LIST BUILDING LIVE: The $1 Strategy You’re Going to Steal Immediately with Cat Griffin

LIST BUILDING LIVE: The $1 Strategy You’re Going to Steal Immediately with Cat Griffin

Pat Flynn: Hey, it’s Pat Flynn, and you’re listening to List Building Live, our first ever virtual audio summit right here on the SPI podcast, where each day we release about six mini episodes to help you grow your email list. Why? Because you don’t own social media, but you should own your audience. So each day for three days in a row, we are bringing you people directly from Liz’s and my communities to share what’s working to grow your email list today.

That’s right, no quote unquote experts or eight-figure entrepreneurs talking about what worked for them years ago, just regular creators like you who are working towards making a living online. Enough talking, let’s get into it.

Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh, Cat Griffin, tell us how have you been growing your email list in the last six to twelve months?

Cat Griffin: Okay. So I host a lot of collaboration events. I love all forms of collaboration, right down from running bundles to summits to freebie swaps. But I’ve been experimenting with something new, which I’ve not really seen anyone else do, or like I think I was the first to sort of trial this and experiment with this, which I call the One Dollar Pick and Mix.

So I’m British, so we have the– we used to have penny sweets, where you could like go and fill your bag with like a variety of penny sweets, and it’s an event sort of akin to that, but everything in there is a dollar. Do you want me to explain more about the event works now, or do you want to ask more in a moment?

Liz Wilcox: Yeah, yeah. So tell us how it goes. So yeah, here in the United States, we had penny candy as well as a kid. I’m picturing like, you know, you fill your bag with this, with that, you know, and then you take it, and they weigh it or whatever. So how are we translating that to the digital?

Cat Griffin: Exactly, yeah. Exactly what you said, almost.

Basically, it’s that in a digital format. So as the host, how it works is I put the event together, and I will have between like maybe forty to eighty different business owners, and everyone includes something that they normally sell for maybe like nine dollars, seventeen dollars, and they sell it in this event for just one dollar.

So people sign up, and they essentially get access to, I call it the Pick and Mix store, and they get to browse everything in the Pick and Mix store for about a week and literally select the things that they want for just a dollar. I, I hate saying just a dollar because a dollar, you know, in a lot of places in the world, a dollar will buy a meal.

You know, a dollar’s, you know… But people are handing over a dollar to buy something. So it’s basically you’re attracting an audience of people who are buying from you. And again, I don’t really like the term freebie collectors either, but you’re growing a list with people who’ve already put their credit card information in.

And yes, it’s just a dollar, but they are interested enough in your offers, in what you create, to give you a dollar to put their credit card details in. But what I love about this is you’re building people who are actually interested in buying, but things like tripwires and order bumps and upsells do really well for people as well.

But it’s not just that they’re collecting people who’ve paid a dollar. Like, the average is about $80, like, within the first sort of two or three weeks of people coming in sort of through these offers that I’ve found. So it’s The list building as a host is really, I get about 1,000 people join each event.

As a contributor, people are getting about 30 or 40, but there are sales that, you know, like, they’re converting, and people are going on to buy more from them.

Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh. I am literally geeking out. I just wrote down, how can we do Cat’s idea? Like, this is so good. I love this so much. It’s so fun. And yeah, you know, they, they say, “Oh, you know, some people are just freebie seekers,” is what Cat was saying, and those are people that, you know, just join the list, and maybe they’re just seeking the free thing.

They’re never gonna buy. And I don’t necessarily believe that either, you know? I think if you have a great email strategy, you know, you can find the right people, and the right people will buy at the right time, right? Maybe not right now, maybe not later, maybe very, very much later, right? So I think I had somebody very recently just purchase from me, and they had been on my list for almost seven years, and they finally bought my $9 thing.

So you, you never know. You never know. But I love that you mentioned, you know, like, as the host, I’m gonna get a lot of leads, right? ‘Cause you’re hosting it, and then the contributors. I mean, still, you know, like 30, 40, 50 leads, those are sales. And what I always say is my number one metric for growing my list is my percentage of customers, right?

I’m constantly trying to convert people into customers because I know that that’s h- how I can best help them. You know, of course, I’ve got mouths to feed. Groceries are expensive, but I really know that my paid products are the best way I can truly serve people. So I love this idea, Cat. Is there anything else you wanna share about your pick and mix?

Any tips if I, you know, I’m listening and I wanna host this, that you can share before we sign off?

Cat Griffin: Yeah. I just wanna quickly sort of follow on something what you said about how you can, like, help people with paid offers. So I said, like, I run a lot of bundles as well, but it is the psychology of if somebody’s paid for something, they’re more likely to use it.

So again, I’m saying just a dollar, but they’ve just paid a dollar. But because they, you know, they’ve made more of a conscious decision, so I feel you are actually helping more people with these because more people are like, “Okay. I bought this. I consciously bought this. I’m going to use it.” So I just wanna reiterate what you said there, the- Like, I love how this sort of event sort of functions.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Cat Griffin: And, um, ah, the second question was if you want to host one. I would say, like, if you’re thinking of hosting an event like this, start small. Maybe start with a group of 10 people that you already know, and then you don’t need to do all… You could even just share it within an email. Like, here’s an email.

Here’s, like, the 10 links within the email. You know, you don’t need to worry about all the opt-in pages or anything like that. Just to get a feel for how it works. If you’re hosting, you won’t get as many leads by doing it that way, but it’ll just give you a bit of a feeler for the event. Or if, you know, you do want to go, like, full scale and have 40, 50, 60 contributors, start early, give yourself lots of time.

Reach out to anybody that you know, you respect, you recommend, people that you’re sort of comfortable promoting and sharing in your network. And I find that, like, people are always nervous to reach out and ask people, but everyone’s sat there going, “Why does nobody ask me to be part of things?” If you sort of take the time to reach out and sort of say, “Look, we’re gonna make this great thing happen,” people are like, “Yeah, let’s do this.”

Liz Wilcox: I love that. And one thing, if you’re brand new to Cat Griffin, like, one thing I love about her is she’s constantly doing collaborations, right? Like, she mentioned that at the top of this episode. You know, I do bundles, this, that, the other. And that alone, just being the one willing to host an event, to put in a little bit of extra work, I know from the outside establishes so much credibility, establishes so much authority in this space.

It’s like, oh, oh my gosh, you know, Cat’s a mover. She’s a groover, right? I want to be a part of her bundle. I w- oh my gosh, why… You know, I gotta get into this pick and mix, right? And so if you’re looking to not just grow your list, but grow your authority, grow your credibility, and really become, quote unquote, someone in your space, like, on your little side of the internet, hosting events like this are really great.

So I love this so much, Cat. Thank you for sharing. If we wanna join your email list today, how can we do that?

Cat Griffin: Okay, so I’m sharing with you a free collaboration guide, which does include all different kinds of collaboration, but it also includes the pick and mixes, a bit more of a breakdown of how they work, how you can get involved, and also you’ve got access to, if you want to contribute, like, my own events, but also other places where you can find other events to be part of and contribute to.

Liz Wilcox: Awesome. We will have the link in the show notes for you. So pick that up because, like I just said, Cat is so good at, you know, establishing that credibility through hosting collabs, and if you needed some credibility in your space, this is gonna be perfect for you

Pat Flynn: Okay, another great list building strategy from one of our amazing community members.

I just love seeing people find ways to grow that I didn’t even think of. That’s something I’ve always loved about being in communities with other entrepreneurs. It’s just so inspiring and motivating at the same time. If you need that in your list, a group of business peers to help you take what you’re learning here at this event and turn it into real action, come join us inside the SPI community.

Not only will you finally have people keep you accountable, you’ll have all the resources you need to make a living online, not just with email marketing, but content creation and monetization as well. And right now, we’re offering 50% off and some other fun bonuses just for List Building Live listeners, and that’s you.

Just go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code 26LIST, that’s 26LIST, to grab this special rate. SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code 26LIST.