How to build an email list: From zero to 1,000 and beyond

An email list helps you:

• Turn leads into customers

• Build a strong relationship with your subscribers

• Make repeat sales

• Generate reviews and testimonials for social proof

• And more!

And while building an email list isn’t easy, there are tactics you can use that are proven to work. This article will introduce some of the best ones: They’re effective for getting your first 1,000 subscribers, or scaling way beyond.

Building an email list essentially comes down to establishing an audience, whether through social media, your website, offline events, or advertising, and then converting these individuals into email subscribers with an irresistible offer. Here are 12 ways you can do this. 

Creating a compelling offer will enable the success of all the other tips in this article. The best offer for you will depend on your business type. Here are some good options you can use.

Offer a discount

This is a super common way for e-commerce stores to grow their list that’s proven to work. Who wouldn’t want to save on their purchase by simply handing over their email address? 

Hyggekrog founder Jennifer Peddio does this really well. People who join her list get 10% off their first purchase. This gets people on her list and gives them an extra incentive to go ahead and buy. 

Give away a free digital resource

Many businesses incentivise people to sign up for their email list by offering a free resource, often called a lead magnet. The key is to create one that appeals to your audience and is relevant to your product. 

We create a lot of lead magnets at MailerLite. Our content calendar is especially successful, as it helps our audience of email marketers manage their email campaigns.

If you’re not sure what to create, take a look at your other businesses in your industry to see what they offer. Or, get started quickly by repurposing your existing content into a premium resource.

Focus on your newsletter’s value

Sometimes, you don’t need to offer anything extra: Access to your newsletter is enough for people to sign up! 

This route can result in extremely engaged subscribers since these people subscribe to receive your content, not receive a related offer or benefit. 

To make this strategy work, you need to position your newsletter in a way that highlights the value subscribers will get from joining. Don’t just ask people to subscribe; tell them what they get when they do so. 

SaaS tool Privyr does this with pop-up forms that highlight the newsletter’s weekly sales tips and tricks. 

Give priority access to products

Some brands can grow their list by offering their audience early access to products. Here’s how this could work for several industries: 

• E-commerce: Give access to seasonal drops or sales before the general public 

• Musicians and artists: Make a limited number of tickets available only for people on this list

• SaaS tools: Give newsletter subscribers advanced access to new features

• Education and courses: Run exclusive learning sessions for people on the list

It could work for many other businesses, too. Think about the exclusive offers you could give to subscribers and promote these in your signup forms. 

Adding forms to your website is a great way to build your email list if you already have traffic. 

First, add a signup form to your header or footer. This ensures that it will appear on every page of your website automatically. 

Then dig into your website analytics to discover your most-visited pages. Create offers related to the content on the page and add signup forms people can use to access them. By creating relevant content, website visitors are more likely to convert. 

You can easily create an email opt-in form that matches your brand with MailerLite’s form builder. Just follow these steps.

1. Edit the colors and spacing.

2. Decide what fields to include.

3. Write compelling copy that showcases your offer.

4. Copy the code and paste it into your website.

See the user-friendly process in the video below. Or, if you built your website with the MailerLite website builder, you can just choose the signup form block from within the builder.

Pop-ups significantly boost offer visibility by showing it to every website visitor. While this can disrupt the user experience, people typically won’t mind if:

1. The offer is compelling.

2. It’s easy to close the pop-up. 

The key is to adjust your pop-up settings so that it shows up when the viewer is most likely to be receptive. 

With MailerLite’s pop-up builder, you can do this by choosing how long to wait before showing the pop-up, how often an individual user will see the pop-up, and which pages the pop-up will appear on.

How to create an effective pop-up

Showing the pop-up after a few seconds will ensure that most website visitors see it. But they might not be ready to interact. Showing it later means fewer people will see the offer. But those who do may be more receptive since they’ve already spent time with your brand. 

You can experiment with different types of pop-ups to see what works. MailerLite has tons of options to choose from. 

• Lightbox and slide-in pop-ups: These medium-sized forms appear over the content the user is viewing. They’re the most common type of pop-up.

• Full-screen pop-ups: These are the most visible since they cover the entire webpage. This also makes them the most intrusive.

• Floating pop-ups: These appear at the bottom or top of the browser window. They’re not intrusive, and they stay visible while the reader scrolls.

• Teaser pop-ups: These small boxes appear on the edge of the webpage. The user can click them to open the pop-up. You can also show the pop-up first, and have the teaser appear when the user closes it, giving the pop-up extra visibility.

• Spin the wheel: These gamify your pop-up by letting the user spin the wheel to receive a prize.

• Exit intent pop-up: These appear when the browser is about to close the page. They’re a good last chance to show your offer to potential customers.

If you’re just starting with pop-ups, consider experimenting with different types and timings to see what works. 

You can also use MailerLite’s A/B testing functionality to test how multiple versions of a single pop-up convert. See some of our top pop-up templates below. 

The remainder of the strategies on this list require you to have a landing page that you can use to showcase your offer and let people sign up. 

Create your landing page in minutes with MailerLite’s landing page builder. Either start with a template or use our AI tool to generate a design based on your brand styles. 

You can then edit the page content to suit your needs, as well as drag and drop prebuilt elements and sections to boost conversions and make the page your own.

Once you have a design you like, you can easily duplicate the page. This lets you create targeted versions for different audiences and offers.

Create a link-in-bio page too

We also have several link-in-bio landing page templates that are specifically designed for social media. Add all your most important links to these pages so that people who click on the link from your profile can find the content they are looking for. 

See some of our top templates in the section below. MailerLite users can access them when creating a landing page. New customers can get access by signing up for a free trial. 

Social media platforms provide a great opportunity to grow an audience. But these platforms control how you interact with your followers, making it beneficial to turn as many of them into email subscribers as possible. 

Here are some ideas for how to do this. Since social platforms are continually adjusting their algorithms, the most effective methods will change over time. 

Share the link in your post

MailerLite customer Luca Mezzalira built his Dear Architects newsletter to over 15,000 subscribers. One strategy he used to convert social media followers was simply posting great content from his newsletter in a LinkedIn post and then adding a link people can use to sign up for to access the rest of it. 

The key, according to Luca, is to add value to the post, rather than simply asking people to join your list. If you do this, people will interact with the post, making the social algorithm more likely to show it to other users. 

Ask people to comment to receive a link

One trending strategy is to create a post that highlights a particular offer and asks people to comment to receive the content. 

You then send each person who comments the link to the offer’s email signup form via a direct message.

The idea is that by encouraging people to comment on the post, the social media algorithm will see the engagement and show the post to other people, thus increasing the visibility of the offer. 

DM new followers

Someone following you is a sign that they’re interested in hearing more. Send each new follower an introduction message with a link to your email signup form to increase the chances that they join your list. 

Experiment with different timings, offers and messages to see what works. If you use Instagram, you can automate the message using the platform’s built-in feature.

Adding buyers to your list is a super-effective way to grow if you already sell a lot of products. Do this by collecting email addresses during the shopping process and then syncing these addresses with your email marketing platform. 

Online businesses can add an email opt-in checkbox during the sales process so the buyer can give permission to contact them. All our e-commerce integrations, including with Shopify, WooCommerce and Stripe, automatically add people who check this box to your MailerLite email list. 

Likewise, if you use MailerLite’s digital product-selling feature to sell your product, you can choose which group to add buyers to when creating your product. You can also add a box to let people provide marketing consent.  

Meanwhile, offline sellers can collect email addresses during the sales process by asking the customer for their email address. Give people a compelling reason to join, such as a discount on their next purchase. 

Collecting subscribers offline can be a super effective way to grow your email list. People who show up to your event, store, or show are highly engaged and may want to know more about your brand. 

A great example of someone who does this is artist Remon Dejong, who collects the email addresses of the people who attend his shows. 

He says collecting subscribers offline is one of the biggest drivers of his list growth. And since these people have shown a clear interest in his art, they’re more likely to attend his next exhibition or buy one of his works. 

Remon collects email addresses with a pen and paper and then adds them to his MailerLite account manually. You could also use the MailerLite forms app to collect addresses and have them sync with your MailerLite account. Using the app will also give you a record that the person opted into your list.

If you have the budget, consider using paid ads to grow your list. This is typically the fastest way to get new subscribers and can be relatively inexpensive. If you combine email growth with a paid offer, you can break even (or turn a profit) while growing your list.

Here are 3 strategies to experiment with. 

Facebook Lead ads

Use Facebook Lead ads to capture email addresses directly on Facebook. The benefit of Lead ads is that they’re easy to set up and potential customers can join your list without having to leave the Meta platform. 

Once you have the address, you can add them to MailerLite groups and then trigger a nurture sequence. 

You can either do this manually or with a third-party integration platform such as Zapier. Using an integration is preferable because it lets you send automated follow-up emails as soon as someone subscribes. 

Find out more about how to create an effective Facebook ads strategy for lead generation in our webinar with Stevie Jacák from YNC Media. 

Direct people to a landing page

The other option is to direct people to a MailerLite landing page. This gives you more control over the content of the page and post-signup experience.

For example, if you use a lead magnet to attract subscribers, you can use automation to ensure that people who enter their email address receive it immediately. 

Or you can direct subscribers to a thank-you page that promotes one of your products. If people buy, you’ll cover the cost of acquiring them immediately. 

Use a low-cost introductory offer

A problem with paid ads is that they cost money. Creating a low-cost paid offer that works like a lead magnet but also generates some revenue can help offset this cost.

If you get the offer right, you can break even on your ad spend or even earn a profit. Once the lead joins your list, you can then send them more expensive offers. 

Live the Creed does this successfully by selling a low-cost emergency kit via Meta ads, and then promoting other, more expensive items via email after the initial sale. Find out more about the brand’s email marketing strategy here. 

Grow your list through webinars and events by creating an online event and then asking people to sign up with an email address. 

Make this strategy more effective by teaming up with other brands to create a shared webinar. Each brand then promotes the event to their audiences and then shares email addresses post-event.

If you choose this option, make sure that people know their email address will be shared with each party when they sign up. 

Giveaways can be an effective way to grow your list quickly. The idea is that you offer a prize that people can win if they join your email list. You add anyone who joins your list via the form to a group and then choose the winner randomly. 

The key is to choose a prize that will appeal to your target audience but not a broad one. This ensures that only people who are interested in your brand will sign up. 

Increase the impact of your giveaway by teaming up with other related businesses. Each brand contributes a prize to the draw and then promotes the deal to their audiences. After the draw, each business in the giveaway gets all the collected email subscribers. 

One problem with giveaways is that while you can get a lot of subscribers at low cost, the subscribers are typically lower quality than those who join via other methods. 

It’s important to track how they engage with your emails after the offer and then quickly remove subscribers who don’t open or click on your messages. 

You can do this via the Subscribers section of your MailerLite dashboard. Add all giveaway subscribers to a group, then use the filters to find people from the group who aren’t engaging with your content. 

A newsletter referral program is when you incentivize your existing subscribers to share your newsletter with people they know. If someone signs up using the subscriber’s link, the subscriber receives a gift. 

You can create complex referral programs with different tiers of gifts depending on how many subscribers each person refers. This encourages people to keep referring subscribers to receive more expensive gifts. 

Or keep things simple by offering a single gift to people who refer your newsletter to one other person. You could even repurpose a lead magnet to get started quickly and grow at no extra cost. 

The easiest way to run a newsletter referral program is with referral software, such as Partnero. This will keep track of all your subscribers’ referrals and then automatically fulfil their rewards. Find out more about creating effective newsletter referral programs here. 

Teaming up with other newsletters and promoting each other’s businesses is another low-cost way to grow your email list. It can be effective since people who already subscribe to similar newsletters are likely to also subscribe to yours. 

You can manually find other newsletter creators and team up with them. Add CTAs in each of your newsletters to promote the other brands. 

Alternatively, use SparkLoop to be automatically paired with similar newsletters. You can then add a widget to your newsletter via the MailerLite integration that promotes your partner newsletters. 

Now you know the tactics you can use to grow your email list, here are some final best practices that you can follow to fine-tune your list-building efforts. 

Send welcome emails

Someone joining your email list is only the start of their journey with your brand. Be sure to create a welcome sequence that nurtures new subscribers as soon as they sign up. 

Consider including multiple emails that:

• Introduce your brand and tell people what to expect

• Share your more popular products

• Provide educational resources

• Encourage people to take next steps, like joining a webinar or signing up for a free trial

Find out more about how to create impactful welcome email workflows here. 

A/B test forms and pop-ups

A/B testing lets you pit two versions of a form or landing page against each other, so you can discover the version with the highest conversion rate. 

Consider testing factors like different:

• Offers

• Messaging

• Designs

• Copy

Once you have a winner, you can then send all traffic to this page. Or, you can run another test to see if you can create an even more impactful form.

Clean up inactive subscribers

When growing your list, be sure to keep an eye on engagement. By removing inactive subscribers, you’ll keep engagement and email deliverability high. 

Use MailerLite’s Clean up inactive tab to identify subscribers who haven’t interacted with your content and then remove them from your list (or at least try to reengage them). 

You can also group subscribers by the method they used to join your list and track the engagement for each channel. 

You may find that while a particular channel results in a lot of signups, these contacts don’t really engage with your business or buy your products. In that case, it may be better to focus on other channels that generate higher-quality subscribers. 

Regularly validate emails

Alongside cleaning up inactive subscribers, you can also use MailerCheck to identify low-quality email addresses before you even send to them. This is essential if you’re growing fast and generating a lot of new email addresses between each send.

MailerCheck will analyze all the addresses on your list and identify ones with errors like being disposable, role-based, or having typos. You can then remove these addresses from your list before sending to them. 

If you generate a high number of subscribers, you can even use MailerCheck’s real-time API to verify subscribers as they enter their addresses into your form. 

This way, if a bot tries to join your list or if someone adds a typo to their address, they’ll get a message and won’t be able to join your list until they fix the issue. 

Those are the best proven strategies you can use to grow your email list, plus several best practices to keep things running smoothly. It’s all you need to go from zero to 1,000 subscribers and beyond.

Choose a couple of strategies and experiment with them to see what works. Once you find an effective channel, double down on it to see your list growth start to soar.