Have you ever noticed the fact that while promoting your products or services on social media platforms you feel that someone else is controlling who can see your advertisements, products, and services and who cannot? As the owner of the products or services this power is not in your hands. The algorithm keeps on changing on these social media platforms and you might also lose out on your potential targeted prospects.
Having an email list will solve this massive problem as unlike your followers on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or even YouTube, email list subscribers are owned by the owner of the list. An email list helps you attain higher engagement rates with your users, lets you have more control over your content, and also gives you direct access to your users.
The following blog will help you understand what an email list is, its importance, and proven ways how you can grow your email list so that you have a large pool of subscribers who are ready to hear you and are interested in the products or services or offers you provide them with.
What is an email list?
Before coming to how you can grow your email list let us first understand what an email list is. An email list is a list of emails that businesses have collected from visitors or customers who have shown an inclined interest and given permission to receive updates, discounts, and promotional emails from a business. In other words, it is a collection of leads and targeted prospects that are used by digital marketers in email marketing your products or services.
Why do you need to grow your email list?
To secure the present growth of your business and safeguard your online presence in this ever-changing digital landscape all you need is to build a solid email list as it serves as an effective tool for your business’s success. Down below are some of the reasons why you need to have an email list to grow your business:-
Connect, captivate, and engage directly with your audience
You need to grow an email list because it helps you to interact directly with your customers or audience without any middlemen. With the help of an email list you get to decide who gets to see your post, discounts, or upgrades to your products or services and who doesn’t, you are in charge here. Here you own the email list and your email goes directly from you to the inbox of your potential customers. This direct line of communication is why email marketing is still an important driver of revenue online and email lists help you to serve the goal of direct communication with your audience.
Global email marketing was valued at 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in the year 2020 and it is projected that the figures would increase to 17.9 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. This shows that email marketing’s expected compound annual growth rate for that period is to amount to 13.3 percent.
Selling via email is more effective-
You need to grow your email list because selling by email is way more effective than selling on social media and this is because selling via email is private. You don’t need to blast the entire world with what you are offering as most of them are not interested but only those who are interested in your content and are your warm leads who will help you grow in the market. An email list helps you to have control over who receives offers and benefits and helps you understand what are the preferences of your consumers and what is accepted by them.
Email list helps you find out your targeted prospects
One of the important reasons why you should have an email list and work continuously to grow it, is because it helps you find out your target prospects and gives you a clear picture of which customers are interested in the products or services. It helps you find out a curated list of warm targeted leads, these are people who are more likely to buy from you than the casual followers from social media.
20 Proven Ways to grow your email list
Since you have now got a glimpse of why you need to create an email list here are the following ways to grow your email list.
1. Offer a lead magnet: Create valuable and compelling content that encourages your readers to sign up for your email list. Some valuable resources are ebooks, checklists, and white papers that can be offered to your audience for free in exchange for their email address.
Photoworkout attracts customers and collects their email IDs by offering them with free e-books on engaging topics like 10 photography beginners’ mistakes and how to avoid them.
2. Make use of pop-ups: Try to prompt visitors to subscribe to your email list by setting up pop-ups that will appear on your website. This will attract visitors which might lead them to be your future potential prospects.
For example, a company can use full-screen pop-ups so that visitors pay full attention and are not distracted. This works as a mini landing page and grabs the full attention of the visitors as it takes up the entire screen and eventually helps in collecting their email ids.
3. Host a giveaway- Host a giveaway- Offer discounts, free products or services, or prizes to incentivize people to join your email list. You can also use spin-wheel campaigns which are a great way to grow your email list. They work by offering prizes to people who opt to receive your emails. Keep in mind that the prizes apply to your target audience.
ACME Fitness hosted a summer giveaway of a three-month membership to five lucky winners who had to sign in by providing their email id. In doing so it got hold of an ample number of interested email IDs who eventually turned into their potential customers.
4. Use social media- You can promote your email list on social media like (Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube) platforms to reach a wider audience. Give the link in the description box and add it to your email list. Using social media platforms to promote your email list will encourage more sign-up. Add a sign-up button to your Facebook page this will make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your email list from your Facebook page. You can also use targeted Facebook ads to encourage them to sign up for your email list and reach potential subscribers. With the help of sign-ups, Facebook collects a series of email ids which helps it to find better and more interested target prospect.
5. Referral campaign- Run a referral campaign and encourage your current subscribers to refer their family and friends to your email list by offering incentives like freebies, discounts, or exclusive content. You can use tools like Ambassador or ReferralCandy to track results and automate your referral program.
Poprageous went forward with a campaign where the customers would earn $20 dollars for each new friend who shops with them and is referred to. These friends will also receive 20% off on their first purchase and this leads to attending a new email id and adding to the email list.
6. Attend events- Attend or host events like conferences, meetups, and trade shows to collect email addresses from interested attendees. You can offer a special promotion or prize to people who sign up on the spot and you can follow up with them after the event.
7. Partner with other businesses- You can partner with other businesses in your niche to reach out to new potential subscribers. Offer host joint webinars, co-branded resources or run cross promotions that hold benefit to both parties.
8. Advertise QR code- One effective way to grow your email list is to include a QR code on your print advertising materials. By adding a QR code that leads to a sign-up form for your email list, you can encourage customers to join your list and receive promotions, updates, and other valuable pieces of information from your business. This makes it easy for customers to join your list and you can expand your reach with a stronger relationship with your audience.
9. Use Survey or Quiz- A survey or a quiz is an engaging and fun way to collect email addresses from interested prospects. You can create a quiz or a survey that addresses your audience’s feedback and offer customised recommendations based on their answers. Create the quizzes or surveys in such a way that the prospect has to give their email address to access the results or answers to those questions.
10. Create a blog– You can create a blog to collect email addresses from interested readers. Blogging helps you improve your search engine ranking and attract new blog subscribers. Thus these subscribers can then be leveraged to enhance your email marketing efforts in the future and help you grow your email list.
11. Use landing page-You should create a specific landing page that has a clear call to action to encourage sign-ups. Creating a dedicated landing page promotes your lead magnet or content upgrade or encourages your readers to sign up for your email list.
12. Buyer’s persona segment- You can create a buyer persona segment in your email list. To increase the chances of email opens, it’s important to send tailored content that matches the interests of your subscribers. Utilizing different types of email subscriptions to send personalized information to different segments of your audience can be an effective strategy.
13. Offer a content upgrade– A content upgrade is a bonus resource that you offer to your existing blog readers in exchange for their email addresses. It can be a template, a checklist, or a video that complements your blog post and provides extra value. An example of this checklist is shown in the image below.
14. Create a free online tool for sign-ups- You can create a resource or free online tool that only requires your user’s email to sign up. This helps in building your email list and also adds value to your users by offering them a helpful tool or resource.
15. Asking for feedback from visitors- Asking for feedback from website visitors can be a great way to engage with them. By including a form on your web pages that asks for questions or feedback about your company, you can collect email addresses and provide personalized responses. This can help you build relationships with your audience and potentially grow your email list.
16. Use PPC (Pay Per Click) or Google ads- Google ads and PPC (Pay Per Click) click is an effective way to promote your email list to a wider audience. Advertisements through PPC and Google ads help you to grow your email list.
17. Offer an Incentive: Create an irresistible offer, such as a free ebook, webinar, or discount, that encourages people to join your email list. Make sure your offer is relevant.
18. Add a footer sign-up form to your website: Adding a sign-up form to the footer of your website can be an effective way to encourage visitors to join your email list and help you grow your email list, an example of which is shown in the image below. The example below shows Postable added a link in its email footer and added its email to its address book.
19. SMS messaging: Using SMS messaging can be an effective way to collect email addresses from interested customers. You can send a text message to your subscribers and invite them to provide their email addresses in exchange for an exclusive offer or valuable content. By leveraging the power of SMS messaging, you can reach your target audience in real-time and encourage them to join your email list.
20. Use of good templates and themes- Use good templates and themes as people are more inclined to stick around and return to your website if your website provides a good user experience and looks attractive. If visitors stay on the website longer or return to your website repeatedly, they are more likely to sign up and provide their email addresses.
Good templates and website themes to design your website
Conclusion
These are the most effective and proven ways to grow your email list, which is essential for building a strong and long-term relationship with your customers and driving revenue for your business. Overall, investing effort and time in enhancing and building an email list can greatly help business owners and bloggers as email list subscribers are owned by the list owner, giving them direct access to their end users.
