Email marketing is one of the best tools in your arsenal. The ROI on email marketing is top-notch. Even better, you know you are spending your efforts on an audience that has already indicated they are interested in your products and services.
The problem is that the reach of your email campaigns is only as good as the length of your email list. If you want to expand that reach, you have to expand your email list. If you can accomplish that, your email campaigns will become lead-generating machines.
Take a look at 10 ways to grow your email list.
1. Use Pop-Ups With a Value Proposition
Yes, pop-ups can be annoying, but they don’t have to be. As long as you follow some basic rules for less annoying pop-ups:
- Limit pop-ups to one or two per session.
- Delay the pop-up instead of displaying it immediately as the user lands on the page.
- Make the value of the offer clear.
- Give the user an easy exit option.
Most importantly, keep things short, and include your value proposition. As a rule of thumb, if you’re going to use a pop-up, keep it short, and make your visitors feel as if the disruption was worth their time.
2. Collect Emails Through Contests and Giveaways
If you’ve built an active social media presence for your eCommerce store, use that to collect emails with contests and giveaways. Social media is a great launching pad to announce giveaways and contests and to collect email addresses as part of the entry process.
As long as you offer a worthwhile prize, make the contest an interesting one, and ensure your audience that they’ll get some positive exposure, you should be able to entice people to sign up. In addition to collecting emails, be sure to verify email addresses to provide a reliable database to your sales teams.
3. Build a Landing Page for Email Subscriptions
If it’s worthwhile to build a landing page for a single product, service, or sales event, isn’t it worth it to make one for email opt-ins? Of course, it is. Create a well-designed email sign-up, then add relevant links to the page in your content.
Just keep in mind that you’ll need to use best practices in order to get the results you want. Keep things simple, design your landing page to build trust, and make it easy to answer your call to action.
4. Add an Email Opt-In to Your Contact Us Page
When people had to your contact page, it’s often to get more information. Since they’re already primed to learn more about your products and services, this is a great time to encourage them to sign up for email updates.
In addition to this, you should already have an email support option in place. It shouldn’t take too much extra effort to include an email sign up for your newsletter or email marketing list.
5. Offer a Discount as an Incentive
This one is quite simple and very effective. After all, who isn’t attracted by the idea of saving money? To get people to sign up for your email list, offer a discount or some other savings on their next purchase.
Better yet, you can use this technique in the checkout process itself. As your customers are making their purchases online, give them the option to sign up for your email list. Offer them an immediate discount for doing so. Chances are you’ll get that email address, and give them an incentive to complete their purchase.
6. Use YouTube End Cards to Collect Addresses
If you have an active YouTube channel for product demonstrations, tutorials, or other content you can use end cards as a way to collect email addresses. A YouTube end card is a graphic that is included at the end of a video. You can use it to direct viewers to other content or to answer your call to action.
End cards can appear in the last 20 seconds of your videos. You can use them to link to your email subscription landing page, or the sign-up form on your website. You can also add a message in the video itself encouraging viewers to sign up.
7. Include a Signup Button in Your Auto-Response Emails
If you use an auto-response function for any reason, why not add an email sign up to your canned emails? Since you are already communicating via email, all you really need is the opt-in ensuring that it is okay to make contact with marketing emails. It’s a great method for tapping into customers who are already engaged through this channel.
8. Give an Incentive For Customer Referrals
A loyal customer is a great source for valuable email contacts. Offer them an incentive for referring friends and family members as well. Offer a discount, free gift, or another incentive for each email address they provide. You can even top that off with an additional incentive to be given out when the referral opts in or makes a purchase.
This is a great way to improve your relationships with existing customers. At the same time, you can use their loyalty to reach out to new subscribers as well.
9. Create a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is usually some form of exclusive, downloadable content that you provide in exchange for an email address or subscription. A good lead magnet is something that has immediate value to your target audience, that solves a problem, and is easy to access and consume. It can be a whitepaper, video, ebook, or guide. For example, if you sell clothes through your eCommerce store, you could offer a freestyle guide as your lead magnet.
10. Offer Special Access for Subscribers
Joining an email list is like joining a club. Nobody wants to do that unless there’s something in it for them. In addition to this, the sense of exclusiveness is an important emotional trigger.
When you attempt to entice subscribers, use both of these things as leverage. Offer them something in return for subscribing that they wouldn’t get otherwise.
This could be first access to new product lines, membership in a VIP rewards program, or access to members-only content. When you ask for that email opt-in, be prepared to answer the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’
Final Thoughts
Email marketing works! Follow the tips listed above, and you can ensure that your email list continues to grow.
Featured image credit: Unsplash.com
Diana Nadim is a writer and editor who has a Master degree in Marketing. She combines her passion for writing with her interest in research and creates thought-provoking content in various fields. Besides working as a contributor writer for TopWritersReview, Diana also runs her own 3to5Marketing blog. What inspires her the most in her writing is traveling and meeting new people. Follow her on Twitter.
