Email marketing is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your customers. You can use it to promote your business, showcase your products, and convert subscribers into paying customers.
But growing your email list can be difficult and time-consuming, especially when you’re trying to grow organically. Here are some tips on how you can do it safely and effectively.
1. Make Your Opt-In Form Easy to Find
One of the best ways to grow your email marketing list is to make sure that potential subscribers can easily find your opt-in form. You should place it on your website in pages, posts, footers, and sidebars, and make it easy to fill out the form.
Opt-in forms are a critical part of any marketing strategy, but they can be tricky to optimize. This is especially true when it comes to mobile devices. Fortunately, there are several different types of forms that can be used to help increase your conversion rate.
Pop-ups are often the most popular type of opt-in forms. They can be triggered when a user first lands on your page, and they often encourage a subscriber to take action right away.
However, they can also be annoying to your audience. This is why many brands shy away from using these forms on the homepage, as it can potentially push people away if they haven’t engaged with your brand yet.
In contrast, header opt-ins can be a great way to increase your conversion rate, as they usually appear above the fold and can be seen before anyone even has a chance to scroll down. These forms are more likely to convert on mobile devices than other forms, as they’re less intrusive and offer a better viewing experience.
Bar forms are another common option, and they can be placed on the top of a site along the navigation bar. These types of opt-ins can be useful for growing your list, as they typically include a CTA button at the bottom of the form.
Engagement based opt-ins are also popular, as they allow you to show or hide an opt-in form based on certain behavior or touches with your brand. This is especially helpful if you want to create more targeted messaging for your visitors.
It’s important to note that not all types of opt-ins are created equal, so you should test out multiple options and use data from your results to determine which types of forms are most effective. It’s also important to choose an opt-in form that offers something of value for your audience, as this will encourage them to sign up.
2. Offer Something Worthwhile
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar business or a digital online store, offering something worthwhile to your email marketing list is one of the most effective ways to grow your list. A free downloadable whitepaper or a discount on a product are great examples of what you can offer your email subscribers.
To make this strategy work for your business, you need to ask yourself some important questions before offering something of value to your list: What is the pain or problem that they are trying to solve? What are their goals for the future and how can your product or service help them achieve those goals?
The answer to these questions will give you an idea of how to build valuable content that is specifically relevant and useful to your audience. If you are a business that provides security solutions, for example, you can create a whitepaper that teaches customers how to secure their information.
Once you have a clear understanding of what your target audience needs, it will be much easier to provide them with what they want. That way, they’ll be more likely to sign up for your emails and become a loyal customer.
Another great way to offer something of value to your list is by creating a free content upgrade. This can be an ebook, a whitepaper, or a cheat sheet. This type of content is valuable to your customers and will help them become more successful.
For example, Persuasion Nation, a company that helps businesses market their products and services, offers new signees a free content upgrade in the form of 3 scriptwriting templates.
This is a great way to get your message out there and attract new subscribers, but it is also crucial to be sure that the free content upgrade you are giving away is something your audience will find of value. You don’t want to waste your time or money creating a free product or service that your customers won’t use.
In order to increase your conversion rate, you can add an opt-in form in locations where shoppers typically look for more information about your brand, such as the footer of your website or on the margins of your pages. You can also place a sign-up form on your social media profiles. These forms will be visible to everyone who comes across your profile and are a fantastic way to encourage people to sign up for your emails.
3. Ask for Referrals
Referrals are a great way to add new business. They’re easy to get and don’t require much effort on your part. However, you need to make sure you ask for them at the right time. Here are a few tips to help you achieve this goal:
The best time to ask for referrals is after a customer has made a purchase, left a positive review, or given you feedback. This is known as the “sweet spot.”
When asking for a referral, be friendly and polite. This can help you to create a relationship with the person who is referring your business.
You can also focus your referral generation efforts on existing customers who have strong relationships with others in your industry. This can be done by identifying potential promoters through an NPS survey, which asks customers to score their experience with your company on a 1-10 scale.
Once you identify your promoters, you can then use a referral email to contact them. You can either send a general email that encourages them to share the link on social media or a specific referral email that targets them by their name.
In the body of your referral email, mention how much you enjoyed working with them and offer an incentive such as a discount or free product. The key is to make it simple and enticing for your subscribers to refer a friend.
If you’re trying to expand your customer base, then it’s crucial that you ask for referrals through all possible marketing channels. One of the most effective ways to do this is through your social media page.
To do this, it’s important to have your contact information on all of your platforms – including your website, invoices, and social media profiles. The more places that your contacts can find your contact information, the more likely they are to do so.
Using referral email campaigns can be a great way to grow your list of email subscribers. You can include a small tidbit about referrals within every newsletter or even set aside a spot for this topic in a drip campaign.
4. Use Social Media
Growing your email marketing list is a key part of your business’s overall strategy, and there are plenty of ways you can use social media to help. By combining multiple strategies, you can reach a variety of audiences and boost your conversion rates at the same time.
Creating an email marketing list is important for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that it lets you build a relationship with your audience. When your subscribers sign up, you can send them content that’s relevant to them and helps them grow as a customer.
To grow your email marketing list, use these six tips:
Offer Something Worthwhile
Adding an opt-in form on your website is the easiest way to encourage people to join your email list. But if you want to increase your list size even more, you can also offer incentives that will entice them to join. These could be anything from discounts on your products or services to free ebooks and videos.
Create Short Introductory Videos
A video is a great way to get your message across and attract new subscribers. According to a study, people spend on average 2.7 minutes watching videos with full attention. This indicates that it’s a good idea to create short introductory videos for your website or social media profiles, and direct them to your signup form.
Collaborate With Other Businesses
If you have a similar business or product to another, consider collaborating with them on a promotion. This can be as simple as sharing their link with your followers or as complex as launching a joint campaign that allows your subscribers to receive exclusive offers from the other company.
Provide Excellent Social Media Customer Service
Providing good customer service on social media is a great way to gain trust and loyalty from your audience. In addition, social media users expect brands to respond quickly, so if you have the ability to provide fast responses, this will encourage more people to follow you and sign up for your emails.
Make sure your social media profiles include a link to your email signup page, so that everyone can easily find it and join your list. You can do this by sharing the link on your social media profiles, or by running ads that lead to the signup page.