When it comes to marketing, email marketing is still one of the most impactful, and effective tools. It is an excellent way to gather and qualify leads and build relationships with your audience! However, building an email list takes time and effort. But do not worry! These are a few of our favorite tips that will help you quickly and effectively build your email list!
Pro Tip: Though it may seem tempting to buy a list of emails, do not do it! According to Mailchimp, “By now it’s common knowledge that you shouldn’t buy a “totally legitimate list of 30 million opted-in emails” from a sketchy piece of spam that lands in your inbox. But there are still some vendors out there selling “opt-in” lists by collecting email addresses and asking members if they’d like to “receive special offers from third-parties.” Then these vendors sell those email addresses to other senders. It’s not technically illegal, but many ESPs prohibit sending to purchased lists.”
Make Your Sign-up Forms Stand Out
First and foremost, create sign-up forms that grab people’s attention! Second, place the forms in prominent spots on your site. Design the forms so that they are clearly different from the rest of the page and surround them with benefit-laden calls-to-action telling people what they can expect from signing up.
Placement is also important for getting people’s attention. You should definitely add the forms to multiple places throughout your site.
- Add it to the sidebar
- Place it at the bottom of your site (near the footer)
- Add an exit pop-up to catch people before they leave
Don’t Get Too Personal!
Let’s be honest. It is already hard enough to entice people to join an email list! So, do not over complicate this by asking for a lot of information. That being said, your sign up forms should only have two fields – name and email address. Do not ask for anything more than that.
Advertise Your Email List Everywhere
People will interact with your brand in more ways than just visiting your website. Therefore, make sure people can learn about your email any time they interact with your brand. Advertise it on social media (including your profile), mention it in your email signature, add a QR code to your marketing materials, etc. The goal is to make sure people know that you have an email list, and how to join it!
Emphasize the Benefits of Your List
While trying to build your email list, you need to determine what unique value your list offers! In other words, why do people want to sign up? Always remember that your company is one of millions asking people to join their email list! So give them a reason to want to join!
Use a Lead Magnet
You can entice more people to sign up by using a lead magnet. This is a free piece of content that people receive for providing their name and email address. (It also gives them a taste of the value they can expect from joining your list). Examples include, providing a one-time use discount after signing up. Or sending them special information only available to those you register.
There is Life Offline, Too!
We know that you meet people in person as well! So, give them an opportunity to join your list, too! If you have an brick and mortar store, personally tell your customers about the list and provide a way for them to easily sign up! Additionally, or include it on offline marketing materials, or even on receipts!
For those of you who do not have a brick and mortar store, you can still promote your email list offline. For example, if you are at a networking event, promote the benefits of your email list while speaking to new people!
Pro Tip: Do NOT take every single business card you receive at a networking event and add those people to your marketing email list. This is rude, and no one likes it!
Monitor Your Marketing Results — Then Double Down
No two businesses are the same. Therefore, what might work great for one will not work great for another. So, keep track of where the bulk of your new subscribers are coming from. For example, if you find that your Facebook page is driving the most traffic to your opt-in forms, focus your efforts there. Or, experiment with additional social media sites to see if you get similar results. Alternatively, if you find that some marketing channels are not sending new subscribers, drop them and try others.
Monitoring your results will drastically help you focus your attention and build your email list faster!
Final Thoughts
Again, when it comes to email marketing, it takes time and effort to build your email list. But once you do (and even as you are doing it), you will see the rewards pay off! So, give a few of these tips a try!