17 Ways How to Actually Build an Email List Without a Website

17 Ways How to Actually Build an Email List Without a Website

Email marketing has grown to become one of the cheapest, personal and most profitable form of marketing.

It gives you personal access to your subscribers.

People are also more likely to interact with emails than with social media posts.

Building an email list is the first step towards a successful email marketing campaign.

There are many ways of building an email list.

The most common is having a website, which contains helpful content and a call to subscription.

A website is often a long-term tool for building and retaining a mailing list.

It is important to note, however, that obtaining email addresses through purchasing emails lists or using business cards may be counterproductive.

1.You want to build a legitimate list of genuinely interested subscribers.

You may not yet have a website or may want to build your list outside your website.

It is possible to build an email list without a website?

The short answer is yes it is possible which we shall discuss this further…

In this video, we have Rupali Monga of EntreprenHER Academy who explains in her own way the 5 Key Differences Between Landing Pages Vs Websites.

To do this, you need to position yourself where your audience is.

And provide them with incentives that draw them towards subscribing for your newsletters.

To get started in building your email list, here are a few things you can do:

2.Create a lead magnet and freebies

People love free things.

Freebies act as a lead magnet or incentives to draw subscribers into giving you their email address.

You can give downloadable items such as pdf files, eBooks, videos, reports, and whitepapers among others.

Lead magnets are ideal for building a mailing list.

Why? Email addresses are personal to their owners.

People have to feel that whatever you are offering is valuable to them.

Your lead magnet has to be valuable and convincing enough to encourage your audience to give their email address in exchange.

How do you create a good lead magnet?

3.Solve a real problem

Your customers have problems that they are dealing with in their personal and professional lives.

Offer a solution to these problems.

To do this, you will need to do a thorough research into the pain points of your target customer.

Understand their needs and requirements and create content (in whatever format) to provide a solution to these problems.

In addition to solving a real problem, your lead magnet should provide and deliver whatever win you promised.

Let it make it easier for your audience to achieve something from your resource.

4.Be specific and brief

General lead magnets do not convert well.

People want something specific.

Identify a specific benefit your lead magnet will provide to your audience and focus on that.

Remember to keep your content brief.

The lengthy material will overwhelm and tire out your audience and may end up being useless to your audience.

5.Easily accessible

In the world of fast-flowing information, people want instant gratification.

Deliver your lead magnet right away.

In addition to being accessible, ensure that the information contained in the lead magnet is easy to understand.

Overwhelming content will drive subscribers away.

Demonstrate your expertise or unique value proposition

6.What value are you adding to your customer?

What is your expertise in that particular area?

People trust authority figure.

Share your experience with the consumers.

Give them unique insights into how to deal with their problems.

Providing expertise and a unique value proposition helps increase conversion rates.

With freebies, however, you are likely to have subscribers who are only after the free resource.

However, you can filter these subscribers out by including an unsubscribe button in your emails.

Those uninterested in receiving more of your emails will unsubscribe leaving you with the serious subscribers.

Make sure you keep creating content and add value to your subscribers to keep them interested and subscribed.

These giveaways do not have to be products you create from scratch.

However, they should be directly related to what you intend to have on your website.

You can partner with brands in your niche to help you to promote your lead magnet as they market themselves too.

To collaborate with such companies and brands, you have to come up with a win-win pitch that benefits you and the brand you are collaborating with.

7.Create an email sign-up form

Various email marketing service providers such as Aweber and MailChimp allow you to create a signup form without the need for a website.

They provide you with a variety of templates to choose from. Once you set up your signup form, they host it for you.

After the perfect launch of your signup form, you need to drive traffic to the form. Here are some tips

Include the link to your signup page on your social media accounts.

When creating your signup form, select a customized link that is short and easy to remember.

Your signup form will shape the first impression people have of you.

You, therefore, want to create something that will capture their attention and hold it.

8.To create the best first impression with your signup form:

Include your brand’s unique features like colors, fonts, and images.

This is essential in building consistency.

Use a short and personalized URL that people can remember

9.Personalize the message on the form

Unlike web pages, your signup form does not rank on search engines.

You have to be proactive about getting it seen and acted upon.

This means that you have to look for where your audience is and be there as well.

One good way to do this is through social media and publishing content on other websites including medium, LinkedIn, Youtube and other people’s blogs.

Include the link to your signup form in these places and a call to action.

10.Social media

Facebook and Twitter can be a good source for subscribers.

If you already have an established brand that people have been following, then encourage them to sign up for your newsletter to receive more information.

Include a link to your signup page and give details of your signup incentive.

Interested parties will follow this link and join your mailing list.

On these social media platforms, you can go ahead to describe your marketing campaign.

Ideally, create several posts with different images, content and a call to action.

Keep measuring to see which social media posts generate the most engagement and focus on those for your list building pursuits.

Another way social media can help you build your email list is by encouraging sharing.

If you have an existing mailing list, encourage them to share information with their friends.

Through sharing, you are likely to generate new subscribers.

Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms with close to 2 billion active monthly users.

When used correctly, it can be a good source of subscribers.

To make the most out of Facebook, build a highly engaged fan base.

You can build a Facebook fan base by creating your own group.

Include your offers and giveaways in the group description and pinned posts.

On Twitter, you can search for people talking about a similar niche.

Contribute in their discussions and make sure you leave your signup form link there.

Twitter is especially effective once you have some content published on authority sites.

People will see you as a credible contributor and may sign up for your newsletter.

Quora is another place you should not ignore if you intend to build a mailing list.

It’s a platform where people interact by asking and answering questions.

Make your mark here by providing insightful and beneficial answers that are relevant to your niche.

Market your signup page and include a call to action.

In your call to action, you can invite subscribers to get a free giveaway or to have constant information on topics they are interested in.

11.Create a landing page


If you are planning to launch a website, you can create a landing page that helps you build a mailing list before the website actually launches.

Landing pages are standalone web pages intended for marketing.

On your landing page, you need to give away a content upgrade that subscribers will be interested in.

Since you do not have a website, you can create a landing page through email marketing service providers.

These are basic and sometimes merge the signup form into the landing page.

To build a healthy email list, here are a few things you need to include in your landing page

12.The main headline which should be direct and to the point.


Let the visitors know what they will be getting upfront.

The supporting headline which provides an explanation for your main headline

Persuasive copy that contains information about your lead magnet.

Here, including the benefits, the visitors will get from your offer.

Incorporate visual elements such as images and videos

Create social proof by including testimonials from previous subscribers who have interacted with your product

13.Get published on huge publications

Huge publications have a huge following and high readership.

Getting published on these platforms means that a large number of people, who you can convert into your subscribers, will see your content.

The first step to getting into such publications is by delivering quality and useful content with a unique value proposition.

This will solve problems and make you stand out from the crowd.

Attach an author’s bio to the article including a link to your signup page.

Include a call to action to encourage readers to sign up for your mailing list.

14.Host free webinars

Hosting a free webinar is one sure way of encouraging people to subscribe to your newsletter.

Identify a pain point in your audience and create a lesson from that.

Create a webinar to educate your audience on that subject. It should be as specific as possible to generate high-value leads.

Many bloggers use webinars to grow and expand their email lists.

You may be thinking that this is not the right choice for you.


Webinars are a great email list-building tool whether or not you have a website.

The use of visual and audio content creates a great combination of content that cannot be ignored easily.

When compared to written content, video content is more likely to be listened to from beginning to the end.

This means that you can convert written content into actionable slides and videos and air them as free webinars.

The advantage of using webinars is that you can make money from them, they are engaging and you get to establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

Here are some ways you can use webinars to build an email list even without a website

15.As a lead magnet

A lead magnet can be anything from an eBook to a webinar.

Promote your upcoming webinar on social media sites and encourage people to subscribe to access the webinar.

Evan after the event, you can still save the recording and use it to generate more subscribers.

16.As a content upgrade

Content upgrades are meant to improve the value of an existing content.

For example, say you have already published some content in an authoritative publication.

Create a webinar on the same topic and invite people to attend.

If your written content hooked them, then the webinar will be the magic wand that will see your email subscriptions soar.

Co-host with another authority in your niche

Co-hosting webinars helps in building email lists for both of you.

You get to market the other person’s signup page to your current subscribers and they do the same for you.

This way, both you email lists grow.

17.Use social proof

The online sphere is dominated by social proof.

If an article has many social shares, then people believe it has some valuable content that people find informative and engaging.

Show your visitors that other people out there trust in your brand enough to give you their email addresses.

Encourage more people to subscribe to your webinar by providing statistics on how many people have already signed up.

When people see others joining, they are more likely to sign up.

A higher social following and response tends to suggest that your content is informative and reliable.

Final words

Building an email list does not necessarily require you to have a website.

With the right approaches and proper utilization of social media, lead magnets, landing pages, and free webinars, you can grow a large email list that will help you take your marketing to the next level.

Now that you have no excuse for not having a mailing list, pick on or more of the email building strategies above and use them to grow your email list.


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