Years ago, Alex Mandossian challenged me to double the number of people on my email subscribers list during the following 30 days. I accomplished this, and he kept his promise and sent an email to his massive list to introduce me to his audience. I want you to be able to do this as well, or at least get close.
Yes, I’ll share you with my community when you make an effort to grow your list and then email regularly… You don’t need to become famous to grow a big email list. You need to become useful, visible, and easy to recommend.
Here are 5 strategies that can work in almost any niche:
1. Create a Lead Magnet People Actually Want – Don’t create a freebie because you think you should have one. Create something that solves a specific, immediate problem.
Instead of: “My Free Guide to Online Business” Try:
* “The 5 Emails You Need to Send When You Don’t Know What to Say”
* “10 Easy Ways to Get Your First 100 Subscribers”
* “The Beginner’s 30-Minute Meal Planning System”
The rule: The more specific the problem, the easier it is for someone to say, “Yes, I want that.”
2. Give People a Reason to Forward Your Content – Your best subscriber may not be the person reading your email. It may be the person they forward it to.
Occasionally create something so useful, entertaining, surprising, or insightful that you can legitimately say: “Know someone who needs this? Forward it to them.”
A particularly effective approach is creating “send this to a friend” content—a checklist, resource, short tutorial, controversial insight, or simple solution.
One subscriber can become two. Then two can become four.
3. Start a “List Swap” With Someone Who Serves the Same Audience – You don’t need someone with a massive list. Find someone with a complementary audience. For example:
* A fitness coach + a healthy recipe creator
* A real estate agent + a mortgage professional
* An author coach + a book designer
* A wedding photographer + a wedding planner
* A business coach + a social media consultant
You can introduce each other to your respective audiences. And this is where my Alex Mandossian story becomes particularly valuable:
Sometimes one introduction can produce more subscribers than months of posting on social media.
I want you to actively look for people who can introduce you to others.
4. Turn Your Existing Content Into Multiple Entry Points – Many people are sitting on an untapped gold mine. They already have:
* Blog posts
* YouTube videos
* Podcasts
* Social media posts
* Books
* Workshops
* Courses
* Presentations
* PDFs
* Checklists
Take one valuable piece of content and create a related free resource. For example:
* Blog post: “How to Start a Vegetable Garden”
* Lead magnet: “The Beginner’s 7-Day Vegetable Garden Planner”
The content attracts the person. The lead magnet gets them onto your list.
5. Use a “Challenge” to Create a Surge of Subscribers – Challenges work because they give people a reason to act now. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Try:
* 5-Day Decluttering Challenge
* 7-Day Writing Challenge
* 10-Day Walking Challenge
* 5-Day Email Marketing Challenge
* 7-Day Money Mindset Challenge
Require registration through your email opt-in. Then give participants something useful every day. The important part is this:
Don’t make the challenge primarily about selling. Make it about helping people experience a small win. That win builds trust.
I’ll share five more ideas with you tomorrow, I promise. “Know someone who needs this? Forward my email to them.”
* Email me directly – Please, do NOT reply to any of my emails – Instead, start a NEW email message to me – at conniegreenhouse at yahoo dot com if you have questions, comments, or thoughts about anything I’m sharing with you here, or just want to connect.
Let’s Continue with the next six strategies…
6. Give Your Best Customers a Way to Introduce You
Your existing audience is one of your most powerful growth tools.
Ask them.
You could say:
“If you know someone who would benefit from what I’m teaching, I’d love for you to introduce us.”
You can even create a simple referral campaign:
“Refer three friends and I’ll send you my private ______.”
You don’t necessarily need elaborate affiliate software.
Sometimes a personal invitation is enough.
7. Become a Guest Where Your Ideal Subscribers Already Are
Instead of constantly trying to convince strangers to find you, go where they’re already paying attention.
Look for:
- Podcasts
- YouTube channels
- Blogs
- Newsletters
- Online communities
- Virtual summits
- Webinars
- Interviews
- Industry publications
And don’t simply ask:
“Can I promote myself to your audience?”
Offer something valuable.
“I’d love to teach your audience three ways to ______.”
At the end, give listeners a simple resource they can get by joining your list.
This is how you borrow attention without having to build all of it yourself.
8. Create a “Signature” Free Resource
Give yourself one resource that becomes associated with your name.
Something people remember.
For example:
“The 15-Minute Business Reset”
or
“The First $100 Online Roadmap”
or
“The 7-Day Author Challenge.”
Then put that resource everywhere:
- Email signature
- Social media bio
- Website
- Podcast appearances
- Guest articles
- YouTube descriptions
- Presentations
- Networking conversations
You want people to hear your name and think:
“Oh yes, that’s the person with ______.”
9. Make Your Opt-In About the Transformation, Not the PDF
This is a subtle but enormously important distinction.
People don’t actually want your 50-page PDF.
They want what the PDF will help them accomplish.
Instead of:
“Download My 50-Page Business Planning Workbook”
Try:
“Create Your Simple Business Plan in One Afternoon.”
Instead of:
“Get My 12-Page Email Marketing Guide”
Try:
“Know Exactly What to Email Your List for the Next 30 Days.”
You’re not selling the thing.
You’re offering the result.
10. Set a Bold List-Growth Goal and Make It a Public Game
This is the strategy closest to what happened with you.
Don’t simply say:
“I’d like to grow my email list.”
Say:
“I’m going to double my email list in the next 90 days.”
Then tell people.
Make it a project.
Track it.
Share what you’re learning.
Ask your audience to help.
Find people who can introduce you.
Create new lead magnets.
Appear on podcasts.
Run a challenge.
Invite referrals.
And celebrate milestones along the way.
Because here’s the bigger lesson I’d want your followers to understand:
List growth is not one tactic. It’s a series of intentional invitations.
You don’t need 100,000 followers on social media.
You need more of the right people to have a reason to say yes to hearing from you regularly.
And I’d tell them your Alex story almost exactly as you told me:
Someone once challenged me to double my email list. I accepted the challenge. I did it. And because I had created that momentum, Alex Mandossian introduced me to his much larger audience. That single introduction put me in front of people I never could have reached on my own.
You can create that kind of opportunity, too.
Don’t wait for someone with a huge audience to discover you.
Become so useful, so consistent, and so easy to recommend that people want to introduce you.
That could actually become the foundation of a very strong lesson in The Momentum Method: “Don’t Just Build Your List—Build Your Introducibility.”
I’m bestselling USA Today and Wall Street Journal author Connie Ragen Green. My goal is to help at least a thousand people to reach six-figures and beyond with an online business for time freedom and passive income and to simplify your life by learning how to grow your subscriber list over the next 30 days. Come along with me, if you will and let us discover how we may further connect to achieve all of your dreams and goals. Perhaps my “Monthly Mentoring Program” is right for you.