure visitors don’t miss your best offer.
Exit intent popups (when visitors start to leave) convert particularly well. These popups activate when a visitor on your site starts to leave by moving their mouse towards closing the browser tab or window. This signals they are disengaging and offers the opportunity to capture their attention one last time.
As a teacherpreneur, you could use these by having a popup with a message like “Don’t miss out! Sign up to get my 5 Secrets to Engaging Distracted Students instantly” along with an email signup form. Since the reader was leaving, likely because they didn’t find what they wanted, this popup targets a common pain point directly. The promise of receiving tips for engaging distracted students may compel users to stick around and subscribe before exiting.
Exit intent popups are powerful for teacherpreneurs because they capitalize on a reader disengaging to flip them into an email lead. Just be careful not to overuse popups on your site or you may annoy visitors rather than converting them.
Alert Bars
Alert bars are attention-grabbing banners spanning the top of a website. The attention-grabbing banner drives signups by keeping the offer in front of the visitor’s view as they explore your site. For a teacherpreneur, this could be used to highlight a compelling lead magnet offer like “Free PDF: My Top 10 Tips for Classroom Management – Sign Up Below for Instant Access.”
The bar would have a brief explanatory message about the lead magnet offer, along with a signup form or button. Because it sits prominently at the top, it’s highly visible no matter what page a visitor is on.
One last encouraging way to use alert bars is with a countdown timer. People feel more inclined to sign up for an offer when it is a limited time event or special. Add a countdown timer to your alert bar and use it for rotating limited-time offers.
Cross Promotion
As a teacherpreneurs, you can partner with other education bloggers, online course creators, tutors, etc. who serve the same target audience to cross-promote your opt-in offers.
This allows each participant to tap into additional audiences and attract new leads by featuring compelling offers relevant to those groups. Successful cross-promotion relies on finding partners with audiences highly interested in the niche you serve. Teacherpreneurs can significantly expand their reach by collaborating with complementary businesses on lead generation campaigns. Learn more about collaboration in this post!
Start Your Email List Building Work Now
When it comes to email list building, you need both compelling offers to use as incentives and effective promotion to get those offers in front of potential subscribers. Offers like lead magnets, contests, and quizzes entice visitors to exchange their email address for something of value. Dedicated landing pages, pinned social posts, website popups, alert bars, and cross-promotion partnerships ensure your offers are visible across multiple channels.
By creating high-quality, niche-relevant offers and persistently promoting them everywhere your target audience is, you can continuously attract fresh leads interested in your educational focus area. A robust email list allows you to build relationships through ongoing nurturing and convert your free offers into sales by sharing deals and resources exclusive to subscribers.
For more help with email list building, you can visit this email marketing posts. I also offer newsletter start up assistance to help launch your email marketing strategy on the right foot. Let’s work together to convert website visitors to subscribers! Learn how to welcome subscribers to your newsletter, what to include in your emails, how to create funnels, and automatically send future blog posts too.
