An email list is a great way to expand your marketing efforts since you can use the list to send messages about new products or specials that you are having. However, building a good email list takes time and effort. You want to make sure that the people on the list genuinely want to subscribe to your brand. Here’s how to build an effective email list this year.
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What Is an Email List?
An email list is a list of people who have shared their email addresses with you. This list is used to send email marketing materials and helps a brand to sell more products or services. An email list might start with five or 10 names and emails and can grow to tens of thousands (or more). A good email list is one where people have opted in to receive emails from you rather than a bought list and blasts to people who aren’t familiar with your brand or products and don’t want to get marketing emails.
Why an Email List Is Important
An email list is an integral part of many companies’ marketing strategies. Here’s the value they provide.
Creates Personal Connection
An email list lets you create a personal connection with your audience. Unlike online content, the email list can be directed to specific buyer’s personas, allowing you to tailor the message to what people are receptive to hearing. It’s a great way to communicate directly with your target audience.
Develops a Loyal Customer Base
When people opt in to your email list, they are saying that they want to hear from you. With regular communication, you develop a loyal fan base of customers who believe in your brand and want to hear from you. As long as you don’t over-email, your fans will stay on the list and look for new ways to interact with your brand.
Markets to Those Already Positive About Your Brand
It’s easy to send emails. While it may take time to craft the copy of the email, the physical aspect of sending it is simple and can be done effortlessly. When you do this, you are sending messages and marketing campaigns to people who already have a positive image of your brand and want to know more.
What Makes a Good Email List
A good email list will help you achieve your marketing goals. When you have a group of people who want to get your messages, you have a powerful tool to generate sales.
Subscribers Have Opted In
There are email lists out there that you can buy or rent. These lists are not as effective as a list of people who have opted in to receive your brand’s messaging. A good email list has been built by getting people to subscribe to your email list and accept that you will be sending them messages.
The Larger the Better
While a brand can still make money on a small email list of a thousand people or less, the larger the list is, the better. You will have more likelihood of people clicking through on your offers to buy. This is why you want to spend time to grow your email list to a sizable quantity. With sales, it’s always a numbers game, and the more names you email, the better your chances of success.
Subscribers Look Forward to Your Messages
A good email list is one that wants to hear from you. Maybe you’re sending out weekly specials, and your list is eager to see what is on sale. Or perhaps you send out helpful tips and tricks on how to maintain your home or car. Whatever your email is, your subscribers eat it up and share it with family and friends when they can. This helps you keep subscribers happy and get new ones from referrals.
How To Build an Email List
Be patient when building an email list. Know that it takes time and effort to do this effectively and get the results that you really want. Remember, it’s quality subscribers that you want, not just names. Here’s how to build an email list.
Step 1: Get the Right Platform
To send emails, you need an email marketing platform that will segment your list and help you format and address the emails. While it is possible to send an email to an address list on Gmail or Outlook, this isn’t the most efficient way to do so and doesn’t always have the extra formatting for images and hyperlinks embedded. Platforms such as Mailchimp and Moosend can help you easily format everything and manage your list. This way, if someone unsubscribes, you can readily stay compliant and fulfill their requests. It also gives you amazing templates to use that help target buyers in your audience.
Step 2: Incentivize People To Sign Up
You must give people a compelling reason to sign up and opt in to your email list. This may be a coupon or discount code, the promise of great tips or another type of cheat sheet or loyalty program. Getting an email is a sale in itself; what they pay with is their email. You need to be assertive in going after emails so that you can grow your list as quickly as possible. The better the incentive is, the faster your list will grow.
Step 3: Create an Enticing Pop-Up for Your Website
The best way to collect emails is through your website. People are already there and are showing an affinity for your brand. A pop-up gives them an incentive offer in exchange for their email. It should be simple text about the offer with a box to collect the email.
When the pop-up appears may take a bit of testing. You might try a pop-up that appears shortly after entering the website. Or you can try a surprise pop-up that appears as people spend time on the website. Another common option is to have an exit pop-up where the box appears as people try to leave the website.
Step 4: Use Your Website To Entice People Onto the List
Another way to gather emails is to use a call to action (CTA) on your website. This can be at the end of an article or on your landing page. What the CTA does is it invites people to take action—in this case, the action is giving you their email address. A CTA works when the copy before it provides good value. People are more likely to subscribe when they feel like the content does something for them. That’s right, people want to get something for the price of their email.
Step 5: Utilize Social Media Accounts
Every business needs to take advantage of social media in today’s market. You can touch a lot of people and inspire them to take action and subscribe to your email list. If you have the right offer on social media, you can even go viral, increasing the range of your post and expanding the number of subscribers you get. You can do this by simply posting online or by running ads. Social media ads are often very cost-effective and inexpensive to run. This is an important aspect of your marketing campaign.
Step 6: Run a Viral Contest
A contest is a great way to incentivize people to join your list. Choose a giveaway that people want to get. When the prize is enticing, it will capture emails for entry into the contest. Add further incentive to subscribers by giving them added entries for referrals. You can offer something to the effect of giving an extra five entries for every referral email given.
Step 7: Don’t Forget Your Own Contacts
Reach out to your friends, family and colleagues to invite them into the list. Make these invitations personal, as these are people that you already know, and want to make feel special. Ask them to share your brand with their friends and family to help expand your reach. In the email to them, explain what it is you are doing and why they would benefit from joining the email list.
Step 8: Establish a Referral Program
Give people a reason to refer the people in their networks. A great way to accomplish this is to create a referral program that gives people something for referring others. You can give them a discount, a gift or store points. The idea is that most people won’t do something for nothing but will jump on board when they get something of value.
Step 9: Use a Scroll Box
Your great content might be the best way to get an email subscriber. Use a scroll box that captures an email from them to continue reading the content. When the content is good, people will want to finish it and will join. This is similar to a paywall but doesn’t require payment; it’s just an email to continue.
Featured Partners
1
Constant Contact
Yes
Yes
Advanced Automation (Abandon Cart Reminders, etc.)
2
Omnisend
Free for all customers
AI email content generator
Email marketing, SMS & Web Push Notifications
3
Brevo
Free; Unlimited contacts
Available
Yes
4
Campaigner
Starts at $59 / month
30 days
Email + SMS marketing, full code editor, geolocation, and more
Bottom Line
Whether your business is new or seasoned, establishing and building an email list is a great way to create loyal customers and expand your sales volume. Make sure to take the time to build the list in a way that subscribers will want to get your emails and value your content. This way, they won’t unsubscribe and leave the list.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I get 10,000 email subscribers?
Getting an email list of 10,000 subscribers takes using pop-ups, viral campaigns and landing pages to capture the emails. A viral campaign will capture leads faster than just relying on pop-ups and landing pages. A contest is a great way to go viral.
How do I build an email list for free?
You can build an email list for free by adding pop-ups and a call to action to your landing page. This way, when people visit your website, they are given the option to subscribe.
What is a realistic email list growth rate?
A good email list growth rate is slow and steady. Expect a 2.5% growth rate on most strategies.
What is the formula for an email growth rate?
To calculate the email growth rate, subtract the number of unsubscribes and hard bounces from your new subscribers and divide that number by the total subscribers.
