How To Build a Profitable Email List
Let’s start at the beginning: What’s an email list and why do you need one?
An email list is a database of email addresses that you can use to send marketing messages to your customers and prospects.
There are many benefits to having a large email list, including the ability to reach out to your subscribers any time you like, increased brand awareness and improved customer relationships.
My favorite benefit is any time I want to see my bank balance grow, I can send out an email with an offer to my list. This includes planned emails that come out sequentially as well as emails I do on the spur of the moment, letting my subscribers know about special limited time deals.
One of the best ways to build an email list is to offer something of value in exchange for an email address. This could be a free report, eBook, or access to a webinar or video series.
Once you have collected this valuable information from your website visitors, you can begin building relationships with them by sending targeted emails.
Email marketing can be an extremely effective way to reach your target market and improve your bottom line. And if you don’t yet have an email list of your own, I highly recommend you start building one today.
One note: Quality of your list is far more important than quantity. A list of 1,000 highly engaged buyers on your list is far better than 100,000 subscribers who don’t open your emails.
How do you get started building your list? First, you need to…
Choose an Email Autoresponder Service
Your autoresponder is where you’ll be creating your sign up forms, maintaining your email list and adding the emails that go out automatically when a person joins your list or buys your product.
There are many different email autoresponder services to choose from, and it can be difficult to know which one is right for your business. Some factors to consider when choosing an email marketing provider include the features offered, the price and the level of customer support.
The most important thing is to find a provider that offers the features you need at a price you can afford. Once you have found a few potential providers, it is helpful to read reviews from other businesses to get a better idea of which one will best suit your needs.
You might begin by looking at some of the bigger and well known services such as Aweber, GetResponse, Mailchimp and Sendlane.
Once you’ve got your autoresponder, you’ll want to…
Brainstorm Incentives for Subscription
In order to get people to subscribe to your email list, you will need to offer them something of value in exchange for their email address. This could be a free report, eBook, access to a webinar or video series, etc. Think about what would be most valuable to your target market and then offer that as an incentive for subscribing.
Think of your end goal – is it to sell a particular type of product? Next, think of your ideal target market. What does your ideal customer want and need most? When you have this information, you’re ready to brainstorm ideas for your free offer for joining your list.
Here are some freebie ideas for email list building:
- Free ebooks, guides, checklists, reports, templates, cheat sheets, infographics, software, etc.
- Toolkits and resources bundles
- Free samples
- Podcasts, audio recordings, videos
- Discounts
- Mini-courses
- Access to a private community
- Special subscriber only sales
- Early bird access
Once you’ve got your freebie(s) created, it’s time to…
Design Email Subscription Forms
Email subscription forms are one of the most important elements of a successful email marketing campaign. They are the first point of contact between you and your potential subscribers, so it is important to make sure that they are effective.
Your Subscription form will have:
- A header/headline that is short and catchy
- Body text that explains what you’re giving away
- Call to action telling them to grab their freebie by filling out the form
- Sign up form where they enter their email address and name
- Button to click once they fill in the information
There are a few things to keep in mind when designing email subscription forms:
- Keep them short and simple. Include only the essential information that you need from your potential subscriber.
- Make sure they are visually appealing and easy to understand. Use images, colors, and whitespace to guide the eye to the form.
- Use strong calls to action that encourage people to subscribe.
- Place the form in a prominent location on your website or blog where it will be seen by visitors.
- Test different versions of the form to see what works best. A/B testing can be a useful tool in this process.
Once you have designed an effective email subscription form, test to make sure that it is properly connected to your autoresponder service. This will ensure that all new subscribers are added to your list and receive your marketing messages.
Now it’s time to…
Grow Your Email List: 17 Strategies that Work
In order to grow your email list, you need to put in place strategies that will attract subscribers. Some of the best strategies for growing your list include:
1. Creating valuable content: When your new visitors see the great content on your site, they are more likely to trust you with their email address in exchange for your free offer.
2. Offering red hot incentives: Provide an extraordinary incentive for people to subscribe to your email list, such as a package of ebooks or a full-blown course. The bigger the incentive, the easier it is to get sign-ups and referrals, too.
3. Using pop-ups: Use pop-ups and other forms of opt-in forms on your website to make it easy for people to sign up for your emails. Yes, pop-ups will alienate a small percentage of readers, but you’ll get enough new subscribers to more than compensate.
4. Use a welcome mat: Unlike traditional pop-ups, a welcome mat appears full screen when someone first gets to your site. The right offer on a welcome mat can be extremely effective.
5. Using a smart bar: This is a sticky element that sits at the top of your website. It remains visible even when users scroll to the bottom of the page.
6. Using social media: Use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to promote your newsletter and drive traffic back to your website.
7. Collaborating with other brands: Partner with other brands in your industry who have complementary products or services
8. Referral program: Enlist email subscribers to help you promote your newsletter and in exchange they get a bonus of some kind.
9. Contests: Run contests on social media to give away valuable, relevant prizes your ideal prospect would love to have. Give away extra entries if they refer others to the contest. A great idea for this is several books on a particular topic from Amazon.
10. Offer a variety of freebies and place each one on its own landing page. Then promote each freebie to the audience most likely to be interested in it (video tips to vloggers, blogging tips to bloggers and so forth.)
11. Offer PDFs: Each time you write a comprehensive article or blogpost, offer the PDF version in exchange for their email address.
12. Offer a curated newsletter: This is a newsletter centered on one topic that contains all the latest industry news. These are highly popular as well as highly targeted.
13. Offer your newsletter on the “about us” page: When people go to your About page, it means they want to know more. This is a great place to offer your newsletter.
14. Create unique email content: if your emails are entertaining, valuable and informative, then you can get your current subscribers to share your emails with others by including ‘email to a friend’ buttons.
15. Create a free online tool or resource that requires sign-up: Free online tools that help users are a hot and a super easy way to get people on your list as well as generate traffic from word of mouth. This technique is like having a coffee stand that gives away coffee in exchange for an email address. People will flock to you and they will tell their friends.
16. Create bonus content: When you write an article or blogpost, offer some additional bonus content when they subscribe.
17. Guest blog on other sites: When you write guest posts you get an author’s box in which you can tell a little bit about yourself and offer an incentive to subscribe to your list.
There are a host of additional methods to grow your list, but these 17 will make a great start.
Now that your list is established and growing, there’s one more thing to talk about and that’s…
Keeping Subscribers Engaged
It is important to keep your subscribers engaged once you have them on your email list. There are a few ways to do this, including providing valuable and relevant content, offering incentives and discounts, and sending regular communication.
If you provide valuable and relevant content to your subscribers, they will be more likely to stay engaged with your brand. This could include blog posts, infographics, eBooks, or even just helpful tips and advice. It is also important to make sure that this content is targeted specifically to their interests and needs.
You can also offer incentives and discounts to encourage your subscribers to stay engaged with your brand. This could include free shipping on orders over a certain amount, exclusive sales and deals, or access to VIP customer service. Everyone loves a good deal, so this is an effective way to keep people interested in what you have to offer.
Finally, it is important to send regular communication to your email list. This doesn’t always have to be a sales pitch; it could simply be an update on what’s new with your brand or a reminder of upcoming events or promotions.
However, by maintaining regular contact with your subscribers, you will remind them of why they signed up for your email list in the first place and keep them coming back for more.