Before running any email marketing campaign, you need to create your own list of audiences who can be your customers and prospects. The bigger your marketing list is, the higher potential you can get conversion from it.
That’s why businesses always need to grow their email marketing list to target more people who interest in their products/services.
1. Grow your list on your website or blog
One of the most popular ways to attract customers to subscribe your newsletters is to add a link to your sign-up form on your website and collect emails from people who visit your site. Try not to make people burrow around your site to find subscription options.
Keep your offers up front, and include a call-to-action on every page of your website. Key spots to consider are your website’s homepage, the main page of your blog, your “About Us” page, and your “Contact Us” page.
Apart from displaying your sign-up form, you may need to create a reason to sign up page. This page will be used to highlight the biggest benefits of signing up. You can get this information from the description of your products and services, the differences between your business and your competitors.
You can also ask your current customers how they feel after signing up email with your business.
When collecting the emails of customers, don’t ask too many questions. You may miss chances to grow your email list if they feel wasting time. Keep your sign-up form short and simple. Only ask some necessary question.
Another way to collect emails of customers is when they are making a purchase. Be sure to indicate they are opt-in to receive future emails from you, because if they don’t want it, they will report your emails as spam.
2. Use social media to grow your list
Social media is not only the place where you engage your customers, it’s also a place to collect emails from your audiences by adding a sign-up form to your Facebook page. Update your Facebook cover photo with a call to action is a good idea.
Have some fun with it and ask people to join your list. Another way to collect emails from Facebook is to run a Facebook marketing campaign.
Besides Facebook, businesses can take advantage of many other social media applications, such as Linkedin, YouTube, Four Square and others. Many people now enjoy sharing information on social media, business can post some useful articles with valuable information, then ask people to subscribe, their marketing list can be grown easily.
3. Use emails to help reach new contacts
If you want people to stay subscribed and forward your email to their friends, family, and colleagues that are not on your email list, you need to create amazing and helpful content.
When designing your email, you should encourage your current email subscribers to share and forward your email by including social sharing button and an “Email to a Friend” button.
By this way, not only your subscribers can read your content, but other people can enjoy it and may subscribe if they feel it’s interesting and valuable. Remember to include a “Subscribe” call-to-action at the bottom of your email, so that people can easily opt-in.
The most important here is the content of your email. It needs to be as interesting as possible. People don’t have much time to care about all emails they receive everyday, if your email is boring and similar to many other emails, people will not share it, even unsubscribe from your list.
4. Use traditional marketing to get people to sign up
You can collect email addresses at offline events like trade shows and import them into the database. Remember to send them a welcome message that confirms their opt-in to your list.
Host your own events like meetups, conferences, educational panels, etc. and collect registrations online using email addresses is a good idea. Stay in touch before, during and after your event by collecting email addresses when people register for your event.
You can collect email addresses at your event with a paper sign-up sheet, QR code, or even via text message. People in these events may want to know more information, so they can give you their email addresses.
Another way is to be a sponsor. You can work with other businesses and organizations in your community to host an event. It’s a great way to introduce your business (and your email list) to a whole new audience.
5. Use giveaways to grow your list
Giveaways and coupons now are a powerful tactic that many businesses use to spread their products and services as well as collecting emails of customers. People love free things, so they can share your content and subscribe to get gifts.
6. Ask people to join your list “face to face”
If you have already determined your target customers, you will know who they are. Just having a sign-up form available won’t always be enough, so you can ask anyone around you to subscribe your email list. They can be your family and your friends.
No matter who they are as long as they are interested in your products and services, they can become your subscribers.
In conclusion
There are all examples of things you can do to grow your email marketing list. Many of them are very easy to implement. As you develop your email list with new, opt-in contacts, you’ll have the capacity to sustain them with middle-of-the-funnel offers that allow you to convert early-stage leads into sales-ready leads.
