Here at eFlyerMaker, we often have users asking us how to grow their Email List for their Newsletters and Publications. It’s typtical that your Email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% every year. While these tips will depend on your industry standards and your digital marketing strategy, we think these hints may help:
1. Create High Quality Content
Remarkable content in this day and age of omni channel marketing, is the single most important criteria for increasing interest in your Newsletter, Campaign or E-Publications.
2. Make it Easy for them to Sign-Up
These days when you visit a corporate site, often the first thing that occurs is a pop-up or an invitation to sign-up to the Newsletter. If it’s not a pop-up, it’s usually eye candy on a visible place of the landing page.
3. Encourage Social Sharing
Politiely ask your subscribers and most loyal segements to forward your emails via social sharing buttons and an “Email to a Friend” button in your marketing emails. This is easy to set up in most ESPs. Connecting via virtual word of mouth to gain access to fresh networks who might sign up to your list is a bonus.
To that effect, consider adding at the bottom of your emails, a “Subscribe” CTA as a simple text-based link so that those receiving the forwarded emails can easily opt-in, too. As social media continues to evolve, the social authority of your Campaign is important to develop, maintain and optimize.
4. Practice Double-Opt In Registration
Make sure you respect the anti-spam laws of your region. Here in Canada, CASL advises us to use a double-opt in mechanism. Once the subscriber signs-up, they get a confirmation Email that they must agree to. This way, you have a record (proof) of their levels of consent.
4. Segment your Subscription Types
The possiblity exists to create multiple Email subscription types. You can use these to send more targeted content to specific segments of your marketing personas. As such, Email recipients are more likely to click through emails that have been targeted to them, creating more brand engagement right from the start. Targeting and personalization should begin at the start of the Email Marketing process.
5. Create Sign-up CTAs embedded in your Facebook Business Page or other Social Media sites as needed
This makes it easier and more visible for interested prospects or curious visitors to sign-up. We mostly see this as a Add a call-to-action button to the top of your Facebook Business Page, at least request a valid Email address. Though you may choose to get their name, company and job title and more fields as well.
Important note: If you are skilled in video marketing, the CTA could be live at a critical point of your videos on youtube, vimeo and on your corporate website. Since as we know, videos tend to be some of our most viewed content.
6. Create Lead-Gen Campaigns
This is a free ebook or whitepaper or guide that is of use to visitors where they provide an email address in order to download it. This blog post lists 23 ways to create lead gen content quickly and easily. You can alternatively, create free online tools for the same purpose. The idea is to offer something of value in your field that will attract new prospects and get them into the funnel that is your Newsletter.
7. Product Specials & Limited Time Offers
If you offer products or services that are visuall compelling try creating a promotion on Pinterest where Email sign up is required to access the free credits, coupon or interact with the gamification mechanism you have incorporated. Use Pinterest to promote offers that require email sign-up.
8. Develop Collaborative Strategies with Partners
- Run a promotion on a partner’s website
- Do a Newsletter campaign together that targets a new but appropriate audience
- Invite Guest bloggers to post on your blog, offering the perspective of related but different industries or fields
- Host a co-marketing webinar, where demos are offered by a number of companies in a collaborative atmosphere if you are in B2B
- Write an Ebook with other parterns and share and swap leads that it generates
9. Create surveys via your Newsletters
These will develop buzz, brand exposure and useful information for whitepapers. Surveymonkey is our personal favorite online surveying tool.
10. Create Prospect Personas to Stimulate Creative Campaign ideas
Develop a profile for your 6-10 different kinds of customers, specifying their age, job title, gender and any other data you think is relevant. Then create tailored campaigns to each of these segements that’s appropriate and most likely to reach and interest them. Many social media sites cater to existing demographic segments of the general population already.
Thanks for reading, we will continue the hints in future posts, so stay tuned. Do you have suggestions on how to grow your subscriber list? Let us know as a comment.