Even today, advertisers, marketers, and business people rely greatly on their email lists. But the challenge is how do you build a list with a relevant audience that will engage with your brand and offerings.
In this guide, we will demystify the process of building a huge and relevant email list for your email marketing campaigns.
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The challenges of building an email marketing list
Time and again, research has shown that email is one of the most valuable assets to any business, providing a ROI of 51.52 USD. The biggest reason you should set up an email list today is that it works!
That is because, in an era where the big sharks and unicorns can destroy businesses in one fell swoop, you should turn to things that you can control.
When people sign up for a list, it is a powerful signal of their potential to develop an intent to buy, and that is why you create a customer journey through your emails.
However, the greatest challenges for building an email list for your email marketing campaigns are as follows:
- The biggest challenge is to locate your audience. This means finding out social media groups, websites, and Google search keywords to find the right audience for your business.
- Engaging your audience to procure their email address with their consent comes next. This relies on building a powerful content strategy, lead magnet, or social signals. You will have to comply with lots of regulations like GDPR, PECR, HIPAA, etc.
- The other highly eventful challenge is to retain your audience once you get them on your list. This means keeping them engaged with relevant content and emails without being spammy.
Building a big email list the right way
You might have heard that a smaller yet engaged list is far better than a huge list that isn’t committed. How about we find the best of both worlds? We, at Mailmodo, have curated a list of the top strategies that are being used in the industry and even in-house, so you can build a huge list that is very committed.
1. Share quality content on your blog regularly
People focus so much on increasing the subscriber count that they forget about the most crucial part: adding value to the visitors. Even if they do, they keep beating around the bush a bit too much instead of being straight-up valuable. Making it interesting and readable is as important as informative and educational while engaging with your visitors. (And eventually, to you too, see the point?)
2. Add an exit-intent popup to the blog
Catch viewers on their way out! On average, about 70% of the visitors who land on your page will bounce off and never come back. This one simple but often ignored step can cut down the bounce rate by at least 5%, which doesn’t sound like much, but it is. We call it baby-steps! You can detect when users leave and prompt them with a compelling opt-in form.
3. Include an opt-in at the end of articles
Any reader that has managed to reach your opt-in at the bottom of the article has already primed to your email, so you’ll be missing out if you don’t make this a ritual. Your headline, referred to as a hook, grabbed their attention. And even your quality content has appealed to them by then as light does to the moths, else why would they still be there? Unless, of course, they’re content writers, scrolling for content ideas on the vast World Wide Web.
Those who have made it to the bottom of your content are bound to be focused. They’re engaged and looking for further direction. Here, you direct users right to your email list.
You can read our guide on How to use opt-in in your email marketing strategy to get in-depth knowledge.
4. Use relevant lead magnets
They have a variety of names. Some call them ethical bribes, while others choose to call them giveaways. Regardless of what we call it, they should be compelling enough and placed at the right spot for the reader to sign up. The most important part is to promise only what you can deliver in your content. Otherwise, you will end up with less engagement.
Be it an eBook, a pdf checklist, infographic, a video, an email series, or a newsletter, your CTA (Call-to-action) is a major player in getting their attention. We recommend spending 40% of the lead magnet and 60% on the CTA buttons. Make sure they have good contrast with the background to make them stand out.
5. Don’t hesitate to use gated content
If you’re delivering nothing but pure value to the customers, you won’t hesitate in locking the best of your content midway. You can blur or fade the rest and place a CTA on top asking the viewer to Sign up to view the rest.
For convenience, you can offer to sign up via some popular channels like Facebook and Gmail. If you get the placement right, you’re sure to see a good number of sign-ups here.
6. Use a double opt-in
A two-step or confirmed opt-in filters viewers who are not so committed and have a lower intent. The logic here is if they’re going so far as to authenticate the opt-in, you’re sure to see much higher open and click-through rates.
What more? You’re even complying more with the email laws, ticking two boxes at the same time off your list. Now, they do need to go through an extra step, but it’s best for both sides in the long run. Imagine being unsubscribed or being marked as spam (which will happen if they cannot find an unsubscribe button easily) by a huge chunk of your list!
7. Make it a smart squeeze page.
A squeeze page is a landing page designed specifically with the sole aim to make the viewers enter their email address at one point or the other during their stay on the page. Be sure not to make it intrusive or distracting; else, it will reduce the perceived quality of your content.
Try having different types of opt-in forms and CTA buttons. No two opt-in forms should look similar or make the viewers feel like they’re being lured in. Else they will run away instantly, thinking you’re just desperate to trap them. The best places to include sign-up forms are the header, footer, sidebar, about page, contact page, and a sticky top bar.
8. Create a compelling offer
Offer a bonus to your readers. Coupon codes and discounts go a long way. Make them feel special. Don’t be afraid to let them have a few options to maximize the chances. You can even include a few social proofs right below to induce a bit of FOMO.
Conclusion
There can be many ways, but not all are equally effective or definitive. We have included our handpicked favorites here, and we recommend you implement them all if feasible.
These simple strategies, when combined, will reap benefits greater than the sum of their parts. Multi-million dollar businesses have been built just on the strength of email lists. 90% of the income comes from these lists for the top players. Even in 2021, their email lists for email marketing are still their priority and asset.
