They say, “the money is in the list”, and that’s certainly the case for many business owners. The bigger your email contact list of potential contacts and leads, the more opportunities you’ll have for sales.
Whether you’re a service provider, e-commerce store manager, or a growing brand, your list ensures you can constantly find new ways to grow and evolve. Collecting contacts for your company means you can consistently nurture new leads via email too.
Statistics show that around 59% of consumers believe marketing emails have a direct impact on their purchasing decisions. Unfortunately, figuring out how to build an email contact list can be easier said than done. That’s why we’re sharing some of our top tips for building out that all-important list.
1. Create a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is one of the first and most important things you’re going to need to ensure you can effectively build a good email list. After all, while customers are reasonably comfortable receiving emails from companies, they often need a little nudge to convince them to share personal contact details. A lead magnet is how you entice customers to connect with you.
Think of it like a free gift you give your customers in exchange for their email address or phone number. You can experiment with options like eBooks, checklists, downloadable guides, webinar access, PDFs, and templates. You could even offer your customers a coupon.
All of these offers give your visitor a real incentive for signing up to your email newsletter. It’s worth experimenting with a few different styles of lead magnets, to see which ones have the best impact on your list in the long term. You could also consider offering a variety of different lead magnets to different types of customers.
2. Create a Powerful Landing Page
While you can entice customers to sign up to your email newsletter on any page of your website, having a dedicated landing page can be helpful. Landing pages have the highest conversion rate of any type of sign-up form (23%), and they’re perfect for guiding customers towards a specific action.
Plus, you can share your landing page links across a range of different environments to improve their visibility. For instance, you might link to your landing page on the link tree in your social bio, or pin them to the top of your social media feeds.
The key to a successful landing page is showing your customers exactly what they’re going to get from their subscription straight away. As you can see from this Problogger example here, readers instantly see they’re going to get amazing tools to help them grow their business.
It’s also worth making sure you use:
- High-quality images: Images and videos are great for capturing customer attention and increasing engagement with your landing pages.
- A strong headline and copy: Use a powerful headline, combined with emotional, benefit-oriented copy to convince your users to sign up for your newsletter.
- A great call to action: Make sure your customers know what they need to do next with an easy-to-see button, asking them to “subscribe now”.
3. Use Pop-Ups or Website Banners
While your landing page can deliver excellent conversion rates for your email newsletter, people might not see it quite as often as the rest of your website. With this in mind, it’s worth looking for ways to encourage sign-ups across your entire website.
Pop-ups might have a reputation for being annoying and disruptive, but they can be extremely valuable, with an average conversion rate of around 11.09%. You can experiment with different types of pop-ups, such as timed pop-ups which appear after your customer spends a certain amount of time browsing through your pages, or exit-intent pop-ups.
You can also make pop-ups more engaging and fun, by highlighting your lead magnets and special offers with them, or using gamification elements like spinnable wheels that allow customers to win a prize in exchange for their email address.
If pop-ups really don’t appeal to your customers, then another option is to simply place a banner somewhere on your website. This will give your customers something to click, at the top or bottom of their page, which allows them to sign up to your newsletter at any time.
4. Cross-Promote Your Landing Pages
As mentioned above, one of the best things about landing pages, is they give you a specific link you can drive customers to from a range of different environments. If you’re struggling to get people to sign up to your newsletters, drawing attention to your landing pages on other platforms can be helpful.
For instance, you could use a CTA link or button on each of your blog posts, asking customers to sign up to your email list if they want to stay up-to-date with the latest posts. You could also add a link to your landing page to your social media channels, or create entire campaigns promoting your newsletter and landing page on social channels.
Many social media channels support targeted advertising options, so you can specifically showcase your landing pages and offers to the customers that are most likely to benefit your brand.
Another great option is to include a link to your landing page on your email signature. This means whenever you connect with an existing or new client, a partner, or someone else through email, they’ll see they have a way to receive regular content from you.
5. Generate Excitement for Your Newsletters
Even if you do create an amazing lead magnet for your newsletter campaign, some customers may be reluctant to sign up if they don’t think they’re going to get any value from your messages. Showing your customers that you’re going to send them content that benefits them can help.
For instance, on social media, you could tease all of the announcements you’re going to be making on your next newsletter, and let customers know that if they subscribe to your list, they’ll be first in line to hear about any sales or discounts you’re going to offer. You could even tease announcements on videos and podcasts you produce for content marketing purposes.
You could also talk about your newsletters on social media after they’re delivered to customers. Tell people who aren’t subscribed to your list yet what they’re missing out on – like early access to a sale, new information about an upcoming product, or access to your latest blog posts. Make sure you include a link to your landing page with a CTA encouraging people to sign up.
6. Create a Referral Program
Finally, one of the best ways to encourage new people to join your email list, is to activate your existing subscribers. Getting your own customers to share their experiences with your company, and promote the benefits of your newsletter has a huge impact on your credibility.
Creating a referral program for new subscribers can grow your list rapidly, but it’s important to get your strategy right. Ideally, you’ll want to incentivize your existing customers to refer other customers to your company. This could mean offering them points every time they refer a new subscriber, or allowing them to access a discount on their next purchase.
You might want to offer a bonus incentive to the new subscriber too, such as an extra lead magnet, so they have another reason to get involved. Discounts, special offers, and downloads can all be fantastic options here, depending on your target audience and their interests. There are even tools available that can help you build and manage your referral campaigns, like Tapfiliate or ReferralCandy.
Start Growing Your Email Contact List
Your email contact list can be one of the most valuable resources you have as a business owner. It ensures you can not only capture new leads, but nurture your clients, and increase your chances of long-term sales. However, growing a list takes time and effort.
The methods above will help you start connecting with new customers who can contribute to the overall growth and success of your brand. But if you don’t have time to experiment with lead building options yourself, you can always outsource the task to your virtual assistant.
Your VA will be able to work with you to create everything from compelling landing pages and lead magnets, to sign-up forms and promotional campaigns.
Contact Lune Valley VA today to learn more about how the right virtual assistant can help you make the most of your email contact list.