Email List Building, a How To Guide

While some business owners may see email marketing as outdated or ineffective, the truth is that it still remains one of the most powerful, and flexible tools at your disposal. That is, when it’s used correctly.

The question is, how do you get started? How do you build that email list so you can leverage email marketing to its potential? Don’t worry, by the end of the post, you’ll know a whole bunch of ways to get people to click that “Sign Up” button on your site. Let’s get started!

1. Offer Incentives

This may seem like a no-brainer, but the key is to offer the right incentives. Whatever you’re offering, make sure it solves a problem your visitors have. This is where knowing your audience comes into play, you need to know what issues they’re having in order to truly help them. What is it that they came to your site for? What knowledge or resources do you have that you’re willing to provide to customers?

So, here’s one example of a useful incentive: Imagine I’m searching the web for the best deals on auto parts, that way I can fix something on my car. If I end up on a landing page that is offering a weekly list of part coupons in exchange for my email address, I would gladly fill it out because hey, I’m looking for “deals” on parts already.

What about if they offered a do-it-yourself guide on fixing that particular part I needed, would I enter my email then? You bet I would! Why? Because the benefits received far outweigh any reluctance to offering an email address.

These types of incentives are commonly called “lead magnets” in the marketing world. Lead magnets are included in our article on generating more leads, click here to check that out.

2. Run a Contest, Giveaway or Sweepstakes

I would categorize this in the “incentive” category, but it’s worth mentioning. This is a common method to gather more interest in your company, however many don’t take the opportunity to request their contestant’s email address during the sign-up process. These customers are already willing to interact with your business and are likely to be interested in receiving more emails from you.

It might seem odd, but the placement of your form can drastically change the amount of signups you receive. Obviously, if people can’t find your newsletter signup, nor even have knowledge of it to go looking for it, then they definitely won’t be signing up.

Move that form so that it’s noticeable! Some common locations for email list signups include: top of the sidebar, top of header, immediately after a post, in the footer, or in a pop-up box.

Once you’ve placed the form, keep track of how many people sign-up and if it’s performing poorly, move it to another location. Another idea is to look into A/B testing, this would allow you to test multiple locations simultaneously and find the most successful location.

4. Remind visitors of the benefits they receive

Don’t be shy in proclaiming the benefits that come with being on your email list,. If customers are unaware of the perks you offer, why would they be interested in giving you their contact information? Ideally, these benefits would be listed close to the sign-up form location so there’s no confusion.

On the same note, another good idea is to move away from the standard “Sign Up” text that is found on the majority of email list forms. Using more descriptive words on your Call to Action will tell customers exactly what they will receive when they sign up. For example instead of “Sign Up” it could read “Get your Free E-Book”, resulting in higher conversions.

If you’re not sure what social proof is, we’ve got a whole article on the topic here. Feel free to check out that article and then come back to find out how to use it for email lists.

The most effective type of social proof is the testimonial. Anytime you can get a customer to spread the word about your service, it’s a good day. It’s even better if that statement can be reused to incentivize new customers to following your brand. “Word of mouth” never went away, it’s just as strong as it ever was!

When it comes to building your list, we’ve only just scratched the surface today! There are so many factors that go into a successful email list building campaign, but these should give you a great starting point.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye out for more tips, strategies and knowledge from the email marketing, e-commerce and web design world.