How to Get Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers

It’s easier than you think to build an email list of 1,000 subscribers.

It might feel like a daunting task, but once you get the technical aspects out of the way, the strategy is actually super simple.

(Plus, to make things easy, we’ve covered the more technical aspects of email lists in other tutorials, which you can find on our email marketing resources page.)

And this strategy that will help you build a list of your first 1,000 email subscribers will also help you build a list of 5,000 or 20,000 subscribers, too! Once you’ve figured out what works for your business, it simply becomes a matter of how to get your lead magnet in front of more people.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

What’s special about 1,000 email subscribers?

An email list of 1,000 subscribers could easily generate six-figures of revenue for a business in a given year.

While there’s nothing magical about getting 1,000 email subscribers per se, we typically recommend that people have a list that’s at least that size before launching an online course or digital product.

The achievement of building a 1,000 subscriber email list indicates that you have an offer that people are interested in. Plus, it also indicates an ability to nurture email subscribers so they remain on the list.

Email remains to be one of the most effective ways to build trust with an audience because you’re able to communicate directly with your leads. That’s also why it’s among the most profitable sales channels for most businesses—you’re able to put offers directly in front of leads who have already expressed interest in what you’re doing.

Unlike social media, you also “own the list.” If you decide to move from one email marketing platform to another, you can take your list with you. 

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably already convinced that email marketing is worth it. But if not, we go into great detail about the benefits of email marketing in our Super Simple Guide to Email Marketing.

How to Find Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers

Typically, the advice would go something like this:

1. Create a lead magnet.
2. Create a landing page where people can subscribe to receive the lead magnet.
3. Share about the lead magnet.

That’s not wrong; it’s technically how you would go about building a list.

However, it’s just not the most helpful advice for building a list quickly. Plus like I’ve mentioned, we have resources for those more technical steps.

The rest of this post will focus on how to create a lead magnet that people actually want. But you can check out this tutorial if you first want to know how to create and deliver a lead magnet.

Create a Wildly Popular Lead Magnet

The key to building a list is to develop a popular lead magnet. An effective lead magnet achieves three things:

1. Qualifies a lead: The lead magnet should be related to what you do and should indicate someone’s interest in it.
2. Provides a quick win: Nothing hooks a subscriber like delivering a quick win.
3. Begins to seed the sale: A subscriber’s mind should be opened to new possibilities after consuming your lead magnet.

The lead magnet doesn’t need to be complicated. Some of my favorite lead magnets I’ve ever downloaded or consumed were short, to-the-point resources.

You don’t even need a designer.

For instance, one of my favorite lead magnets are email courses where the content is delivered entirely over a sequence of emails. No designer required!

But what makes for a wildly popular lead magnet?

Being able to communicate the result, transformation, or quick win that the subscriber will experience.

People care about what they’re going to get out of something—they care about the benefit. We often see business owners focus on the features. 

Use this template next time you’re promoting a lead magnet:

When you download or subscribe, you will get ____x____ so that you can do ____y_____.

[For example] When you sign-up for my email list, you will get my favorite 25 ab exercises so that you have beach-ready abs for the summertime.

In that example, most people don’t actually care about the ab exercises. What they care about is how they look.

Create Hooks to Promote Your Lead Magnet

The success of a lead magnet—in terms of overall subscribers—has less to do with the content of the lead magnet and more to do with how the lead magnet is promoted.

Simply telling people to “download your guide” usually won’t cut it.

Creating captivating hooks for your lead magnet that you can use in social media posts that highlight the benefits of your lead magnet are crucial to getting more sign-ups.

Pro-Tip: I find that developing the hooks before creating the lead magnet help in the development of the lead magnet. It keeps me focused on creating content that’s benefit-focused.

Some examples of hooks include:

• Steal these scripts so you know exactly what to say to book your next inquiry.
• Swipe and deploy these Instagram captions to…
• Copy this exact strategy to fill your pipeline with leads and book more clients.
• Copy + Paste SEO strategies to rank #1 for your desired search.
• Replicate our results by …
• Pro Photographer Posing Secrets for Stunning Photos in ANY location
• The ultimate shortcut to…

How to Get Your Lead Magnet in Front of More People 

Once you’ve dialed in how you’re positioning your lead magnet, it just becomes a matter of how you can get that lead magnet in front of more people.

Here are five ideas for using your lead magnet to find your first 1,000 subscribers…

• Collaborate with Industry Friends: Partner with industry friends or influencers in your niche to promote your lead magnet. This can expose your lead magnet to a wider audience and increase the chances of gaining more subscribers. Look for win-win partnerships. For instance, a wedding photographer would likely benefit from the content a wedding planner has to share (and vice-versa).  And they don’t compete with each other, but can probably help each other out when it comes to booking more clients.
• Utilize Social Media… more than once: Share your lead magnet on various social media platforms, use relevant hashtags, and engage with your audience. This can help you reach more people who might be interested in your content. The key is to consistently share your lead magnet. So many businesses share it ONCE and think that everyone has seen it. They haven’t. 
• Guest Blogging: Contribute guest posts to popular blogs in your niche, and include a link to your lead magnet in your author bio. This can drive targeted traffic to your lead magnet and attract more subscribers. Guest blogging is a great way to get in front of new audiences.
• Run Paid Ads: Invest in paid advertising on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Google Ads to target your ideal audience and promote your lead magnet. This can significantly increase your reach and subscriber count. This is one of the most effective ways to get your lead magnet in front of new audiences. We don’t recommend running paid ads to a lead magnet until you’ve “proven out” your lead magnet. This means that you’ve seen organic success first.
• Optimize Your Website: Place your lead magnet in prominent locations on your website, such as the homepage, sidebar, or in a pop-up. This can make it more visible and accessible to potential subscribers. If the footer of your website is the only place to sign-up for your email list, you’re doing it wrong. Promote your email list and lead magnet wherever it makes sense!

The best part is that the same lead magnet can be effective for months or years! The hard work isn’t in the lead magnet; it’s finding new audiences to share it with.

Test Your Lead Magnet BEFORE Building It

One way to test your lead magnet before spending time and energy building it is to create social media versions of it.

For instance, let’s say you have an idea that you think will be a hit with your audience: your guide to perfectly exposed images 

Before creating the guide, you could create 3-5 social media posts that preview that content. For each post, you could test different hooks and imagery that you’ve developed for the content.

Then you can determine when and how you develop the lead magnet based on how the social media posts performed. Maybe a certain hook/post clearly outperformed the others. That’s a good indication to keep the angle of that hook in mind as you create and promote your content.

This strategy will help you dial in your content before creating it.

Finding Your First 1,000 Subscribers and Building Your Email List

Hitting that 1,000 subscriber milestone might feel like a steep climb, but with grit, persistence, and a solid game plan, you’re well on your way to crafting a flourishing email list.

Remember to focus on the 80/20 rule as you create your lead magnet.

How you communicate the benefits of your lead magnet is more important than how many pages it is, how many hours of instruction is included, or how well it’s designed.

Too many people get stuck thinking they have to create a 3,456 page guide—you don’t! While you always want to make sure you prioritize dishing out top-notch content and delivering what you promised, don’t get hung up on the things that don’t matter.

If you focus on understanding what your audience finds compelling and creating content based on that, you’ll have no problem building your list! 

Find it quickly here (in the podcast):

0:00 Intro
4:41 What are the major benefits of an email list?
8:14 Can you clarify what a lead magnet is?
9:32 First, your lead magnet needs to qualify your lead.
11:20 Second, it provides a quick win.
14:21 Third, it should begin to seed the sale.
17:17 What are some easy things people can do to create lead magnets?
25:20 How do you get people to sign up for your list?
27:33 What makes for a popular lead magnet?
33:20 Here are some examples of hooks that you might use to market your next lead magnet

Resources from the podcast:

BTB 88: How To Write a Follow Up Email
Find Your Perfect Website
How to Create a Lead Magnet (Flodesk + Kit) (watch)
Landing Page template (Showit + Elementor)
Canva Launch Graphic templates (freebie)
BTB 193: Creating Marketing Hooks
Email Marketing Resources
Super Simple Guide to Email Marketing