Building and Growing Your Email List

Email list building is the basis of successful email marketing. When you have an engaged email list, it makes it easier to promote and expand your business. However, when your email list is of poor quality, you will only see increasing bounce rates and dismal returns on investment.

In this article, we’ll cover how to create an effective email list from scratch. However, this is not just any list. We’ll also look at new subscriber engagement who will participate in your email marketing campaigns and help your business develop.

Building a high-quality email list is the foundation of successful email marketing. By focusing on Personalizing Your Email Marketing and Leveraging Mobile-Friendly Email Design, you can effectively engage subscribers and drive real results for your business.

What Is An Email List?

An email list is a collection of addresses that a business possesses because customers have provided their email addresses and agreed to receive material and updates about your company via email. Email lists, also known as subscriber lists, can shrink when members unsubscribe while growing as you collect new and more addresses through lead creation.

If you haven’t started expanding your email list yet or have run out of ideas, here are 16 simple methods to do so. Please keep in mind that with these approaches, customers must opt-in to receive additional emails from your company, as some may not be interested.

Why Is Email List Building Important?

To compete, you must have a decent email list, as most marketers utilize them. With email addresses, you can segment your audiences and provide unique experiences that make your prospects feel special. A simple approach to achieve this is to include your subscriber’s name in the subject line, as well as content relevant to their preferences.

So, if your email list building can engage subscribers, how can you keep them coming back for more? Please repeat after us: connection, connection, and connection. Personalization is truly the magic of email lists, and the value of tailoring each message to an individual cannot be emphasized enough.

Consider the last time you purchased something you truly enjoyed. What came next? I hope you received future emails that were thoughtful, sent at a reasonable frequency, and contained information that was useful to you. Emails that constantly provide value build long-lasting relationships.

You have the advantage of first-party data with email lists because it comes straight from your clients, who have given their permission for you to use it. It provides you with access to data such as shopping preferences, demographics, and browsing behaviors.

When you have access to a subscriber’s past purchases, you may tweak content and provide more targeted messages. Using first-party interactions from email lists is an excellent approach to gain insights, personalize messaging, and develop relationships. The better the first-party data, the more precisely you may identify your audience segments.

16 Effective Ways For Email List Building Quickly

1. Select A Trustworthy Email Marketing Platform

The first step in creating an email list as part of your email campaign strategy is to choose an email marketing platform. Initially, sending primary email campaigns and managing your first contacts may be possible using systems such as Gmail and Outlook.

However, in order to successfully manage and organize your increasing email list and execute automated email campaigns, you will require a dependable email marketing solution. So, you need a platform that allows you to expand and rely on its features to send interesting emails.

Investing in a robust email marketing platform will allow you to save valuable time while establishing your email list from zero and profiting from its full potential immediately.

2. Share Your Email List On Social Media

Promote signups on social media to get the finest list-building results. This stage is critical if your clients are already engaged with your brand on social media.

Meet with your social media team to explore how best to market your email list building across all channels. Consider including signup forms in your Twitter profile or Facebook About page. You may also post updates to encourage people to join your list or promote it with targeted advertising.

Consider encouraging your employees to promote signups on social media. Sharing a gated asset on LinkedIn, for example, can generate a lot of traction. Collaborate with the appropriate internal teams to empower them to be social media ambassadors.

3. Create An Opt-In Form For Your Blog

Content marketing is essential for list growth; therefore, push email signups in that place to attract subscribers. Many individuals will sign up for your mailing list because they already enjoy your blog content and want to see more of it.

Place an opt-in box prominently on your blog and landing sites, along with a concise and persuasive argument for why visitors should join. Share the types of information they will receive and how frequently they will hear from you. You may also incorporate calls to action within the blog post to increase email subscriber growth.

4. Gate Your Top Content

The best things in life are indeed free, except when it comes to excellent content. Keeping your outstanding content visible—on your YouTube channel, Instagram, and blog—is fantastic for top-of-funnel interaction, but it will not drive middle-of-funnel growth.

Having high organic interaction with a small email list is a fantastic problem. It simply means that you need to start gating (or putting forms in front of) your best content. That case study you worked on for hours? Don’t just add it to your website.

What about that detailed how-to video you posted on your YouTube channel? Offer it only to email subscribers, and promote it on some of your other videos that require less time and effort to develop.

There are numerous ways to accomplish this, but the premise remains the same: genuinely exceptional material is challenging to come by. If you’ve invested the time and energy to construct it, make sure you use it to expand your email list. 

5. Create Excellent Landing Pages

If you genuinely want users to do the desired action (in this case, join your mailing list), you must exert some control over them. Driving traffic to your homepage or product page and hoping to collect their contact information isn’t enough. To maximize conversion rates, you must continuously create and split-test meaningful, sticky landing pages.

What exactly do I mean by “sticky?” Sticky doesn’t imply that there’s nothing else for a user to do after they arrive at your landing page; it simply indicates that filling out your form will be the most appealing/logical option.

Simply getting a user to a more specific landing page is a terrific start. However, you want to make it as difficult as possible for that individual to exit the website without performing the appropriate action.

We like how simple this lander is. We have the following components here:

• The headline
• A sub-headline
• A form containing a call to action
• Two links for other prospects (renters and riders)

If you are a driver rather than a renter or rider, you have only two options here: exit the page or fill out the form. Uber has even removed the top-level site navigation from this page, which is another method that I enjoy using to increase conversion rates.

6. Offer People Incentives To Sign Up

After you’ve decided on an email marketing platform, you’ll need to set up a method for collecting emails on your website. But first, you must be able to convince them to join up, which means giving them a cause to provide you with their email address.

Naturally, individuals would not give you their email addresses for anything. So, designing a simple email registration form that says, “Sign up to our email list to receive our latest great content” is likely to result in low conversion rates.

One of the most effective ways to get someone’s email address is to design a lead magnet that encourages them to join up. Several concepts include:

• A free e-book.
• A checklist detailing the stages from a blog post.
• A PDF version of a case study or blog post.
• A cheat sheet.
• A coupon.
• A webinar registration
• A template or worksheet.
• Free course or email series

All of these freebies incentivize visitors to join up with their email addresses. You may develop effective lead magnets based on your target demographic and their demands.

However, you’ll find that combining these several concepts produces the finest outcomes. Furthermore, when your marketing plan grows, content upgrades (an extra piece of content tailored to a particular blog article) will provide the best results.

The estimated percentage of new members ranges from 25% to 50%, depending on how big the incentive!

7. Create Pop-Ups For Your Website

Pop-ups may be known for being obnoxious and disruptive, but if they are correctly designed and serve a clear purpose, they can be a game changer in list development. One critical suggestion I can give you right away is to consider user experience while building pop-up forms. This will ensure that your pop-ups are relevant and timely.

There are various ways to use pop-ups. For example, you can design a “surprise” pop-up box that shows after the user has spent some time on the website or has scrolled and interacted with it. This could include a discount on their first purchase, for example.

In general, marketers must make their pop-ups enjoyable by including high-quality content and irresistible incentives like freebies, promo codes, and so on. Various online form-builder tools are available to assist you in creating stunning forms that appear to be professionally designed!

8. Reach Out To Your Contacts Manually

Reaching out to your acquaintances is another way to grow your email list building. Your contact list is likely to include a few people who might be interested in signing up. Send them an email informing them that you are starting an email list and explaining why signing up will benefit them.

You can also encourage them to spread the word among their contact list. If you have a user base for your product but no email list to promote content, you can do the same. Reach out to your users and ask if they want to receive emails about your latest and greatest content.

9. Host A Giveaway

Giveaways are yet another effective strategy that most e-commerce shops use today to gain new email subscribers. The reason for their effectiveness is that knowledge of the offer spreads quickly, allowing you to acquire a large number of email addresses in a short amount of time.

This is especially true when you use social media outlets like Facebook or Instagram, which are not only popular but also cost-effective for advertising. One crucial rule to follow when creating your giveaway is that the item you’re giving away must be relevant and properly aimed at your intended audience.

This way, you’re not merely adding more subscribers to your email list. You’re acquiring qualified leads, which are critical to your organization’s success. For example, if your target group is interested in technology, your giveaway should include a related prize rather than, say, a car.

Other giveaway tools or WordPress plugins to build fantastic giveaways are Rafflecopter and Woobox. FindKeepLove is another approach to running sweepstakes.

FindKeep.Love is a full-service sweepstake facilitation solution offered in collaboration with FindKeep.Love increases the traffic and reach of your campaign, which is a crucial differentiator from other sweepstakes email marketing software on the market.

Last but not least, gifts offer the added advantage of raising brand awareness. There’s nothing wrong with attracting new potential consumers while also building your list.

10. Use A Scroll Box

It is critical to present a call to action to your audience at the appropriate time. This is why scroll boxes are essential for lead generation. Depending on the page’s content, a popup that appears when website visitors reach a given point can be a subtle but efficient technique for acquiring their email address.

It all boils down to predicting when users will be ready to convert. Business owners can identify the “right time” by doing A/B testing based on visitor on-page behavior.

11. Encourage Signups Using Your Email Signature

Another effective way to increase the size of your email list building is to put a newsletter signup link in your signature. It involves no effort, is simple to set up, and is ideal for building your list from scratch.

Consider this: You and the rest of the company’s employees email to a variety of people every day. Including a signup link in your email signature allows visitors to learn more about your organization.

Of course, if those exchanges are beneficial and fruitful, the emails sent will likely attract more new subscribers.

12. Combine List Building With Offline Methods

Pop-ups, sidebars, and landing pages all function well. But it would be a waste not to use the numerous offline methods to expand your list. First and foremost, if you have a physical store, be sure to keep your business cards on the counter or booth.

Encourage individuals to leave their business cards for an easy email signup process. However, this means you’ll have to complete the job manually and send a double opt-in email later.

Finally, if you’re attending events or fairs, make sure you have a registration list with a box for email addresses so you can collect them.

13. Create Extra Bonus Content

Not all gated content is valuable to a website visitor. To attract their interest, you may need to provide them with free content first. You can start with a blog article that provides essential advice on a topic and then offer additional bonus content with more advanced recommendations that readers can access by entering their email address on a landing page.

14. Segment Your Email List

Email list segmentation allows you to send more focused and tailored emails, hence increasing and analyzing your email marketing performance.

Here’s why segmenting needs to be on your to-do list:

• Enhanced relevance. Content that is more relevant to a specific audience enhances engagement. 88% of people are more inclined to respond to an email that looks to be written explicitly for them.
• Tailor your messages to each segment’s requirements and interests.
• Fewer unsubscribes. Subscribers are less likely to unsubscribe when they receive content that interests them.
• Higher ROI. Hyper-targeting with effective email segmentation strategies can boost revenue by up to 760% and improve the return on investment for your marketing initiatives.

15. Maintaining List Hygiene and Compliance

If you’re serious about email marketing, keep your email list up to date. Consider this an insurance policy that guarantees the most significant results and protects you from unwanted problems.

Following GDPR, CCNA, and other anti-spam and privacy protection regulations, maintaining a clean list is no longer a ‘good-to-follow’ strategy. You are legally required to follow the rules when protecting subscriber information and using email marketing tools.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Clean up your list. Spend time cleaning up your email list by deleting inactive subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails in a specific period, such as six months or a year. This improves your open and click-through rates and ensures your content reaches genuinely interested individuals.
• Remove all invalid contacts. Correct or eliminate erroneous email addresses to lower bounce rates and safeguard your sender’s reputation.
• Use double-opt-ins. A double opt-in list requires subscribers to validate their email addresses after signing up. This serves as evidence of explicit consent, which is critical for compliance with rules such as GDPR;
• Make unsubscribing easy. Every email should have an easy-to-identify and utilize unsubscribe link. Clear and straightforward unsubscribe processes respect user preferences and abide by anti-spam rules.
• Stay informed about regulations. Familiarize yourself with email marketing restrictions specific to your audience’s location. You should comply with acquiring appropriate consent, providing clear sender information, and preserving user data privacy.
• Separate your list into segments. Segment your list depending on subscriber activity, preferences, and demographics to deliver more tailored and relevant information. This not only increases interaction but also minimizes the likelihood that readers will lose interest and designate your emails as spam.

16. Create Engaging Calls To Action (CTAs)

Your call to action (CTA) is one of the most important aspects of turning website visitors into email subscribers. CTAs should be appealing and action-oriented, encouraging users to join your mailing list.

Avoid using general phrases like “Sign up for updates.” Instead, use targeted and benefit-driven CTAs like “Get Exclusive Tips,” “Download Our Free Report,” or “Join Our Community of Industry Experts.”

Try different CTA positions and designs. A minor change in button color or CTA language can have a significant influence on conversion rates.

Start Your Email List Building Today!

By following these best practices for email list building and email subscriber growth, you will build an email list of people who want to read your emails. It is equally crucial to retain your subscribers and consumers as you grow your list.

Find ways to reward your subscribers for their commitment and ensure that each email you send is relevant and worthwhile. To keep your email list strong, you must maintain recipients’ attention and confidence with each message you send.