Email marketing – the process of sending commercial communication to a group of people via email – continues to be a widely used tool by companies of all sizes.
From messaging to promote content or introducing consumers to your business, over 333 billion emails are sent and received worldwide every day. While nearly 4 million people use email and over 80% of businesses use email marketing to reach customers, it is only effective for companies if they have a strong email subscriber list to receive this messaging.
What is an email list and why is it important?
An email list is a collection of email addresses of those who have opted in to receive your newsletter or other forms of communication from your company. In other words, these people have said yes to being contacted about promotions, news, products and more.
A powerful email list is not just large in size, but healthy in engaged subscribers (i.e. those who open and click!). Your efforts to market to customers will be useless if subscriber contacts are inactive or have contact info that is inaccurate.
There are several reasons why building and maintaining a strong email list is so important, including:
- Increasing potential leads
- Driving traffic to your website, blog, other content, etc.
- Connecting with customers
A few ways to build your email list
Here are some of the easiest ways to start building your email list today:
Utilize a Trustworthy Email Marketing Platform
While platforms like Gmail and Outlook are effective for basic email campaigns, robust email marketing platforms can help build and maintain a healthy email list.
A platform that your company’s email list can continue to use as it grows is worth the investment. These dynamic and comprehensive platforms help manage and organize growing email lists, while allowing brands to create efficient and engaging email campaigns.
To build your email list organically with an email marketing platform, look out for key features such as a contact management system, form and subscription options, and robust spam protection. These features will enhance your ability to collect more contacts, as well as keep your email lists organized and up to date.
Leverage Your Personal Contacts
One of the easiest ways to build an email list is to reach out to your own personal contacts. Whether they are interested in your services or simply want to help you out, it’s likely you’ll get email signups from your own network.
Create a personal email and explain why you’re building an email list and what they can gain from signing up. And, don’t forget to encourage them to share the news with their own contacts!
Do the same outreach if you have a customer base for your products or services, but don’t have a formal email list for promoting content. Ask your contacts if they would be interested in receiving your emails and updated content, and add them to your growing email subscriber list.
Add Dynamic CTAs To Your Website and Landing Pages
Make it easy for consumers to join your email list by creating numerous options to do so. CTAs to become an email subscriber can come in the form of buttons, banners, forms, and pop-ups sprinkled throughout your content, website, etc.
When done carefully, pop-ups in particular can be highly effective in building your email list. Ensure that they are built with the user experience in mind, ensuring they are featured with relevancy and proper timing.
Use the Power of Your Social Media Accounts
Your company is likely using social media already, so why not ensure that your efforts are being used to the fullest extent? This means including a sign-up button or opt-in form on your Facebook or Linkedin page to boost overall lead generation.
Social media can also be used to ask your followers to sign up for your newsletter. Increase your success rate by including an enticing giveaway in which email addresses will be needed to participate. If you’re going to do a giveaway via social media (or generally anytime!), ensure that the prize is relevant to your target audience.
Give People a Reason to Sign Up
The average person receives over 100 emails per day, which makes it understandable that people are usually skeptical about giving out their email addresses.
Just the promise of great content is not enough – you have to give consumers an enticing reason to sign up for your newsletter. One of the best ways to so is by offering a FREE lead magnet, which provides them something of value such as:
- An eBook
- A checklist, template or worksheet to help solve a problem
- A PDF version of an article, case study, whitepaper or blog
- A cheat sheet
- A coupon or promotion
- Registration for a webinar, event or course
Lead magnets should be created with your target audience and their needs in mind.
Other ideas to build your email list include:
- Include a newsletter signup link in your email signature, as well as those of other company employees: it’s easy to set up and requires very little effort to leverage the communication you’re already sending out
- Use offline methods such as sign-ups at events or in-store if you have a physical location
- Create a referral program with incentives for subscribers to share your company and messaging with their own personal networks
We can help build your email list!
Building and maintaining an email list takes thought, time, and patience. A healthy email list means more leads, which will eventually lead to increased sales.
Here at LSC Marketing Group, we can implement the aforementioned tactics, along with countless others to build and manage a powerful email list that will grow your business.
Contact us and let’s get started!
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