You need to build your email list. It’s as simple as that. There are loads of other metrics that businesses can get fixated on, but your email list is one of your best marketing assets. Adding fresh contacts to your list, so that you can start putting together slick email marketing campaigns will benefit your brand in the long-term and you can begin to build up a loyal customer base. You might think email’s un-sexy, but it can be just as valuable as social media, if not more and can give you a better ROI than other strategies. So, how to build a mighty email list? Here are a few simple ways.
Great Email Content
One of the best ways to increase your email sign-ups is to be creating amazing content for your newsletters and email campaigns. People will be more likely to share your content and tell colleagues about it if it’s good. Include sharing buttons so it’s easier for people to do so. You can also encourage people with online contests.
Webinars
If you’re an avid video creator or your brand regularly hosts its own webinars then this can be a great chance to build your email list. You’ll have a ready-made audience who are (hopefully) watching already, so include calls-to-action and URLs in your descriptions and during your broadcasts. Or you could collect email addresses when people sign-up and register for your webinars.
Social Media
Using social media to enhance your personal brand is a must anyway and if you position yourself as a thought leader or reputable source then people will want to learn more from you i.e more email sign-ups! You can also use it to promote your lead magnets. Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc to publicize what you’re offering and invite people to submit their email address for access. Healthy social media profiles should be used in conjunction with your other marketing strategies, as it can put your ideas across several different platforms, so hopefully you can collect email addresses from all of them.
Lead Magnets
Giving people a tasty incentive to sign up for your emails is important. People want to know what’s in it for them. Creating lead generation offers through downloadable content is a good idea. Whether it’s an e-book, a white paper or exclusive access to a free online tool, you can ask for someone’s email address and in return you’ll give them valuable content.
In-Person
You can even try and capture email addresses at events. Talking to people in person? Crazy idea, I know! Joking aside, combining offline and online methods is always useful. If you’re at a roadshow, networking event or something in-between then using your powers of persuasion and glittering charm to convince people to part with their email is beneficial. You can use an old, trusty pen and paper, but if you want to get more technical then there are lots of CSM systems out there that allow you to easily collect email addresses in one place, organize your addresses and send out touchpoint messages. That personal touch and face-to-face interaction can’t be captured online, so events are the perfect opportunity to get your personality across and make new friends.
[Tweet “You can even try and capture email addresses at events. via @bryankramer”]
Website
Your website anchors all of your content and is your brand’s hub. Make sure your website is optimized for email sign-ups. Link through to your offers and downloadable content and include exit intent mechanisms, so that you can incentivize your audience to sign-up or at least give them lots of options to do so. Make sure you don’t bombard them though, too many pop-ups can seem really intrusive and people will start to question your motives…or just find you super annoying.
Checkout Process
When you’re a brand that sells products through a checkout process, you can instill an ethos of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ (don’t actually ask your customers that though). When you’re close to finalizing a sale, make an email sign-up opportunity really integral to the completion process. That doesn’t mean holding your customer hostage and not letting them buy something unless they sign-up, but a pop-up page or something close to completion can do the trick.
Building your email list is essential if you want to generate more leads, drive traffic to your website and increase sales. As you can see, there are lots of different ways you can go about it and combining methods should see an improvement.
Here is a video talking about how I grew my list to 15,000 subscribers in 3 months:
