Email marketing success relies on growing your email list. Yet, for many businesses and organizations, this is a difficult challenge. Website visitors don’t automatically sign-up for a list just because you have a form on your website. The internet is saturated with low-value appeals to receive a newsletter, join a list, or receive updates.
Additionally, you need to constantly add new, fresh contacts to your email list. Over the course of a year, your contact lists can degrade as much as 23 percent as people opt-out, move companies, or simply abandon an old email address. Successful email marketing will require constant and consistent growth of your email list.
So, if you have not started building your email list, or have exhausted your ideas for doing it, here are some simple and proven ways to grow your email list organically.
1. Paper Sign-up Sheets – One of the easiest ways to grow your email list organically is with a sign-up sheet, especially if you are a retailer or have brick-and-mortar locations. One trick is to provide customers a clear benefit, such as exclusive offers or early notifications on new products.
2. Gated Website Content – Essentially, gated content is website content that can only be seen by a visitor who becomes a “member” or otherwise provides their email address. Gated content can include informational articles, whitepapers, or even special downloadable coupons.
3. Encourage Sharing and Forwarding – Make sure to include social share and “Forward to a Friend” buttons in your emails. This will give you access to your contact’s friends, family, and co-workers. Add a “Subscribe” CTA with a text link so people can sign-up from the forwarded emails.
4. Facebook Sign-up Tab – Facebook and other social platforms are powerful tools for growing your business. However, it is important to move those relationships down your online marketing funnel, converting them to email subscribers.
5. Giveaways – A giveaway can bring a lot of attention to your business. Require participants to sign-up to your email list as a condition and provide them additional entries for sharing your giveaway on social media.
What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like more information on how to grow your email list organically, or would like to discuss a related topic, please contact us.