Let's dive a little deeper into building an email list quickly with your target customers!

If you haven't yet, I would recommend going back and reading Part 1 and Part 2 of Building an Email List.

At the end of Part 2, I concluded that the fastest way to build an email list for product based businesses is by doing monthly giveaways. For every person that signs up to your mailing list, they get a chance to win one of your handmade items.

But is this the best way? Not necessarily, since many people that are into giveaways are not looking to actually spend any money.

Unless you can convince them that your products are really something they need in their lives. But how do we do that?

The power of autoresponders

Once someone signs up to your mailing list, you have the option to send them a series of automatic emails.

For someone to actually buy something from you, they need to know, like and trust you. Let's assume this new subscriber doesn't know you and your handmade business very well.  

So let's utilize the power of email autoresponders by setting up a series of emails that will make your new subscribers know, like and trust you!

You could really play around here and create a strategy that will work for your unique business.

For example, here's what I would do:

Email 1: Details about giveaway (for the sake of officially setting up the giveaway; don't forget this is why people signed up in the first place)

Email 2: What Tiny Hands is and what we do (there's a chance people don't really know. Take this opportunity to tell them about what makes you unique)

Email 3: Who we are + photos and profiles of myself and my assistants (this helps them know and like you)

Email 4: List of testimonials from past customers / Press mentions (for building trust)

Email 5: Offer a 20% discount code (the tipping point)

The Tipping Point

The reason I offered a 20% discount code at the end is to help bridge the gap of “I probably won't win this giveaway anyway” syndrome. We've all felt that way before.

The discount code should be irresistible enough to encourage them to make their purchase. And for everyone that doesn't care about the discount code, they will eventually either

1. unsubscribe (which is a good thing) or
2. stay on your list (also a good thing!)

So what have you got to lose? I've personally placed this autoresponder system for my business and I believe the results will be favorable. It's the sweet spot.

Will you join me?

Since this is just a strategy on paper and I haven't yet collected enough data to prove it works, I would love for you to join me in this experiment. If you're in business for the long haul, you should be split testing anyway (the act of testing out different things on your website + marketing to find out what works better).

Or let me know in the comments what you've found to work well for your email list.

I'll report back on this in a few months!

Edit// I'm reporting back after a few months of using this strategy. It's brought in tons of sales that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten.

Check out this post on the five types of promos you can use to make more sales in your shop for the low down on how well this strategy worked!