As a business professional, you already know the importance of email marketing and it’s revenue-driving potential. Building an ever-growing list of loyal email subscribers is key to any company’s success. But where do you begin?
To get some answers and insight on tried-and-true methods for growing an email list, we sought out a one-on-one interview with someone who has made a living from growing their email list. Trevor Page, the CEO behind Java Video Tutorials, spent years figuring out tactics and strategies to grow his email list. Through trial and error, along with an attitude of constant dedication to experimentation, Trevor scaled his email lists from a few signups to thousands, within a span of months. Take some of the insight we uncovered and apply it to your own business.
Read on for the eight most-successful methods we uncovered for growing your email list.
- Dangle a carrot
- Don’t shy away from pop-ups
- Create an engaging auto-response series
- Run tests
- Be direct
- Integrate social sharing
- Build and foster a relationship
- Pay attention to the details, remove room for error
…And make sure it’s enticing. Potential subscribers need a good reason to sign up for your email list. Trevor suggests giving away exclusive tools that your audience will find useful. For him, that means a free email course in Java programming. The promise of instantly receiving something valuable will hook your audience and undoubtedly increase your conversion.
Plain and simple, pop-ups work. When Trevor added an e-mail sign-up lightbox to his homepage (one that incentivized opting-in) his conversation rate grew from 2% of all traffic, to 7%. But he didn’t stop there. After adding in another exit intent pop-up, Trevor watched 10% of all traffic opt-in to his free email course, and thus enter the sales funnel.
The lesson here: consider using pop-ups at different landing points throughout your site. You don’t want your pop-ups to feel overwhelming, but it’s important to capitalize on the UX opportunities that have the potential to persuade your visitors.
The hard part’s not over yet. Once you’ve obtained an email address, your new challenge will be keeping subscribers interested in your product. With a high-quality autoresponder series, you can do just that. By delivering content that is well-branded, straightforward, and chock full of solutions for your customer, you can continue to optimize your engagement rates.
STOP: Remove errors in your email campaign through MyCrowd Email Testing.
So you’ve added a pop-up to your homepage, and now your conversion rate is booming. Great — but don’t stop there. Never be satisfied with your current conversion rates. Run split tests with your pop-ups to capitalize on what works, and improve upon what doesn’t. Try out different copy and design to see what resonates best with your audience — you might just be surprised at what you find.
When a prospective customer lands on your homepage, it’s your job to funnel them toward a specific action. Don’t confuse them with too many choices. If your goal is to gain an email subscriber, don’t try to make a sale, too.
By offering his visitors only one call-to-action (signing up for a free email course) Page watched his conversion rate increase by nearly 25%. Keep your pages focused, you can’t do everything at once, nor should you try to.
If you’re producing quality, expert content, people will want to share it. Social sharing within email is becoming very popular, and is highly effective in growing your audience, reaching your demographics, and positioning your product as an expert resource. Most email management platforms already have share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn built in and ready to utilize.
Growing an email list is only one part of the email marketing equation. From the moment you capture your first email address, you must continue to build and foster a relationship with the person on the other end. Learn to think like your customers and make a commitment to provide them with exceptional tools, content, and solutions every time you hit send.
The moment you hit send, you are putting your brand front and center to the masses. Unfortunately this can also place you front and center for criticism. If your list sees errors or poor spelling, you are going to lose their trust fast! Literally there is nothing worse than sending out a broken link, only to see the metrics you lost in click throughs because the link did not work. A good way to correct this is through a tool like MyCrowd’s Email QA. Taking a small extra step ensures the investment you made in building your list is not jeopardized.
So, there you have it. Use these methods to build an email list from scratch, or grow your current base. By delivering exceptional content and engaging your audience, you’ll gain a loyal following and will reap the benefits of a successful email marketing program.
