No one gives out their email address to just anyone these days. We're all bombarded with emails: emails we signed up for, emails we received because we forgot to check (or unchecked) a checkbox on a form, or emails we were sure we received. It has been. I never have I have registered.
This makes it difficult to build and grow your subscriber list. However, for a successful email marketing campaign to reach people who are actually interested in your business, this is very important. According to Optinmonster.com, the numbers speak for themselves.
- 99% of people in the United States check their email every day.
- Some people check their email 20 times a day.
Email open rates generally continue to increase as well.
Email open rate benchmarks by year from 2006 to 2020.Image source: Author
It's not easy, but it's also not rocket science. We provide reliable tips to help you understand how to collect maximum customer details and take pride of place in your recipient's inbox.
Summary: Best tips for growing your email list
- Use your own network
- Optimize your subscription form
- encourage sign up
- add share button
- Use paid advertising and social media
What is the email list used for?
Despite the continued popularity of social media apps, email marketing remains a very useful channel for reaching customers. In fact, according to Wordstream.com, more than half of marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.
Whether you want to increase brand awareness and gain brand fans through sending regular email newsletters, announcing sales, recommending products, sending abandoned cart reminders, and more, email marketing can help your business in many ways. We provide Generate leads during the sales process.
Think of it like this: If you run a pet store, you won't make a lot of money by sending email newsletters to people with animal allergies.
Take the time to think about how you can capture details about the people who are likely to buy your products or services now or in the future.
Where do companies get their email lists?
There are two main ways a business can acquire an email list.
- Buy from third-party sellers
- Build your own from scratch
It's tempting to buy customer data because it's so quick and easy to launch an email marketing campaign, but don't think about it.
1. Buy an email list
You know those emails that promise you $1 million in your bank account just by submitting your account number? We all (probably) already know they can't be trusted. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The same applies to anyone trying to sell a ready-made email list. You might think, “That's amazing.” “Now you don't have to spend time building your own email list and can start email marketing right away.” Some even promise free email lists.
But not so fast.
Not only might it violate the law (this is a bit of a gray area, but since you haven't obtained explicit consent from the recipient, it could violate the US CAN-SPAM Act or the EU's GDPR). ), but the possibility of that happening is also low. to get the results you're looking for.
Put yourself in your customer's shoes.
What do you do if you receive an email from a company you've never heard of? At best, delete it. In the worst case scenario, it will be marked as spam. Either way, it's a bad idea to send emails to people who haven't requested to receive them from your brand.
2. Create an email list
Generate better leads and convert by building and growing a list of people who have opted in to receive emails because they want to hear from you and have a genuine interest in your brand. rate can be improved.
You'll also get more relevant details, such as your customers' preferred products and communication preferences, so you can segment them and send targeted emails. Most companies that sell email lists only provide basic demographic information such as age and location.
How to successfully grow your organic email list
There are many ways to take your email list from just moms and postmen to include more people who might be interested in your story and ultimately buy your product.
1. Use your own network
Even if you don't have a single name on your email list right now, there are probably at least 10 people in your network who are interested in receiving your newsletter.
However, please don't send an email without asking first.
Kent Lewis, president and founder of digital marketing agency Anvil Media, explains:
Send an email to contacts in your network asking for permission to be added to your email newsletter list. Records of securing permits must be maintained for compliance purposes.
2. Optimize your subscription form
Nicole Rohde, international PR manager for luxury fashion brand Maxwell-Scott, explains:
We've optimized our homepage to make it easier for people to join our mailing list. Implemented a persistent signup field at the bottom of each page. In addition to that, I created a newsletter signup popup on my website that triggers after 60 seconds.
According to Corey Trojanowski, director of digital strategy at marketing agency Valve+Meter, it's important to keep forms simple and quick to fill out.
Ask only for what you need…people think this way. 'good, You need all of this demographic information in advance to create a segmented list. ” it's not. If a company wants to build segments and highly personalize their email marketing, there are ways to pull information from users based on their behavior and what they read or see on their website.
3. Encourage sign-ups
There's no such thing as a free lunch, and we don't usually give out our contact details for free. You have to incentivize them and provide them with value. This could be in the form of an e-book, a webinar, or a contest.
Jamie Burns, vice president of sales and co-owner of online sporting goods retailer BulkMunitions, explains the company's strategy.
One of the best ways to accomplish this is through email marketing partnerships with other complementary businesses. This can be done through co-sponsoring a giveaway or simply sponsoring a newsletter send.
4. Add a share button
Word of mouth marketing drives results because people are 90% more likely to trust and buy a brand recommended to them by a friend. And what better way to grow your email list than by asking your current (happy) subscribers to share your newsletter with their friends and family?
5. Use paid advertising and social media
Just as no human being is an island, no marketing channel should exist in isolation. Email newsletters should be part of an omnichannel marketing strategy where all channels work together to bring in more business.
With paid advertising and social media, you can not only share your newsletter, but also direct people to a sign-up form or landing page where you can capture customer details. And since these people have already expressed an interest in your company, they are highly valuable leads and subscribers.
How to manage and leverage your new email list
Less is definitely more when it comes to email list management. Building a list doesn't mean collecting as many email addresses as possible.
Carsten Schaefer, founder and CEO of social proof platform crowdy.ai, recommends regularly cleaning up your list by removing subscribers who don't open your emails or click on links. I am.
Be sure to delete these accounts about once every six months. Your email marketing service provider's bills will be lower, and you'll also see higher click-through and open rates.
Email marketing software like Aweber or SendPulse can provide the reporting and analysis features you need. Take Mailchimp for example. These help you understand who is opening and accessing your emails and who is inactive.
Mailchimp dashboard to view analytics for your email campaigns.Image source: Author
Once you have that information, you can set up a winback campaign to reach those recipients again. If that doesn't work, remove it from the list.
As your list grows, you can start creating segments based on past interactions and demographic information. This allows you to send more relevant and personalized emails, increasing click-through rates and conversion rates.
Doing this manually is a tedious task. Most email marketing services (like the Constant Contact example below) come with segmentation features that allow you to create segments based on predefined characteristics with one click.
Constant Contact allows users to segment lists by various characteristics.Image source: Author
Dynamic segmentation takes this a step further by adding and removing users from segments as they start or no longer meet criteria.
For example, if someone hasn't engaged with your brand for three months, they'll automatically be added to your winback campaign segment. If you start engaging again, it will be removed from that list.
Success is delivering real value
There are no shortcuts when it comes to building an email list from scratch. It takes time and patience.
Still, five people who are interested in listening are better than 1,000 who don't care. It's all about quality over quantity.
Once someone joins your list, the hard work continues because you need to value them to keep them interested. You only have one chance to make a first impression.
That's why you need to be helpful and helpful by sending relevant content, personalizing your emails, and taking the time to perfect your copywriting and design.
