So you’ve registered for an email marketing service provider and have your list of 10-20 contacts. Now what? Here are 8 essential tips to growing your email marketing list.
This has to be the first and most important tactic for growing your email marketing list. Let me explain. Gone are the days where people used to just scavenge the internet for email addresses, put them into excel and send out spam emails to everyone. It used to work for a little while, but nowadays you’re probably going to just get your domain blacklisted on Google (I wouldn’t recommend it).
So is email marketing dead as a result? Not in the slightest. You just have to put some actual effort into building your email marketing list. You have to earn each and every email present on there. How to do that? Well I’m glad you’ve asked – free swag (I hate myself for using that “word”). Create a free product, something like an ebook would do quite nicely. TIP: Make sure the ebook has some actual value inside. Advertise said free product / ebook on your website, social media, etc. with the notion that to get it, a person has to subscribe to your newsletter. If the ebook promises some decent value, the visitor is going to subscribe to your email list and get the ebook / product for the low low price of free – it’s a win-win situation.
A penny saved is a penny earned. Much so – a subscriber saved is a subscriber earned. How to lose subscribers? Spam them with low quality content and ads upon ads. Sure you might lose subscribers every time you send your newsletter, due to people forgetting how they signed up, being reminded that they are signed up and in some cases just genuinely not being interested any longer. That being said, with good quality content and properly designed newsletters, you should be able to keep those numbers low.
This works particularly well with e-stores (anything related to ecommerce and virtual selling). It’s as easy as slapping on a banner saying something along the lines of “Get a $5 coupon towards your next purchase when signing up to our newsletter”. Done! You’ve just given people an incentive to purchase something from your store, while adding them to your email marketing list. What’s even better – they are part of a targeted audience, since they’ve already expressed interest in spending money with you.
An awesome way of getting more subscribers is by adding a subscription form about 50% into your blog posts. There have been numerous occasions when I was reading an article, thinking to myself “Wow, this article is really something, I wish they had a newsletter subscription form that I could fill out so that I don’t miss anything.” Trust me – if you have an active blog, try adding the form. Tip: A combination of implementing it within the blog and offering something like an ebook for free on signup can result in some incredible numbers.
Not long ago facebook introduced Call to Action buttons on FB Pages. That in combination with the your page’s cover photo can do wonders for you.
Guest blogging is basically writing an article on a different blog in your niche, in exchange for some free promotion. Make sure to pitch your ebook / newsletter while you’re there.
Webinars and making use of Youtube really helps, since it builds authority on the subject. People are going to discover you and want to get more content.
If you have the budget for it, creating a unique “sales page” for your ebook or free product can be really effective. If you have some spare budget left, you might want to invest some of it into paid ads and get people on that page. Tip: Since it’s a free product, your conversion rate should be really high (about 8-15%).
There are many ways to go about growing your email marketing list. Find what works best for you and optimize it. Oh and do keep in mind that you’re probably not going to get 10k subscribers within the first month. It takes time, effort and patience to build a high quality list. Good luck!