[Ultimate Guide] How To Start Your Email List And Get 1000 High-Quality Subscribers In 30 Days

Sean Anthony
May 01, 2024
Share

by : Sean Anthony

Email Rainmaker is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

This is a private guide breaking down how to get your first or next 1000 high-quality subscribers.

But not just any subscribers. Subscribers who BUY your products/services/programs.

If you find this useful and want to go deeper, I do have a training where I went more in depth around this.

==>You can get it for 50% off here.

Alrighty, let’s get on with it.

The Problem

Most people focus only on the size of their list instead of the quality of their subscribers.  This results in attracting freebie seekers, tire kickers, time wasters, and serial refunders.

The Solution

This is a step-by-step guide around building your email list and getting your first 1000 subscribers.

But it’s not just about building an email list.  It’s about how to build it with the RIGHT people so you avoid all the BS.

Use This For

  • Starting your list

  • Growing your list

  • Growing a client’s list

Why Build An Email List?

  • It’s an asset you control

  • People use email every day

  • People are used to buying from email

  • High leverage - as your list grows your workload stays the same

  • Can be used to sell anything - products, services, coaching, info, physical, digital

  • It’s like being able to write your own checks - run a promo, accept a sponsorship, launch a new offer whenever you need the cash

What We’re Going To Cover In This Guide

I grew my email list from 0 to 25,177 subscribers and multi 7-figures in sales since 2020.  So not only did I grow my list, I got the right subscribers who buy.

The following are the biggest factors when it comes to building and growing a profitable email list with high-quality subscribers.

  • Niche: How to pick the best niche for your list

  • Bait: How to create the perfect “Bait” to attract the high-end of your niche

  • Traffic: How to get traffic and attract quality leads to your list

  • Monetize: How to monetize your leads after they join your list

Now… this is not a fancy presentation with pretty slides.

It’s not a step-by-step course on setting up autoresponders, email segmentation, building complicated funnels , setting up FB ad campaigns, or creating a lead magnet start to finish.

There are free walkthroughs on all of that stuff on YouTube.

My goal is to show you the strategy and system for starting and growing a profitable email list.

I will teach you what I’ve done and give you practical examples to model after.

I will show what has worked and is working now to build my email list.

Let’s dive in.

#1: Niche

WHO you choose to work with has a much bigger impact on your earning potential vs WHAT you do.

In this section we’ll talk about how to pick your WHO.  The best, most profitable niche for your list.

How to pick the best niche

Pick something that answers YES to these 3 questions:

  • Does it have proven demand? (Books, magazines, FB groups, Google Trends)

  • Are people already spending money on it? (Products, services, info)

  • Are there other successful businesses in this niche?

You should also pick a niche that…

  • You can talk about for 3-5+ years

  • You have experience in or are passionate about

  • Ideally has people with money in the niche

One of my examples:

Make Money → Content creators and experts → Build a money-making email list

The Big 4 Markets are:

  • Health

  • Wealth

  • Relationships

  • Hobbies

Choose a sub-niche within one of the Big 4.  Go as specific as you can where there is still demand.

Here are my top 10 niches with example sub-niches for each…

Make Money:

  • Email copywriting

  • Affiliate marketing

  • Freelancing business

  • Start an AirBnB business

  • Become a remote sales rep

Personal Finance / Investing:

  • Crypto

  • Day trading

  • Credit repair

  • Dividend stock investing

  • Invest in single-family homes

Fitness:

  • 75 Hard

  • CrossFit

  • Bodyweight workouts

  • Fat loss for new moms

  • Training for mixed martial artists

Health:

  • Gut Health

  • Joint pain

  • Carnivore diet

  • Ketogenic diet

  • Intermittent Fasting

Relationships:

  • Stop your divorce

  • Fix your relationship

  • Talking to women

  • Get more Tinder dates

  • Get a man to worship you

Popular Hobbies:

  • Golf

  • Surfing

  • Gardening

  • Snowboarding

  • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Survival:

  • Guns

  • Camping

  • Self-defense

  • Food prepping

  • End of the world prep

Politics:

  • Liberal

  • Libertarian

  • Conservative

  • Based on one person (i.e. Trump)

Personal Development:

  • Writing

  • Teaching

  • Confidence

  • Public speaking

  • Productivity / time management

Narrow It Down

Once you’ve chosen your sub-niche, depending on what you’ve chosen, you may need to narrow it down further.

For example… the fitness industry is massive.

It’d be impossible to build a list around just  “weight loss”.

But you might be able to do an email list of men aged 30+ on the Carnivore Diet.

Or new moms using the Keto Diet to shed their baby weight.

#2: Bait

Imagine you’re fishing for Marlin.  Can you expect to put a piece of bread on your hook to catch one?

No.  You’ll catch some Minnows at best.  You need a specific type of “Bait” to attract that Marlin.

Same thing goes for your email list.

Your Bait will be the difference between attracting clients who stay for years and buy 3, 4, 5x times… or someone broke, wants everything for free, and gets pissed off or refunds when you sell something.

So how do we attract the right person?

We need to create a Bait that only appeals to the Marlins in our market.

You want it to be specific and not overly hypey.

How To Craft The Perfect Hook For Your Bait

Let’s take a look at how the hook of your Bait can determine the person you attract.

One is targeting complete beginners.  The others is targeting higher-end people.  See if you can spot the difference…

Email marketing:

  1. How to start an email marketing agency and make $10,000 in your first 30 days… even if you’re starting from scratch and have $0

  2. How to get 4-5 figure clients from your email list

Real estate:

  1. How to buy your first rental property and generate passive income with $0 down

  2. Top 10 cities to do a million dollar out-of-state BRRRR deal

Taxes:

  1. Top 10 tips to save on your taxes

  2. The tax loophole that’s saving real estate investors 5-6 figures a year

Marriage:

  1. How to improve your relationship with your wife

  2. How to stop your divorce in 90 days or less without paying for more therapy

Combat sports:

  1. Subscribe to get our content instantly delivered to your inbox

  2. Subscribe to get monthly deals on our top BJJ instructionals 

See the difference?

In my experience…

The examples that use:

  • A big or broad claim

  • Short time period

  • Emphasis on zero resources needed

…tend to attract “desperate” people looking for a lottery ticket.

I’m not saying you can’t make a bunch of money targeting the mass market.

You’ll just need a bigger list and be willing to deal with the struggling Minnows instead of the Marlins.

So how do you come up with a good hook that attracts the Marlins instead of Minnows?

This requires some detective work.

You want to think about 3 things:

  1. What you want.

  2. What your niche wants.

  3. The conversation going in their head.

Then, you want to create a Bait that triggers someone to go from not knowing who you are to wanting to know everything about you.

Let’s use a real estate coach as an example…

#1 - He might want people to buy his $5000 remote real estate coaching program.  But that’s not what his niche wants.

#2 - His niche is 6-figure earners who want a strategy to buy cash-flowing rental properties out of state.

The most powerful way to approach them is making them feel like they discovered how to do this on their own.

And he can do this if he understands #1, 2, and 3.

So if he wants to sell his coaching program about remote real estate investing…

And he knows his niche wants to buy a cash-flowing rental property out of state…

What can he create that addresses the conversation in his niche’s head?

Well… they might be wondering “what are the best cities right now to invest in SFHs with the highest returns?”

So his Bait could be a 2023 report that breaks this down.

Something like:

“The Remote Rental Report: Top 10 Cities to Buy A High Cash-Flowing Single Family Rental In 2023.”

Do you think his niche would be interested in something like that?

Methinks yes.

And once someone joins his list to get the report… what do you think their next question will be?

“What’s the process for buying a home, renovating it, renting it out, and refinancing it?”

All stuff he can help with in his coaching program.

Does everyone see how that works?

There’s congruence from the Bait to the main offer he wants to sell.

And the way it’s positioned feels less like a “hard sell”.  More like an invitation to work together on the next thing.

We’ll talk more about pricing a bit later in the training.

Free vs Paid Bait

One thing that’s important to remember…

A BUYER… regardless of the price… is far more valuable than a lead.

Even if they only spend $1 with you, they are still more valuable than a free lead.

So you should always go straight for the sale with your Bait right?

Not so fast…

Here’s a couple of considerations…

  1. Some of the most successful people in the email space, as well as the biggest companies in the world, offer something for free to get you to “sample” their stuff so you buy later on

  2. It is much more complex to set up a cold traffic direct to offer acquisition funnel (out of scope for this training)

If you’re just starting your list I would recommend focusing on generating leads, then monetizing after the opt-in.

ChatGPT hack

If you know what you want and what your niche wants, you can get ChatGPT to do some Bait brainstorming for you.

I outsource my thinking to ChatGPT quite often now… and while it isn’t perfect, it can often do 80% of the thinking+planning for me.

Feed it prompts that give you the answers you’re looking for.  The more specific the better.

Here’s an example…

Bait Types

  • Free book

  • Free video

  • Free report

  • Free mini course

  • Free email course

Start with whatever is easiest and quickest for you to create.

I like to write, so I usually do books and email courses.

Examples of my current Baits:

#3: Traffic

3 ways you can get traffic

Traffic is how you get eyeballs on your Bait.

#1 - Build it.

  • SEO, content, social media, word of mouth

#2 - Borrow (“steal”) it.

  • From other people who have access to your audience

#3 - Buy it.

  • Pay other people or the platforms to give it to you.

I use all 3 and have done it in this order.

The type of people you attract to your list will depend on your Bait, which is why we talked about that first.

Let’s discuss the 3 ways to get traffic now…

1.) Build it (slow, but effective long-term)

You are publishing content to build your distribution channels and attract people to your list.

This could mean:

Pick one platform you like and where your niche is hanging out.  Stick to it for 6 months and publish consistently before adding another.

Expect this to be SLOW if you’re starting from nothing.  But it snowballs over the long run.

The people who swim upstream and find you through your content typically stay around the longest and buy the most.

My system for building traffic is simple…

  • Write a daily email

  • Repost on LinkedIn

  • Repost on FB and IG

  • Write a few tweets about it

  • Film YouTube video using hooks that do well

  • Write a branded weekly newsletter

  • Upload it to my blog for SEO

I call this the “Content Flywheel”.

One piece of content (my daily email) fuels the engine for growing on 7 different platforms.

As those platforms grow it generates more traffic to my email list.

So it compounds over time.

Look at my LinkedIn as an example.

2.) Borrow it (faster, but limited to how many people you can find)

Borrowing the audience of people who have access to your niche and trust/authority already built up.

You can do a valuable free training for their group and plug your Bait at the end for folks to learn more about you.

Creators and builders are always looking for new, relevant content to share to their audience so that they look like the “Hero”.

If you can help them with this, you’ll get exposure to your Marlins who are warm/hot once they join your list.

In the last year I’ve done this with people like Justin Welsh, Dan Koe, Dakota Robertson, and Chase Dimond.

All have access to my ideal customers and clients.

You could call them “competitors” but because I came in with something new to share that didn’t overlap with their stuff, they were happy to have me on.

This has resulted in 1000+ new people joining my list with many becoming customers/clients.

This is something I plan to do more of this year.

Here’s a quick how-to do it:

  1. Have your Bait ready

  2. Make a list of 100 people who have access to your audience (podcast, group owners, service providers, coaches, creators etc)

  3. Reach out to them and offer to do a free training for their audience on a topic that complements, not competes, with what they do

Here’s an example message I sent out to a friend who runs a ghostwriting program:

Personalized, doesn’t compete, and makes him look like a hero to his people.

Depending on your niche, offer, and who you link up with…

Borrowing someone else’s list/audience could be the quickest way to get 100-1000 quality subscribers in the next 30 days.

3.) Buy it (fastest, but colder lead and more expensive)

You can buy traffic from other people.

Some common tactics I’ve seen but haven’t used are:

  • Paying for Instagram story posts that link back to your profile with an opt-in link

  • Paying for retweets on Twitter that link back to your profile with an opt-in link

  • Paying for a list shout out or per subscriber

  • Paying for an ad banner on a website

If you have someone with a similar email list size you could do a “List Swap” where you plug their list and they plug yours.

I haven’t done these things because I prefer to have more control, but I know it crushes for a lot of folks.

You can also buy traffic from the platforms.

This is the strategy I’m using now.

I used to spend a ton of money on ads, but stopped in 2020 and took a couple years off.

Now I’m buying traffic on Meta (FB+IG) to put my Bait in front of my Marlins.

As of this typing my ads are getting an average of $2.34 per lead and I’ve been running it since May 2023.

You can start small with $10-$20/day and ramp up spend as you evaluate the results.

Here’s my ad:

Here’s my opt-in page:

You can check it out here:

My recommendation is to use a combination of these traffic strategies.

Lean heavy on the ones that best fit your personality and situation.

How To Build Your Email List For “Free”

The following could be an entire course on its own.

So I’m gonna share what I’m doing at the simplest level where you can model it too.

The funnel is simple…

Bait opt-in→ Self-liquidating offer → Upsell to mid and/or high-ticket offer

I use the Build, Borrow, and Buy strategies to get traffic to my Bait.

Right now I’m using a simple Meta ad that’s getting leads for $2.34.

Once they opt-in they are shown my $27 “Firestarter Templates” which is getting a 4% conversion rate.

There’s an option to add my $37 “Weekend WindfallCampaign” which is getting a 40% conversion rate.

And a post-purchase upsell training for $100 which is getting an 11% conversion rate.

What does this mean?

Let’s say I have 1000 leads. That would cost $2340.

40 people buy my Firestarters for $27, which is $1080.

16 of those 40 buy my Weekend Windfall for $37, which is $592.

4 of those 40 buy my $100 training, which is $400.

For a total of $2072 in sales.

This means I’m only paying $0.27 for each lead on my list.

Once they’re on my list, anything else they buy is pure profit.

I also know who my buyers are now so I can create a special email campaigns to invite them to work with me.

This guide is about growing an email list, not monetization. So I’m not going to go deep on it here.

But the main thing to remember is that your goal is NOT to make a bunch of money on your first offer.

It’s to breakeven or get close to it on day 0 so you build your list for free.  Big win if you’re in the green.

Playing The Long Game

I heard about a study from Dean Jackson.  I can’t remember exactly what company it was done for, but it was some big box retailer.

The study found that in 18 months, 50% of leads who were checking out a specific product ended up buying what they were searching for.

50%!

However… only 15% bought in the first 90 days.

The other 85% bought in 3-18 months.

So why is this important?

Because it’s how you should think about growing your email list.

Most people put their leads through the gauntlet… and if they don’t buy in the first 30 days they toss the lead into the trash.

I’m comfortable playing the long game knowing that 50% of my leads will buy within 18 months.

I can use a strategy to capture both the 15% “now buyers” and 85% “later buyers”.

And I can use a funnel that helps me break even on day 0, so that I’m building my email list for free.

Extras.

Tools You Need

  • ESP (I use ActiveCampaign)

  • Landing page software (I use Clickfunnels)

  • Social media profiles for traffic

  • Google Docs, Canva, ChatGPT to create your Bait

Starting With Low Capital

  • You either pay in time or money.  If you have less money, you will spend more time

  • This means spending months building your presence on social media and manually reaching out to “borrow” audiences

  • Once you feel like you’ve got your message and offer aligned, you can start with $20/day on ads to grow your list faster

How To Spy On What’s Working Now

  • Go to facebook.com/ads/library

  • Set the country to worldwide and “all ads”

  • Type in your niche or offer keyword

  • Filter by “English” and “Active ads” in a certain timeframe

  • Spy on all the other ads of people in your niche

  • Pay attention to ads that have been running for 3-6 months or more

My Current Baits

Final Thoughts

Starting and growing an email list to 1000+ subscribers in 30 days isn’t easy, but I hope this guide makes it easier.

Execute on what’s mentioned here, stay consistent, and you’ll be happy you did.

Your email list is extremely powerful and could serve as the foundation for a 6-7-8 figure business.

I hope you found this guide useful. Share it with a friend if you did.

Also, if you want the live training version of this where I went more in depth, you can get it for 50% off here.

Your compadre,

Sean Anthony

Share

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you make it rain in your business:

1. Connect with me on LinkedIn and YouTube

I post daily on LinkedIn and weekly on YouTube about email and business growth strategies. My free game has been said to be better than other people's paid stuff.

2. Subscribe to my daily email list

Every day I publish free game around email, copywriting, and one-person online businesses.  Subscribe here.

3. Work with me 1-on-1

If you'd like to work with me personally to help you start, grow, and make money from your email list, check out my Email Rainmaker Elite program.  Click here.