Email marketing is a high impact, low cost way of delivering your marketing message. This is perhaps the most direct, powerful and personal line of communication you can have with your prospective customers.
A “subscriber list”, full of interested customers and prospects is a valuable resource to any online business. It has therefore become essential for every entrepreneur and is a doorway of sorts to your prospects and customers. But, how to build an email list and grow this “subscriber list”?
Here we would like to look at some of the most effective and creative ways to build up your “email subscriber list” – the key is to attack email list building from as many angles as possible.
Make Sign-ups Easy and Visible
It is important to make it easy to sign up for your emails. Offer sign-up forms on your website to customers who are browsing. Make sure to display the form prominently in more than one place if necessary. That could be at the navigation bar, on the content pages or even through pop-ups.
Offer a “subscribe to our newsletter” form where prospects can leave their contact information to receive your emails. They do not need to necessarily make a purchase immediately but have a good chance of becoming your customer if you can make them remember you.
Again, when a customer has already made a purchase and is in the process of checking out, make sure they have the option of clicking on a button that gives you permission to send them email communications. But reassure them that you would not be spamming them with unwanted emails.
Create a simple auto-responder message greeting new subscribers.
Make an Offer for Signing Up
Grab attention by offering freebies for signing up and make sure that they are of good quality as first impressions matter. New visitors generally need an incentive to leave an email address and offering something to them in return for a sign up is impactful
For instance, you can offer an exclusive opportunity for “subscribers only” – it could be a discount in price (through discount codes or coupons), or even an exclusive offer to view the product before anyone else.
Offering gated content (that you can only access after signing up) is also common strategy. A free online tool or resource (like an e-book) can get users to sign up with their email addresses. However, it is important to be able to invoke curiosity, grab the reader’s attention and encourage email subscribers to take action. Read more about, ways to make the email list quickly.
Smart Segmentation Helps
Instead of using a one size fits all approach, using smart segmentation tactics to better cater to subscriber interests and needs works well. Such segmentation makes customers feel that you care about them and help you generate more conversations with your email list.
Segmentation can be on the basis of location, demographics, behavior, preferences, lifestyle and many more. Research has shown that Segmented email marketing campaigns have surely given better results since the message can be aligned to appeal to the particular segment of people you are targeting
Another advantage of this process is that It allows you to quickly assess how well your messaging is working on people, as these are people who have actually opted to hearing from you. This is the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Also, most email marketing services offer analytics, which makes it easy to find out how the various segments of your readers are responding.
Good Quality Content
The content on your page should be compelling enough to make the visitor want more and hence be prompted to “subscribe”. Content that is informative, entertaining and relatable is valuable to most. Nice visuals, video content and interesting infographics will also be appealing to the readers and prompt them to subscribe to your newsletter.
Your product needs to deliver value and this must be highlighted. Links to articles from third parties or sharing your own expertise is a great way to build credibility and goodwill at the same time.
Have you tried guest posting?
Get an expert or someone with a following to write something relevant for your site.
This can be a very powerful strategy to get quality traffic to your site as the guest blogger will attract his or her own followers to your site too.
Importantly, remember to set clear expectations with your subscribers about what they will be getting and how often. Transparency on this front can help reduce unsubscribe rates or being reported as spam.
Make the Most of Social Media
Social media offers another excellent way to grow your email list. Use as many social platforms as you can to let people know about your newsletter or emails. Your followers are already interested in your brand, so give them another way to keep in touch with you.
Create a Twitter campaign to promote an ebook or a free resource to your followers that requires an email address to redeem.
Most email marketing services and indeed Shopmatic too offers Facebook integrations that will help you sync your messaging. So go ahead and explore that option; or you could also use Pinterest to promote offers that require email sign up.
The point is to connect your marketing channels so that you are visible to as many people as possible.
Other Ways to Connect and Collect
You can connect to a larger audience by using alternatives like launching a podcast or starting a YouTube channel and throwing up an invitation to sign up at the end of each audio/video.
Collect email addresses at offline events like trade shows, in person events like meetups, conferences and collect registrations online using email addresses.
You can also encourage your customers to forward the emails to their friends and associates by adding an email to a friend button on your site.
A Few Rules to Remember
- You must get the recipient to opt in ie. get permission from the prospect before you start sending emails.
- Also, you must provide a way for your subscribers to unsubscribe if they no longer want to remain on your mailing list.
- Only send emails when you have something valuable to say and don’t take up too much of your subscriber’s time.
- Avoid spam filters and stay on top of the mind of your prospects by building a list of folks who really want to receive your emails.
Being on social media is hugely popular, though that hardly takes away the importance of email marketing, which is a more intimate medium of communication. The strategies highlighted above will surely come in handy to put an effective email plan in place that is helpful to your customers and subscribers along with giving a boost to your company’s bottom line.
