By now, you must already have some notion that Email Marketing is one of the most profitable ways to monetize continuously from your clients, followers and subscribers, and that’s the main reason to start collecting an Email Marketing List from day one.
First, some Email Marketing facts:
- Only 2% of marketers consider email as a High Cost. Making it the lowest cost channel of all. (source: Software Advice Survey)
- 85% of Internet Users Access Email. (source: bellow)
- 25% of the Global Population has an Email Address. (source: bellow)
- An email has a higher CTR and ROI than other channels. (source: bellow)
It gives you an idea, but you can also see this interesting infographic below that served as one of the sources, but there are thousands that you can Google.
It’s still a major asset to your digital marketing strategy, right?
So, how to start to grow an Email Marketing List from day One?
First of all, you need to define a strategy and understand how and why you want a particular type of people on your database. This is hugely important!
Getting 100.000 subscribers in your database doesn’t mean anything more than the size of your list compared to another. It’s just dead weight if it’s just numbers of random people that somehow subscribe to your list, and it’s going to cost unnecessary resources to send emails to these people that will decrease your conversion rate.
You want to start a list of Really Interested People on your Services or Products. To do so, you need to strategically choose the right partners, resources and media on where to publicize your newsletter or list subscription.
1st Way – Your Brand Pond
It is obvious, but sometimes it is not rightly promoted in your Brand environment. You may already have a site, right? If not, I hope you’re thinking about that. If you already have a space that you control, you must take advantage of that from day one.
How many times did you enter a company site, and you had to struggle to see the subscription form of their Newsletter? It shouldn’t be like that, right? If we have a site that we control, the subscription should be evident, appealing and engaging. It’s the only way to take your list to another level. If people have entered your site, they’re already interested in your services or products, so it’s the most targeted audience you can get.
Take this example by Chris Brogan, one of the most prolific bloggers, speakers and entrepreneurs around:
If you notice, there’s a thumb right up with a sign to “subscribe via email” the king space of the site is to induce people to subscribe, giving the clear benefit of doing that. After a few moments of inaction, a pop-up div tries to convert the users into subscribers.
Some abominate the use of pop-ups divs like this one, but if you read his words or hear his webinars, it becomes clear that there’s a positive outcome for using this tactic. The bottom line here is: You Need to Give So Much More than what you’re asking. If you’re giving value in content, tips and so on, you’ll get a thriving community subscribing to your Email Marketing List.
So, the critical point here is: Make the Benefits for the Subscriber very clear and don’t forget to fulfil that promise from that day on.
Here’s a great example by Moo as well:
2nd Way – Your Daily Communication
Besides the site, there’s something that you can control as well. If you already have transactions online, like purchases or notifications made to your users, why don’t you use this space to convert them into subscribers of your Email Marketing List?
Another alternative to this is your Email Account Signature. Remember that standard email signature that you’ve got in every email you send to your clients, partners and the regular audience? Why don’t you insert a clear Call-to-Action to that space to invite people to subscribe to your Newsletter?
Start Your Week With Insights 💡
You can also insert clear call-to-action in your regular paper letters and official documents with a simple URL like www.sendxmail.com/newsletter/ —don’t forget to tell them why they should subscribe. I speak by experience on this.
Business cards with QR Codes for your Newsletter Sign-Up are hugely influential and don’t forget your automated voice machine that deals with your daily calls. The recording message can alert you that you have a newsletter filled with goodies. Check this example from Moo Inspirational Designs.
 3rd Way – Help Them Helping You Spread the Message
Another thing that you can also do without high investment is implementing sharing tools wherever you can for your Email Marketing List. If you help your subscribers, visitors or audience to share the experience of your Newsletter, that will turn into a viral effect, and one person brings not one but several people to get to know you. And the conversion is way better since someone they know has recommended you.
So, the idea is to place sharing buttons, tools, and features available on your actual Newsletter for the people to share it and on your Newsletter information, pages, or articles.
Simple, right? So, why do so many people forget to do it?
Sharing has become a natural habit for people. You need to give them an incentive to start the fire.
– Open these previous images to see the examples in place –
4th Way – Create Content or a Sweepstake to Offer
It’s becoming a standard exchange coin in a digital environment. For someone to give their time and effort to fill in a simple email form to subscribe, we need to “pay” them with something they can take advantage of almost at the exact moment. So creating an e-book, distributing a white paper, a keynote or even a special discount in future buyings will catch your visitors’ attention and eventually make them subscribe to get it. See the Moo example above? They give free shipping as an exchange for a subscription. But Chris Brogan, for instance, promises to provide valuable information in each email he sends to you.
We, in this case, give a Free Email Marketing Course that it’s constantly improving with the latest trends in the convenience of your mailbox. You can always use something as a sweepstake to make your users take the move to subscribe to your Email Marketing List.
5th Way – Let the Media Know of Your Email Marketing List
Media portals, bloggers, verticals, and similar have in common that they’re always searching for great new content. It’s all about giving their followers great content to please their minds and wanting to come back for more.
So, the critical aspect here is to give something for them to explore, nurture and publish about your company or sweepstake for them to share with their audience. Doing that is not as easy as it seems since what it’s great for you may not be what they understand. So, it would be best if you tried to engage differently with these partners.
For instance, if a particular blog gives excellent roadmaps for fine cuisine and gourmet food and you’re publishing a sweet and easy to do french fries with burger recipe with a 20% discount on the following order of your frozen burgers (in case you are a burger salesman) if they subscribe, it might not have the result you expect.
You need to adequate your offer, content AND approach to each particular media. That’s the only way they might respect you and give you the benefit of reaching their audience.
These examples demonstrate how you can create a story powerful enough to become a Breaking News or something worth sharing.
Guess What?
They share this information, people go to your website and (if you’ve done things right), they will subscribe to your Email Marketing List, and then convert them into actual clients by letting them know about your brand, values and work methods. The importance of what you’re offering.
Take advantage of these simple yet Awesome Ways to start Growing your Email Marketing List TODAY. Now, you don’t have any excuse! 😉
If you have additional ideas and want to share, feel free to do so in the comments below. And if you loved this article, please share it for other people to know more about Email Marketing and Automation Best Practices.