Welcome to the next post in my blog series, How to Start & Grow Your Email List! Over the last few weeks, we've covered why it's important to have an email list, what to offer your audience to convert them to subscribers, and how to create an opt-in freebie your audience will love.
If you've missed a post in the series, here's a directory.
- 5 Reasons You Need an Email List
- 10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List
- How to Create an Opt-In Freebie That Converts
Today, we're tackling ways to promote your opt-in freebie to drive readers to your landing page and convert them to subscribers.
Some of these ways are a little more extensive than others, while some are super easy. Mix and match different ideas to see what works best for attracting your audience or focus on one way to promote your opt-in freebie at a time. The choice is yours!
Without further ado, here are 20+ ways to promote your opt-in freebie and grow your email list.
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1. Create a Landing Page
When you create an opt-in freebie, you'll need a landing page to go with it. When someone clicks the link to your freebie, the landing page is where you're going to hook them and ultimately convert them from a reader to a subscriber.
Your landing page should include:
- A headline that tells the reader what your freebie is about
- A detailed description of what the freebie covers
- An explanation of how your freebie will help them
- Graphics including the “cover” or sneak peek of the freebie
- Social proof
Including these things will help with conversion because the reader will be able to see the value your freebie will offer them.
I use MailerLite to create my landing pages. Other bloggers swear by Leadpages but I really love having my landing pages, popups, and email marketing all in one place.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the biggest traffic drivers for bloggers. With the right strategy, bloggers are able to direct traffic to their blogs with little effort and getting readers to your landing page will be a piece of cake. Unlike posting to social media, your pin is constantly in rotation because it's being pinned by other Pinterest users.
Create 3-5 different pins for your opt-in freebie and link it to the landing page. Make sure to test out different designs with A/B testing to see what works best for your target audience, too.
If you're new to Pinterest, I recommend investing in a course like Pinterest Ninja or Making Pinterest Possible to get a full picture view of all the ways to use Pinterest and how to do it successfully. I've used both courses personally and they did wonders for me!
Creating an account with Tailwind also makes promoting your opt-in freebie on Pinterest even easier to pin your opt-in freebie pins to relevant boards on autopilot.
3. Relevant Blog Posts
Promote your opt-in freebie in relevant blog posts. For example, I can promote my opt-in freebie on how to send client winning pitches in blog posts about where to find freelance writing jobs, how to get started freelance writing, etc.
Just include links to your freebie's landing page, or my favorite way to promote an opt-in freebie inside a blog post is with a linked graphic like the one below.
4. Create a Teaser Blog Post
Similar to promoting your opt-in freebie in a relevant blog post, you can create a “teaser” post to promote your opt-in freebie. This works great for a content upgrade freebie because you can create a blog post that leaves your readers wanting more information.
For example, you could write a blog post about why bloggers should define a niche and then offer a content upgrade like a list of 50 of the most profitable blogging niches.
5. In Your Author Bio
I recently found a plugin called Simple Author and it's one I never knew I needed. Basically, it's a plugin that inserts an author bio at the end of your blog posts. While this may seem repetitive if you have a bio in the sidebar of your blog posts, it gives you another place to get in front of your readers while also promoting an opt-in. Just insert the link to your freebie's landing page at the end of your bio and invite readers to check it out. It's a great way to link to your freebie in every blog post without it appearing irrelevant.
Related: 10 Free Plugins Every Blogger Needs
6. In Blog Comments
When commenting on other people's blogs, there's often a place to provide the link to your website. Rather than leaving a link to your homepage, promote your opt-in freebie by leaving the link to it's landing page.
7. Instagram
Unfortunately, Instagram only lets users have one working link in their Instagram bio. To bypass that, many users have created “menus” using services like linktree to link to several places at once. Promote your opt-in freebie by creating a button in the menu that links to the landing page. Users can even track the analytics of the links they use, which is extremely handy.
8. Create a Locked Resource Library
Resource libraries are awesome tools for bloggers because you can keep all of your freebies, best content, and affiliated products in one place for your audience. Promote your resource library in blog posts, on social media, and with Pinterest pins, and let your audience pick which freebie suits their needs the best.
Need some inspiration? You can check out my resource vault here!
9. Promote Your Opt-In Freebie During Your Podcast
This really only works if you have a podcast, but I think it's a really creative way to promote your opt-in freebie. I wouldn't have ever thought of this but it's something Jenna Kutcher does on the Goal Digger Podcast. For a while, she stopped accepting sponsors for the podcast and instead promoted her freebies during commercials.
10. Popup Boxes
Pop-up boxes are work wonderfully to promote your opt-in freebie, and what's really cool about them is that they can set up to display when someone enters your site, as well as when they leave it. Rather than a generic “sign up for our newsletter” incentivize your readers by offering them the freebie.
Just like landing pages, my favorite way to make a popup box is with my email service, MailerLite. It's super simple to do and you can set the popup to display on relevant blog posts.
10+ More Ways to Promote Your Opt-In Freebie
- Create a landing page to convert your audience into subscribers
- Post a link to the landing page in your Twitter bio
- Invite current subscribers to promote your opt-in freebie
- Include a link in your email signature
- Create a pinned post on Facebook or Twitter using a graphic and the link to the opt-in's landing page
- Put the landing page link in the Call to Action card on YouTube
- Include the link in your YouTube bio
- Add a subscription box to your home page
- Make opt-in graphics for your social media header image/cover photo
- Create posts on social media linking to the landing page
- In the sidebar of your blog
- Promo threads in relevant Facebook groups
- Create a tab on your Facebook page
- In a guest post
Review the Series
Don't forget to check out the other blog posts in this series!
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Continue the good work!