How to Grow Your Email List: The No-Fluff Guide for Service Providers

How many new clients do you need this month to actually hit your income goals?

Three? Five? Ten?

If you’re a service provider, you know how hard it can be to hit those numbers consistently. You’re great at what you do – but getting the right people to find you and say yes? 

That’s the hard part. 

The good news is that you don’t need to leave it up to chance or keep waiting around for referrals. The path to an easy, predictable flow of new clients all starts with growing your email list.

Luckily, growing your email list doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or require you to become a full-time tech person.

In this post, we’re getting into exactly how to grow your email list so you can stop wondering where your next client is coming from. 

Let’s get growing. 🙌🏻

Getting Started with Email Marketing

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to grow your email list, let’s talk about email marketing basics.

First of all, at its core, email marketing is simple. It’s just emailing people.

You don’t even need fancy software to start. If you’ve only got a handful of emails, send out newsletters straight from your Gmail account – easy-peasy. 

Send an email once a week or even once a month – whichever suits your schedule best. Just remember to aim for consistency. 

Once your email list starts to grow, THEN you can consider looking for a paid email marketing platform. (My personal favourite is Kit.) 

BUT there’s one very important thing you need to know before you send out a single email:

Emailing is NOT just about selling. You need to nurture your audience, too.

Think about the emails you like receiving the most from businesses. They’re not constantly pitching to you, right? They’re giving you something like a tip, an update, or a little moment of value that makes you glad you opened it. 

That’s exactly what you want to be doing for YOUR list.

In Magic Marketing Machine, I teach an Instagram content strategy that follows a simple framework with just 3 types of posts: growth, nurture, sales. 

You grow your numbers with growth content.

Then you nurture those people by providing value, building their trust, and giving them something to enjoy. Then, by the time you’re ready to sell, your people are warmed up and ready to buy. 🔥  They already know you, they already like you, and they’re already used to seeing your name in their feed.

Apply that same approach to your email list, and you’ve got yourself a pipeline full of warm leads who are ready to buy the moment you make an offer. 🙌🏻

Why Email Marketing Has Such High Conversion Rates

Now, at this point, I’m sure you’re already sold on email marketing. But have you ever wondered what makes it so effective? 

Of all the marketing channels out there, email marketing has some of the highest conversion rates. 

And there’s a bunch of reasons why: 

➡️ Guaranteed Delivery

Email = guaranteed delivery. Sure, you might end up in a few spam boxes, but when you post on Instagram, there’s no guarantee that ALL of your followers will see your post (or even the majority). 

While it’s hard to say exactly what percentage of your audience sees your content on Instagram, in general it’s usually lower than the average 42% open rate in a solid email marketing campaign.  🤯

When you send an email, it’s practically guaranteed to go out to everyone whose name is on your list.

➡️ Everyone CHOSE to Be There

Crash course in how the Instagram algorithm works: 

When you post on Instagram, the algorithm shows your posts to some followers and some strangers too. Then it shares your post with more strangers depending on how much engagement you get. 

BUT it’s up to those non-followers to follow you or not. 

With email marketing, every single person on your list CHOSE to receive your emails. They want to hear from you. It only makes sense that emails will have a high conversion rate. 

➡️ You Can Sort and Segment Your List 

Once you get a little fancy with your email marketing, you can actually tag and segment your audience so you’re only sending relevant offers to people on your list. 

Now, that person in Arkansas following you for your virtual coaching won’t be bombarded with emails promoting your in-person event in Toronto.

The more specific you get, the higher your conversion rate climbs.

➡️ Email Marketing Helps You Stay Top of Mind 

When someone sees your Instagram content AND gets your emails AND hears from you in their DMs, something magical happens…

You become the first person they think of when they’re ready to buy. 

That’s the power of staying top of mind, and email is one of the best tools for getting you there.

So, now you know the WHY behind why email works so well. But in order to make sure your email marketing works to the best of its ability, there’s one important piece of the puzzle left.

Let’s Talk About Freebies and Why You Need One to Grow Your Email List

Before we get into the actual strategies for how to grow your email list, we need to talk about freebies. 

Freebies (aka lead magnets or opt-ins) are one of the best ways to get people onto your email list. Basically, if someone resonates with your content on Instagram but they aren’t ready to buy yet, your freebie provides them with information they really need now.  

Think of them like tasty little hors d’oeuvres you give away like a digital download, short training, or PDF in exchange for their email address.

They sign up to receive it and just like that, they’re on your list!

Many of the most successful strategies to grow your email list revolve around having a freebie ready to go. 

For a full breakdown on how to create a freebie and common mistakes to avoid while creating one, check out my blog, How to Create Lead Magnets That Work: What to Do & What to Avoid

6 Proven Ways to Grow Your Email List

Creating your freebie is only half the battle. Now, you have to do the legwork to promote your freebie and grow your email list.

Here are 6 ways to help people find you and make it happen. 

1. Run Paid Ads to Promote Your Freebie

One way to get people onto your email list is through ads – think Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or Google ads.

The premise is simple: choose your audience for your ad, then promote your freebie through it. Someone clicks on it, pops in their email, and – TA DA! – they’re on your list. 

But ads are EXPENSIVE. 😬 

You’re paying for every single person that gets added to your list. This can run you a hundreds (even thousands) of dollars a month – especially if you hire an expert to set up and run your ads for you.

I’m not saying you can’t make that investment back by nurturing those new leads on your list! BUT just be prepared to fork up some cash for those upfront costs if you choose this method. 

2. Use a Website Pop-Up to Capture Email Subscribers 

You’ve probably seen these before. These are the little pop-up boxes that offer you something in exchange for your email when you click on a website. They’ll say something like…

“Subscribe now and get my [Super Cool Freebie] instantly!”

Or “Drop your email and I’ll send you my free X template!”

If someone comes across your website, a pop-up is a great way to capture their email before they leave. 

👉🏻 Pro-tip: If you do decide to use this strategy, make sure you add at least a 10-15 second delay before the pop-up appears. There’s nothing worse than landing on a website and immediately being bombarded by pop-ups! 😵‍💫 

3. Use Organic Social Media to Grow Your Email List for Free

Okay, now this one is my personal favourite. 🤩

Using organic marketing strategies like Instagram and other social media platforms gets your face, your content, and your business in front of people FOR FREE. No ads budget required.

You just show up, share value, and the right people start finding you. And from there, you can pull them directly onto your email list by promoting your freebies in your content, stories, link in bio, and captions. 

Then, the real magic happens when someone is following you on social media and through your emails. Now, you’re nurturing them from all directions, keeping you top of mind. 

➡️ Want to learn more about using your freebie as part of your organic marketing strategy? 

Inside my Magic Marketing Machine program, I have a template called Sell Your Freebie. My clients who go through the program have used this template to get hundreds of people onto their email list. One of my members sent me this message after using this strategy: 

“Jenna, I have to tell you, I literally keep using the same Sell Your Freebie script, and my email list is on fire. The reel I made today, 50 subscribers already. It’s the same exact caption. This is one of the best things I’ve ever learned from you!”

If you want the exact strategy and templates to make this work on Instagram, come join us in Magic Marketing Machine.

4. Attend Networking Events to Grow Your Email List in Person

I know a lot of us work in a virtual space, but don’t underestimate the power of meeting people face-to-face!

If you’re already going to an in-person event, collect emails while you’re there. A simple “Can I add you to my email list?” goes a long way for people you’ve already been networking and connecting with. 

5. Collect New Subscribers by Guest Teaching a Class/Workshop

Networking pro-tip: If you’re guest teaching a class or speaking at an event, bring a sign-up sheet. 

Leave it on a table by the entrance and have everyone who attends sign in with their name and email. By the time your class is over, you’ll have a whole new batch of people to add to your email list at home. 

6. Collaborate with a Business That Shares Your Ideal Client Pool

Another good tip for how to grow your email list is to collaborate with a business that shares the same ideal client as you. 

For example, if your main offer helps wedding professionals automate their business, collaborating with another business who teaches social media marketing also to wedding pros is a natural fit. 🫱🏻‍🫲🏼 

You have the same audience and you’ll each get a TON of new eyeballs on your content by working together. 

This can look like guest posting on each other’s Instagram, doing a live chat together, or even doing an Instagram Stories takeover for a day. Just remember to tell people how to sign up to your email list so they can stay in touch!

Why Instagram is the Best Way to Grow Your Email List

Now, all 6 of these strategies are great for growing your email list. BUT if I had to crown the #1 way to grow your email list? 

It would Instagram every single time.  👑

Here’s why: Instagram is often where people find you for the first time. They stumble across your content, like what they see, and decide to follow you.

Then your content starts popping up in their feed day after day until little by little they start to trust you.

And once they trust you enough, maybe they’ll even swap their email for your freebie and find themselves on your email list (aka your most valuable real estate). 

When they do, now you’re nurturing them on a deep level from TWO directions – Instagram and through emails. They’ll keep consuming your content until one day, they’re warmed up enough to say “yes!” to your paid offers.   

Other strategies on this list have their limits:

• Networking events and guest teachings are capped by how many people are in the room. 
• Collabs build your list slowly. 
• And ads have a steep learning curve and an even steeper price tag. 

Growing your email list through Instagram costs you nothing and the results can be ASTOUNDING. And guess what? I’m about to make it even easier. 🙌🏻

How to Use ManyChat to Grow Your Email List Even Faster

If you want to take your Instagram email list growth strategy to the next level, let me introduce you to ManyChat.

ManyChat is an automation tool that connects to your Instagram account. Basically, you create a post and ask people to comment a certain keyword. When they do, ManyChat automatically sends them a DM for whatever automation you’ve created for that keyword. This could be a direct link to instantly download your freebie or even just send a prompt to type in their email to subscribe to your list. 

All without ever leaving Instagram! 

But here’s the best part: the Instagram algorithm sees all those comments your post is getting and treats it as regular engagement! It sees the hundreds and hundreds of comments and assumes people are just loving your content. 

So it shares it to more and more new eyes which helps boost your reach and build your following – all without any extra effort on your part. 

I call that a win-win all around. 🏆

---

Growing your email list doesn’t have to be overwhelming and there are absolutely NO RULES about how you have to do it. 

If you’ve read this whole post and you’re thinking “okay great, but I’m not ready for any of this yet,” that’s totally fine! 

You can start as small as a spreadsheet. Collect emails from people who want to stay updated with you and send out a casual BCC email every now and then. 

That counts. That’s email marketing.

The whole goal is simple: connect with people, show up consistently, give them value, and remind them that you exist. 

Do that and by the time you’re ready to sell? You’ll have an audience of piping hot leads who already know you, trust you, and are ready to buy. 

And if you’re ready to start growing your email list through Instagram, ManyChat is THE tool to make that happen. 

One of the first times I used a Manychat automation, I woke up to see 2000 people had commented on my Instagram post asking me for a link. 

That’s 2000 more people getting added to my email list and 2000 more people downloading my freebie. 🎉

(And thank GOD I wasn’t sitting there manually sending out 2000 links. My thumbs are sore just thinking about it.) 😂

Want to give Manychat a try? To help you get started, I created an Intro to ManyChat & How to Use It guide that’s free to download. It gives you everything you need to know about how businesses use ManyChat to grow their email lists and a video tutorial to help you set up your first automation!

Grab my free ManyChat guide below to start growing your email list easily!