Tried everything to reach your first 1000 email subscribers to no avail? Considering giving up on your efforts altogether? Don’t. Read our 3-Step guide and get things on track!
Growing your email list to 1000 email subscribers is a slow process that can, at times, feel impossible, moving at a crawling pace.
Becoming an email marketing expert is hard, and no matter what you try, you can’t get your list to grow; perhaps you still have few to no subscribers at all. It’s frustrating and disheartening, to say the least.
There are so many different strategies that people often employ to try and grow their follower list, but in fact, they may be some of the least effective.
Fear not— there are a couple of sure-fire tactics you can use to get your email subscriber list to grow substantially.
These tactics are very simple, yet rarely shared, and they can make the difference between 10 and 1,000 subscribers.
In this guide, we will lay out the 3 steps that you should follow to get your email subscribers list to your first 1,000.
As you read, you may think, wow, really? That simple?
Don’t worry— these steps appear to be basic, but they drive big results and help to get your email subscriber strategy up to par.
We can’t wait to share them with you.
Let’s get started!
But before we do, we want to share one piece of vital knowledge that will be the most important truth to gaining more email subscribers.
The Key to Getting 1000 Email Subscribers
This is what you must keep in mind at all times while trying to grow your subscribers:
You won’t find success if you don’t truly understand your ideal customer and client base.
That’s simply the hard truth— understanding your target audience and your ideal customer is the absolute first step into growing your list to 1000 email subscribers, and ultimately, growing your business.
If you don't know who you're talking to, then your email marketing message is going to be less effective. Since we know that open rates are one of the most important metrics to pay attention to, it pays to know what makes your audience tick.
You must have a deep understanding of your audience in many aspects:
| What they love | What they need | What problems they have |
|---|---|---|
| What types of solutions they are looking for | Their habits | Who they are (demographics) |
This is fundamental to any business, and this knowledge and necessity also transfers to email list success.
If you already feel you have a deep understanding of this, wonderful!
If you think you could solidify your understanding of your ideal client a bit more, use the bullet points we listed above to create an ideal client profile.
As we move on through these next three steps, always keep in mind your ideal customer and make sure you have this understanding set before you continue trying to implement the steps.
Let’s get going with step one!
Step #1: Start with the 10-Person Rule
A big problem is that people set these huge, absolutely unattainable goals.
It’s like when someone is trying to lose weight, they say, “I’m going to lose 100 pounds!” But then fail after the first week.
The problem is that they started too big— in order to get to the 100, you’ve got to start small, step by step. Growth is a staircase, and each step has to be climbed in order to get anywhere.
The same is true for growing your email list. People often try to think big and forget to build a real foundation from which to expand on.
On your way to getting 1000 email subscribers, you want to start small. This is where the 10-person rule will come in handy.
This term, the 10-person rule, was coined by Nathan Barry, and the premise is very straightforward.
How to Use the 10-Person Rule:
As you may have already guessed, you’re going to need 10 willing participants for this first step.
What you should do is think of 10 people who would get something out of your writing and the information you share, or would simply enjoy it in some way.
It doesn’t have to be a type of audience in particular; it can be friends, family, co-workers, people from church, book club members— literally anyone you know who you consider would participate and enjoy what you have to share.
Once you’ve identified and noted the 10 people, you’re going to send them a direct email and ask them a set of three questions, including the following:
- What frustrates you the most when learning about [insert topic here]?
- Which websites, blogs, forums, etc. do you like visiting to learn about [insert topic here]?
- I’m starting a new site/course/email list/etc. to teach [topic], and I think you’d be an awesome beta reader. Can I count on you?
These questions are invaluable for the first step of building 1000 email subscribers.
They are simple and direct, but you’ll gain a plethora of information about your potential subscribers and how to hook people in.
Remember: you’ve got to know your audience intimately, so asking questions like these helps you to get into the mind of your audience and potential clients, making you more successful in the long run.
Another approach to the three questions is to send out the first two, and then follow up with the third question based on the responses you receive from the first two.
This is a good way to see who may be seriously interested after building a rapport with them and engaging with them based on their answers.
The idea here is to wrap up step one with 10 new subscribers, a resource list of websites, blogs, etc. that are frequented by your target audience, as well as potential topics for your next blogs based on the responses to question number one.
The good thing about this step is that it isn’t just a step one, one time.
You can repeat this cycle as frequently as you’d like, each time building rapport with new potential subscribers and gaining more insights and suggestions for strategic growth through their question responses.
This approach is incredibly advantageous because it’s personal, engaging, and asks the people you contact to reflect and respond; it also demonstrates to them that their opinion and responses are important and valuable to you. People want to feel valued.
In some cases, people have reached out to more than ten people— 50, 100, and more, successfully growing their email subscribers list to over a thousand.
This personal approach works, so if you remember anything from our 3-step guide, let this be it.
Step #2: Build Relationships, not Lists
Step 2 piggy-backs off of step one in the sense that your main focus should not just be creating a list of names and emails, but building relationships with the people who subscribe to your emails.
In fact, your email subscribers list is much more than just a list— it’s a base of actual human beings that opted-in to a service that you provide, people who want to read what you have to say. That is important.
You’ve got to make sure that you do two key things:
- Know who is on your list
- Understand them and know what they want
The second point is basically a repetition of our must-know tidbit, but we can’t say that enough. The first point, however, is also very important to the success of your email list.
Remember: More isn’t always better, and if you’ve got a bunch of people who sign up just for the sake of a number, you’re going to be perpetually frustrated with the results that you get.
Not only that, it’ll cost you, and you’ll see a slew of unopened emails with a lack of business growth.
It’s not uncommon, and it happens every day.
People are so obsessed with the “big growth” like we talked about in step 1 that they lose sight of the realness behind their email subscribers list and simply try to gain more, more, more.
It’s not worth it— in fact, it will set you back and you’ll have to re-do everything.
Don’t focus on the numbers right away. Focus on the relationship.
Focus on the people behind the emails and have an intentional strategy that provides them value; focus on solving their problems and providing information that benefits them.
Ask them to engage with you. Give them more to read and check out.
When you have email subscribers that actually read your emails and care about what you send out, you’ll be on the road to business success.
After all, the ultimate purpose of growing your email list to 1,000 subscribers is to grow your business. The best way to do that is through value and relationships.
How-to Breakdown:
In order to continuously provide your email subscribers with something that is beneficial and relationship-building, we’ve got three go-to tips to help you stay focused on the people behind the emails:
1. Provide educational content: you can provide step-by-step guides, how-tos, product guides, FAQs, and more. Know what your target audience cares about and tailor your educational content to things that benefit them and highlight your product or service subtly.
2. Segment your subscribers: If you’ve already got some subscribers, or want to start targeting your subscribers even more specifically, you can create different subscriber groups based on specific interests and/or recent purchases.
3. Engage them: It’s always beneficial to have an active presence in your emails and ask subscribers to engage with you. It’s similar to step 1, but you can do this periodically to do some market research and see how your subscribers are doing. You can ask them for preferences, opinions, ideas, and more.
Let’s talk more about tip 1 in the third and final step.
Step #3: Provide Value and Teach Your Subscribers
Most people now know how to use an email account with ease; their main concern is keeping their information safe and have become more selective when giving out their email addresses for marketing and subscription purposes.
They want to know that they’ll receive something of value from sharing their email, that they won’t be spammed left and right, and that they can trust the person or business that they are sharing it with.
This is the reason why general taglines like “join our newsletter!” doesn’t funnel hundreds of people to your email list— it’s very broad and doesn’t indicate that there is any value being provided.
It’s simply indicating that there is going to be more and more emails, something that most people definitely don’t need these days.
I’ve seen some inboxes well over 20k emails and well, it’s no surprise that people have become more selective with their email sharing.
Since there are so many businesses and services offering newsletters these days, newsletters are equated to spam in the eye of the consumer.
Remember: People want to know that you’re doing something different, and that they’re going to get something beneficial from you.
So, To remedy this, you want to teach your subscribers something— offer content that provides value, like FAQs, courses, guides, and the like. When you offer content like this, you set yourself apart.
The thing is that your target audience wants you to help them; they want you to provide options and solutions to their problems.
If you feel that your subscriber level is low, it’s probably because you haven’t tapped into that yet; people don’t see how you help them to solve their problems.
When people feel that you are helping them and that you are offering valid and practical solutions to their problems, they are much less likely to resist; people always look for a direct benefit, and that’s a big one.
You don’t ever want to have to beg people to sign up— you should always show them why they should want to sign up.
When you do this, they’ll be the ones that are actively trying to become a part of what you have to offer.
That’s the good news— that’s exactly what you want! You’ll be happy to oblige, and your email list will continue to grow.
If you’re still wondering where to begin in terms of offering your subscribers educational content, we’ve got just the thing for you.
Method for Creating Educational Emails:
There are five things you’ll want to do when planning out content that will be of value to your subscribers.
An email course is just one of the many options that you can implement, but we wanted to give you some basic framework so that you can get moving on it.
Step #1 First, consider your target audience— what is a problem on the forefront of their mind that is connected to your topic?
Step #2 What can you do to help solve that problem? Write down as many ideas as you can; what are the steps they should take to solve the problem? Create a guide anywhere from 5-10 steps, whatever makes sense. Don’t force it.
Step #3 Take each of those steps and write an email on each one. You can then combine them and offer them together as an email course.
Step #4 You’ll offer this free of charge on your main website, blog, social media, etc., and you can set up the mails to naturally drip out in sequence once someone signs up.
Step #5 Congrats! There’s your first email course.
It’s a straightforward process, and it’s our final step in growing your email list to 1,000 subscribers. Don’t use generic, blanket terms to try and get people to sign up— it won’t work.
Offer them something of value and deliver on that. It shows your subscribers that you understand them, that you care about their problems, and that you can help them.
Perfect for relationship building!
Why do I need 1,000 Email Subscribers?
You may be wondering, why 1,000? What’s the science behind that number?
Well, it’s not that there is magic behind the number 1,000.
It just marks a common measure of success for many people, and it signifies a bigger goal of more email subscriber growth.
When people set this huge goal for their business, they tend to have unrealistic expectations about when they will reach the goal.
When you follow the 3 steps above, you’ll be there in no time.
And while 1,000 subscribers don’t hold any special significance, you will enjoy some benefits from having 1,000+ subscribers, including:
- Channel for relationship-building
- Opportunity for thoughtful marketing
- Build trust
- Conversion and upgrades
- So many more!
Email marketing is nowhere near dead, as some say, and it’s a vital part of any business’s marketing strategy, so it’s a great thing that you’re looking for viable and effective ways to increase your email subscribers and offer them valuable content.
Final Thoughts: Grow Your Email List to 1,000 Subscribers
Alright! So, we’ve now gone through all of the three steps along with a few additional tips for growing your email subscribers to 1k+.
On that note, we’re going to leave you with a few questions so that you can start reflecting and preparing to grow your list! Who are the 10 people that you can connect with right now?
What are your biggest challenges in growing your email list?
What email course can you create to get rid of that “join my newsletter” button?
What strategies have you enjoyed using to build your email list?
Drop us a line in the comments and become a part of the convo!
