New Year List Building: Grow Your Email List and Sell More with Kajabi
Email list building starts with three choices: your email tool, one lead magnet and where your social traffic lands.
Social platforms own your followers. You own your email list. If you plan to sell more in January, November and December are when you build the list that buys.
Email list building starts with the tool you already pay for
Kajabi includes email on every plan. Broadcasts, sequences and signup forms come with the account, and Kajabi lists unlimited marketing emails on Basic, Growth and Pro. What limits you is contacts: 2,500 on Basic, 25,000 on Growth and 100,000 on Pro.
Because email sits next to your courses and checkout, you can tag people by what they buy or finish and email them accordingly. No connectors needed. Basic includes single-step automations. Multi-step flows need Growth or Pro.
Email list building doesn’t need a big budget or a big audience. It needs a clear offer, a form that works and a welcome email that arrives. Whatever tool you use, follow the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide so your list stays on the right side of the rules.
Kajabi or a separate email tool?
A separate tool earns its place when your automation outgrows Kajabi’s. Two common picks:
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit). It rebranded in 2024. The free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, but sequences and visual automations need a paid plan, which starts around $39 a month at 1,000 subscribers in 2026. Check current pricing.
- ActiveCampaign. It’s built for deeper automation and segmentation. Expect a steeper learning curve and a higher bill.
Ask yourself four things:
- Do you want your list, courses and checkout in one place?
- Will you run long sequences with deep segmentation?
- Do you want fewer tools to maintain?
- Will most sign-ups come through Kajabi pages?
Mostly yes? Stay in Kajabi. If you need complex scoring or behavior triggers across several offers, a separate tool may fit better. Run both and you’ll have two lists, so pick one as the source of truth or you’ll send duplicates.
Lead magnets for email list building
Match the magnet to the problem your buyer has today, not to everything you teach. Two formats work for most coaches and course creators:
- A short guide that solves one problem, such as “7 Steps to Validate Your Online Course Idea”
- Free access to the first module of your paid course, so people can sample your teaching before they buy
Send social traffic somewhere that collects emails
Use one magnet and one link per platform, with a UTM tag on each, so you can see which one sends sign-ups.
- YouTube: put the link at the top of the video description and mention it on camera
- LinkedIn: lead with value in the post, then offer the guide to anyone who wants it
- Facebook: share tips in your group or live sessions and point to the free resource
- Instagram: keep the magnet in your bio link and post carousels that teach one thing
The first five emails
- Welcome them and deliver the magnet
- Share a quick win
- Tell your story and why you teach this
- Name a common mistake and how to avoid it
- Present your course or coaching offer
Build it as a Kajabi email sequence and attach it to your signup form so it starts when someone joins. For a longer plan, read Kajabi email list building for course creators.
Want help setting it up? Book a free call and we’ll map your first sequence.
A list of 300 people who read your emails beats 3,000 who don’t.
