Being in business for myself for a few years now has taught me some critical things. The one most important thing is that no matter how much someone likes, hearts, or smiley faces your post, you are no closer to getting to know them and building a strong relationship with them than getting to know a stranger as they pass by you on the streets.
If there is never a “real” exchange then it’s not much there. I know, I got sucked into the pretty Instagram pictures and the thought provoking posts and it did nothing for my business because no one was really paying attention beyond the 100 likes.
I had to figure out ways to funnel these people that seemed like me so much into a personal community where I could talk with them, laugh with them and get to know them (and they get to know me). Wanna know how I did it? Here’s how.
1. Create a Website Cover Page
I had been hearing this for a few months from some of the big names and I was happy with my little Leadpages popup (that can be extremely annoying and wasn’t growing my list consistently every day). So finally I took the time (and it literally took me 5 minutes to do with Squarespace) and my sign-ups increased significantly every day. See my cover page below and click on the button to sign up for my online course package.
2. Promote Your Freebie
Creating a freebie and putting it on your website (in this day and age) is not enough to draw attention to it and inspire someone to give away their precious name and email address. You have to do more. Until I became an entrepreneur I never knew how hard it was to give something for free away, lol…So what can you do to boost your freebie and get it in front of the eyes of your potential client or virtual BFF…blog about it and get your friends to share it on Pinterest. Sure there are paid ways to draw attention to freebies like Facebook ads but you have to pay and good ole’ word of mouth works just as well.
3. Narrow Your Niche
The best way to grow your list is to know who your audience is. Getting into the minds of your niche will help you so much more than any freebie you create, Facebook ad you run, or challenge you host. You really have to narrow down who this angelic people are. For example, when I first started out I knew I wanted to help entrepreneurs create online courses because I’ve done it over the last 10 years with many corporations and businesses. But that wasn’t good enough. I need to narrow down my niche even more than that.
Now I know that I want to help 9 to 5 moms who want to create an online course to create a new business or side-hustle, or scale their current business. This is pretty specific huh? See the difference. Knowing who your community is, is far better than trying to appeal to everyone. I know there are people who are not going dig me and that’s okay but that mom who is wishing to make supplemental income to help provide for her family will.