How To Build And Grow Your Email List

It’s 2022 and email is still one of the best ways to engage your customers and clinch more sales. Businesses use their email list to establish long-term relationships, as well as raise awareness of their promotions, new products and more. It’s absolutely essential for customer retention.

But whilst sending out emails seems to be the easy part, actually growing an email list in the first place is a little bit more complicated. Customers (especially those who don’t know you yet) are always a teeny bit wary about handing over their email address, which means you’ve got to put in a fair amount of effort if you’re to persuade them.

The good news is that thousands of businesses around the world have built their email lists from scratch – which means you can, too. And in this article, we’re going to show you exactly how to do it.

Create An Enticing Lead Magnet

Lead magnets are one of the most tried and tested ways for increasing email list subscribers.

What’s a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is essentially an incentive that encourages potential customers to hand over their email addresses. The deal is that they get something for free (such as a free gift) in exchange for their email.

For a lead magnet to work effectively, the customer must feel as though they’re getting more value out of this exchange than you are. As such, any lead magnet you offer must be super-duper valuable. Otherwise, potential customers won’t hand over their details.

For example, eCommerce businesses could offer any of the following:

• Coupons
• Discounts
• Free shipping
• Shopping guide
• Product guide
• Free gift

An enticing lead magnet must also be instantly accessible (don’t make people wait for it!), and it needs to be highly relevant to your target audience. If it isn’t, you may end up with an email list full of subscribers who grabbed the free gift, but who aren’t really interested in anything else you’re selling.

Use Pop-Ups

Now that you’ve got your lead magnet sorted, the next step is to offer it in such a way that your potential customers can’t ignore it.

For example, you can use pop-ups.

What do pop-ups do?

Pop-ups are designed to literally “pop up” on your customer’s screen with an offer that requires them to hand over their email address in order to get it.

Do they work?

Yep. In fact, Sumo collected more than 23 million emails in the space of just two years using pop-ups.

However, the key to succeeding with a pop-up comes down to your timing.

See, pop-ups can be really irritating if they pop up too soon. Moreover, if you flash your pop-up on the screen too quickly, how do you know you’re targeting an interested customer?

The best thing to do is to wait until a customer has been on your website for at least a minute. This way, you can at least be sure that they’re interested in what you’re selling.

Also, you need to make sure that your pop-up is relevant to the page a specific customer is currently on For instance, if a customer is just about to abandon their cart on the checkout page, you could target them with an exit pop-up that offers them free shipping on their next purchase.

On the other hand, if a customer is about to exit a product page, you can target them with an exit pop-up that offers them a discount on that particular product.

Take Advantage Of Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence-driven chatbots are able to chat to your customers 24/7. They can raise awareness of your latest deals and promotions, answer queries – and politely ask for a prospects email address in exchange for (as an example) a discount.

Your chatbot must provide value to your prospect during the conversation and it mustn’t ask for their email too soon. Otherwise, it will simply put people off. Instead, it should engage your prospect in conversation, provide helpful answers – and then offer something in exchange for their email list.

Popular chatbot platforms you can use include Drift, Collect Chat and ManyChat.

Go here to learn more about how to use chatbots to help you grow your email list.

Create a Killer CTA

Your CTA (call to action) is a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to building your email list. Essentially, it’s the bit where you tell your prospects what they should do next (subscribe to your list) and why they should do it. If you get this bit right, you can really ramp up conversions.

Here are some tips:

• Create a sense of ownership – When we feel that something is already ours, we’re more inclined to do all that we can to make sure it really is ours. By adding simple words like “you” and “yours” (or even “grab my free gift today”), you can generate a sense of ownership that convinces prospects to take action. In their mind, this free gift is already theirs!
• Give people just one thing to do – If you give your prospects more than one option, they might end up doing nothing at all. A good CTA tells people to do one thing only – download/grab/take advantage of this offer now.
• Show enthusiasm – By showing enthusiasm – “grab your 50% discount today!” – you’re generating enthusiasm in the mind of your prospects. If you feel good about your offer, it follows that they will, too.
• Use the word “FREE” – The word “free” triggers a huge emotional response in the prospect and causes them to grab at the opportunity in front of them. If you’re giving something away for free, make sure you let everyone know in your CTA.
• Make it colourful – Colourful CTA’s ‘pop’ on a screen for more than dull, muted ones.

Conclusion

Building and growing your email list is key if you want to retain existing customers and stay in touch with them. However, the next step is to nurture them with emails that provide value, but also raise awareness of your promotions and latest products.

Don’t forget to segment your list too, as this will help you personalise your offers to specific customers.

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