Email List Building: Using a Facebook group to grow your email list
I set up my first ever Facebook group in April 2020. I decided to start a group because I knew it could be a great place to nurture an audience and I also wanted somewhere to test out and improve my live streaming skills. Having never gone live on social media before, I started out as I meant to go on and went live in the group every day for the first five weeks. I wrote a blog about the results of my Facebook live testing which you can read here.
As well as being a great place to engage with my target audience, I also knew from the outset that this group was going to be a way to get more email subscribers. I was very intentional about who the group was for - I wasn’t going to let everybody in, only those who fit the bill. It’s all about growing a Facebook group and email list of ideal clients.
Getting your ideal clients to join your Facebook group
You’ll get the best results from email marketing if you grow your list in the RIGHT way. By that I mean going for quality over quantity and working hard to grow your list with ideal clients only. A Facebook group is the perfect way to do this because you can create something that attracts your ideal clients and convert them to subscribers from there.
When starting a Facebook group, you need to be really clear on who the group is for and what problem the group will solve for them. Think of a transformation and communicate that in the group’s title and description. For example, my email marketing Facebook group is called From Spam to Wham! Email Marketing Community.
In my group, I teach female entrepreneurs how to get started with email marketing or improve their current email results. I’m really clear on that in the group’s title and description.
Turning Facebook group members into email subscribers
Once you’ve set up your group and it’s all geared towards solving an issue that your ideal client has, you can put in place a really easy method to gain subscribers from the outset.
Always make use of the questions that members complete upon requesting to join your group. As well as asking them for more information about themselves, ask them what they are currently struggling with in relation to your offering. One of the questions that I ask prospective members is: What are you currently struggling with when it comes to email marketing? This question has given me some really useful insights into how I can help my ideal clients.
To encourage members to subscribe to your list, use one of the screening questions to ask if people would like to opt in to your email list.
How to ask Facebook group members to subscribe to your email list
You need to ask for opt-ins in the right way here. Communicate the value of subscribing to maximise the chances of people doing so. Be aware that not everyone requesting to join your group will know who you are or what you do, so they will need to be given a good reason to hand over their email address.
Phrase the question like this:
Would you like to subscribe to name of my newsletter to receive the value you give? If so, please type your email address here.
This part is really important: When you go to your Facebook group to accept new member requests, take a screenshot of the completed questions and save it as evidence that the person has opted in to your list. This is to enable you to provide proof of subscription.
Once you’ve accepted a member into the group you cannot access their joining question responses again. They are gone forever. It’s very annoying and I don’t know why Facebook hasn’t changed this by now, but that’s how it is.
I save every response to the joining questions in a spreadsheet so that I can refer back later to see what people need help with and I keep a folder of all the screenshots where people have requested to opt-in to my email list.
Getting more subscribers from within your Facebook group
Depending how compelling the sound of your newsletter is, you’ll have varying degrees of success with the opt-in at this first port of call. Not everyone will sign up to your email list when they request to join the group.
The next method to turn Facebook group members into subscribers is to let members know about your email newsletter within the group itself. I do this by mentioning it at the end of some of my live streams and sometimes I will write a post to promote my email list.
By far the best way to encourage your Facebook group members to opt in to your email list is to offer them something in return. Not a bribe - I’m talking about an opt-in freebie (aka lead magnet). I’ve written a post with lots of opt-in freebie ideas so please refer to that for inspiration. In simple terms, an opt-in freebie is a downloadable document or PDF that you give to someone for free in exchange for their email address.
It can be a short guide, checklist or template of some kind that contains information that is going to provide some value or quick win to your ideal client. When requesting a copy of the freebie, you can also ask them to opt in to your email list.
By creating an opt-in freebie that’s attractive to your Facebook group members, you can periodically share it within the Facebook group to convert any members who did not sign up at the point of requesting to join.
Creating an opt-in virtuous circle with your Facebook group
As well as inviting Facebook group members to subscribe to my email list, I also invite subscribers to join my Facebook group. I want people to be able to find me on all the platforms where I’m sharing advice and it’s especially important that I get as many ideal clients as possible over from those social platforms and my blog onto my email list.
I regularly point people to my Facebook group from my Instagram account as well as inviting them to subscribe to my list. I do the same on LinkedIn. My Pinterest pins also direct people to the Facebook group and my opt-in freebies. I want to give people as many opportunities as possible to opt-in but I am aware that they may need warming up to me first - this is what I use social media for.
I am creating a virtuous circle where my social media followers become subscribers and subscribers (from organic traffic to my blog etc) become social media followers. It’s working really well for me at the moment.
So tell me in the comments below, do you have a Facebook group and are you currently using it to grow your email list?