Every successful email marketing campaign begins with one crucial factor: a high-quality email list. And, if you don’t have quality subscribers, you need to get to building an email marketing list ASAP!
Building an email list is not as easy as adding a subscription opt-in at the end of your website homepage. In this day and age of a competitive digital landscape, it takes some planning and strategic implementation to start and finish an email marketing campaign. No worries—this guide has the email list building strategies you’ll need for one such campaign. Read on!
Building An Email Marketing List: Grow Email List Effectively
Since studies show that email drives an ROI of $40 for every dollar spent, you’re losing out on a classic yet tried-and-tested method of growing your customer base. Of course, first, you have to scale the challenge that is owning a top-notch email list. It can be a daunting feat—especially if you’re starting from scratch—but there are certain effective email list growth strategies you can implement.
So, how do you increase email subscribers who will bring long-term value to your business?
Use Standard Email Capture Forms
Start with the simplest methods of email marketing opt-ins—with something. As you plan website development, don’t forget the email subscription option. Furthermore, it should be more captivating without disturbing the viewer. This example by Neil Patel shows how to create brief, visually appealing email capture forms.
The email subscription offers stay out of the way, yet present and visible.
Note that the example above has a cue for email signup that’s relevant to the subject (website design) of the page. Since your visitors are on a page to learn or looking for a reason to invest in something, make sure what you’re presenting in turn for an email subscription promises to fulfill their goals.
Design Pop-Ups (With Captivating & Informative CTAs)
You’re missing out if your website’s homepage does not have a pop-up method lead generation for email marketing. Onsite targeting may be an age-old practice, but there’s no reason why you can’t use it in modern website design—making it as attractive as possible for a modern online user.
Wondering how to convert website visitors into email subscribers effortlessly? Here are a few ways to add pop-ups to your homepage that give users a reason to pause and reflect:
- Focus on design elements. Go with the website, which should cater to the target audience’s taste in the first place.
- Steer clear of the standard “Do you want to sign up?” cues. Use words that resonate with your visitor’s buying journey.
Make your pop-ups user-centric. Focus on providing solutions.
- If you want to grow your email list effectively, timing is key. Make sure your user gets a pop-up only after they’ve spent some time on the page.
- Don’t underestimate the power of exit-intent pop-ups. It’s a good strategy to keep potential buyers from slipping away and responding.
When creating pop-ups as a means of building an email marketing list, consider the statistics about the most effective pop-up trigger:
Wisepops cracks down the conversion rates for different pop-up triggers.
While on-click pop-ups are effective lead magnets for most websites, customize yours according to what you offer. For eCommerce, exit-intent pop-ups have the most potential to recover lost sales. Depending on your design and copy, you can significantly boost your email signups and improve sales.
Create Personalized CTAs That Align With Visitors’ Interests
Whether we’re talking about using blogs, landing pages, or website product categories for building an email marketing list, tailoring CTAs to fit the subject of the content shows more empathy. On the contrary, a standard CTA may feel like just another marketing ploy. According to HubSpot, CTAs tailored to visitors’ interests are a whopping 202% more effective in turning visitors into leads than standard one-for-all CTAs.
After all, visitors to your blog post or landing page are in search of particular information. It’s only smart to create relevant email marketing opt-ins for them.
Add the Element of Humor in CTA Copy
Your website visitors are so used to seeing pop-ups with offers on a daily basis that clicking on a simple ‘No’ has become an immediate reflex. When you make the effort to stand out everywhere else in your CTA copy, impart some creative effort toward the option of declining as well.
It’s hard to say no to a decline tagline like that!
Here’s a good example by Perfect Keto of a pop-up as a lead magnet done right. It doesn’t just make a captivating offer—but the option to say no comes with a cue to re-think about what you’re losing out on by not providing your email address.
Essentially, create copy that makes your viewer pause and think—is rejecting your offer really the best decision?
Go For Multiple Tailored-to-User Landing Pages
If you have the resources and time to create individual landing pages—complete with relevant CTAs—this may be one of the best ways for building an email marketing list. After all, people who are directed to your landing page are there for something specific.
Creating separate landing pages as one of the email list building strategies is ideal for targeting and email list segmentation. By tailoring the content on your landing page to specific audiences, you can increase conversions and engagement with your email list.
For example, when promoting a product category, design a landing page that directly addresses your audience’s interest in that category. Not only is this an effective strategy for building an email marketing list in general, but you can gain valuable information about your visitors, such as their location, job title, or industry, which can then be used to segment your email list effectively.
Note: For landing pages that subscribed users arrive on from an email link, don’t add a CTA for email sign-up. If you’re using the same landing pages for all users, steer clear of pop-up lead magnets.
Interact With Chats, Leading Up To Email Sign Ups
Chatbots are a practical way of engaging website visitors, and converting them into email subscribers. Here’s how: you can use your website’s automated chat option for more than just customer support—i.e. use these as lead magnets too.
By programming conversation flows to present unique offers such as discounts or notifications (such as for a product that is currently unavailable), chatbot technology helps capture subscribers’ email addresses.
Shopify Inbox is a strong example of email list growth hacks. You can use automated messages to get valuable insights and customize conversations that lead to email sign ups (with a proper in-chat CTA of sorts for consent). eCommerce website visitors are most likely to engage with brands using onsite messaging, which is why the chat-to-subscription method is not one to be missed!
Add the Email Subscription Opt-In at the Checkout Page
Looking for an easy-peasy, simple, and transparent—yet very effective—way to get your website’s visitors to sign up for email as a no-brainer option? Checkout email opt-in is a way to grow email list of both prospects and potential loyal customers—ideal for email marketing automation.
If you have ever bought anything online, you’re likely familiar with email marketing opt-ins that appear just before the confirm order or checkout button, or on the top below the email address field.
At this point in the buying journey, your visitor has most probably already liked a product or service—enough to proceed to checkout. Therefore, checkout page email opt-ins are guaranteed effective email list building strategies—and a very open and honest way of doing so!
Boost Email Subscriptions with Digital Ads
Another one of the effective email list growth hacks is combining ad campaigns with email list expansion. There are numerous ways to increase email list signups through online ads, whether it’s through search engines, social media, or other advertising platforms.
For example, you can place banner ads on YouTube videos relevant to your industry or add a downloadable guide to Google Ads that enables subscribers to get your product for free. Leverage the tools provided by different advertisement platforms to target a specific audience—such as by using targeting tools available in Google AdWords.
This way, you can tailor your offer to a specific audience and ensure that your email opt-ins target the right location, interest, and other criteria to effectively grow email list.
Use a Lead Generation Campaign on Social Media
Are you looking into ways of email list building for small businesses? Social media is your solution for how to build an email list fast. As a startup or a small business, you may not have a long list of email subscribers. Social media is usually a cost-effective way to promote your new brand, as well as employ email list building strategies without investing too much.
As long as you gain followers on social media, you can use those connections to grow your email list—like the given example of a Facebook Ad.
You can promote your email newsletter on any of your business’s social media handles. Chances are that your followers already like your content, and are willing to subscribe to your newsletter. Grab the possibility with well-designed social media email opt-ins!
Some Best Practices for Email List Building
The importance of email list quality is that you’re targeting your future email campaigns at subscribers who are most likely to engage and make a purchase. From design aspects to email list cleaning, here are some of the best practices for email list building.
Get Explicit Permission of Email Subscribers
The consent of your subscribers—whether through your website, digital ads, social media, or any other platform—is a priority not to be taken lightly. Not only is creating clear email opt-ins an ethical practice in general, but online users are now more aware of marketing tactics than ever before. Staying compliant with ethical email marketing tactics earns you the respect of your potential and active email subscribers.
Keep the Design & Copy Engaging Yet Simple
Yes, your email opt-in should be attractive, offering a viewer value in exchange for their email address. That said, keep the test short, the design uncomplicated, and the call to action (CTA) apparent and concise. Additionally, avoid asking for too much information; just the email address and perhaps the first name will suffice.
Backlinko keeps its landing page email marketing op-in transparent and to the point.
Email List Segmentation for Better Targeting
To ensure email subscriber engagement, you need a high-quality email list. And to achieve this, you need to invest time and effort to divide your list into segments. Create subscriber division according to metrics relevant to your business, such as:
- End-user or Business
- Demographics
- Interests
- Engagement Level
- Past Purchases
By segmenting your list of email subscribers, you can send personalized emails that have a higher chance of creating a connection.
Make It Simple for Subscribers to Unsubscribe
This may be a hard pill to swallow, but even the most enthusiastic subscribers may at one point want to unsubscribe from your email list. And, when that happens, allow them the freedom to do so. Therefore, make sure that the unsubscribe button is easily visible and that the unsubscribing process is simple. The importance of email list quality—which means having willing subscribers—is that you can actually improve your email marketing strategies down the line.
Practice Consistent Email List Management
Aim for real, current, and accurate listing for email marketing. Stay away from purchasing emails—as bots and abandoned emails grow your subscriber list without engagement and conversions. When you invest in an email campaign dedicated to lead generation for email marketing, the last thing you want is a high bounce rate. Update your list using email list cleaning tools to remove inactive and invalid emails.
Note: For new subscriptions, use the confirmation forms to ensure the validity of email addresses before adding them to your email list.
In addition to these best practices of email list building, focus on consistent growth. If you see quality email subscriptions dwindling down, revisit your email list building methods. A new digital marketing campaign for lead generation is also a way to efficiently build an email list.
Build A Valuable Email Subscriber List With Our Help!
Nothing beats having the expertise of seasoned email marketing professionals at your disposal for building an email marketing list!
Urban Software is here to provide any email solution—including building an email list from scratch. Contact us now at +15595540082 / +971527174508 or email us at info@urbansoftware.tech to schedule a free email marketing consultation today!
