10 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List with Freebies

Want to grow your email list but struggling to come up with great opt-in ideas? This post is for you!

You’ve probably heard over and over and over that you need to grow your email list and that you should have some sort of freemium, lead magnet, or opt-in to give people when they sign up for your list.

Psst! Totally new to email lists? Check out this Beginner’s Guide!

And maybe the idea of all this sounds great to you and you’re ready to jumpstart your email list, but you’re not sure where to start or what sort of freebie to offer.

When considering what kind of freemium to offer, let me first encourage you to think about these two very important factors:

• Immediate value. What do people want right away that you have to offer? Think about your audience’s immediate needs and pain points. What are people up late at night thinking about and/or trying to problem-solve? Maybe they want to lose weight, make more money, or eat healthier. A freemium should offer practical help that people can start implementing right away to solve a problem of some sort.
• Your ideal customer. The freemium you’re offering needs to attract your ideal customer. In other words, it needs to be on a topic related to your business or blog. Maybe you can write a really great eBook on a topic unrelated to your blog, but it won’t convert well if it doesn’t really attract the ideal audience for what you write about on your blog.

Keeping these two key factors in mind, you can use the list of ideas below to help you start brainstorming what might work for your specific niche and audience.

This list of ideas are freebies that have either been really successful for me or I’ve known to be highly effective for other people.

10 Freemium Ideas to Grow Your Email List

1. Free Cheat Sheet

Free Cheat Sheets do really well and should consist of simple and practical tips and tricks to help your audience with whatever their pain point is.

Make sure these tips are sort of out of the box ideas or tricks they may not have heard of before, just so it’s interesting and helpful!

For instance, I offer a free cheat sheet at the top of this website called “10 Ways to Make $100 With Your Blog” and it’s an opt-in for my email list.

2. Free eBook

People love free eBooks! It’s an instant download that your audience can read right away. And for a lot of people, this has more value than just a simple printable or sheet.

Also, maybe you want to attract the kind of customer that wants to take the time to read an eBook.

For example, on MoneySavingMom.com, I have several eBook opt-ins on grocery budgeting, making money, freezer cooking, and more.

3. Mini Course

Beth Anne from Brilliant Business Moms highly recommends this one!

People love mini courses, and you can do it on your site with a course log-in or just send a series of emails.

{I have heard lately that the series of emails isn’t as effective as it used to be, though.}

For example, I have a 5 Days to a Better Morning mini course that up-sells to my bigger Make Over Your Mornings Course.

4. Online Challenge

People LOVE group accountability for online challenges!

This usually requires a little bit more effort from you, since you have to be active and present during the time of the online challenge. But you can create a lot of excitement around something like this!

I recommend having an open and close date, so that you can focus on it during a specific time period.

When I was promoting Stacy’s Humorous Homemaking course a couple years ago, I went through it myself and offered a Facebook group for people to have access to so that they could go through it together.

Online challenges are really encouraging for people!

5. Video Class

Video classes are great because they really engage people at a different level.

You can teach a video class live or you can record it to make it Evergreen. I prefer Evergreen video classes because then people can watch it at any time they’d like and go through it at their own pace.

For example, I have the video class called “3 Steps to Start That Blog You’ve Been Dreaming Of” on this site that upsells to our 3-course package at a discounted rate to help you get your blog started.

6. Private Facebook Group

This is similar to an online challenge, but it can be ongoing for an indefinite amount of time.

When people sign up for your newsletter, maybe they get access to a Facebook group, private forum, or private Instagram account — basically anywhere that you offer exclusive group coaching, accountability, or encouragement for people on your email list.

For example, I have an Eat At Home Challenge that I offer on my site and when you sign up, you get an invite to be part of a special Eat At Home Facebook group.

7. Printable Checklists

These do REALLY well, because a lot of people love to be organized and use checklists. And these are really versatile because they can be on any kind of topic.

Feel free to make it one single-paged checklist or even a bundle of different types of checklists!

On this site, we offer free blog planners and checklists as another email opt-in freebie.

On MoneySavingMom.com, we’ve even done seasonally specific checklists such as our recent Free Summer Reading Printable Pack for kids.

Checklists also do really well on social media! Pinterest users love being able to click over and get a free printable.

And it’s a great idea to jump on video and show people how you’re using your checklists. People really love that, and then you can tell them to sign up for your newsletter to get their copy!

8. Special Offer

If you offer products on your site — digital or physical — offer a discount code or bonus when people sign up for your email list.

Have you ever shopped online with a retailer and noticed a pop-up that says “Want 10% off? Sign up for our newsletter!”

That’s the kind of special discount I’m talking about, and you can totally offer something like that if you sell products!

9. Step-By-Step System or Program

This is similar to some of the others I’ve mentioned, but it’s more broken down into a step-by-step method that’s really easy to follow.

These kinds of programs are a great way to connect at a deeper level with your audience and provide accountability and step-by-step help.

You can leave these programs open indefinitely or offer them occasionally with open and close dates. The open and closed dates tend to get people really excited, because they’re waiting until the next time they can participate!

For example, I recently participated in @sarahaleyfit‘s 21-Day Squats Challenge. The program was all set up with videos, encouragement, and instructions every single day during the challenge. There was also a Facebook group for accountability.

It was so easy to follow and I absolutely loved it!

10. Comprehensive Tip List

This is similar to a cheat sheet, but I would recommend putting together one that includes a longer list of tips/strategies.

I would make it more of a comprehensive tip list that includes quick ways to have quick wins! For instance, it might be something like “27 Ways to Cut $5 Off Your Grocery Bill This Week” or “15 Strategies to Grow Your Instagram Account”.

What other ideas do you have for free opt-ins to grow your email list? I’d love to hear in the comments!

If you’d like me to give you some step-by-step help to grow your email list, check out Build Your List 101.

In this course, I take the mystery out of building your list so you can start getting excited about growing your audience (and your income!) using simple tips and strategies that have made such a difference in our business!

Build Your List 101 is an easy-to-understand multimedia course with text and video lessons + bonus video tutorials teaching strategies to help explode new bloggers’ list growth! Find out more about it here.