Email marketing is a powerful and effective tool for digital marketers, known for its high conversion rates and returns on investment. With an average conversion rate of over 6%, it is one of the most profitable channels available, earning businesses an average of $44 for every dollar spent. To fully capitalize on the potential of email marketing, it is essential to build a targeted and segmented email list.
To build a strong email list, there are three key factors to consider: quality, relevance, and quantity. The first and most significant aspect is the quality of the email addresses on your list. Purchasing lists or using fake or abandoned email addresses will only harm your campaign’s performance. Instead, focus on acquiring real and complete information from genuinely interested prospects.
It’s crucial to ensure that the people on your email list are relevant to your business and products. Emailing prospects who have no interest in what you offer will result in low engagement and high unsubscribe rates. By targeting only those who are genuinely interested in your products or services, you can increase your chances of converting them into customers.
To be successful, your email list must also be large enough to reach new audiences and expand your reach. The more email addresses you have, the more potential customers you will be able to reach, increasing your chances of growing your business.
So, to conclude, to make email marketing work for your business, you need to focus on building a large, targeted, and high-quality email list. By focusing on quality, relevance, and quantity, you can improve your email campaigns’ performance, reach new audiences, and increase your return on investment.
Building an email list is a crucial step in creating a successful email marketing campaign.
Here are some easy ways to grow your list:
Pop-up offer on your homepage: Use a pop-up offer to convert first-time website visitors into email subscribers. Pop-ups have an average conversion rate of just over 3%, with the most effective conversion at around 10%. Consider using an exit-intent pop-up to capture the emails of visitors who are about to navigate away from your site. You can also disable the pop-up for previous customers or visitors already on your list.
Add an opt-in form to your site’s navigation or footer: Giving visitors ample opportunities to subscribe to your email list is essential. Consider adding an email signup form to every page of your website, including the homepage and product pages. Place the form in a subtle location such as the margin, navigation bar, or footer, and make sure to include a compelling call-to-action (CTA) about the value of signing up.
Collect email addresses at your store or in-person event: Face-to-face interactions are a successful way to convert leads into customers and build your email list. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store, or you’re promoting your business at an event or pop-up shop, use forms and lead-generation tools to collect email addresses. Use a strong CTA to incentivize in-person signups, and consider segmenting your lists by location or event to send tailored emails.
Remember to always focus on acquiring high-quality and relevant email addresses, as well as growing the overall quantity of your list. By implementing these strategies and providing value to your subscribers through incentives and personalized content, you can effectively grow your email list. In addition, you can take a step towards a successful email marketing campaign.
Add a signup button to social media
By providing an option for followers to sign up for email updates on your social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram, you can offer them another way to stay informed about your brand’s updated products. This can also help grow your personalized email campaigns.
Many social media platforms offer the capability to add email signup buttons or forms to your page. You can use this feature to add a call-to-action button to your Facebook business page, encouraging followers to join your email list.
For social media platforms that do not support links, such as Instagram, you can use alternatives like Linktree to create multiple links in your bio. This can include a link to your e-commerce website and another to a sign-up form for your email list. You can also consider separating new subscribers gained through Instagram so that you can track the effectiveness of this strategy on your email list’s growth.
Build personalized landing pages
Creating a successful email signup campaign involves understanding the unique needs and interests of your audience. This means that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective. To increase the chances of convincing visitors or followers to provide their email addresses, consider creating multiple landing pages with opt-in forms and messaging tailored to specific segments of your audience.
To start using personalized landing pages, examine the sources of traffic to your e-commerce website. Consider the needs and wants of users coming from Facebook, Amazon, or trade shows. It is also very crucial to ensure that the message and call-to-action on your landing pages align with the offer that initially drew the visitor to your site. This will improve the chances of converting visitors into email subscribers.
Include a newsletter signup option at checkout
Many online businesses tend to overlook the potential of their checkout page as a marketing tool. However, it is a valuable opportunity to turn a one-time customer into a lifelong fan and repeat customer. By encouraging users to sign up for your email list at the checkout stage, you can build a long-term relationship with them, even if they do not create an account during the purchase process.
An easy way to add an email signup option at checkout is to include a checkbox for customers to opt-in to your newsletter. It is critical to be clear about the benefits they will receive, such as exclusive discounts, how-to content, or updates on upcoming products. This not only provides an incentive for them to sign up but also ensures compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.
Another effective strategy is to use a visually striking pop-up or banner on the purchase confirmation screen. This will grab the customer’s attention and encourage them to sign up for your email list. This can be used in conjunction with a checkbox or text field, to give customers multiple options to sign up.
Once you have established a solid foundation and begun growing your email list, you can use advanced tactics to further accelerate its growth. Here are a few innovative strategies to help you take your email list building to the next level:
- Engage with prospects using a chatbot. Chatbot technology can be used to automate messaging with website visitors. This can save you time and effort while generating email list signups. For example, with a tool like MobileMonkey, you can create marketing campaigns within a custom chatbot and offer a special discount in exchange for email submissions.
Utilize third-party email list growth tools. There are many apps available that can help you build your email list, some of which offer creative twists on proven strategies. Many integrate with your e-commerce platforms such as Spin to Win and Personizely which use pop-ups, wheel of fortune-style, or Facebook Messenger integration to help you contact visitors and convert them into subscribers.
Drive email signups with ad campaigns. Landing pages, which are built with a single goal in mind, are often useful for building your email list. By sending traffic from digital ad campaigns to landing pages, you can craft a clear offer on a distraction-free page, and measure your results more accurately. For example, you can run targeted Facebook ads to drive visitors to a downloadable guide related to your product.
Survey your target audience. Gathering information about your audience’s wants, needs and feedback can be useful in building an effective marketing strategy. With visitor surveys and questionnaires, you can collect valuable data while capturing their emails for marketing purposes. Survey takers can be invited to opt into your email list at the end of the survey.
Use valuable content to attract visitors. When growing your email list, it’s wise to remember that the value of your product or subscription is not the only offering to consider. Your business solves a problem or addresses a need, which means you have valuable ideas and solutions to share. By offering this information through blogging or downloadable content, you can create a lead magnet that adds value to your target audience and builds trust in your brand. This will lead to more email signups and ultimately more customers.
Organize contests or giveaways on social media. Contests and giveaways can help accelerate email list growth by turning subscribing into a shareable and winnable event. This can be especially effective in the early stages of growing your list, when the number of subscribers is small. To amplify this strategy, consider partnering with other e-commerce brands that sell to similar customers. With the right partner, your products will complement each other, making the offer more compelling.
Another strategy is to seek out influencers who are already reaching your target customers on social platforms like Instagram. Collaborating with influencers who are already hosting giveaways can be a cost-effective way to kickstart your own giveaway campaign.
To create a central landing page for your giveaway, consider using platforms like ShortStack or ConvertFlow.
Here are some tools to help you manage your email list as a bonus
As your email list grows, it’s essential to invest in tools and platforms that can help you organize, manage, and utilize your data. Here are a few options to consider:
Shopify Email: A simple and straightforward solution offered by Shopify, it allows you to create, send, and track campaigns within your existing Shopify account. With a limit of 10,000 email sends per month, and affordable rates thereafter, it’s suitable for managing a small to medium-sized email list.
MailChimp: A more advanced option that offers a range of features for email template creation, scheduling, and automation. The free plan has basic features, while paid subscriptions provide access to more advanced templates and tools for analyzing and optimizing your campaigns.
Zapier: Helps automate workflows between different platforms and technologies without the need for a developer. It can be used to automatically pull new email subscribers from social media, landing pages, surveys, or live events into your email database, reducing manual labor.