Successful health coaches know it: Learning how to grow your email list is time well spent.

Here’s why: People who have signed up for your email list are already interested in what you have to say. And because they’re already interested in what you have to say, they’re more likely to buy from you.

Health coaching is an awesome profession because it can be done from anywhere. You can certainly have an office and see people one-one-one, but technology has made it so much easier to scale your business and work remotely. And to do that, having an email list is essential.

Even if you work strictly locally, learning to grow your email list is still important. That’s how you start collecting the names of people who are potentially interested in buying your services, and how you maintain contact with them so when they're ready to buy, you're top of mind.

And although you can certainly just offer one-one-one, onsite coaching services as a health coach, if you want to scale your business, you’ll need to start thinking about multiple income streams. Whether these streams are active or passive, having more than one service on offer will bring you awesome benefits in the long run.

And to sell these varied services, you need a captive audience. And the way to get that captive audience is.... drum roll please... learning how to grow your email list.

One way to both create a second income stream and to grow your email list at the same time is to create information products.

If you’re a certified health coach, chances are, you’ve  learned how to help clients sort through information to find reliable sources, and you know a thing or two about putting together a program, whether it’s a generic health plan, a meal plan, or a plan for active living.

You already have the knowledge and the know-how to put something together and potentially sell programs to an already interested audience. But how do you get that audience to be interested in what you have to say in the first place? The secret lies in an awesome list building strategy, and the secret to that lies in ensuring you have a multi-faceted approach. Here’s how to grow your mailing list in 6 easy steps.

1. Create an awesome freebie

The type of freebie you create will depend on the type of client you’re going after.

If your goal is to work with busy parents, you could create an eBook about maintaining a healthy lifestyle when sleep is unpredictable, or a document about self-care in 15 minutes or less (because most parents of young kids don’t have much more than 15 minutes to themselves at a time).

If your plan is to work with corporations selling corporate wellness programs, you could create a checklist for building a low-cost, high return, staff wellness plan that shows your potential clients how this investment affects their bottom line positively.

You get the picture. Find your target market, and then create an awesome information product (eBook, checklist, infographic) that will resonate with (and help) them.

The secret here is to create something that has a tonne of value, and then give it away for free. It’s worth it, because in the long run, it’ll bring you high returns with customers who trust you and want to purchase from you.

2. Sign up for an email marketing service

To have an effective list building strategy that brings returns, having an email marketing service is essential.

Firstly, you want to grow your email list to a significant number of people, and managing that manually will be a nightmare.

Secondly, most email servers will send your message straight the the spam box if you're sending it to too many people.

Third, and perhaps most important, email marketing platforms allow you to do a bunch of things you can't do via regular email: segment your subscribers into different groups, do A/B testing, schedule according to time zone, and more.

There are several options on the market, all with various features and with different price points. Some of the most popular options are MailChimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, and Get Response, though there are many others.

Do some research, find the service that works best for your level of comfort and budget, and get started to grow your email list.

3. Start becoming known: guest blog

So you’ve create an awesome freebie, set up your email marketing platform, and you can’t wait to help a tonne of people improve their health with your health coaching services. You’re all revved up and ready to go… and… crickets.

Here’s the problem: no one knows who you are yet, and even if your SEO is ultra perfect… it’s still hard to get people to magically appear and read your content. What's a new health coach to do? Guest blogging to the rescue.

Find the most awesome health/wellness websites online, and pitch them an awesome guest post. Ensure the people you pitch allow a byline with a link back to your landing page, which leads people to sign up for your freebie (and get on your mailing list).

Pitch the big folks in the wellness space whether it’s another health coach or a multi-author website focusing on health. Pitch, pitch, pitch, until someone accepts a pitch. Once you get that article published, share it everywhere. Many entrepreneurs note a sharp increase in sign ups once they get published on someone else’s platform.

Before you pitch, though, make sure you familiarize yourself with the website you're pitching, find out their voice, the types of things they publish, and then pitch accordingly. Here's a great guide for how to pitch a guest post.

4. Make friends with your subscribers

Show up on your subscribers inbox regularly. To do that, you’ll need to create a content strategy. One great way to do this is to create an email series teaching your subscribers how to do something.

What you offer will again depend on who your audience is. Doing a series of 5-7 emails is great, and then you can try selling your service or product on the last email in that series (but continue to show up and offer free advice and giveaways regularly—that's how you build trust with your audience).

Whatever you do, you want to get your subscribers engaged with your content. Ask them to answer a question, get them to tell you about their struggles, and then offer genuine, free help to get them to overcome those obstacles. As you continue to offer free help, your subscribers will start to see you as a friend, and when you’re ready to sell, they’ll be more ready to buy.

5. Pinterest!

Facebook organic reach is dead. You can certainly keep trying to reach your audience on Facebook, but there’s a platform where you can make huge waves (without paying a single penny, unless you want to have a tsunami instead of just waves): Pinterest.

Pinterest is an incredible platform for marketers because it functions as a search engine, not as a social media platform. And if you post high quality images leading to high quality posts on your website, it’ll get repinned by your followers, whose followers will also see your pin, and the reach just keeps going and going and going.

Anyone who sells services online should consider using Pinterest for extra reach: it’s now the second most effective search engine for marketers, second only to Google.

Remember to use a graphic design software to make pretty Pinterest-friendly images that will attract clicks. Make a Pinterest image for every post you write, and use a service to schedule those pins, which will save you time and make your marketing more effective.

6. Keep Going

Building your mailing list isn’t a destination, it’s a journey—and if you want to continue to earn from multiple streams, it’s a continuous journey.

Building your list (and keeping subscribers on it) is something you have to consistently work on. Keep offering great content, helping people with their issues, and you’ll see your numbers keep growing.

And once you have  the trust of the people on your list, offer a paid service. You can use the email marketing software you signed up for in step 2 to “drip content” so that each person signing up for your list gets the full 5 or 7-email course before being offered a paid service.

Do you have an email list set up already? Tell us one thing about your health coaching business, then drop the link in the comments!

Email Marketing, Client Engagement, growing your business, Getting Started

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