The average email open rate is 25 percent, which means that email marketing is an effective and convenient way to reach potential and current customers. However, in order to be successful with email marketing, you need a great mailing list.
If your mailing list is short, full of redundancies and errors or scant on information, it won’t aid your email marketing campaign in any way. Many businesses find it hard to build an engaging mailing list. They know they can offer something valuable to customers, but how do they get people to sign up?
If you are facing the same challenge, follow these effective ways to build a mailing list.
1. Create a Landing Page
Create a compelling landing page and use it to tell your audience about your gated content. Gated content is an infographic, white paper, eBook or other content pieces that users cannot access unless they perform a specific action. Since you want to build your mailing list, you should ask users to provide their email address to access the content.
2. Use Opt-in Form
Create an opt-in form and put it on your websites. An opt-in form requests information from your websites and includes a button that the user must click after filling the required fields. You should only ask for the email address of the user through your opt-in form as people don’t like providing personal information.
3. Host Events
Host an event to gather email addresses in person. In the event, pass out business cards that have your website link. You can also tell people that you are building a mailing list to keep subscribers updated about your offers.
4. Post Email Sign-Ups on Facebook
You should definitely use Facebook to grow your mailing list. Your Facebook audience may already be interested in your business, so they wouldn’t mind if you ask for their email addresses. However, don’t spam your Facebook wall with email sign-ups. Mention it on special occasions like when you have reached your 1000th subscriber.
5. Offer a Reward
Offer a reward to customers for giving their emails. A reward could be an eBook, white paper or an online course. You can also offer special discount code to people who sign up.
6. Get Readers to Subscribe to your Blog
If you don’t have a blog section on your website yet, you should definitely include one and start creating high-quality blog posts. When you’ll write informative and high-quality posts, readers will be willingly to subscribe to your blog. Thus, you’ll be able to grow your email list.
7. Promote a Contest
Use social media pages of your business to host a contest with free giveaways. Ask your followers to provide their email addresses to sign up for the contest.
8. Use Social Media to Promote Your Gated Offers
Use you Facebook page or Twitter account to post links to your gated offers. This will allow your social media audience to get familiar with your offers and if they are interested in your gated content, they wouldn’t mind providing their email address to access it.
9. Run a Facebook Ad
You can also use Facebook ads to promote your links and offers. This will help you get more visitors to see your offers and sign-up for them.
10. Get Active on YouTube
Start your own YouTube channel and use it to connect with your audience. Publish high-quality and informative video content. In the section below your video, inserts links to your website and landing page. This will allow more people to get familiar with your business and increase your chances of getting more email addresses.
11. Leverage Testimonials
Alex from VM Interactive says that testimonials are powerful tools that can encourage people to trust a business. When users are on the fence about providing their email addresses, testimonials can encourage them to sign-up.
12. Guest Blog
There are many websites that accept guest blog posts and can help you reach your target audience. Through guest blogging, you can expand your email list. When crafting content for another website, include link to your website and a compelling call-to-action in the author’s bio section so that readers can subscribe to your website’s blog or other offers.
13. Ask for Feedback
If people find interesting information, they willingly offer feedback on it. Create a form through which people can ask questions from you. Ask users to provide their email addresses where you can send the answer.
14. Use Q&A Sites
Answer questions relevant to your business on Q&A sites. Write informative and helpful answers that solve problems of people in your niche and at the end of the discussion leave your website address and your landing page’s link. This will help you get more people to sign-up for your offers.
15. Make Sure Your Emails are Engaging
Even if you manage build a strong email list, it would be of no use if your emails aren’t engaging and don’t offer your audience anything of value. All those subscribers wouldn’t hesitate to unsubscribe if they find your offers unappealing. So, take time crafting your email and offer something of value to your subscribers.
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