3 Common Mistakes That Make Building an Email List a Long, Slow Uphill Battle

So you're blogging regularly.

You're using a skyscraper approach, creating content that's jam-packed with value.

Everything is written well, and you've carefully crafted each piece of content to resonate perfectly with your intended audience. But there's one problem…

No one's subscribing to your blog.

If your readership's been a bit stagnant — or you're having trouble getting any readership at all — it's possible you've been doing something wrong.

Accidentally thwarting your own efforts to get noticed.

You might be ignoring three things that could make a massive difference in your subscriber numbers.

Think about this: where are your visitors coming from?

Are they coming back? (Or I should say, are you bringing them back?)

And what does your opt-in look like?

In a recent article from Digital Marketer, you'll find some valuable tips for growth hacking your blog readership, and even more importantly…

…attracting an audience that converts.

To do so, make sure you avoid these 3 common mistakes:

1. You’re Not Buying Traffic…

…and sending it to your blog or your landing pages.

Once you’ve built Lead Magnets, Tripwire Offers, and landing pages, you want to buy traffic and drive it directly to your blog, or to one of your offer landing pages.

You will gain more leads, at a far quicker rate, when you buy traffic, allowing you to scale.

2. You’re Not Retargeting

And finally, when people come to your site and consume your content they are effectively raising their hand and saying they’re interested in this topic.

Through the contact information you’ve gathered from your Lead Magnets and Tripwire Offers, people who have shown interest in your blog content could be retargeted.

Retargeting can be very effective because it keeps your brand top of mind and reminds people of the quality content and offers you have.

If you have a Lead Magnet, a Tripwire, and a landing page, and you are scaling up by buying traffic, start looking at retargeting to really ramp up the number of subscribers that you’re getting to your blog.

3. You Don’t Have a Landing Page/Squeeze Page

Your Lead Magnets and Tripwire Offers should have their own dedicated landing page, also known as a squeeze page.

There is a HUGE difference in conversion rate between traffic that is driven to a homepage or blog post and traffic that is driven to a squeeze page.

Squeeze pages are far more effective at converting than your homepage.

What does far more effective mean?

We’re talking as low as 1% conversion rate to a Lead Magnet on a homepage or blog post sidebar and north of 60% conversion rate on a dedicated landing page.

Why?

Homepages and blog post pages are distracting.

There are SO MANY different places a person can click on your homepage, from your About Us section to Products Page. People will get “shiny object syndrome” and become less likely to opt-in.

But a dedicated squeeze page has far fewer distractions to cause a lead to wander. A squeeze page only has two choices: opt-in or leave.

Now, I’m not advocating that you eliminate sidebar banner opt-ins on your homepage or blog post pages and that you exclusively use squeeze pages.

There’s no reason not to have a sidebar opt-in, but it will not convert at the same success rate as a dedicated squeeze page. Not even close.

So, use both, and generate more leads.