Earlier this year someone (let's call her Erin) came to me fairly sure email marketing had stopped working for her. She was posting on socials most days, so plenty of people were paying attention, they just weren't making it onto her list. She had a checklist as a freebie, and it had barely moved in six months.

So I went looking for her signup form. It took me a few minutes to find it. It was sitting on a page called resources, which you could only get to from a link in her footer.

The freebie was fine but nobody could find it.

We moved the form, she started talking about it, and within a couple of months new subscribers were turning up most weeks. Same freebie, same content, same audience. That's most of what growing your list comes down to, and it's why I'm a bit wary of anyone who tells you it needs a big launch or a viral reel.

If your list is stuck, these are the things I check first.

Know who you want on it

I'd rather you had 100 people who open your emails than 1,000 who've forgotten they signed up. A small list that reads what you send will do more for your business than a big one that doesn't. Get clear on who you're writing rather than chasing numbers, because it shapes every other decision, from what your freebie is to where you promote it.

Give them something worth signing up for

Hardly anyone joins a list to "stay updated". They join because you've offered something that helps with a problem they've got right now. A checklist, a template, a short guide or a three-day email series all work well.

Erin's checklist was two pages packed with the good stuff. Ask yourself whether your ideal client would swap their email address for it without thinking twice. If you're hesitating, they will too.

Keep the form short

I set these up in MailerLite all the time, and the form itself takes minutes. You can connect it to your freebie so it's delivered automatically, which means you're not emailing PDFs out manually at 9pm.

Ask for a name and an email address and leave it there. Every extra field is one more chance for someone to wander off halfway through.

Put it where people already are

This is where her list was getting stuck, and it's the most common problem I see. Your form should be:

• on your homepage, near the top

• at the end of every blog post (this one has one, have a scroll)

• in your Instagram bio

• in your email signature

People can't join a list they don't know exists.

Keep talking about it

Most people mention their freebie once, thinking everyone’s heard them. Social platforms only ever serve a post to a small percentage of your followers, so even the ones who love your stuff miss some of what you put out there. By the time you’re sick of talking about it, a good chunk of your audience is hearing about it for the first time.

Erin started adding her freebie to her stories every week. That one small habit did more for her list than a new freebie would have.

Want a hand with the setup?

If the setup is the bit you keep putting off (the form, the automatic freebie delivery, the welcome emails), that's exactly what my MailerLite Setup package covers. I'll build it all for you so you can get on with telling people about it.

If you're already set up but finding it hard to keep the emails going out regularly, my Email Marketing Management package takes that off your plate. I'll write and send your newsletter(s) each month.