I’m going to increase the number of people that join my email list by 25% in the next 30 days.

Ok, maybe I’m not (we’ll see how it goes), but at least I’m setting that goal for myself and I’d like you to do it for yourself too.

Specifically, I’m hoping to increase the number of people that subscribe to my Free Tips Newsletter by 25% compared to the number of new subscribers that I attracted last month.

I’m going to document every step I take to achieve this in a series of  posts over the course of the next month and invite you to follow along. You’ll learn some things about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building your own email list and I encourage you to participate in this by implementing many of the same tactics I use here over the course of the next month.

I encourage you all to take this “challenge” with me and share your results/findings in the comments. If you’re ready to give it a shot, click here to tell me on Twitter.

But if you’d rather just read along, of course that’s fine too. Now on to the details…

The Starting Point: Setting My Goal

I’ve written extensively about my thoughts regarding how to grow your email list in the past and the tools that I recommend you use to do so, but here’s a quick refresher for you.

The email list I’m asking people to join is my Free Tips Newsletter, through which I offer advice for comedians interested in furthering their career and growing their fanbase.

In the last 30 days, I’ve had 228 people subscribe to my list. Since my goal is to increase new subscriptions by 25% in the next 30 days, the magic number I’m hoping to achieve is 285 new subscribers.

If you’re planning to tackle this challenge along with me, just do the math and figure out your own target number to reach a 25% growth this month. Remember, it’s always important to have goals and metrics to track your progress.

A Closer Look At How I Currently Get New Email Subscribers

At the moment, there are four specific places that people have the opportunity to join my email list. Here’s what they look like and how successful they’ve been in the last month:

• My Popup Form

I have a popup form set to show to every visitor to my website once a month (I limit how often it shows so that I don’t annoy people). This was the most successful form in terms of generating new subscribers last month by a large margin with 137 new subscribers (60% of my total new subscribers) joining my list through this form in the last month. That said, only 3.3% of the people that see it, actually sign up to the list.

Here’s what it looks like:

• My Signup Page

I have a specific page on Connected Comedy that I drive people to for them to join my mailing list. They either get there by clicking the link in the navigation menu at the top of my site, or by clicking the link at the bottom of every single post on my site.

That page generated 49 new subscribers for me last month (21% of my total new subscribers), but converted a whopping 34% of people who visited to the page into new subscribers. That’s a great number and it’s clear the more people I can get to that page, the more subscribers I’ll get.

You can check out what that page looks like here.

• My Sidebar Form

On the sidebar of every page on this website, you’ll see a form for people to join my email list. That sidebar form generated 38 new subscribers for me last month, but converted a pretty low 0.6% of the total number of people that saw it. It’s not surprising that the conversion number is so low considering how often it’s seen and where it’s located on the page, but it would be nice to see that number increase a bit.

• My Facebook Page Tab

The only place that people can join my email list outside of this site is through a form on my Facebook page. That form only attracted 4 new subscribers last month (2% of my total new subscribers), but converted a solid 17% of the people that saw it.

That Facebook tab used to be a great subscription generator for me when you could set it as the landing page for my Facebook page (pre-Timeline), but now it rarely gets seen. It’s a shame since it is a form that converts pretty well.

How I Plan To Get 25% More New Subscribers Next Month

Now that you know what I’m working with, I’ll spell out exactly how I plan to go about increasing my number of new subscribers next month. There are basically five methods I’m going to use to gain new subscribers over the course of the next month:

1. Tweak My Signup Forms

I’m going to experiment with some different signup forms and see if I can improve the percentage of people that actually subscribe when they see the forms.

2. Offer A Special Bonus To People Who Subscribe

I’m not sure what yet, but I’ll come up with some kind of bonus content or exclusive product to encourage people to join my mailing list beyond what they already get.

3. Better Promote My List To My Existing Fans

I have a pretty large following on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and this website. I’m going to experiment with ways to better promote my list to them to make sure that everybody who interacts with Connected Comedy in any way is aware that my Free Tips Newsletter exists and why they should join it.

4. Run Facebook Ads To Attract New Subscribers

I’m not going to spend a ton of money, but I will spend a little to target comedians and introduce them to the newsletter.

5. Incentivize My Current Subscribers To Spread The Word

The best marketers for my mailing list should (hopefully) be people who are already getting it and find it useful. I’m going to come up with some ways to incentivize them to spread the word to their friends and attract new subscribers for me.

Ok, Let’s Do This Thing!

Now that you know where I’m currently at with my email list and how I’m planning to grow it in the next 30 days, all that’s left is for me to actually get my hands dirty and make it happen. I have no idea whether I’ll be successful or not, but either way I will chronicle the results here over the course of the next month for you to see. In success or in failure, I’m sure there will be plenty we can all learn from this.

Again, I’d love for some of you to take this challenge along with me and try to implement some of these same techniques with your own email list and share the results of how it works out for you.

If you’re going to give it a shot, click here to tell me on Twitter.