How To Get Thousands of People on an Email List (Ethically)

How to get thousands of people on an email list without stooping to underhand techniques and dark arts? It’s a good question. Everyone wants a healthy email list, filled to the brim with engaged, high-quality subscribers ready to convert, and the temptation to take short cuts can be strong. Here’s the thing, building a list with leads who have opted in because of your hard work is going to be much more effective. 

Too many businesses fall into the trap of using shady tactics like being spammy, or artificially inflating their list with bought followers and lists. It might feel like expanding your audience to a huge degree, but it’s a hollow step. Building an email list is about quality as well as quantity, and buying subscribers and lists is going to leave you with a large but completely checked-out audience. 

It’s much better to start small and build upon a foundation of engaged subscribers. You can still make great gains with ethical strategies and an email marketing tool. The long-term results will be stronger for it. It’s about bringing in the right people, building trust, and maximizing engagement for a lasting relationship and dependable business growth. 

If you’re not sure how to go about it, then don’t worry. This blog post will go through the most effective and ethical ways to grow an email list at scale. We’ll show you what you need to do, why you need to do it, and how ScoreApp can help you build an engaged email list the right way. 

Let’s get started, shall we?

Step-by-step: How to ethically get thousands of email subscribers 

Getting new people on your email list is not a quick task. It takes a bit of perseverance and a bit of trial and error to get right.

That said, we’ve come up with a series of seven steps that will help you get a list stuffed full of high-quality, engaged leads. 

First up:

1. Use high-value lead magnets to attract the right audience  

Lead magnets are your way of enticing people to opt in and join your email list. And make no mistake, most people will need an incentive—you don’t get email addresses for nothing. That’s why interactive magnets such as quizzes perform so well.

The best lead magnets also build an engaged email list by offering a bit of value—video mini-courses that solve specific pain points, quizzes that return a personalized strategy, or PDFs that outline some quick wins. These will be a draw to the right audience. 

Whichever you go for, ScoreApp has templates and guides for making a lead magnet in no time. We’d always recommend creating a quiz, not least because the answers inform personalized marketing and email list segmentation.

2. Optimize website and landing pages for email capture  

If you’re looking at how to get people on your email list, then you have to be sure your website and landing pages are optimized.

What does that mean? Well, your landing page has to be clear about why visitors should sign up, and blindingly obvious about how to do it.

Use a landing page to build an engaged email list by sticking to these nuggets of best practice:

• Write in straight-forward, plain-speaking copy that drives home the benefits of signing up. 
• Use attention-grabbing visuals and testimonials on your landing page to draw the reader in while fleshing out your proposition and further reinforcing the benefits.

• Make sure your page is viewable on mobile devices. You don’t want to exclude and frustrate visitors because of the device they’re using. 
• End with a single, powerful call to action that tells the reader what you want them to do and why. Now’s not the time to be shy or humble—you have to take your last chance to convince them.

If you’re not sure how to put together a landing page that’s optimized for getting new people on your email list, then there’s no need to panic. ScoreApp’s landing page builder will help you create optimized pages that convert. Insert email sign-up forms, set up exit-intent pop-ups (‘Before you go, why not join our email list for X benefits?’), and more in seconds. 

3. Leverage social media for organic list growth  

Your social media accounts are followed by a wealth of engaged leads, making them a perfect conduit for getting new people on your email list. You just need to know how best to use each platform.

• Use content and bio links to promote your lead magnet quiz or gated freebie on Instagram and TikTok.
• Post industry insights and build interest in webinars and email list-only content on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).
• Take advantage of groups and communities on Facebook. Create engagement with polls, Q&As, live videos, and more, always pushing for opt-in as part of your CTA.

No matter what lead magnets or content you promote on social media, always make email sign-up essential for access. 

4. Partner with influencers and brands for co-marketing  

Getting new people on your email list is easier if you take advantage of a wider audience than your own. That’s why it’s always a good idea to look for partnership opportunities with relevant brands and industry influencers. 

It might be that they contribute to a prize giveaway. Or you could run a joint webinar, cross-post blog content, or collaborate on a video mini-course which requires attendees to sign up with their email address. 

However you do it, you’ll be reaching an extended audience that closely aligns with your own. And when they interact with you, you can offer a personalized lead magnet (such as a ScoreApp quiz) to get them on your email list. 

5. Convert engaged website visitors into subscribers  

Anybody who visits your website is already interested in what you have to say, so you need to take the chance to build an engaged email list with them on it.

There are a few ways you can grab them while they’re on your site. Exit-intent pop-ups that dangle a lead magnet in front of visitors before they click off are great for gathering last-minute opt-ins. Likewise, scroll-triggered opt-in forms can be set to appear at certain points, such as halfway down a page. It’s a particularly useful tactic on blog posts, where you entice the reader to see more of the same by signing up. 

Lastly, use ScoreApp to create valuable gated content (such as video mini-courses or assessments) that requires email sign-up for access. You can include a tease for this content in your pop-ups, and the data returned can be used to automatically segment your list. The more segmented your list, the stronger your personalized marketing will be.

6. Host live events and webinars to drive sign-ups  

They might not be the first tactic you think of, but live video events are a high-converting way to build an engaged email list.

If you’re not sure where to start, some of the most effective live events include:

• Free training and workshops that target a pain point or growth goal your audience cares about (increase sales, overcome X, grow your audience). Offer attendees a survey or an assessment either before or after to help segment new sign-ups to your list. 
• Q&A sessions with industry experts, pioneering brands, and influencers. Your association with them will open up new audiences and reflect well on you.
• Webinars that are exclusively available to email subscribers. ScoreApp can help you here with a webinar funnel builder and templates to maximize registrations, as well as automation for follow-up sequences.

7. Use referral incentives and subscriber challenges  

Your existing subscribers should be evangelists for your email content. Use their passion to help grow your list.  

Referral campaigns, where subscribers are rewarded for bringing their contacts onboard, incentivize your list to help with email list building. Alternatively, invite your email list to a challenge or video mini-course and encourage them to invite a friend when signing up. ScoreApp’s automation tools will help you track referrals and give rewards to your most proactive referrers.   

How ScoreApp makes ethical email growth easier  

The question we started with was, “How to get thousands of people on an email list without stooping to underhand techniques and dark arts?” Hopefully now you have the answer—you take every one of your opportunities and use ScoreApp to smooth out the whole process. 

Creating engaging landing pages, quizzes, and assessments—lead magnets which generate high conversion rates and powerful insights—has never been simpler thanks to easy-to-use templates. 

Once a lead has completed a quiz or a survey, their answers will be used to segment your list and inform personalized content. And once they’ve opted in, you can automate outreach and email sequences with ScoreApp to nurture a strong relationship and move them down the sales funnel.

And the best bit? ScoreApp is free to try. Build your email list ethically today, with ScoreApp.