Cross-Promote for Growth

Episode #7 of the course How to rapidly grow your email list by Jessica Festa

While it can be easy to look at others in your niche as competition, the reality is that in many instances, collaboration will get you further.

And this includes when working to grow your email list.

Identify Potential Partners

Now, there are many ways to work with others. Start by creating a list of influencers who have similar audiences to yours but who don’t offer exactly the same thing. So, if your goal is to help your community cook healthier meals, maybe you can find influencers who focus on fitness or natural medicine. Or if you help online business owners create profitable websites, you might partner with someone who helps people become more focused through meditation.

Start with an Enticing Offer

You want to get subscribers onto your email list, and there’s a good chance that they do too. So, you can cross-promote lists.

First, you should each have something worth promoting. Simply saying, “My friend Blogger Jim is so awesome. Follow him!” likely won’t get much traction; however, if Blogger Jim has an incredible Content Upgrade or is teaching a free class soon, that is more likely to move the needle.

Consider the clout you each have with your respective audiences. While you recommending Blogger Jim would get some of your community to sign up (and vice versa), a joint class with you and Blogger Jim teaching together would get everyone really excited.

Of course, everyone who wants to join should need to sign up for the class, meaning they’ll need to opt in to your list first.

Join Forces for a Giveaway

A workshop isn’t the only hot offer to entice signups. Giveaways can work well too. And if you have others helping to promote it, even better.

Choose your giveaway options, come up with a plan for promotion, and create a landing page using a tool like Gleam or Rafflecopter where people can sign up (with subscribing to your email list as an entry option, of course). Note: Some email marketing platforms do not allow co-registration lists, so you may need to partner with someone whose goal is something else (like getting followers on Instagram).

The trick here is offering a prize that would entice your ideal audience. So, if you blog about vegan cooking, offering two nights in a hotel wouldn’t be pertinent. Remember, you don’t just want anyone to sign up. You want the right people to sign up.

Additionally, you can host your own giveaway but entice others to promote it. When you create your giveaway widget (again, using the tools mentioned above), you can offer additional entries to people for sharing about the giveaway on social media and referring friends.

Interviews

Another way to collaborate with others who have similar audiences is to swap guest posts or interviews. So, if Blogger Jim agrees to interview you on his blog to introduce your awesome brand to his community, you should also ask him if you can promote your Content Upgrade throughout the interview (and you’ll do the same for him).

Your Turn

Create a spreadsheet listing influencers you’d like to work with, their emails, and how you’d work with them. After you’ve narrowed down five good ones, reach out.

Recommended book

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie