This post may contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Please read the disclosure for more info.
Email lists are the lifeblood of any business. They are the first step in building a connection with your customers and generating leads.
How many emails do you need to get to make one sale? According to Media Post, the 80/20 rule applies. Meaning 20% of your emails generate 80% of your sales. To maximize these numbers, building a solid (and targeted) email list with just a sliver of your time each week is important.
So, how do you grow your email list? In this article, I’ll share with you the best traffic sources and free traffic sources for growing your email list (that aren’t spammy).
But first, let’s dive into why email lists are so incredibly important for your business.
What Is an Email List and Why Every Business Needs It
An email list is simply a list of names, email addresses, or other contact information that you want to target with marketing messages. When I say “marketing messages,” I mean anything you send to your list. Some commonly available tools are newsletters, promotions, coupons, etc. It allows you to keep in touch with your existing customers, market to prospective customers, and build your brand.
A successful email list is not built on just one traffic source; you’ll need to reach out to your audience in multiple ways to capture new subscribers. Like any other marketing strategy, there are many ways to generate traffic and make money. But the most effective way is by using a combination of sources.
There are two main advantages to an email list when compared to other marketing channels:
It’s low-cost
Because the customer is opting in and providing their information, most web hosting companies don’t charge for an email account. You can utilize your current products at no cost, and it’s easy to market them through direct email marketing campaigns. There are even free traffic sources you can tap into.
It works
People who open your emails spend more than those who don’t, so it’s a good idea to convert as many website visitors into email subscribers as possible.
The money is on the list
Once you’ve built a large database of subscribers, you can leverage your list by offering other products and services at a higher price point. Email marketing is also an effective platform for upselling existing customers; they’re already familiar with your product or service, so they’re more likely to buy again.
What Exactly Is Traffic
In its simplest form, web traffic is the number of visitors that a business receives. But it’s not just the raw number of visitors that’s important; you also need to know where they’re coming from.
The best traffic sources can be divided into three main categories:
- Organic Traffic
- Referral Traffic
- Direct Traffic
The goal of any marketing strategy is to grow the amount of traffic you have to help drive more sales for your business.
What Are the Best Traffic Sources?
1. Evergreen Traffic
A consistent stream of visitors comes to your site day after day, week after week, and month after month. And while there are several ways to get evergreen traffic (including paid ads and social media), the most effective and sustainable way is to invest in evergreen content that shows up on a Google search.
2. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic comes from search engines like Google and Bing. This is the most important type of web traffic because it’s completely free and it represents people who are actively interested in your products or services.
3. Referral Traffic
Referral traffic comes from other websites that link to yours. This can be either an indirect benefit (if someone links to your website without you knowing it) or a direct benefit (if you’ve partnered with another website to generate traffic).
4. Direct Traffic
Direct traffic comes from people who type your URL into their browser or click on a bookmark that takes them directly to your website. This is usually a small portion of overall web traffic but it can still be significant depending on your business goals.
What it means is the people coming to your site and clicking on links to find out more about your business and your services. For example, when someone clicks on a product or service’s link, that’s considered traffic. When people click on your call-to-action buttons and opt into your mailing list, that is also considered traffic.
5. Social Media Traffic
The problem with social media is that you must constantly post so you show up on people’s feeds. This can be a lot of work, but it’s good for brand awareness. The downside to this type of traffic is that the content does not show up on a search. In contrast, evergreen traffic is SEO-friendly and easier to manage.
6. Email Marketing.
Email marketing is a popular and powerful way to generate traffic. That’s because if you send an email to all your subscribers, some will click through to see what you’re promoting. If you do it right, your conversion rates will be very high and you can promote your products and services to your audience again and again without paying a dime for advertising.
7. Paid Media
Paid media includes Facebook ads, Google ads, and other forms of paid advertising. Paying to get traffic to a landing page requires planning and research to determine which channels and tactics will give you the most results for your advertising dollars. Paid media should always be sent to a landing page and not a website because there are too many links to click on a website while a landing page only has one purpose, to get an opt-in…
8. Paid Search
This includes users who come directly to your website or landing page by clicking on an ad. You have complete control over what people see when they land on your site, and you measure the results to see exactly what gets visitors to take action.
Free Traffic Sources You Can Use
We must remember that being free doesn’t always mean easy. It requires a lot of patience and perseverance to see results. Here are some free traffic sources you can use:
TikTok
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms today. It allows users to share short videos with others and has a wide range of uses, from funny clips to music videos to educational content. TikTok is also unique in that it’s one of the few social media platforms that are SEO friendly, meaning that your content can show up on Google searches.
This makes TikTok an evergreen traffic source, as your content will always be findable by new users. TikTok also pushes your content out to non-followers, meaning you have the potential to reach a much wider audience than on other social media platforms. Not only is this one of the best free traffic sources out there, but it also keeps you relevant to others.
Instagram Reels
Like TikTok, it allows users to create short videos and share them with the world. However, Reels has some key differences that make it distinct from other social media platforms. For one, Reels lacks some of the creative tools available on TikTok, such as transitions, effects, and green screen capabilities. It also has no SEO capabilities, meaning it won’t appear on Google searches like TikTok.
On the plus side, however, Instagram Reels has more expansive sharing capabilities, allowing you to share your content with more than followers or people who use the hashtag search feature.
YouTube
Google owns YouTube, so it’s no surprise that it’s a popular destination for people looking to learn new things. Not only does YouTube appear on a Google search, but you can also search for stuff within it. This makes it a great platform for SEO. And since YouTube is so popular, it’s also a great way to build an audience for your business or brand. I consider it one of the best traffic sources available.
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people searching for things on Google and then adding Reddit to their search. For example, they’ll search for “how to start a blog on Reddit” or “best travel tips on Reddit.” This is because they know that Reddit is a great place to find information on any imaginable topic. And since YouTube and blogs are also good sources of information, it only makes sense that people would want to find them on Reddit.
Quora
Quora is a great place to get evergreen traffic for questions that can be answered with links to blog posts or YouTube videos. Even better, the votes are weighted towards those that are useful, and the content that gets the most upvotes will be seen by many people. The key is that users need to trust your answers; just make sure that your answers are detailed and also helpful. You can easily link to your blog or website in your answers and have people follow your blog by clicking through your answers.
Pinterest With a Blog + Tailwind
If you’re a blogger, then you know that Pinterest is a powerful search engine that can help drive traffic to your blog. Did you know that you can also use Pinterest to link back to your blog?
That’s right – by utilizing the power of Pinterest and Tailwind, you can increase the reach of your blog and get more people to read your content.
Here’s how it works:
- First, make sure that you optimize your blog for Pinterest. This means adding high-quality images and infographics and creating catchy headlines that will make people want to click through to your site.
- Next, sign up for a free Tailwind account. Once you’re logged in, connect your Pinterest account and start scheduling pins for your blog posts.
- Tailwind will help you optimize your pins for maximum reach, and they also offer a handy analytics tool to track your pins’ performance over time.
- Finally, start sharing your content on Pinterest and watch the traffic roll in! By utilizing the power of both Pinterest and Tailwind, you can give your blog the boost it needs to reach a wider audience.
What You Need to Make It Work
Once you’ve chosen from the best traffic sources, you need to ensure that your landing page or opt-in page meets visitors’ needs.
A landing page builder and email marketing software are the foundation of a successful email marketing strategy. I recommend using ClickFunnels + ActiveCampaign to get started.
These two platforms have been my go-to for quite a while because they allow me to personalize my emails, send automated messages, segment my audience, grow my list, and most importantly make sales.
ClickFunnels + ActiveCampaign
ClickFunnels is a helpful tool for creating beautiful landing pages, email opt-ins, sales funnels, and memberships. When used with Active Campaign, it can be an incredibly powerful tool for growing your email list and making more sales by directing people from traffic sources to opt into your freebie that upsell them through a series of sales pages.
Here are some of the best ways to use Clickfunnels and ActiveCampaign together to grow your business:
- Use Clickfunnels to create beautiful landing pages encouraging visitors to sign up for your offer that connects with your email list.
- Use ActiveCampaign’s powerful automation features to nurture your leads and turn them into customers.
- Use both tools to create highly effective sales funnels and lead-generation campaigns that will help you grow your business exponentially.
Conclusion
One thing is clear – there are tons of different ways to get traffic to your email list and business. You need to find out what works best for your niche and reach out with that! Free traffic sources will always be available as long as you put in the time and effort needed to get them going.
Pro tip: It’s important to take the time to develop and nurture your email list because it can be a very profitable long-term strategy. Always avoid spamming emails that promote more products without any real value for the reader. Instead, send out valuable content that helps the reader in some way by providing solutions or entertainment through interesting content like videos, photos, and blog posts.
Overall, the best traffic sources are a combination of each one that I have mentioned above. It’s all about finding the right mix and then adding that to what you already do.
No Comments