You want to share your workshops, retreats and so much more with your people, right? That’s why you need to get your students to sign up to your email list.

Social media is great but it’s just not the perfect tool anymore to keep your tribe up to date, what with all the algorithm changes that Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest throw at us.

Truth is: you never truly own your social media followers – but you own your email list. That’s why it’s so important to build a list and get your students to sign up for it.

So how do you do it?

How do you get your students to sign up to your email list:

First you want to make it as easy as possible for them.

Many people add one opt-in form to their sidebar and call it a day. This greatly reduces your chances of getting people to subscribe to your email list. Instead add multiple opt-in forms to your site – one ain’t enough!

Where to put your email list opt-in:

There are many locations on your website where you can put your email list opt-in:

1. Sidebar

The first is the sidebar. Like you see here: I promote my free workbook with 50 ideas what to post on social media in the sidebar.

2. Header

Next you can put your opt-in above or in the header on your homepage. This is the best location, prime email list opt-in real estate. I have an option to sign up to a free social media course (which adds people to my email list too) in every header on this website.

3. Footer

Then we have the footer – the bottom of your website. Adding an option to sign up here makes sense, because people who make it all the way down to the bottom of your website probably are really interested in your content. So make it easy for them to stay in touch.

You might notice that I don’t have a sign-up option in my footer yet. Yep, I’m not perfect either – I’ll get it done soon though.

4. Popup

And finally, a popup. Ahhh, everybody hates popups, but the truth is they convert really well, meaning they get a lot of people to sign up.

There’s some bad news though: any website that shows a pop-up ad that covers the site’s main content will be ranked lower in Google’s search results from January 2017.

Google arguments that pop-ups negatively affect users on smartphones and make it difficult for them to get to the content (which is very often true).

We’ll have to wait and see how big the effect is, but if you don’t have a popup yet, I wouldn’t recommend adding one to your site. I decided not to have one because I find them really annoying.

Don’t forget the old-fashioned way:

Ask your students after your class to sign up to your list for updates. Collect their email addresses in a notebook or leave a list on your computer open that they can write in. Transfer the names and emails into an excel-file and import this to your list. This is so simple and effective, I always wonder why not more yoga teachers are doing this.

While you’re not allowed to BUY email addresses, in most countries (I can’t speak for the legal situation in all countries) you are allowed to send emails to people that you already have a business relationship with, even if they haven’t opted in to your newsletter.

Click here if you want to learn more about why you definitely need an email list.