How to Grow Your Email List Using Instagram

Building up followers on Instagram is great and can give you a real buzz as that number grows. However, when it comes to marketing power and conversation, it’s only the first step. Followers are nice to see, but the fickle gods of algorithms mean they might never see your content again. At the end of the day, Instagram for your business is like people window shopping – it’s only when they join your email list that an actual customer relationship is formed.

So… how do we turn Insta followers into email subscribers – and why bother?

Let’s take a look!

Why Email Matters More Than Your Instagram Follower Stats

I started with a physical shop metaphor, so let’s continue.

There you are, walking down the high street (imagine it’s a busy, old-style high street of the 1990s before online shopping did its thing), looking in the windows at all the shiny goods. Sometimes you pause and actually take in a display.

Yup, I know you’re following this – this 1990s window shopping action is today’s Instagram.

But then, something catches your eye, and you push open the door. There’s that little tinkle of a bell ringing above your head and the waft of pleasant smells. It’s warm and enticing. You cross the threshold and smile at the shopkeeper hovering discreetly behind the counter.

It’s tentative, but you just signed up for the email list. Perhaps you just want to be left alone to look around, and that’s fine. You know the shop now and will probably visit again. Perhaps you strike up a conversation and learn more about the shop owner and their wares. Perhaps you pick up a business card or flyer. Perhaps you buy something.

The contrast between the window shopper standing outside in the cold and the engaged customer exploring the shop is vast!

It doesn’t matter if a hundred or a thousand people look in your window if none of them come into your shop. One actual paying customer is worth an infinite number of window shoppers.

Without converting your Instagram followers to email subscribers, you’re accomplishing little.

Instagram can trigger quick, impulse sales, but the deeper relationship of email consistently converts at a much higher rate.

Step One - The Lead Magnet

You’ve probably heard the term a hundred times, but a lead magnet is essential to draw people from the Instagram sphere to your direct email one. Offer them something worth signing up for.

Your lead magnet doesn’t need to be huge and involved; it can be as simple as a template to help their work, or a checklist, but it should add value – enough to be worth handing over their email address.

Consider the problems your ideal subscriber has, something they care about – and solve it. That’s your lead magnet.

When you present the lead magnet in your reels, your followers are compelled to make the move – a few clicks is all they need to do to solve that problem. Email sign-ups are not far behind.

Step Two (a) - Get Past Instagram’s One-Link Problem

Instagram has been neatly structured to avoid its users jumping out of the platform and going somewhere else. For this reason, you’re limited to a single link in your bio.

That link has to do some serious heavy lifting. There are two clear ways to do so:

Make it so that one link directs your followers to your email sign-up. This is quick and efficient but will be somewhat limiting, especially if you have other channels you’d also like to use.
Have the link go to a link page, or ‘link-in-bio’ page that collects up all your important marketing and social media channels into a single page. Third-party tools such as Linktree or Milkshake are perfect for this. Then, you can place your email signup link prominently at the top of this, making that important action as simple for the user as possible.

Setting up your bio page to work for you is a small but essential step to improving your Instagram efficiency.

Step Two (b) - Get Past Instagram’s One-Link Problem with DMs

While you can only put one link in your bio and can’t put any in captions, you can link people when you direct message (DM) them.

The problem there is – how do you know who to DM?

The answer comes with some more excellent third-party tools. These are called comment-to-DM tools and provide a layer of automation that achieves exactly what we want.

Through a comment-to-DM tool, like ManyChat or ReplyRush, you can have your comments scanned and trigger a DM to the commenter. This DM will, of course, contain your link.

How DM automation works

You set a keyword – for example, ‘guide’, or ‘checklist’, or even ‘email list’.
You use your reel to tell your follower to comment that keyword to get the link.
Someone comments the word.
The comment-to-DM automation picks up the comment and triggers an instant DM that contains the link to your freebie lead magnet or sign-up page.

It’s extremely easy for your followers to do and makes a smooth and effective pathway to your email marketing list. Not only that, but it has a personal touch – after all, they’re getting a DM from you! – and you can set up multiple different triggers to segment the audience as you need.

Using DM automation is supported by Instagram and is compliant with their policies, so you have nothing to worry about. It’s smooth, simple, and extremely effective.

Step Three - Get the CTA Placement Right

You can only move your audience to action if they see and engage with your call-to-action (CTA), so think about how this is placed:

With the CTA neatly placed in multiple locations, your followers will find it effortless to do as you’re asking and make that move from window shopper to customer.

Growing Your Email List With Nathan Littleton

I’m Nathan Littleton, and I’m here to help you make the most of your email marketing. If you’re looking to find ways to grow your subscriber list, then why not book a consultation? Together, we can combine your business power with my experience and focus on email marketing to expand your list and drive your business forward.

Using a holistic approach to social media and other marketing channels, you’ll soon have the reach you’re after. Contact me today.