How I got 80% of my email subscribers last month automatically

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You’re probably here because of an automation.

The top three ways people get on this newsletter list are:
1️⃣ A recommendation pop up from another newsletter (36%)
2️⃣ LinkedIn (18%)
3️⃣ Purchasing something from me (10%)

Only one of those things is something I do manually.

Automation is overhyped and honestly it sounds more grandiose than it really is.

But when you leave everything to a manual process, you waste a lot of minutes that add up into substantial chunks of time you could have saved yourself. You also drop the ball more often, forgetting to move a client over to an email list or neglecting to add that new referral partner.

You might think “but I’m just working with a couple clients a month?” and to that I say, “are all the clients from your last 6 months on your email list yet?”

This week, we’re looking at 5 ways to automate your email list growth. Consider trying one of them out so you can lighten your marketing load!

Take part in the Stacking Up Subs Challenge!

We’re tracking our email list growth together for the month of July.

Are you already in for the challenge? Update your sub count on our leaderboard!

Want to join our challenge? Comment on the board with your name, newsletter link and current sub count and I’ll add you!

Every week in July, you’ll update your subscriber number. The winner (who grows their own list by the most subs) gets a feature in this very newsletter! And the satisfaction of knowing you took action on your goals ☺️ 

→ Read more about the challenge

How to get more subscribers automatically

I’m stunned to hear from so many of you that your past clients are not on your email list!

It might be a light warning sign about the content of those emails if you think your clients wouldn’t find them valuable. If that’s true, why would a prospective client want to be there?

There’s a bit of magic in how you treat prospects when you know your clients are reading too. Subtle shifts in tone and more leading edge perspectives tend to emerge!

I have a strong bias for putting your clients on your list (though you can disagree anytime!) With them top of mind, here’s what you’re going to do:

✅ Add clients and customers from point of purchase
As soon as someone buys something from you, they should be added to your email list. Ideally, you automate this with Stripe directly to an email tool (for example) but you can also use your CRM or invoicing tool here (like HoneyBook or Harvest) to send projects with a status change to a newsletter list. If your tools don’t have these integrations, turn to Zapier.

I don’t personally think you need extra permission to do this. It’s extremely common to receive emails as soon as you’ve bought something. Is it annoying? It can be if those emails suck. Make your emails good. You can also segment them (e.g. “clients”) if you want to include or exclude them from promotions.

The Example Zap: When purchases in Stripe, send to Email Octopus.

✅ Add clients in offboarding
Did you miss adding your clients up front? Add them in offboarding! How you automate this part depends on how you offboard, but what I like to do is create an offboarding sequence in my email tool and add clients to that segment.

For Growthtrackers, this was a 4 email sequence that ran when I tagged someone as an alumni. After that, they’d get alumni emails. Other tools that could help you here include a project management tool like ClickUp and again, your CRM.

The Example Zap: When status changed to complete in HoneyBook, add to offboarding group in Email Octopus.

✅ Add prospects when they book a call (with permission)
Most prospects should go on your email list unless your emails are bad (in which case why are you sending bad emails your prospects wouldn’t want to get?)

You might avoid auto-adding them without notice but it’s common to add a checkbox into a calendar tool or contact form. Set something up in Calendly that reads “add me to your email list” and then use Zapier to pipe them over to your list if they check yes!

The Example Zap: When Calendly checkbox is checked, add to Email Octopus.

✅ Add referral partners when they book a call (with permission)
Use the same method above for this. If you do coffee chats, you could just add the checkbox there and use that same calendar for your potential referral partners.

The Example Zap: When Calendly checkbox is checked, add to Email Octopus and tag “Referral Partner.”

✅ Add event attendees when they RSVP
If you’re hosting webinars, office hours, trainings or other events, make sure to hook up a transfer of registrants to your email list. Your event platform (like Eventbrite or Lu.ma might integrate out of the box or Zapier is again the go to). Do you need permission to do this? Depends on the country you live in and the countries you send to. You can pretty much always get away with a disclaimer on the page and if you want to cover your bases, use the checkmark approach.

The Example Zap: When registers through Lu.ma, add to Email Octopus and tag “Webinar October 2024”.

💡 Sound like too many moving parts? Just choose one for now!

➡️ Next week, we’ll talk about how to lean on your communities for list growth!

Don’t forget to comment on our scoreboard with your current subscriber count!

Low Energy Leads live is back!

I’m hosting two live extravaganzas this summer and you’re invited!

🏖️ July 31: Map Your Path to More Clients! Join me to map your marketing system piece by piece and walk away with your top three opportunities to book more clients this quarter. ($29 ticket or FREE if you’ve bought something from my shop)

🧭 August: 100 Subs Quest! Every Tuesday in August, we’re growing your email list. If you dig our July theme of stacking up subscribers, you’re gonna love doing it live with a community. Each week, we’ll launch a live mini-mission on our quest to ADD 100 SUBS TO YOUR LIST. ($99 for the whole quest!)