7 Ways that Landed me 500+ Subscribers in 8 months.

So, this is by no means a post that is meant to be braggy. And, maybe some of you get wayyyy more newsletter sign ups than that a month.

All I can tell you is that I’m really wildly, madly happy about it.

You see, in December 2012 I wrote down the following goal in Leonie Dawson’s 2013 Creating Your Incredible Year Workbook* – # of newsletter subscribers by the end of 2013 = 500.

Do you want to know the size of my list when I wrote that goal? (and it’s been roughly the same size since 2008, yikes.)

160.

Yep, you read that right.

Today, I have 680 newsletter subscribers! Amen! Hallelujah!

I surpassed my goal ahead of schedule.

My intention for telling you all of this is to clue you in on what worked for me and what didn’t in regards to list building.

Here’s a break down by every marketing/promo activity starting on January 1, 2013:

 1. 3 giveaways: Sign ups = 60. I was hoping for more, but this is a respectable number for me.

2. 1 dreadfully ill-planned Google Hangout in February 2013. Sign ups = 4.

3. Promoted my 1:1 coaching via Jodi Chapman’s Soul Speak blog and paid $150 for her to do an interview featuring me and my program. Sign ups = 6. Not so great. I had this silly idea that if I charged $37 for a mini-workshop based on my 1:1 work, that the people who signed up would definitely attend. It was a 3-day series. I had 1 person the first day and 0 people for the rest of the workshop. Oy. I needed to offer a FREE series to get the sign ups I wanted. Live and learn.

4. 3 free speaking gigs/workshops/conferences. Sign ups = 35. Decent. Being there, in front of your ideal customers can be a gold mine for your list.

5. 3 paid live workshops. Sign ups = 55. Pretty nice return! You delivered amazing content to your ideal client who wants to pay you for your work. Can you beat that?

6. All the other stuff … Involvement in free and paid Mastermind groups. Guest posts. Search. Social Media Channels (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest). Testimonials on well-trafficked websites (Leonie Dawson’s Amazing Biz + Life Academy, Alexandra Franzen). Word-of-Mouth. Friend/Client referrals. These are really hard for me to track. Sign ups = 268.

7. My free challenge, Enchant: Enrapture the World With Spellbinding Strategies. Paid for a $75 banner ad in Jodi Chapman’s Soul Speak blog and newsletter. Sign ups = 92.

Yes. This was so exhilarating. The most sign ups I’ve gotten to date from one promotional activity.

It was easy to do and I loved creating the content and community. In a future edition, I’ll talk about the steps I took to create the Enchant Challenge. I think it is a great way to build excitement around your brand and actually be useful and engaging to your tribe.

I‘m sure you can tell that one thing missing from my list that soooo many people do …  Webinars. I did quite a few last year and got hardly any sign ups. The return was so terrible that it depressed me.

The reason that Webinars didn’t work for me is that I didn’t partner with someone else who had a much bigger list, and just worked my own channels. No bueno. If you want to rock your Webinars and build excitement around them, you need a celebrity partner (an author, coach. lifestyle expert, etc.) with a huge list. Or perhaps be part of a telesummit.

Even then, I still don’t do Webinars because quite frankly, I detest attending them. I help friends and colleagues promote them because I believe in their work and want them to succeed. But mostly I hear sad stories about low attendance and low engagement. And low sign ups.

Let’s face it. What on Earth is that engaging about someone talking about their work, giving a handful of good tips and then wrapping it up with Q&A (for the 5 people who attended) + a pitch to pay them a boatload of money for their program?

This is not meant to be a snub at anyone who does Webinars. I’ve done them too and have had coaches swear by them. They just don’t work for me in the way I was doing them.

Here’s what I suggest instead of the commonplace Webinar: interviews with experts in your field and/or free workshops where your peeps aren’t just sitting there listening passively. And, leading them through a guided meditation is not going to do it either. Still too passive … and everyone’s doing that now. It’s not revolutionary.

I’d always get feedback from a few of the participants (out of the 5 total) that they just couldn’t follow me into the magical realms over the phone. Sound quality was crappy. And some people just weren’t into that sort of thing.

Much better to lead them through a ritual, some gorgeous, soulful writing prompts or tell them a good story. Along with your useful information + soft pitch.

We all know why you’re doing a Webinar and expect you to pitch us. Please don’t hit us over the head with your offer. That’s just plain ugly. For the loyal peeps that lasted through that entire 45 minutes of talking, give them what they deserve: a well-thought out, graceful and gorgeous offer that is irresistible (more on this later).

That’s it for today. Hope this was a helpful exercise and that you have some fresh ideas to take action on.

With love + deeeep gratitude … ‘cause YOU, dear one, may be one of the 680 people who give me wings to fly every day.

Wishing you every blessing that your heart can hold,

 Kris (aka, Mystical Melusina)

 P.S. In the free Enchant challenge we each chose a magical name. I love mine and will be doing a new sign-off as “Mystical Melusina” or “Mystical Mel” or simply “MM.”

If you want a small taste of what we did that was soooo *enchanting* last week, read this lovely blog post about Drumming Goddess Maria’s experience.

*The link to Leonie Dawson’s website is an affiliate link. Just so ya know.