You may feel that building an email list is not important, or is not a “priority” in growing your business. However, an email list is crucial for long-term success. Email marketing is one of the highest impacting ways (with a low cost) to deliver your marketing messages to current customers and prospects.
Email lists have a way bigger value than your social media numbers. Think of it this way: If you had your largest following (including engagement) on Facebook and Facebook decided to remove your account, for whatever reason – you then may end up losing all of your followers and contacts. You can no longer get them back. Now, if all of those people were signed on to your email list – social media sites can’t take those away. You own that list. You do not have to fear losing any of your contacts and possibly future sales!
Having an email list allows you to pitch products and services, update your readers with news like new blog posts or exciting updates and it allows you to reach out on a personal level and gain their trust as they continue buying from you.
So, how do you build this email list? Here are 3 quick tips to building your email subscriber list:
- Add a newsletter sign up form on your website and it’s blog – Embedding a signup form on your website and your company’s blog is going to be the easiest way to get targeted email subscribers. Those who are on your site are already reading your content and may want to know more about your company or new products & services you may have to offer in the near future. Having this form readily available on your site (and highly visible) allows for an easy sign up to your email list.
- Offer a “Content Upgrade / Opt-in Incentive” – This is simply bonus content associated with your business and/or a particular blog post. For example, if your company specializes in home safety (or sells these types of products/services) and you write a blog post about “Earthquake Safety Tips”, you could offer a “free” downloadable PDF of an Earthquake Safety Plan Checklist. In order for the reader to download the PDF they would then need to provide their email address. Most email marketing programs have options for content delivery once the reader confirms their email address! This will not only help you gain more email subscribers but it may also drive additional new traffic to your website, everyone loves a freebie!
Here are a few examples of things you could offer:
- Worksheets
- Outline/cheatsheet
- Spreadsheet
- Email course or challenge
- Video training or tutorial
- Webinar or audio recording
- E-book
- Infographic
- Resource library with many worksheets/ebooks/etc
- Ask your social followers to sign up for your email list – Every now and then, ask your followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to kindly sign up for your email list! Catch their attention with an image with text saying something along the lines of “Be the first to know when (product X) is available! Sign up for our newsletter!” (reminder: you can make this for free on Canva) These people are already following you, they are already interested in what you have to offer and/or say, which means they really are perfect candidates for your targeted email list. Don’t forget: you can always offer your content upgrades / opt-in incentives in a social media post as well (i.e: “Head to our website and claim your free Earthquake Safety Checklist” – with a link to the direct blog link or landing page). This will direct your followers to your email sign up form or to a specific blog post offering the free content in return for their email address.
So, now that you have started building and growing your list make sure you remain consistent in sending awesome content directly into their email! Having consistent times you send them an email matters. Whether you choose once a week, once a month, twice a month etc., try to keep it as consistent as possible so that your subscribers know when they can expect to hear from you.
Also, whenever you do create an incentive for new subscribers, make sure you send it to your current list, too – no opt-in required (as they are already subscribed). Also, always keep subscribers updated on things like events or seminars you are hosting, new and exciting news and/or product launches and continue sharing valuable strategies and info with them. This will not only keep your subscribers happy (and subscribed), but will also silently encourage them to share it with their friends and family.
If you have not yet started to focus on building an email list or if you have but have not had much growth, we encourage you to try these 3 quick tips and let us know how they work for you!