If you’re wondering if you need to build an email list for your business, picture this: You’ve just launched a new product or service in your business.

Instead of scrambling to figure out how to sell it, you already have a well-oiled machine bringing in new customers who want what you have to offer.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.

It’s the power of a well-nurtured email list, a crucial asset that can drive consistent sales and cash flow in your business.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive into how to build an email list from scratch, why it’s vital for your business, and actionable tips to start and grow your list quickly.

Why You Need an Email List for Your Business

In today’s digital age, having an email list is not just an option; it’s a necessity.

Social media platforms are unpredictable, with algorithms constantly changing and sometimes even going down entirely. 

An email list, on the other hand, is an asset you own, allowing you to communicate directly with your audience whenever you need to.

This direct line of communication can significantly impact your cash flow, providing a steady stream of leads and sales through email marketing.

What is an Email List and How Does it Bring in Sales?

An email list is simply a collection of email addresses from people who have shown interest in your products, services, or content.

When someone opts into your email list, they’re essentially raising their hand and saying, “I want to hear more from you.” 

This interest translates directly into sales opportunities.

By nurturing your email list with valuable content and timely offers, you can drive conversions and maintain a healthy cash flow for your business.

The Sales Funnel and Your Email List

Your email list plays a crucial role in your sales funnel.

It allows you to guide potential customers from awareness to decision-making and ultimately to purchasing.

Email marketing tips for beginners often emphasize the importance of segmentation—dividing your email list into smaller groups based on interests or behavior.

This way, you can send targeted messages that resonate with specific segments, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

How to Start an Email List: The Basics

If you’re new to email marketing, you might wonder how to start an email list from scratch.

The good news is that it’s easier than you think, and you can even do it for free.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started:

Step 1: Choose Email Marketing Software, aka an Email Service Provider (ESP)

The first step in building your email list is selecting an Email Service Provider (ESP).

There are many options available, such as Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and AWeber.

These platforms offer tools to help you create signup forms, segment your audience, and automate your email marketing.

I personally use Kajabi, an all-in-one platform, for my email marketing. 

Step 2: Create an Irresistible Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer for free in exchange for a visitor’s email address.

It could be a guide, a template, a checklist, or any other resource that provides value to your audience.

The key is to ensure that your lead magnet is relevant to your target audience. And addresses a specific pain point or need. 

Step 3: Set Up Your Opt-In Forms Or A Landing Page

Once you have your lead magnet, you need to create opt-in forms to collect email addresses.

These forms can be embedded on your website, landing pages, or even pop up when someone visits your site.

Make sure the form is simple and straightforward, asking only for the essential information—usually just the email address and maybe a first name.

Check out my PROFFIT Plan™ Freebie and Opt-in here for an example of one of the ways I have grown my email list over the years. 

Email List Building Strategies to Grow Your Audience Fast

Building an email list takes time, but there are strategies you can use to accelerate the process.

Here are some proven tactics to help you grow your email list quickly:

1. Leverage Social Media

Promote your lead magnets on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Join relevant groups or communities and share your free resources there, directing people to your opt-in forms.

2. Collaborate with Influencers

Partnering with influencers in your niche can help you reach a broader audience.

Offer to do a guest post, a joint webinar, or a social media takeover where you promote your lead magnet to their audience.

3. Use Content Upgrades

Content upgrades are bonus content pieces related to a specific blog post.

For instance, if you have a post about “How to Build an Email List,” you could offer a free checklist or a more detailed guide as a content upgrade, requiring readers to opt in to receive it.

Check out all our recommended resources for email list building and more!

Email Marketing Automation: Set It and Forget It

One of the most powerful aspects of email marketing is automation.

You can nurture leads by setting up automated email sequences without manually sending out emails every time.

Here’s how to use automation effectively:

1. Welcome Sequence

When someone joins your email list, send them a series of welcome emails.

These emails should introduce your brand, provide value, and gradually lead them towards your products or services.

2. Segment-Specific Campaigns

As mentioned earlier, segmentation is key. Create automated campaigns for different segments of your list, tailored to their specific interests or behaviors.

This could be based on how they joined your list, what they’ve purchased before, or what content they’ve engaged with.

3. Re-engagement Campaigns

If some of your subscribers have become inactive, set up a re-engagement campaign to win them back.

Offer something exclusive or simply remind them why they joined your list in the first place.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Email List Building

As you grow your email list, there are a few pitfalls to avoid.

These mistakes can hinder your progress or even get you into legal trouble:

1. Don’t Buy Email Lists

Buying email lists might seem like a shortcut, but it’s a bad idea.

These contacts don’t know you, haven’t opted in, and are unlikely to engage with your content.

Plus, sending unsolicited emails can violate laws like GDPR.

2. Don’t Neglect Your List

Once you’ve built your email list, don’t make the mistake of neglecting it.

Regularly send valuable content to keep your audience engaged.

If you disappear for long periods and only email when you have something to sell, your subscribers are likely to lose interest or unsubscribe.

3. Don’t Overwhelm Your Subscribers

Sending too many emails can overwhelm your subscribers and lead to higher unsubscribe rates.

Focus on quality over quantity—send emails that provide real value and are relevant to your audience.

Case Study: Jamie Trull’s Email List Growth Journey

To give you a real-world example of how email list building can transform a business, let’s take a look at Jamie Trull’s journey.

In 2019, Jamie started focusing on building her email list from scratch.

She followed strategies similar to those outlined above, such as leveraging social media and creating valuable lead magnets.

Within just a few months, she saw her email list grow from zero to over 700 subscribers.

By the end of the next year, that number had skyrocketed to 27,000 subscribers—all without running any ads.

Jamie’s focus on providing value and catering her content to her audience’s needs during the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in this growth.

This exponential growth in her email list didn’t just inflate her subscriber numbers—it directly impacted her business’s cash flow.

With a large, engaged email list, Jamie was able to generate consistent sales, expand her team, and launch new products and services.

Start Building Your Email List Today

If you’re serious about growing your business and ensuring consistent cash flow, now is the time to start building your email list.

By following the strategies and tips outlined in this guide, you can create an email list that not only grows rapidly but also drives significant sales for your business.

Remember, the key is to focus on providing value, building trust, and nurturing your audience consistently.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow your existing list, the steps you take today will lay the foundation for long-term success.

Ready to get started?

Begin building your email list today! and watch as it becomes a powerful engine for sales and growth in your business.

For more in-depth strategies on how to build an email list and use it to increase your sales, be sure to check out Amy Porterfield’s free masterclass on how to build an email list to 10,000 subscribers in a year.

Visit jamietrull.com/amy to sign up and start your journey to a thriving email list.

[00:00:00] Picture this, you’ve just launched a new product or service in your business, and instead of scrambling to figure out how you’re going to sell it, you already have a well-oiled machine bringing in new customers who want what you have to offer. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. It’s actually the power of a well-nurtured industry.

email list. And in today’s video, I’m going to explain to you what an email list is and how it impacts the cashflow in your business. Plus, if you stay until the end, I’m going to show you how to effectively grow an email list for your business. Hey everyone, Janie Trull here, your trusted CPA and your source for all the things to help keep your business informed, organized, and profitable.

So make sure to hit the subscribe button for more. Now, if you’ve followed this channel for a little while, you know that I love to talk about business finances and specifically making your business more profitable. And for me, the idea of an email list was transformational in my own business’s ability to scale and become more profitable.

And here in a second, I’m actually going to go back in time and show you what So, my email list grew back when I first started my business, or at least when I first started online in 2019. But first, what’s an email list? Let’s talk about that. Now, you probably have some sort of email list already if you have an existing business, and that email list probably is a list.

past customers or clients that you’ve communicated with. And generally, you’re going to want to have them actually opt into the things that you are sending them, right? You want them to know, hey, I am opting in to be able to get emails from you. We want to do this the right way. But ultimately, when people give you that email address and say, yes, you can contact me, it’s them raising their virtual hand to say, I am interested in the things that you have to tell me about.

I’m interested in your products, I’m interested in your services, I’m interested in the things that you teach, and I want to know more. So you can [00:02:00] see why you don’t just want to limit your email list to people who have already bought your products and services, but also constantly be generating new people on that list that might be interested so that you can contact them when and if it’s time for you to sell a new product or service.

Now, personally, the thing that I love most about my email list is I’m not subject to anyone else’s algorithm. When you are posting on social media as your way to reach people, well, you are actually really subject to whatever that platform decides to do. And when it changes its rules, and it routinely does.

right? Then you are potentially at the mercy of that platform to be able to reach people who want to hear from you. So having another way that is actually something you own and your email list is an asset for your business that you own. It may not be on your balance sheet, right? But it is something that is yours and you can utilize into the future.

So even if All the social media [00:03:00] platforms go down, which has happened before, right? We’ve had outages for certain platforms. If you are counting on those to reach your people, then it’s going to be really challenging for you if something changes or if something happens. But not if you have And the other great thing about having their email is it’s easier to retarget them as well.

If you decide to run ads, you actually have a customer list that you can utilize to help you create audiences that you can target your ads to and help you create lookalike audiences to find more of those same people. Now that you know what an email list is and how you can use it in your business, though, let’s talk about some do’s and don’ts because there are so many.

some definite do’s and don’ts here. So my favorite do is really segmentation of your email list. Okay, now most email service providers, or ESPs as they’re commonly called, have an ability to be able to segment into different lists. Right? So if you have people interested in opting into one [00:04:00] specific topic, you can actually tag them or somehow allow the system to know what it was they were interested in so that you can target them with things that are applicable to them or other things they might be interested be interested in.

This is especially important if you have a business with maybe multiple arms, that you’re not just throwing spaghetti at the wall seeing what people are going to like, but you can tailor the campaigns, the emails that they get to their interests. A lot of those email lists that you’re on where you’re just getting spammed with all kinds of email and it’s driving you crazy, it’s probably because that list is not segmenting very well.

And what I love about segmentation is that When I launch a new product or service, I don’t necessarily tell my entire email list. I probably start with just the people that I know are most interested and put my effort into that in order to get the highest conversions that I can. Now the other do when it comes to email list is to automate, automate, automate.

That’s one of the great things. Again, we’re not going [00:05:00] into Gmail, let’s say, and typing these up, copying and pasting all these emails. into the to line, right? You want to be using an email service provider. There are tons out there for you to choose from. You can just Google various different email service providers and find one that works for what you need.

But ultimately, most of them are going to allow for some level of automation. Meaning, if someone opts into your list, You could automate a welcome sequence, let’s say. Or again, you could automate a targeted email campaign based on what that person is interested in. And that can really lead to cash flow that continues to generate for you, even as you’re not actively selling, right?

That’s the beauty of it. Your email can do the heavy lifting for you. Now let’s talk about some really important email don’ts. Okay, so the first thing is do not, do not, do not, do not buy an email list. Okay, unless you’re buying an existing business and the email list is part of [00:06:00] what you’re purchasing, you do not want to be purchasing a list of of contacts.

These are not likely to be engaged, they don’t know who you are. They’re probably going to get mad when they get your email. And it actually can be illegal to be emailing people without their express permission. So there are lots of rules like GDPR and things like that to be aware of. And putting people on an email list that did not opt into it specifically for what you’re sending them is a really big no no. Both from an engagement perspective and and from a legal perspective.

So just do not do it. Instead, what you’re going to do is you’re going to want to create valuable things that people can opt into. And I’ll talk a little bit more about this towards the end and where you can learn more about that. But ultimately, you’re going to create guides or templates or something like that. That you can give away for free that entices someone to join your team.

email list and also tells you what they are interested in. So [00:07:00] that’s something that you can do and offer on things like social media or blogs or YouTube, right? Where you can help build your email list while you’re sleeping at night. The second don’t when it comes to email list building is probably something some of you have done before. And there is no shame here, but it’s time to fix this.

No more ghosting, okay? You don’t want to get their email list. And then just ghost them and they don’t hear from you forever. And all of a sudden you pop up when it’s time for you to sell something. Right? We want to be nurturing that audience. It doesn’t need to be sell, sell, sell all the time when we send them emails.

We need to be providing value that builds trust. Trust, right? You want to be giving them consistent value in the emails that you’re sending. Such that when and if you do have something to sell, they’re going to put their hand up right away and say, I know I need this. And this is a person that I trust.

They know what they’re talking about. They’re an expert in this and I am going to buy. So when thinking about cashflow, right? Again, you’re going to want to engage [00:08:00] that email list. If you haven’t in a little bit, that’s okay. You can re engage them. Just start telling them things that Okay. You think that they’re going to want to hear or that will be valuable for them. And resist the urge to just go out and sell and that’s the only emails that you ever send, right?

If you want consistent cash flow from your email list, you have to put some effort even at times where you’re not selling anything in particular. So I told you I’d show you some real numbers to give you some examples. This is my business back in circa 2019. When I first switched over to an online business and decided that I really wanted to focus on building my email list.

So you can see that in July and into the beginning of August, I had a email list of exactly zero. So I didn’t have anyone, I was just figuring out how to set up an opt in and a landing page and how to. deliver the guides and things like that that I wanted to give to my audience to be able to entice them [00:09:00] to join my email list.

And so as I was kind of getting up and running there, I followed Amy Porterfield. I’m going to talk about Amy here in a minute. And how you can see what she has to offer and the different tools she has to help. But I just started following Amy and doing some of the things that she recommended with regards to growing your email list.

And you can see that pretty quickly all of a sudden in September 9th, I had 22 people opt in. Just that day, right? And so I was all of a sudden getting a steady stream of opt ins. Just by offering things I thought would be valuable to the audience that I was building. I was primarily doing that on social media, in Facebook groups. In different places that I thought it could be relevant.

You can see eventually that starts really compounding. Then I got into having over 50 people in a day. And that felt amazing that 50 people in a day opted in to my email list. That was crazy to me. These were 50 potential customers of mine. And so you can see that just putting more and more effort into this [00:10:00] as I continued to focus in on it, it just got better and better.

In January, I had my first over 100 customers. Opt in day, and that felt absolutely incredible, and this was all organic, without ads. Now this second chart, this was essentially the next 12 months after that. So I showed you my first six months in which I got about 700 people on my email list and that felt absolutely insane.

The next year, over 12 months, I had 27, 000 opt ins for my email list. I had various different freebies, things that I offered, things to entice people, generally free things. I didn’t run ads, any of that. Just gave value to my audience. Now, to be fair, during this time, a lot of people were struggling with COVID 19.

This was right around when the pandemic was hitting, when businesses were shutting down and needed more help. So I made sure that I really catered the freebies, the things that I was [00:11:00] offering to what people really needed at the time. And that is absolutely key. If you want to get people opting in is to give them what they need, help them where they need it.

Now, importantly, you want to make sure that you’re able to then convert that email list into Cashflow. And that is something that I have definitely been able to do. That growth in email list actually very much impacted the bottom line in my business and allowed me so much more freedom to be able to expand my team, to be able to offer new products and services.

And honestly, it has been the lifeblood of the cashflow in my business. Now I promised I would share exactly how to build an email list. And I mentioned my friend Amy Porterfield. She has been a mentor of mine. for a long time and now is a friend. You’ve probably seen her on this channel before. She is the queen of all things email list building.

And so if you want to know exactly what I did and the types of things that I did to grow my email list, [00:12:00] well, she’s the one who’s going to be best to teach it to you. So I have a free masterclass of hers that talks about how to have a 10, 000 subscriber email list. year. And you need to go register for it ASAP.

If this is something you really want to do, if you really want to prioritize this in the next 12 months, I just showed you my numbers. You can see that it absolutely is something that is possible. And so I want you to have all of the tips and tricks and the resources in order to do this well, because let me tell you, It is a game changer.

It takes some effort, for sure. There’s a learning curve. But with Amy’s resources, it is so much easier. So definitely, definitely go check out https://jamietrull.com/amy. You’re going to find that masterclass on that page, along with other resources that you might be interested in related to email list building and digital course creation.

So go check that out. All of that out. And if inconsistent income is something you deal with in your business, and you’re looking for strategies to be able to help you with that in addition to having an email list, well, definitely go check out the video that I just recently did. That is all about managing your money.

If you have inconsistent income in your business, if you found this video helpful, definitely subscribe and we talking more about email list building and digital course creation in the coming weeks. So I don’t want you to miss a thing. See you soon.