7 Clever Ways To Grow Your Email List Right Now
By Marin Holmes
If you’re selling a product or service, growing your email list is one of the best things you can do for your business. That’s because over 4 billion people worldwide currently use email — and that number is expected to only keep growing1.
This presents a practically infinite audience of potential customers.
Emails are an affordable and effective tool for getting customers to take a desired action. According to Litmus.com, email marketing has a return on investment of $36 for every $1 spent. It’s one of the most profitable forms of copy.2
This is because almost everyone reads their email, and when people are reading your email, you have their (almost) undivided attention. The marketing Rule of 7 says that people need to interact with a product about 7 times before they will buy it.3
The Rule of 7 makes email marketing a natural choice for all or part of those interactions, especially when you consider that most email welcome sequences are made up of 5 or more emails and some companies choose to do daily or weekly emails.
How to Actually Grow Your Email List
Now that you know why emails are so good at getting customers to take a desired action, let’s talk about how to grow your email list.
Here are 7 ideas for things you can do to get more people to sign up for emails, so you can grow your email list and your company.
(1) Lead Magnets
It’s important to put together something valuable that both appeals to your readers and that you can give away for free — “free” being the magic word. This will encourage leads to interact with you and provide you with their email address, as they’ll be receiving something in return.
This freebie takes advantage of peoples’ need to reciprocate. When you give someone something for free they will feel obligated to do something for you. If you provide them with a lead magnet they will give you their email more freely.
The lead magnet, or opt-in, doesn’t need to be complicated at all. It just needs to be something that your audience will love and something that is relevant to them. Examples of lead magnets include:
- E-books
- Recipes
- Charts
- PDFs
- Discount codes
- Special items only available when they give you their email
- Webinars
- Journaling prompts
Once they fill in their email details the offer is emailed directly to them. They get something and you get something. Everybody is happy.
(2) Pop-Up Forms
Still wondering how to grow your email list? Consider featuring a pop-up that asks visitors to your website to fill in their email as soon as they land on your site. The pop-up feature will capture users’ attention as soon as they get to your site while they’re at peak curiosity about what you have to offer.
This sign-up form could lead to a landing page or you could send them an opt-in as a follow-up.
Make sure to keep your forms short and only ask for the absolutely necessary information from people. You only need their name and email address; most folks won’t want to give you more info than that anyway.
This would be the ideal spot to tell visitors that their email can be exchanged for a sweet discount code or some other opt-in or incentive.
You could also make your pop-up form appear when visitors are about to exit your site to capture their email before they leave.
(3) Contests
If you’re selling a product, offer one for free to the winner. If you offer a service or a course, the prize should be something like a free session with you or a free membership to your courses.
There’s that concept of reciprocity again; they give you their email in exchange for the chance to win something for free.
(4) Banner on Website
Your banner could say something like, “Click here to join our email list and be entered to win a free training session with me!” Keep it relevant and make it exciting to visitors.
Be sure to make it noticeable but check that it isn’t so obtrusive that it’s blocking your content. After all, you want your message to still shine and remain within focus. This banner should lead to your sign-up form or a landing page — don’t forget to include a clear call to action (CTA) as well, so your clients know exactly what step to take next.
(5) Call to Action (CTA) for Blogs
You could tempt them with an exciting story, the rest of which they will get once they sign up, or a discount code. You could even provide another lead magnet that’s appropriate for your audience.
This applies to guest blogs too! Don’t forget to lead readers back to your site where they can sign up to join your email list.
(6) Social Media
If you have a social media presence make sure to leverage it by encouraging your followers to sign up for more information. But how do you leverage social media to grow your email list?
Social media is an excellent place to offer discounts, contests, or giveaways. Followers will share your social media account with others and you end up quickly picking up more email addresses for your list.
Perhaps you offer a discount code at certain times of the year, or seasonally — the point is to make it engaging and fun, so people will want to be a part of it
According to Rafflepress.com, 94% of users will immediately share a giveaway after entering.4 That is top-notch publicity you can’t afford to pass up, my friend.
(7) Virtual or In-Person Events
Don’t forget to include a paper or digital sign-up form for in-person happenings too because it’ll also help grow your email list.
Leave a sign-in sheet for in-person events like meetings, conferences, or shows that’ll capture names and email addresses in exchange for a freebie or giveaway.
Consider offering live or pre-recorded online webinars or trainings where visitors must provide their email credentials in order to register for the event.
If you’re selling a product, you could make a video about the best ways to use or care for your product. If you offer a service or course you could film a mini-course or a demonstration of your service in exchange for potential customers giving you their email addresses, of course.
How to Grow Your Email List: Putting It All Together
Now that you have some ideas for how to grow your email list, it’s the perfect time to get started on leveraging this valuable resource.
Whether you choose to try one of the suggestions mentioned or all of them, getting started with improving your marketing game is really important for the health of your business.
Email marketing takes some effort but provides a large reward. Your audience is almost limitless and there are many methods to grow your list. Your product and message deserve to be shared, so let’s get the ball rolling.
But if the thought of writing your own email marketing scares you away from trying, leave it to a professional to work out the kinks for you.
If you’re looking to add awesome email marketing to your website, blog, or social media account, reach out here or sign up for our newsletter and get a free e-book on the 5 best copywriting strategies for your business.
References:
- Oberlo, How Many People Use Email. https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-many-people-use-email Accessed January 29, 2023.
- Litmus Resource Center, Email Marketing ROI: What leads to better returns? https://www.litmus.com/resources/email-marketing-roi/ Accessed January 29, 2023.
- Forbes, Marketing Frameworks To Help You Get More Patients. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/07/06/marketing-frameworks-to-help-you-get-more-patients/sh=7bbe90d32d1e Accessed January 31, 2023.
- Rafflepress, Do Giveaways Increase Sales? (10 Benefits & Bonus Case Study) https://rafflepress.com/do-giveaways-increase-sales/ Accessed January 31, 2023.
