Email marketing is one of the oldest and most effective digital marketing techniques. You’ve probably heard the marketing saying, “the money’s in the list”. It’s become a well-known phrase because it’s so true. If you want to build your business, you need to build the list of people who have signed up to receive your newsletters and marketing emails. Here are 7 ways to do that:
- Use Facebook Ads
This is a highly affordable and cost-effective way to gather email addresses. Create Facebook ads that offer something your potential customers want – for example, access to an offer. Make it a requirement that they provide their email addresses in order to access this. Facebook allows you to select your target audience based on multiple factors including gender, geographical location and relationship status, ensuring your money is well spent.
2. Offer compelling content
A powerful way to get someone to provide their email address is to offer them access to attractive content: an e-book, video tutorial or course, for example. In order to access it, they have to sign up to your email newsletter. Simple!
3. Add a sign-up button to your Facebook business page
Adding a newsletter sign up button to your Facebook business page is quick and easy. The sign-up button will appear next to the message button on your page. It’s free, and while it may not get you huge numbers of email addresses, it’s definitely worth a minute or two of your time to set it up.
4. Offer the option to subscribe prominently on your website
Don’t just tuck it away on your contact page: add a newsletter subscription bar at the top of as many pages as you can, offering an incentive to sign up. You can easily set this up using email capture tools such as like OptinMonster or Sumo. For a more ‘in your face’ approach, you could use pop-ups. These have been found to be highly effective, but people can find them irritating, so consider setting them so that they only trigger after visitors have been browsing for a while, after they’ve scrolled a certain amount, or when they go to leave your site.
5. Run a competition or giveaway
People love competitions. Offer a great prize, get people to submit their email addresses when they enter, and you’re likely to achieve a large boost to your email mailing list. The contest will spark a sense of urgency that makes people far more likely to act. A good tip is to give away your service or product as the prize: doing this rather than offering a generic prize like an iPad means you’re more likely to attract entrants who are relevant to your business. There are multiple ways you can promote your contest: on your website, via social media, through influencers, on other websites, and through paid social media.
6. Run a survey
Surveys are a great way to gain email addresses while also gathering useful data that you can use in future content. The trick is to circulate the survey beyond your existing mailing list – so share it on social media, get friends and other businesses to share it, and share it at online events.
7. Ask people to share your content
This is a simple way to access other people’s networks. If the content is in an email, make sure you include a clickable link in your email signature with a call to action encouraging people to sign up. The call to action could simply be the opportunity receive your newsletter, or access to an offer, survey or resources. It turns every email you send into an opportunity to gain subscribers.
If you need any help with your Email Marketing or Digital Marketing in general. Please let us know.
