In a previous post called What’s the Primary Thing That SEO Expert Brian Dean Focuses On? Email, I shared something surprising thing that I discovered.

I discovered that this SEO expert’s secret to success isn’t just SEO. It’s his focus on building an email list. (If you haven’t read the post, you should now.)

Today I want to show you a short case study about the things that I’ve discovered that Brian has done to build a massive email list.

(This is only from my own observations, not from asking Brian anything.)

The First Thing You See: An Offer to Join His Email List

When you go to Backlinko.com, the first thing you’ll see is a picture of Brian and an invitation to sign-up for exclusive SEO tips via email.

Let’s me point out some things that I believe have helped this to work so well for him:

• He uses a powerful headline that emphasizes the exclusive tips his email subscribers receive. This captures your attention and gives you a reason to sign-up.
• He uses a testimonial from Kieran Flanagan, the VP Marketing at HubSpot. This uses an influencer to provide powerful proof of the value you receive as a subscriber.
• He uses a big image of himself. This personalizes the list and gives you a visual representation of him waiting to share his tips with you.
• He only asks for your email address in his sign-up form. This makes signing up for his list really easy.

Many people would stop there, but not Brian.

He does something to convince people who might not be convinced that signing up is really worth it.

The Second Thing You See: More Social Proof

If you saw the above offer for his list and decided to pass on it, you would scroll down and immediately see this…

And if you kept scrolling you’d see this…

Let’s look more closely at the additional proof that Brian provides here:

1. He includes the logos of the top websites that have featured him and his SEO insights.
2. He provides another testimonial from an influencer in the search marketing arena. He has a testimonial from Larry Kim, founder of MobileMonkey and Wordstream.
3. If that wasn’t enough, he provides a third testimonial from a marketing influencer. He gives us a testimonial from the marketer and author of the book Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch.

I would bet this additional proof has to make anyone who passed up joining his list stop and think…

“Can all of these industry leaders and websites really be wrong about him? Maybe I SHOULD sign-up for his email list?”

But let’s see what else Brian does…

The Final Thing You See: A Lead Magnet Offer

Brian doesn’t just make an offer to join his email list and then follow it up with a ton of social proof.

He goes even one step further.

At the bottom of the page, he offers people a guide in return for their email address. (This is known as a lead magnet because it is designed to attract email leads.)

And Brian is very smart about the type of lead magnet that he offers.

He makes sure that lead magnet has two things that all great lead magnets should have:

1. It’s closely tied to the type of content he offers his subscribers.
2. It is information that his audience considers very valuable.

By doing this, he has ensured that he will pick up additional email subscribers, people who might not have just signed up for his email list.

Before I go on, I just want to point this out.

Do you see how important Brian believes email marketing is? His WHOLE home page is committed to getting people to sign-up by email.

He doesn’t just do it halfheartedly.
He puts in all of his effort to get the result he values the most: an email subscriber.

Do you put this much effort into getting an email subscriber?

What Happens After You Sign-up for His Email List or Ultimate Guide?

After you sign-up for his email list or SEO guide, you are taken to a page that asks for you to confirm that you want to be a subscriber.

This is a best practice that is used by many email marketers known as a “Double Opt-In.”

What’s the purpose of using a double opt-in?

This additional request helps increase the quality of subscribers to his email list and helps him to have a high-quality relationship with his subscribers.

(Check out this article on Hubspot for more info on how to attract people to your email list: Email Sign Up Forms: How to Increase Email Sign Ups With Better Forms.)

What happens after you confirm that you want to be a subscriber or that you want to receive the guide?

Once you click the confirmation link in the email he sends you, then you’re taken to this confirmation page.

And if you signed up for his SEO guide, you’ll automatically be emailed an email with a link where you can download the guide...

(IMPORTANT: Notice that it’s only AFTER you’ve become an email subscriber that he tries to get you to follow him on Twitter.)

Two Key Reasons These Methods Work so Well for Brian

In just a minute, I’ll share some tips on how you can begin applying these lessons so that you can begin growing your own email list.

Before I do that, I want you to understand something important.

The methods that Brian uses are methods that anyone can (and should) use.

But you need to realize that these methods work especially well for Brian for two key reasons:

1. The first reason is because he has proven in video after video that what he teaches is unique and powerful.

You must do the same thing if you want to grow a massive email list.

Your content doesn’t have to be video content. It can be audio or just text.
But the key thing is that it must be interesting, different, and powerful content.

(Contact me if you’d like to learn more about how I can teach you to create content like this.)

2. The second reason is because he has become so well-known and has endorsements from top people in the industry.

You don’t have to have endorsements from industry leaders and publications when you start, but you can and should begin to capture any/all endorsements and testimonials that you can.

It’s ok if the endorsements aren’t from anyone well-known.
Any social proof is better than none.

(You can learn more about social proof in this post on Buffer called The Psychology of Marketing: 18 Ways to Use Social Proof to Boost Your Results.)

The point is to not just collect endorsements and testimonials.
The key is to use them effectively like Brian does! (Did you notice how he used them in the above SEO guide email?)

If you’d like to see how I use social proof, you can see it on the home page of this site. Just click here and scroll down to “What Others Have Said About Scott…”

5 Simple Tips to Begin Growing Your Email List

Now that you’ve seen how Brian has built his list, let me give you some tips to get you started building your own email list.

1. Ask for people to subscriber to your list.
   Do it in the most powerful and creative way you can.
   By the way, if you like this post and want to see future posts, sign-up here.
   (*You’ll also occasionally receive other valuable content.)
2. But don’t just ask once.
   Ask repeatedly and in different ways.
3. And go beyond asking.
   Give them proof of why giving you their email address is a smart thing to do.
4. Don’t just ask for people to subscribe to your list.
   Give them something in exchange for their email address.
   (Remember what a lead magnet is?)
   Check out the free membership I offer to people in exchange for their email by clicking here.
5. And finally, you should use a powerful email marketing tool so that you can automate the whole process of signing up for your list.
   What’s a good service? Well, Brian Dean and I both use a powerful and inexpensive service called Aweber.
   
   *YOU CAN SIGN-UP FOR A FREE TRIAL OF AWEBER BY CLICKING HERE OR BY SIGNING UP BELOW.

Send Email. Connect With Customers. Grow Your Business.

With AWeber, you get all the email marketing tools you need to create and send beautiful and engaging emails. For a behind-the-scenes look at how you can use AWeber, sign up to our Test Drive email series:

Powered by AWeber Email Marketing

*AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER: I proudly feature affiliate links for some products that I love. It adds no extra cost to you, but enables me to earn a commission if you purchase. This is just one way I can continue to provide you with valuable information on this site.

P.S. After writing this post, I clicked over to Brian’s blog and guess what I found? You guessed it. Another effort to gather email addresses at the top of his blog. See for yourself…