All About Freebies From Arizona
Building freebies and email lists are amazing ways to provide free value to your community! In this episode, our host Kristina, along with her business partner Maria Tassi, dive into the correlation between freebies and email lists, and how you can get started with building your very own today.
As a new business owner with tons on your plate, you may find yourself resisting making a freebie or establishing an email list of your very own. There are, after all, so many things that you should be doing. However, we believe that this is one of those foundational tasks that should be prioritized early on. Take messy action, find out what your audience is looking for, and get something out there.
What Is An Email List?
An email list is a platform (we love Flodesk!), or even an Excel spreadsheet, where you are collecting the emails of folks that you are building community with.
Why An Email List Is (Gasp!) More Important That Social Media
If you’re building a community, you also want to be building a community off social media.
Having an email list is important because when you’re showing up on social media, you’re actually on borrowed land. You’re not in ownership of any of the platforms. Your account could get hacked / deleted or the platform could just simply cease to exist tomorrow—along with your audience. However, when you have an email marketing platform, you can back up all of your emails and continue to grow your community. You own that data.
The great thing about email lists is that you can also segment your audience into different groups based on these people’s interests, purposes, location, or if they are a current/past client. This also allows us to track which freebie or lead magnet certain people came from.
How To Grow Your Email List With Freebies
The purpose of a lead magnet of a freebie is to get people on your email list.
Say your ideal clients are entrepreneurs. You would want to create something of such value that an entrepreneur would want it and be willing to give their email in exchange for it. For example, our first freebie is a Story Starter Guide with 30 days of story ideas.
The choice of what this freebie holds is important to consider. We know that showing up on Stories can be a sore spot for many, so we created that value. You want just-in-time information that’s enough of a hook so people will want to continue to engage with you. Yet, not so much information that people are overwhelmed by it. A workbook is an excellent resource and a quiz is also very interactive and engaging. But, it really comes down to what season your audience is in and how you can best provide for them.
Your freebie should be designed exactly for your ideal client, not for you. Make it easy and accessible for where they are currently at in their business. You could even try testing it out on some trusted clients. If it doesn’t hit in the way you thought it would, don’t be afraid to pivot and adjust as needed.
How To Promote Your Freebies
Social media is an amazing tool for promoting your freebies and email list. Talking about it in your Stories is particularly effective. Once a week is an ideal amount— even if you only have one freebie to share with people. Sometimes we overestimate how often people view our content. Oftentimes no one remembers and they skip through it. If you’re nervous about the idea of selling people on something, remember that this is a low-stakes, free offer. Asking for their email in return isn’t a huge ask.
So, if you’re on a podcast talk about it. If you're at a networking event, talk about it. If you’re online, talk about it. If someone else is talking about it online, re-share it and create that social proof! Also, make sure that your freebie has a weblink that is easy to remember and access, not long-winded and complicated.
Although it is a long game, Pinterest can be an amazing tool for promoting freebies. The audience is primed to shop and they are actively looking for things to buy or opt-into. The platform does, however, respond well to frequency. It wants you to be posting 1-3 times a day—which we know is a lot of work.
Other Ways To Build Your Email List
Although freebies are a great way to build your email list, there are other activities that you can be doing.
Typically, email has a much higher conversion rate than social media. Due to this fact, we love to host webinars. Many people host these as a precursor for a big launch or program. However, we believe that the less time you spend pitching, the better. If you provide high-value to people, they will participate. We simply want more people in our world.
You can start by writing a great sequence, building out some visuals, and spending an hour of your time talking about something you’re passionate about showing or teaching people. It can be incredibly basic and easy going. You essentially want to show your value and pour into people, leaving them wondering what they would get out of a paid service experience with you.
Cultivating Your Email List After The Fact
Discover a way that you can provide value back to your email list weekly. These can be little things.
For example, we send out a weekly newsletter called The Weekly Snippet, where we share updates, resources and client wins. We also leave these emails open-ended, encouraging our audience to reach out and engage with us.
Getting Started
Find yourself an email list provider (like Mailchimp or Flodesk).
Then, think about what your high-value freebie could be and start designing it.
Place this on your website and promote it.
Create an email or a cadence of emails that deliver the freebie to your audience.
Maintain your email list community by engaging with them and sharing consistent value.