How to Build an Email List with SEO! Ep. 120

If you're like most small business owners, you want to build an email list. But you might not know how to get started or what to do. In this week's episode, we're digging into how to create an email list for your business. 

Learn how to find ideas for your freebies, what to offer to get someone to sign up, and where to offer your freebie on your website. 

Other blog posts that might help you with this - 

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/whats-an-opt-in

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/how-to-build-a-content-marketing-funnel-for-your-business

Register now for the free live SEO class the week of April 28 - Learn what the 3 most common SEO mistakes are that keep you from getting traffic from Google so you can make sure you're not making them.

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-live-seo-class

My free resources, including the Beginner's step-by-step SEO Guide and my free class, are available here.

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies


Join me in Simple SEO Content, my complete SEO and Content Marketing course that teaches you what to do step-by-step. It walks you through the entire process. (complete course)

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes

Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -
https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Episode Transcript

Shure MV7 & C922 Pro Stream (00:00):
Hi there and welcome back to the
simple SEO podcast.
I'm your host, Rachel lintTeigen.
And I'm so glad to have you herewith me today.
Today.
I want to talk about.
How we can grow an email list orhow we can.
Email list using SEO traffic orsearch engine optimization.
So this is going to be a reallyfun episode.

(00:22):
We're kind of delving a littlebit into email marketing, which
is good because when we're usingSEO, we're doing our search
engine optimization to increasethe amount of traffic coming to
our website.
Now, what we want to do iscapitalize on that and we want
to get the people who are comingto our website.
On to our email lists becauseyou know, in business, the

(00:43):
ultimate goal is to get peopleon your email list because
that's how you can nurture them.
You can help them, you canprovide helpful content each
week and all of that.
So.
How do we do that?
So the first thing I want you tounderstand is we're going to
follow our SEO basics.
We're going to create content.
We're going to optimize it.
We're going to make sure thatwe're focusing it on our ideal

(01:04):
customer, and then we're goingto need to have at least one
maybe more.
Freebie.
Opt-in valuable free offer.
You're going to hear it referredto as a lot of different terms.
Depending on who you're learningfrom the bottom line is they're
all the same thing.
It's something of value that youoffer to your ideal customer in

(01:27):
exchange for their emailaddress?
So we're going to use our SEO todrive the traffic.
We're going to create ourcontent.
We're going to optimize it.
We're going to use that to drivetraffic, and then we're going to
offer something of value to ouraudience.
Something that's going to helpthem.
In exchange for their emailaddress and that's how you're
going to build your email list.
So, what exactly do you offerand how do you figure that out?

(01:52):
So generally speaking.
Our opt-ins or freebies viafoes.
Whatever.
Are things that are going to bea quick win for our audience.
It's something that they can getand use and feel help or a
success or a win within a fewminutes.

(02:13):
So it could be a checklist or acheat sheet.
Could be a PDF guide.
It could be a short trainingvideo.
It could even be a series of twoor three training videos.
So in my business, I havebeginner's guides.
I have a beginner's guide toSEO, and it's a step-by-step
guide to how to do SEO on yourblog or your website.

(02:33):
I have a beginner's guide toemail list building to help you
learn how to do this and buildyour email list.
And I have a beginner's guide topodcast SEO.
All three of these are.
Opt-ins, they are designed foryou.
My ideal customer, my audience.
To help you with the things thatI talk about.
So I teach and talk about searchengine optimization, blogging

(02:57):
content marketing.
All of that falls under the SEOfreebie.
Then I also teach aboutpodcasting and podcast SEO.
And I will be teaching moreabout email marketing.
I'm going to develop an emailmarketing course for you over
this.
So that we'll have that ready togo in the fall.
So what you want to do.

(03:19):
When you're creating this andyou want to be able to get
traffic, you want to build youremail list.
You want to use your SEO.
Traffic to do that.
What you're going to want to dois really think about your ideal
customer.
Who are they?
What information do they need?
How could you help them?
And then there were some thingsyou can do using SEO keyword
research tools.
So you have a basicunderstanding of SEO keyword

(03:42):
research, right?
What I want you to do now is goto those tools.
Whether it's the Google keywordtool, Uber suggest keywords
everywhere.
It really doesn't matter.
Use the one that you liked thebest.
Go to that tool.
And just start typing like SEOguide or whatever your niche is,
and like guide or questions orchecklist and see what shows up.

(04:05):
It's very likely that there'salready searched demand.
Um, whatever the item is thatyou could potentially for your
audience.
So take a look there and seewhat are people searching for
another excellent place to findideas for PDFs or opt-ins is
Google suggested search?

(04:26):
So go to Google open a Chromebrowser does not matter if it's
incognito or regular, you canuse either one.
Open a Chrome browser and juststart searching like your
keyword or your business, andthen see what pops up, like how
to X or how to do Y and see.
Because often we're going to seesome information and insights in

(04:47):
suggested search.
Because Google's giving us thosewords, those terms, because
that's what other people aresearching at the moment.
And they feel like that may bewhat you're looking for.
So we want to do that.
Then you're going to createthat.
So, whatever you decide, you'veused your tools, you're going to
create your freebie.
You're going to create a landingpage for it on your website, and

(05:07):
you're going to connect it toyour email service provider.
So you need to have.
Those things set up and inplace.
So that when somebody wants it,They can opt in and they can get
your freebie.
So now what you're going to wantto do.
Is to start creating content.
If you're not doing it already,you're going to want to start
creating content.

(05:27):
That supports someone in theirjourney related to your freebie.
So for me, I have three freebiesplus I have the free class, so I
have my three freebies.
Blogging, email marketing andpodcasting.
Each of those areas.
I do podcast episodes and Icreate blog posts about that

(05:48):
content about that area.
With helpful tips and guides andhow to do things.
And in each time, I referencethat freebie and I offer it to
people, to you, to the audienceand say, be sure and visit the
freebies tab on my website.
Get a copy of the beginner'sguide to SEO.
Get the beginner's guide toemail marketing.

(06:09):
That's me telling you it's therefor you.
You can download it, you can useit and it will help you.
So now, if you've got your idea,you kind of know what you want
to do.
You've chosen your email serviceprovider.
You've set it up.
You want to look and see?
Is it working?
So in order to determine if youropt-in is working, you're going

(06:31):
to want to look at a couple ofthings.
The first thing you're going towant to look at is your
conversion rate on your opt-inlanding page.
So your conversion rate is goingto be the number of people who
request your opt-in versus thenumber of people who have
visited that page.
So ideally we'd like to see atleast 30 or 40% of the people
who visit the page.

(06:53):
Going ahead and giving theiremail address and requesting
that opt-in.
Ideally, we wanted higher thanthat, but if you have one in
your under, like your 15%, 20%.
You need to have somebody lookat your opt-in page because
either.
Nobody's interested in theopt-in itself or the page is not
converting.
And if you're not sure how tocreate an opt-in page.

(07:15):
That will convert what I wouldrecommend you do.
Let's keep it very simple andvery straightforward.
Don't put a lot of othernavigation on that page.
Don't make it confusing.
Don't give tons and tons ofother information.
You want to keep it simple, takea look at some of the other
bigger players within yourindustry or within your nation.
See what they're doing for theiropt-in pages.

(07:36):
You never want to copy exact,but you can use them for ideas.
Take a look at mine, go to thefreebies tab and click on
whichever one would be the mosthelpful for you.
Hopefully, if you're looking atit, you're going to opt into it.
So you don't mess up my opt-inrates.
Now that I'm telling you thatbecause my opt-in rates are good
and I want them to stay good,but go take a look and see what

(07:56):
the pages look like, how simplethey are.
You really don't need to put aton of information on there.
You need to give enough thatyour potential.
Opt in your potential newcustomer lead will see the
benefit of asking for this.
Like, what am I going to getfrom this?
You always want to remember thatyour ideal customer is thinking

(08:16):
what's in it for me.
They don't really care why youcreated this.
They just want to know how it'sgoing to help them.
So you want to make sure you'vegot information, a few bullet
points, a few sentences aboutwhat they're going to learn, how
it's going to help them, maybe aparagraph or a few sentences
about you and your backgroundand like, Why you're qualified
to help them.
And then just like, here's whatyou're going to get.

(08:39):
Here's where you sign up withyour email address.
Here's who's teaching you, like,keep it very simple.
Very straightforward.
So you want to look at thatthat's your first step is like
how many people are opting in.
And then from there, what you'regoing to want to look at is like
how many people are actuallyopening the email when you send
it to them, or at least half thepeople opening the email.

(08:59):
Our people ever responding orasking you questions about it,
because if you want your emaillist to grow, then we need to
make sure that you have anopt-in that is helpful and that
people are interested in.
So from here, what you're goingto do.
Or you're in create your opt-in.
You're going to tie it to one ofyour content pillars for your
business, or if all of yourpillars.

(09:21):
Are closely related, then you'regoing to just use that opt-in
and you're going to offer it onevery blog posts that you create
or every podcast show notespage.
So that as you get your trafficcoming in from your SEO work,
you can now start to build youremail list because building your
email list is the next step.

(09:41):
All right, that's it for today.
I will see you back here nextweek.
Good luck.
If you need more ideas on likehow to build an opt-in or how to
use the SEO tools, I've got acouple of blog posts that touch
on those, and I can link them inthe show notes, or you can find
them.
If you go to my website, etchedmarketing.com.
Go into the blog and just click.

(10:01):
I believe we have a keyword foremail marketing and that'll have
some of those.
Um, posts there that will helpyou.
All right, bye.
For now.