Over the past four years of being on YouTube, I have learned a lot. One of the best things I did from the start was have a consistent and intentional email list building strategy. Because of that strategy, we’ve consistently gained over 400 email list leads every month. These are built organically and without ads – meaning we’re not paying for these people to join our email list leads. They’re coming from our YouTube videos. So, today I’m sharing exactly how we’re gaining new email list leads every month because of our YouTube channel.  

If you’re interested in my strategy around YouTube videos and how I actually make money using YouTube, make sure to check out My Formula to Making Money on YouTube. This freebie will help you understand how I’m turning these videos into money in the bank! 

MENTION A FREEBIE IN MOST VIDEOS

Dropping our freebie above actually leads me to my first point about how to gain new email list leads from YouTube videos: mention your freebie in almost every video!  Freebies are a great way to grow your email list (through YouTube but also in general). Remember, freebies are things that people get in exchange for giving us their email address. That could be an e-book, a download, a checklist, the possibilities are endless. So, once you’ve created freebies, mention them in your videos!

If you’re creating a video around a specific topic, share a freebie that makes the most sense in the context of what your video is about. You can mention it specifically in the video or add it at the front and end of the video (like I did this week). The freebie you share should relate to the video that someone is watching. For example, on our channel if we talk about email marketing, it doesn’t really make sense to mention our free Reels class. 

Again, there’s a lot of ways to mention that freebie. But, the point is that almost every video you share on your channel should mention your freebie. This will encourage people to check out your freebie and sign up for your email list. I try to keep mentioning the freebie to 10 seconds or less – make it quick. 

HOW TO CREATE A FREEBIE

So, now you might be wondering how to make a freebie if this is all new to you. Like I mentioned, a freebie could be an Ebook, template, cheatsheet, checklist, guide, video/audio training or something else that resonates with your audience. We use Canva to create all of our graphics and actual freebies (PDFs, etc.). After it’s created, we use Flodesk for our email marketing provider. You can start your email list, even without a website, because Flodesk allows you to create landing pages. It’s amazing! Grab 50% off of your first year with Flodesk using this link. Those two programs are life changers – you can see our tutorials here for Canva and Flodesk here so you know how to set everything up! 

CREATE VIDEO IDEAS THAT LEAD TO A FREEBIE

Now, I want to share something we did that helped us gain over 3,000 subscribers in just a few months and that’s creating video ideas that lead to a freebie directly. Basically the idea is that anyone who watches the video needs to download your freebie. For example, the one that we gained those subscribers from was a video about creating Reels cover photos in Canva and in order to follow along with the tutorial, you had to download a free cover photo design template I’d made. From that video I gained thousands of subscribers, because people wanted to follow along. Downloading the freebie was a no brainer. So think about how you can apply this to your own brand. 

Another example was that we had free ideas for Instagram Reels and it led directly to our 10 Free Instagram Reels Ideas. People wanted more of our ideas and we mentioned it throughout the video. This led to a bunch of email list leads for us, too. The two ideas of the video and the freebie worked really well together. 

MAKE $$ ON THE BACK END

Okay, so now that you’ve got people signing up for your email list… how do you actually make money? On the back end, there’s a few ways that we make money from these email list leads. First is to upsell immediately to a paid product. For example, when someone downloads our 10 free Reels ideas, they are then immediately pitched our paid product, 100+ Reels Ideas, on sale. They’re going to get that at 40% off with that pitch and it converts really well. 

The next idea is that we have free classes (webinars that are now evergreen replays) and inside of those classes, we pitch our corresponding paid online courses. Again, there’s a discount associated with the pitch but it’s a great way to get people into the webinar and then be able to sell them the course. This converts upset well for us, too.  

The third way that we make money on the back end is that we drop them into a 5 days sales funnel after they join our email list that pitches them a paid product on sale. The product varies but it does help us make sales on autopilot. Our students are being served really well right away and they don’t have to wait for a sale to grab what they want. Finally, we do offer sales throughout the year to our email list (only) so that also brings in money for us on the backend. 

So, there’s a good overview about how we use YouTube to gain new email list leads and make money each month in our business. It’s incredible and I’m so grateful that this has been our process from the start! 

Interested in my strategy around YouTube videos? Find out more about picking topics, filming and more in My Formula to Making Money on YouTube. Learn how I’m turning content on YouTube into money in the bank!