how to grow your email list (on autopilot)

Read time: 5 minutes

How to Grow Your Email List on Autopilot (and fast)

A mini MBA in accelerating your email list growth.

The truth? Most founders struggle when it comes to building their email list. They follow the guidance, tick the boxes, but when they refresh their dashboard in the morning:

“+1 new subscribers”

“+3 new subscribers”

I was stuck in this same cycle of stagnant growth for a long time.

Maybe you're in the same boat?

Why It's Happening

You don’t have a repeatable, predictable system to grow your list. In other words, you lack a clear, stress-free & organized process to add 20 new subs daily (and beyond).

The Reality

All you read and hear is “Newsletter” this, Email ROI” that. Social media is chock full of newsletter tips, ideas, and strategies.

But nobody talks about the un-sexy part:

The “how.”

"How do I attract hungry readers to my list?"

It’s true:

Building an email list is an investment.

It will feed you for many years as long as you water it.

It takes patience, and the right system to grow on autopilot.

That’s it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

What Most Founders Believe

“Lead magnets are the answer.”

Or, “If I just put my newsletter link in my bio, people will see it when they come to my profile and sign up!”

And while these tactics work, they should be part of a bigger strategy. When you wing it, growth becomes unreliable, unpredictable, and unscalable.

Think About It

Just how many profiles do you think the average person visits each day?

Then ask yourself, how many of those profiles are also trying to build their list?

See where I’m going with this?

I get it, I’ve been there. I'm with you 1000%. I was doing the same thing.

I had my link in bio, opt-in form, and welcome sequence set up.

It felt good! You feel like you’ve got a system.

But to compete with your most fierce rivals, you need more.

Those Days Are Behind You

Today’s list-building protocol will act as your accelerator.

It will help you grow your list faster than you could’ve thought possible, filling it with the highest quality subscribers.

It Just Works

Instead of hoping people find you, you become impossible to ignore.

This system leverages:

Social Proof
A CTA Ecosystem
Buyer Psychology
A Lead-generating Product
And the Newsletter Content itself

In other words, I recycle my previous newsletters to convince strangers to sign up.

It’s a self-sustaining growth cycle.

It starts and ends with the newsletters I write.

When you implement it, you'll:

Build your list at speed
Fill it with the best-possible subs

(As I mentioned before)

But also save time.

Imagine this

You’ll have more time, energy, and focus to write your newsletters. And because your list is growing faster, you’ll have more data (know what’s working, what’s resonating) to refine your message.

In other words: Your newsletters will become irresistible.

In your subscribers' eyes, you’ll go from “just another newsletter in my inbox.” To “I’m excited to read this one!"

Let’s dive in.

The List Engine (5 Steps)

All your list-building tools, under one roof.

1) The Lead Magnet

A simple way to collect email addresses: Incentive.

In other words, a digital product.

The 2 roads you can travel:

Free
Paid

Let’s break each option down.

Option 1: Free Products

The upside:

Easy to get people to sign up (frictionless)
You’ll add new subscribers (fast)

The downside:

Frictionless = you’ll attract freebie-hunters
Freebie-hunters won’t engage with your newsletters

To be blunt, your list will get clogged up with the wrong people.

Harsh truth: Freebie hunters will never buy your stuff.

Conclusion:

When I first started, I abused this strategy, and although it did help me build my list faster, I soon realized the truth:

Without a lil’ friction, you’ll attract the wrong crowd.

Moving onto the superior option...

Option 2: Paid Products

With a paid lead magnet, there are 3 main things to consider:

1) Price

Make it an impulse buy.

Ideal range: $20-30

It’s reasonable enough for people to let their impulses pull the “buy” trigger and adds enough friction to filter out those dreaded freebie-hunters.

2) Problem it solves

Keep it relevant.

Example:

If you sell a graphic design service/product, your newsletter should also be about graphic design tips & tricks, and so should your lead magnet.

You may be passionate about productivity, but this doesn’t mean you should create a productivity ebook (I mean, you can, but it won’t generate piping-hot leads).

Keep it cohesive.

People will flow through your funnel naturally & effortlessly.

Social Content ➝ Paid Lead Magnet ➝ Newsletter ➝ Core Offer

Bonus tip:

Many email service providers (e.g. Kit) have built-in product pages so you can collect customer email addresses and add them to your list without lifting a finger.

The more products you sell, the more happy email subscribers you get.

Simple.

3) Over-deliver

If somebody buys your $20 product and it helps them solve a painful, stubborn problem they’ve been having…

They’ll be putty in your hands.

Why?

Reciprocity.

The more you under-promise & over-deliver with your customers, the more trust & reciprocity you’ll build.

Don’t promise the world with your lead magnet, instead, promise a tangible result.

Then knock them off their feet with the (extra) unexpected value inside it.

Never overlook the power of a pleasant surprise.

2) The Newsletter Ad

This is where you become the David Ogilvy of your business.

I want you to create 2 direct-response ads each week before you drop your newsletter.

Timing:

24 hours before you send your newsletter
3-4 hours before you send your newsletter

The aim is to tease your social media audience with a snippet of your upcoming newsletter.

I do this by writing an irresistible hook.

I experiment with different hooks from time to time, but I always include these 2 elements:

Highlight a problem
Make a promise

Done right, this makes readers curious, impatient & problem-aware.

Highlighting a problem opens a story loop in their minds.

When a story loop opens in our brain, and it’s compelling enough, we won’t rest until we’ve closed that loop. We’ll do whatever it takes, including watching, scrolling, purchasing, and you guessed it, subscribing.

For this to work, we must also make a promise.

I think of this as “making a mini-offer.”

Your audience:

“Okay, I have a problem. You’ve made me aware of it, but why should I keep reading?”

This is where we describe the:

Benefits
Dream outcome
Increase in status

The icing on the cake.

Your Jab-Cross combination.

Let’s hit this home with some examples:

1) First Ad (24 hours before)

Steal this Thread and use it as a template:

Note: Yours doesn't have to be as long as mine–a few sentences can get the job done

2) Second Ad (3-4 hours before)

Steal this Thread and use it as a template:

Note: The visual thumbnail is not mandatory

3) CTA Ecosystem

Your next step is to craft an irresistible Newsletter CTA.

Write it once. Leverage it thousands of times.

Here’s mine:

As you can see, mine’s chunky.

Yours doesn’t have to be.

A simple sentence or 2 will do the job.

You can refine it later.

Example of a short CTA:

“If you enjoyed this post, join my free weekly newsletter so you can [achieve benefits/dream outcome].”

Your CTA will be plugged beneath your high-performing content.

See, algorithms punish us for using external links. From the minute you hit publish, if there’s a link attached, the post won't reach its true potential.

The loophole:

Wait for the post to take off, then add your link.

2,000 views or 50 likes/comments will be enough for you to go ahead and whack your CTA under it.

Once the post has traction, it’s too late for the platform to punish you.

Examples: