Let’s talk about effective strategies to build email lists! Building an email list can be a valuable asset for businesses and organizations to engage with audiences, generate leads, and drive conversions. The best way to build lists is by offering something for those emails. You probably already have a list of customer emails at this point. First thing to do is to reach out to your existing customer database and see if those emails have given consent to use them for marketing purposes. If you’re unsure then a simple email to them to confirm if you can do so will go a long way to ensure your domain is not blacklisted and therefore unable to send anything at all. Yes some will email back with a rage letter, but you will know you have a safe list to start with.
Note: Using a reputable email service provider (ESP) like critical impact that complies with industry standards and has a good reputation have built-in measures to prevent spam and maintain delivery rates. And don’t buy or scrape email addresses – this is not recommended as it can lead to spam complaints.
Now how to build upon that list? Lets look at some effective strategies to help you build a new or upon your existing email list:
Optimize landing pages
Create dedicated landing pages with persuasive copy and strong call-to-action buttons to encourage visitors to subscribe. Ensure your landing pages are visually appealing, optimized for mobile devices, and load quickly.
Create valuable content
What to offer on those landing pages? Offer valuable content such as ebooks, white-papers, guides, infographics, reports, templates or exclusive resources that your target audience would find useful. Require visitors to provide their email addresses in exchange for access to the content. This is also referred to as gated content – content that can only be accessed after users provide their email addresses. Gated content is something you can narrow down include premium articles, videos, or case studies that are only available to subscribers.
Short on resources or content? While you are building your content pool, try to re-purpose existing content in your campaigns. Most importantly know that what ever content you use, it should be an offer that is on target with your brand, and is ever-green. Meaning it is still going to be relevant in a year or two, or you are risking damage to your trust factor here.
Run contests or giveaways
Host contests or giveaways where participants can enter by submitting their email addresses. Promote the contest on your website and social media channels to attract participants and grow your email list. Do this by sending them to the contest page with allowance of express intent of using their email and also ensure you have the legal copy of the campaign rules available to read.
Guest blogging
Contribute guest posts to reputable blogs in your industry. Include a call-to-action within your author bio or within the content itself to encourage readers to join your email list for more valuable content. Don’t forget to ask readers to sign up to be notified of new blog entries and frame the conversation around benefits of doing so.
Social media
Leverage your social media presence to drive email sign-ups. Create engaging posts, share snippets of your content, and direct followers to your website’s opt-in forms or landing pages.
Referral programs:
Implement a referral program where existing subscribers can earn rewards or incentives for referring new subscribers. This can help amplify your reach and grow your email list through word-of-mouth. Referral programs have proven time and again to be a great way to build sales, strengthen relationships with clients and expand your lists.
Email signature
It may sound simple, but not a lot of signatures include a subscription link to your newsletter. Including one provides an easy way for recipients to opt-in to your email list if they find value in your communication. If your site like ours has a way to sign up in the footer or elsewhere in the global site wide navigation, you can make a page specifically for that purpose but not have it in your navigation as it might seem redundant to visitors. Here is a link to ours to see what I mean.
Don’t forget to maintain your list!
Remove inactive or bouncing email addresses from your list. Sending emails to inactive or non-existent addresses can increase your bounce rate and harm your sender reputation. Use email list cleaning services or tools to identify and remove invalid addresses.
Remember, building an email list is an ongoing process. Consistently provide value to your subscribers, segment your list for targeted campaigns, and comply with applicable data protection laws, such as CASL, GDPR or CAN-SPAM Act, to maintain a healthy and engaged email list.
Until next time, keep those emails rolling!
– Jim
Jim Gibbs, Senior Account Executive at Critical Impact
Jim is Critical Impact’s Growth Channel team lead and has been selling and closing for a long time and is known to be able to sell bananas to monkeys.