Despite the ever-increasing avenues for digital marketing, email marketing is hard to beat. Your email list is people who already know and like your business–so much that they opted in to receive your messages.
Email marketing is essential to many companies’ marketing strategies because it works. According to HubSpot, 4 billion people use email daily, and the ROI on email marketing is as high as $36 for every $1 spent.
For most businesses, the challenge with email marketing is getting people to sign up in the first place. Even if your company has a large and active list, you have to compensate for the natural attrition. People unsubscribe or change email addresses, requiring a constant influx of new leads.
This guide shows ten ways to grow your email marketing list effectively.
1. Entice Them With a Compelling Offer
Incentives are probably the most effective way to entice people to join your email list. You may produce the most visually stunning and interesting newsletter ever created. However, most people still want to feel like they are getting something in return for giving you their email address.
Your incentive can include anything your customers value. Examples include:
- A discount off of one product or order
- A gift with your order
- Free shipping
- Gated content such as an educational course, whitepaper, or eBook
If you offer gated content, don’t assume you know exactly what your prospects and customers want. Test different content offers to see what really sparks people’s interest.
2. Make Signing Up As Easy as Possible
Even with an irresistible offer, you want to make signing up as easy as possible. You can test asking for the first name and email address versus just the email address.
Some marketers insist on asking for the first name to improve personalization later, which is good. However, others say the number you lose by asking for one extra field is not worth it. Either way is okay, just don’t ask for more than their name and email address, or you’ll be losing a lot of potential sign-ups.
The fewer steps a prospect has to take to sign up for your newsletter, the better results for you.
3. Embed Your Form
Similar to keeping the number of fields simple, you want to minimize the number of clicks a prospect has to make to join. If someone has to click on an offer, scroll through a landing page, and then enter their information, you will lose them.
Instead, aim to have your opt-in form conveniently on your website’s home page. That’s great for people who land on your webpage, but what about people who navigate directly to a blog or landing page?
Some websites have an opt-in form in the footer, but you’re not making it as easy as possible if someone scrolls through your whole website to join.
Instead, include the opt-in offer on every page of your website. Make sure it’s visible, near the top, and embedded for easy submission.
4. Thank New Subscribers Immediately
Email marketing is about a one-on-one relationship between a consumer and a business. Your subscription thank-you page is the ideal way to start this relationship out strong.
There are many ways to make your thank-you page interesting. It could be an endearing or humorous message and image that matches your brand.
You can also push your new subscriber to become a customer with an unexpected offer in appreciation. For example, 50% off one item if they buy now.
Another strategy is to invite your new subscriber to invite friends and family to join the list and offer them a specific reward for each one who subscribes. Kickoff Labs is one software option that lets you give rewards to subscribers for sharing content, including on social media channels like Facebook or Twitter.
5. Run Contests or Sweepstakes
People love to get things for free. With a contest or sweepstakes, you can give away a bigger prize than you can to individual subscribers.
Don’t go too far out of your wheelhouse or extravagant. A product or service from your business is a great prize. It doubles as a marketing and lead-generating activity because while generating interest and sign-ups, you are also educating people about the products or services you offer.
6. Try Different CTA Button Colors and Text
Sometimes a small change in button color or text can significantly impact the response rate. This is true for email sign-ups and many search engine marketing (SEM) ad programs you run. The response rates for display advertising, discovery advertising, and social media advertising are all affected by colors, image choices, headlines, and calls-to-action (CTAs).
You want your email subscription button color to stand out on your website. If it fades into the background, it won’t attract enough attention.
Rather than sticking with the standard CTAs like “sign up” or “subscribe,” you can try one of the following or test your ideas. Notice these CTAs explicitly describe what the prospect will receive for subscribing.
- Give Me 20% Off
- Send Me My Free Gift
- Download My eBook
- Start My Free Trial
- Send Me My Free Whitepaper
It’s a good idea to test different CTAs and button colors. Why leave it to chance when a few A/B tests improve results?
7. Ask Your Social Media Followers to Subscribe
Whether you built your social media following organically or through social media advertising, anyone following your business has already shown interest in your products and services. So transitioning to being an email subscriber is a natural step.
In your rotation of monthly posts, include a couple that invites followers to sign up for your newsletter. You can use the same types of offers, contests, or discounts you use on your website.
Ideally, you want to take social media followers to a dedicated landing page with an easy opt-in form. Make sure it matches the offer in the post.
Some social media sites let you add a newsletter sign-up tab or lead generation form to your brand’s page.
8. Use Exit Intent Pop-Up Offers
It’s true—pop-ups can be annoying, especially if they interfere with your ability to browse or enjoy a website. However, when you program it to pop up when it seems like someone is leaving your website, a pop-up gives you one last chance to present your irresistible offer to them before they go.
Make your exit intent pop-up lighthearted and fun though still consistent with your brand. It’s not a moment to take yourself too seriously, but it is worth getting the prospect’s attention before they click away.
9. Segment Your Audience and Give Them Control
You don’t have to send every email to everyone on your list to have a successful email marketing campaign. Segmenting your audience, or separating your prospects into subgroups based on key demographics or interests, allows you to create more targeted emails and retain people’s interest.
You can also give people control over the level of their subscriptions. The simplest way is to have a “light subscription” option that only includes one or two monthly emails.
Alternatively, you can create a subscription center and let your customers choose what they want to receive from you. Maybe they only want to hear about upcoming sales, discounts, or promotions. Maybe they are only interested in your new blogs or videos. If you mail out various types of content, giving people a choice about what they receive will help keep your unsubscribe numbers low.
Allowing people to choose the frequency or type of content they receive from you should also increase engagement rate, which is a statistic that email platforms track and impacts your deliverability.
10. Show Off Your Testimonials
Testimonials, case studies, and positive reviews are social proof that builds trust and loyalty. Whether in written form or part of your video marketing, you can use third-party positive feedback in a few ways.
Post testimonials and reviews near your sign-up offer. You want to keep the offer clean and uncluttered, but seeing testimonials or positive reviews nearby can help people feel more comfortable giving your business their personal information.
You can also include strong testimonials, positive reviews, and case studies in your email marketing campaigns. Don’t make it all about you. Make sure and include discounts or information that your customers will find valuable. Still, seeing that positive social proof makes an impact.
Motivate Your Customers and Make It Easy to Sign Up
If you use pay-per-click (PPC) or any type of paid search ad to bring traffic to your website, you want to make the most of each dollar you spend. A powerful way to do that is by capturing visitors’ email addresses through an irresistible offer.
Using the techniques outlined above, including highlighting social proof near your sign-up form, making it effortless for visitors to sign up, thanking them immediately, and testing different offers and CTAs, you will turn your website into a powerhouse of lead generation.
If you are tired of spending your marketing budget without seeing the results you want, connect with us. We are experts in engaging your target customers cost-effectively. We are happy to discuss the solutions we can offer your business.
