Sure, having a ton of social media followers can make you feel like the cool kid in high school. Every post gets hundreds (or even thousands) of likes. Your DMs are overflowing with messages. You might even get emails inviting you to showcase other products on your social media in exchange for free swag. 

But you know what’s even cooler? Having a healthy email list that responds to every one of your emails. Why? Email list has a 41x ROI with much lower time investment and less maintenance. Plus, emails are subject to fewer algorithm changes that reduce your visibility.

Now, don’t give up on your social media. But let’s get those social followers on your email list too. Why should one platform have all the fun?

The Basics of Getting Social Followers on your Email List (and vice versa!)

Get all your platforms working together with cross-linking. These are just the basic do-it-and-forget-it techniques you should can use to start encouraging your social media followers to join your email list (and vice versa). 

• Put a link to your social profiles on your website. You can put them on the footer or the sidebar. There are also plug-ins that allow your feed to show up on your website.
• Put a link to your email sign-up page on your social profiles. On every popular social media site, there are places that you can add a link to your website. I encourage you to build a special page specifically for this with links to what you’re sharing. Make the top link a link to get your freebie and join your email list.
• Create posts about your lead magnet regularly. Since your social media following is growing regularly, you can post about your lead magnet on a regular basis – at least once a month. If you have a Facebook group, you can also ask in the entry questions if new group members would like your access. If you do decide to do this, make sure you’re keeping a record of all the people who say yes to this to ensure GDPR & CAN-SPAM compliance. 

Unique Ways to Get Your Social Media Followers on Your Email List

1. Tease subscriber-only content. Let people know what they’re missing out on by teasing subscriber-only content, like additional discounts, pre-order bonuses, or deeper dives into the content that you’re sharing on social or blog posts.
2. Give subscribers additional access to you – then talk about it. Open up your inbox to your email subscribers to ask you questions. Then create posts based on those conversations (with permission, of course).
3. Create a mini-course. Conversations you see on social media windows into problems that you can solve with a micro-program. Then share about the outcomes with a link to join the course. Your mini-course can be separate from your primary freebie or in place of it.
4. Run a challenge. Challenges are a great way to increase your email subscribers and engage your social media. The key is to deliver the challenge activities via email, and then have them post their results and questions on a social platform.
5. Host a webinar or masterclass. A webinar or masterclass is a great way to get people out of the social feed and onto your email list. Offer a live session with Q&A, and share the recording with everyone who registers and can’t attend live.
6. Build a quiz. We all love to find out something new and unique about ourselves – from which Gilmore Girl we are to what our brand cocktail would be. With a tool like Interact, you can build a quiz that your social followers can’t wait to take and share.

You can choose from any of these – or all of them. I just wouldn’t try doing them all at the same time! Of course, these aren’t the only option either. They’re just starting points to get you started thinking creatively about how to mix your social media and email list.

Want to grow your social following? Check out Social Media Mix Tape and get over 2000 social media prompts to grow your reach and achieve your social media goals.