A good email list is a hallowed thing. Yes, it may take time to create and grow and yes it may take maintenance, however in a world of cold leads, it’s a warm respite.
Growing your email list is something many struggle with, however it’s truly worthwhile – we know! Serp Logic has a large subscriber base and we find it one of our most successful avenues for business.
Of course, you need strategies and know how to grow such a subscriber base and that’s what we’ve dug into today. All of these are great ways to increase your list size and in turn your reach to warm leads. So, here are 21 different ways to grow your email list and in turn your business:
Create A Good First Impression
The interface that you are using should be exciting and it should feature clear and crisp pictures as well as engaging content. The first impression that visitors get of your site can have a big impact on how they perceive and like (or fail to like) your site. By investing in a great interface, you can suggest that you are offering high value to visitors and increase the chances of getting sign-ups for your email list when you offer visitors a chance to subscribe.
Partner with Social Media Influencers
In order to increase the visibility of your business to the relevant consumers, you can partner with influencers. You can then direct new visitors to your site to a landing page that has a sign-up form.
Consider Offering A Free E-book
To get prospective subscribers interested in joining your mailing list, you should offer an incentive. One great incentive is to offer new subscribers a free eBook. The book that you offer should not necessarily be long. In my page, I offer a free eBook that has 50 pages and 10,000 words. The book that you choose can be between 10 to 15 pages and contain just a few thousand words. Ensure that you take your time in designing an eBook that looks professional.
Create A YouTube Channel
YouTube is a very user-friendly social platform that you can use to connect with your audience. However, you have to provide high-quality video content in your channel. On getting a YouTube channel you will get access to a section below the videos that you are uploading which you can insert links to a landing page the subscribers to your channel can use to sign-up for your mailing list.
Take Advantage of Business Cards
Whenever you meet people face to face, ask them for their business cards. At the same time, offer yours. You can set a bowl in the reception of your office and ask visitors to drop their business cards. To entice visitors to leave their cards, you can offer some incentive such as giving a gift card or a free service. You should use your own cards to improve the reception of your emails. For example, you can add an offer at the back which encourages people to sign up for your mailing list.
Make Your Emails Attractive to Your Customers
To do this, you can create a resource that your customers will love and trade in exchange for their email addresses. Ensure that you make it clear that accepting your offer means that they also accept that you can send them promotional content occasionally. To increase the uptake of your offer by your clients, place it strategically in your social media channels, website and any other online platform that your customers frequent.
In order to capture the email addresses of your customers, you should design a sign-up form that is easy to fill. The ideal form should:
- Be brief, concise and to the point
- Show the benefits that your customers will get by signing up
If you have well designed forms that have an irresistible offer, you will soon find your mailing list full and bursting due to a lot of customer feedback.
Ensure That You Regularly Ask Your Social Media Followers to Subscribe to Your List
Email subscribers are more valuable than social media followers because email marketing has a higher rate of conversion compared to social media marketing.
However, if you already have existing followers on social media, you should consider enticing them to subscribe to your mailing list. Doing this is fairly easy and it does not cots you anything. Further, it is a great way to increase the number of individuals in your mailing list. Using this technique, I was once able to help on client land 5,000 new mailing list subscribers in one week.
The key to converting social media followers to email subscribers is consistency in requesting them to join your list. Remember that most of your followers only see a fraction of the things you are posting on a daily basis and you are also acquiring new followers on each new day. It therefore makes sense to request them to subscribe to your mailing list at regular intervals. To entice your followers to join your mailing list, you can offer an incentive or simply promise to provide very exclusive content through your emails.
Add A Sign-Up Form at The Top of Your Sidebar
We usually put a link to signing up for our mailing list at the top of our sidebar and we recommend that you do the same. You should do this even on top of any ads that you may have. Consider this – If you send a lot of people away from your site because of ads, they will not convert into regular visitors who click on the ads. It is best to ensure that your readers are enjoying the content they are looking for while you are still getting your email subscriptions.
Consider Running A Contest or Promotion
Remember that building your email list relies on offering incentives and value to clients. One of the best and most straightforward ways of encouraging people to provide their email addresses is to run a contest. Everybody loves winning especially when there is no effort require except providing an email address.
There are a lot of methods you can use to hold a great and exciting contest such as:
- A photo contest encouraging participants to share their best pet/food/selfie photo/travel picture.
- A video contest encouraging participants to share their top skating tricks/song cover/funny fails.
- A contest encouraging people to share a short story/favorite poem/funny anecdote.
- A contest that looks like a sweepstakes where participants just have to give their email addresses in order to participate.
After you have settled on the most enticing and ideal contest format, you should then decide the prize that will be up for grabs.
You may be tempted to offer cash giveaways but it is usually best to set your contest in such a way that the prize is related to your business. That way, participants who are interested in the prize are also potential customers.
Consider Putting Up Evergreen Content
Content that is evergreen usually stays fresh, tasty and enticing for months or even years after you have created it. (This is unlike leftovers that sit in your fridge for a week before going bad).
Having evergreen content can encourage subscribers and grow your mailing list exponentially. However, you first have to create the content and promote it vigorously.
Ideally the content that you use to generate leads should be evergreen in that it does not have an expiration date. The content should be useful at the current moment, in the coming weeks, months and in a couple of years.
Upgrade Your Blog Posts
You can grow your email list by regularly updating your content in blogs. You should use the principle that use in sign-up forms that is giving away an incentive (acts as a lead magnet) and in return you get the email addresses of visitors to your blog.
You should place a link on the bonus content that you add that contains a call to action. This should be wrapped up with an eye-catching and appealing box. When readers click on the link, they should see a pop-up box requesting them for their email addresses so that they can get access to the bonus material.
Consider Using a Feature Box
You should include lead magnets in the feature box and then wait for the magical results. Your lead magnet should be exchanged for the email address of the visitor. A feature box is great since your reader can still scroll down and view your blog or website.
Take Up Guest Blogging
If you are just getting started in email marketing and you do not have any traffic, the first battle is getting people to your blog. Through guest blogging you can get attention from potential subscribers. After reading your guest post and going to your site, you can sign visitors up by having in place the first three tactics that help you in getting their email.
Use Webinars and Events as A Lead Magnet
Are you hosting an event? If you are, ensure that all attendees give you their email addresses. Further, give them the option of signing up for your newsletter. You can also use webinars to meet new audiences and reach out to users across different time zones. Whether you are building your list personally or through online efforts, ensure that shortly after the event is over (ideally within 24 hours) you send a personalized welcome email to all your new subscribers. In the welcome email, you can add a link to your decks, review videos or follow-up materials.
Create an Online Community
You should consider adding a community feature for your subscribers such as online forum or Facebook group.
Always Encourage Your Subscribers to Share
At the end of your emails, ensure that you add a call-to-action encouraging your subscribers to share the content you have sent to friends who might enjoy it. Though this is common when it comes to blog posts and emails, it is not as common in email marketing. It is easy to prompt this action in your subscribers especially if you are providing great and interesting content that people want to share naturally.
Give Your Audience Subscription Options
Everybody likes choices. You should therefore consider getting subscription levels that allow people to sign-up and choose to receive content that is relevant to them. For example, if you are selling tax advice and widgets, you can provide three options in the signing form allowing subscribers to receive information on tax advice, information on widgets or both. You can customize further and allow your subscribers to choose when they can hear from you – weekly, fortnightly, monthly or only when you have something special to offer. People are more likely to sign up for your mailing list if they can control the content that they will be receiving.
Rejuvenate Your Stale Mailing List by Re-Offering Subscribers to Opt-In Again
If your list is not serving the intended purposes, you can create a win-win situation by creating an engaging opt-in email offer that will act as call-to-action to get people to re-subscribe to your mailing list. When crafting this email, you should make it clear that people who do not respond will be taken off the mailing list.
While it may seem counterproductive to remove people from your mailing list as you are looking to expand it, it serves the greater purpose of purifying your list so that you are only left with core subscribers who enjoy what you are offering and are more likely to engage and respond. Rejuvenating your list also increases the reach of your message as it is likely to be received by more people.
Segment Your Mailing List
Great content usually leads to greater engagement, more shares and it creates a buzz. However, what is good for one person may not be appealing to another. As you are growing your mailing list, you should note whether your current subscribers opted in through a contest, as part of an event or organically. Remember that each subscriber to your mailing list is looking for something different. As such, you should offer different types of subscription that offer content that is more targeted. Targeted content increases the chance that visitors will subscribe to one of the offers. If your subscribers have already shown interest in certain types of content, they are more likely to engage when you offer similar content in future and share your newsletters with friends.
Integrate Your Mailing Efforts
There are various tools and third-party apps that are designed to assist you in growing your mailing list. From landing pages to shopping carts, these tools and apps can make it easy for you to connect with your email service provider so that you can sign-up subscribers automatically to your mailing list.
Test Continuously
As with all other aspects of marketing, it is important to continuously test your system to ensure successful growth in your mailing list.
Test the content you have, the calls-to-action, the position of your sign-up form and all the tactics we have discussed above.
All of the above together, will greatly help you grow your email list and in doing so increase the amount of business that you can receive.
