Last week I received this series of great questions from my anonymous quesion form:

How do you break into having an audience? When you literally don’t have a single person on your mailing list yet, starting at zero, how do you get started? Do you have a welcome sequence before even the first person signs up and you just promote a freebie to your measly 3 Facebook followers that they have to sign up to your list to get?

​
First of all THANK YOU for asking. I know there are other people who are curious about the same things and that this will be helpful for them too.
​
Second, I want you to take a step back for a bit.
​
This is something I see asked a lot without much concrete help.
​
​Also–the answer is yes. I’m teaching you the how + why below.
​
​Before you even create a lead magnet or newsletter I want you to think about a few things:

• What’s your zone of genius?
• Can you package that in a way that’s enticing to people who have the problem you solve?
• Will you grow organically or do you have an ads budget?
  ​

Let’s break this down real quick using myself as an example:

• What’s your zone of genius? Email marketing & funnel strategy + sales pages
• Can you package that in a way that’s enticing to people who have the problem you solve? Yes, my lead magnet “10 Subject Line Formulas for Attention-Grabbing Emails” + additional secret lead magnets
• Will you grow organically or do you have an ads budget? Organically

​
The reason I want you to sit and think about these things is because this will help you identify your strategy.

A hyper-niched newsletter can be grown organically through referrals or recommendations so it’s not impossible to make thousands from it but it’s usually much slower. It can take years to sell newsletter ad space.
​
​Today, let’s talk about growing an email list from scratch with a lead magnet with $0.
​
​The goal of an email list is to nurture and sell. This starts with a lead magnet that’s connected to the offer that you’re selling.
​
​Say you have a 1:1 coaching program for online entrepreneurs looking to make their first $5k months. Your funnel can look like this:

Let’s break this down more. ​
​
You have a $5k/month pricing strategy calculator as your lead magnet. This resonates with your ideal client because every entrepreneur struggles with pricing.
​
Once that’s done you can create your landing page. Your landing page can be simple with a heading, subheading, list of benefits and features, and a mini about section.
​
​(I can also go over this in detail in another training if you’d like. Let me know!)
​
​Now you can create your welcome sequence. At the very minimum, I suggest:

• An offer delivery email
• An intro to you + your brand values + what you do
• A segmentation email
• A selling email

That’s it.
​
​You don’t need to incorporate a complex tagging or link trigger strategy because it’s not necessary yet. ​
​
All you need is a simple funnel that points to your paid offer. Generally, the more $$ it costs the more objections you’ll have to overcome which can mean more emails but it doesn’t have to.
​
If you don’t feel comfortable sending your new subscriber to your sales page yet, ask them to reply to your email with one word or phrase tied to your offer to start a conversation (or send them to an application).
​
It’s much better to have a shorter, effective welcome sequence and build to it than create a long sequence that does nothing.
​
​SO now that I’ve rambled about the pre-reqs, let’s talk about what you can do to grow your list from scratch.
​
​Here are a few ideas:

• Podcasts
• Pinned social media posts
• Guest trainings
• Networking events
• Summits
• Bundles

And here is a little more context:
​
​Podcasts

Always ask if you can pitch your lead magnet. This is an easy and evergreen way to grow your lists. Facebook groups like this one are great for finding good-fit podcasts.

​

Pinned social media posts

Create a pinned post all about your lead magnet with a CTA to opt-in. Also create a story highlight with the same info + benefits with the direct link.
​

Guest trainings

Lead with value as a guest expert in networking or mastermind groups and promote your lead magnet. I’ve done this and have booked discovery calls on the spot.

​

Networking events

Good networking groups will allow everyone to talk about what they’re currently looking for. Call out your ICA to join your list (“I’m looking to grow my email list with entrepreneurs looking to make their first $5k months without burning out”).

​

Summits

This can be hit or miss with new subscribers because summit hosts don’t always share summit participants with the speakers. I’ve gained about 300 subscribers from just one event before (and got paid! Pretty cool).

​

Bundles

This is a giant resource swap. A bundle host picks a theme (like business building tools) and bundle participants each contribute a resource that goes to one landing page that every participant shares with their network. This has helped me add hundreds of new subscribers per week with little effort. This group and this group are great for finding bundles.

​
There are some caveats to all of these which I can explain in a future email since this one is already so long. 🥴

But the Tl;DR of this is:

• Create your high-value lead magnet that ties to your core offer
• Create your simple landing page
• Create a short welcome email sequence
• Then start growing your list w/ the strategies above
  ​

Make sense? If not you can hit reply or submit your question here.
​
And before you go, can you answer this quick poll for me?

Hola, I'm Melissa I'm a copywriter and marketing strategist who creates ethical, science-backed sales copy and strategy that connects with your audience and converts.