If You’re Growing Your Email List, Don’t Do This.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed earlier today, I stumbled onto an article with a persuasive headline. It was a blog that focused on female entrepreneurship. I clicked on the article, eager to read it and I was greeted with a popup, in order to get rid of the popup, I HAD to give them my email address. You wanna know what I did? I read the article, but not by entering my email address. I scrolled through the content, reading between the space of the popup and the footer. The article was shorter than I thought it'd be and I was disappointed. Total waste of time.

I basically scrolled through the content reading through the tiny little window at the bottom.

Look, I get why they're doing this. They wanna grow their subscriber list and push whatever service or product they're looking to sell. Personally, I think this is the wrong way to go about it. First off, if you need to collect someone's email before they can access your content, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your content. If someone was compelled enough by your blog post, your podcast, whatever, they'd sign up.

Incentivizing people to join your list is great, but give them something more substantial than just a peek at a blog post. If I was running the site, I would have had the signup at the bottom of the page, asking the reader if they would be interested in receiving career tips or joining a network of fellow female entrepreneurs. Or, I would offer exclusive content that readers will only receive if they sign up for a newsletter. That way, the reader feels better about giving someone their email address, while the site gathers emails for future direct marketing.

If you need to be deceitful in order to grow your audience, people will pick that up that right away and want nothing to do with your business. We should get out of the mindset that our content is so good out the getgo, that there is an expectation that readers will want to sign up before they even know who you are. Your content should be an introduction to your business. Gaining followers is very much like dating; you need to get to know each other first before any of you start making commitments - whether that's sign-ups, appointments, or making that first purchase.

Are you struggling to grow your mailing list? Do you need ideas on ways to incentivize your audience? If so, let's connect.