How to Grow Your Email List

Over the next 5 weeks, we’re going to release articles trough our blog packed with the latest tips, strategies & tools to help you take your email marketing to the next level!

What will you learn?

How to gather emails and build a database
Choosing the right email marketing platform & set it up correctly
Using email templates vs built-in WYSIWYG editing
Develop an Email Marketing Strategy: Covering things like split-Testing, the ideal time to send emails, subject lines & more
Sending, measuring & improving campaigns
Marketing automation

First of all, I’d like to point something out: Effective email marketing is hard work, and furthermore, it’s an ongoing process that never really stops.

Even if you have delivered great sales through previous email campaigns, over time your database will inevitably wither due to factors beyond your control – such as changing of emails, jobs, interests and more often than not, people just get tired of marketing material in general.

Therefore it’s really important that you’re constantly changing your tactics when collecting emails & building your database.

Lastly, before we deep dive, it’s important to measure how many sign-ups you get monthly basis, if only to ensure you’re maximising your efforts.

Growing your database online

The most obvious method of growing your database is through your website. It’s important you make it as easy as possible for website users to sign up – so the less clicks & text fields required the better.

Here are some handy tips to help you do this:

Make sure the top of the page has a “Subscribe” button that links to a web form that captures emails
In the footer, embed a form to capture the email address too
Create a pop-up form (also known as a light box) on your page

Website Pop-ups

For a user, website pop-ups can get quite annoying; and more often than not users close them without taking action.

However, the statistics show they do work!

If you deliver the right message to the right person, you’ll grab their attention & they will sign up.

The key is to ensure the pop-up only appears after the user as visited more than one page (we recommend at least two) or they have spent at least 30 seconds browsing the site.

If using WordPress, there are great tools out there to help you easily add a popup to your website:

Growing your database through social media

If you have built a following on Facebook, then you need to build a strategy to convert them into email subscribers.

On your Facebook page you can add an app which creates the Subscribe form page for you.

Here are two popular apps from Campaign Monitor and MailChimp:

If you’re on Twitter, then you can capture emails with the Twitter Lead Generation Card.

Competitions

Another great way to capture leads via social media by running a competition.

We recommend getting in touch with the team at Peazie to discuss your next competition – they have had great success with all types of online businesses.

Email Signatures

If you send a lot of emails to customers and potential leads throughout the day, then you should include a link in your signature, encouraging the recipient to sign up to your database as well.

Building your database offline

Some businesses, like retail stores, are constantly dealing with customers face-to-face.

Get your employees to ask for an email at the point of sale. Ensure they ask every customer they interact with. They could even offer an incentive; such as a 5% discount next time they visit the store, or to even use online.

Staff can obtain an email in any form, including writing it down on a list, using a pre-made form on an iPad, or showing them the sign-up form on your website.

Another idea is to have a bowl or something on the counter or in the waiting room to collect business cards; again offering them an incentive such as a voucher or prize.