If you’re just starting out, you likely haven’t grown much of an email list or a big following on socials. Figuring out which to build first can feel like a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. So what do you do?
I’ll be honest with you. Social media has always been a struggle for me, and I’m only now starting to take it seriously. Yep, seven years into running my personal brand!
But why now?
The answer is actually really simple, and it’s just ManyChat! [affiliate link]
I swear this isn’t a sponsored episode, but using DM automation changes everything. It’s so easy to get people off of socials and onto your email list now!
You know I used to be all about OPP. I would show up as a guest on other people’s platforms, offer value, nail my pitch, and attract new email subscribers. And all that still works!
But pairing it with ManyChat on Instagram has opened up a whole new way to grow. Tune in to today’s AskLiz session to find out how to start turning social followers into email subscribers. Enjoy!
You’ll Learn
- How to grow with lead magnets if you don’t have a big following
- Why ManyChat and DM automation is a game-changer on socials
- How I grew my email list without much of a social media presence
- Why it’s worth it to build up your following nowadays
Resources
- Subscribe to Superfans Secrets—our weekly newsletter on the strategies behind building real relationships with your audience, delivered free, straight to your inbox
- Connect with me on Instagram
AL 022: Should I Grow My Email List or My Reach on Socials First?
Liz Wilcox: What up? Liz Wilcox here, and my voice is a little raspy because it’s early in the morning, and these are my first words of the day. So I am really excited to get into this Ask Liz, and I think this will be a short and sweet but super impactful episode.
Guest Question: So my email list sits around 500, and the usual advice is to grow it with lead magnets. But that assumes that people are already seeing your social posts in order to see the call to action towards the lead magnet in the first place. So I guess my question is if someone has a small but decent social following, where’s that leverage point, growing the list first or growing the reach first, and how did you personally break that cycle in your own business?
Thanks so much.
Liz Wilcox: All right, so it is 2026 at the time of this recording, almost ’27, and I really believe you can go either way. This is sort of like a chicken or the egg situation, which one came first? And nowadays, I think with stuff like ManyChat, which is DM automation, we’ve all seen it, where you say something like, “Comment ‘Ask Liz’, and I’ll send you the full episode.”
And then you comment, “Ask Liz,” and you get a DM from me with the episode, right? I really believe that ManyChat and DM automation has changed my answer to this question. I would always say, like, don’t worry about social media. There are so many other ways to grow your email list, and social media is… it’s, it’s really kind of hard.
But now with ManyChat, oh my gosh, and I swear this is not an episode sponsored by . Um, I just think it has truly changed the game. So you also asked, what did I do? And personally, I went on podcasts, so this was before DM automation. And also social media is really hard for me, just full disclosure. It’s something that I’m starting to take seriously now, seven years after starting my personal brand.
It’s helping me grow even further. But before that, I always say, and said for many years, I am down with OPP, other people’s platforms. So other people are great at social media. They’re also growing, and so I did a lot of collabs. I got on as many podcasts as possible, as many summits, did private trainings, and I always made sure I stuck the landing.
This means that I was practicing pitching my lead magnet at the end. So at the end of the podcast, when somebody like Pat Flynn would say, “Liz, where can we find you?” I didn’t stumble over that answer. I didn’t give you, the listener, 10 different ways you could find me. I just said, “Oh, you can go directly to smartpassiveincome.com. Click the button in the right-hand corner,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? That’s what I did, and it worked really, really well, and I’ve been on over 300 virtual stages, meaning podcasts, summits, Facebook groups, Instagram Lives with other people, et cetera, et cetera. So again, it wasn’t until many moons later and the invention of DM automation that I started to see social media really be a place where you could grow your email list as well.
So if you do social media first, if you take the… You said you have a small but mighty social following and you wanna, you wanna make it big and mighty, make sure you’re leveraging those eyeballs and using something like ManyChat. You can post in your stories. Every few posts should be on topic with the lead magnet in your stories, your Instagram reels, your carousels, all of that, and use a DM automation to get people on the list.
Again, it’s like, “Hey, comment lead magnet, and I’ll send you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” And I really recommend Instagram to grow your following because of this DM automation. Facebook, LinkedIn, all of that, they’re not quite there yet with it. But Instagram and ManyChat are sort of a one-two punch to really grow your Kit account or whatever it is you’re using for email marketing.
All right. I’m really excited for you listening and Sarah to grow your email list. Remember, it’s a chicken or egg thing. You really can start wherever you’d like, whatever makes sense for you. I used virtual speaking to grow my list. I nailed the ending, nailed that pitch of my lead magnet, and then, you know, now I’m using ManyChat to grow on social media.
All right, can’t wait to see you grow.
Psst, are you still listening? Quick, while Pat’s away, I’ve got a special little secret just for you and me. If you love this episode and want more, like a lot more, you need to get yourself into the SPI Community. You know, that’s where I’m hanging out as the director.
My friend, it really is where the magic happens. You get access to the full super fan system, you know, Pat Flynn’s entire framework for turning strangers into ride or die fans of your business that actually buy from your business, right? We’ve got courses, resources, implementation guides. It’s all in there.
Okay, okay, listen up. This is the part where you and I can get really close to your monetization goals. I do office hours inside the community. That’s right. You can bring your business questions. You can screen share. Whatever’s holding you back, we will figure it out together. But here’s the secret. The SPI community, normally $99 a month.
But with the coupon code SECRET50, you get 50% off. That’s less than 50 bucks a month for life as long as you stay active. This deal is just for the people listening to this Ask Liz episode, so don’t sleep on it, babe. Head to smartpassiveincome.com/2026 and use code SECRET50 at checkout. I will see you in there.
