Struggling to grow your email list? You’re not alone. Out of a number of commonly shared challenges email marketers face, the one that is virtually universal is the never-ending quest to cultivate a thriving email subscriber list. But it’s not such a good thing when email marketers’ highest aspirations are to put more eyes in front of their brand’s content. Why?
Often, with the ambition to gain more subscribers comes unhealthy list-building practices. But, it’s important to keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how long your list is if your subscribers aren’t engaged with your emails, or if the addresses you’re sending to aren’t accurate.
Stop fighting an uphill battle. With these six time-tested strategies, there’s no reason you can’t grow your list with healthy, engaged subscribers.
#1: Be Everywhere
Starting at a high level, your email signup should be everywhere your customers are. If someone likes what you do or sell, they shouldn’t have to look for a way to stay in touch with you. Proactively include a place for people to opt in everywhere they may interact with your brand. There’s no limit to what you can test.
#2: Motivate with a Popup
The numbers are in, and it can’t be denied that website popups are list-growth gold.
WhatCounts reinstated an email opt-in popup on our homepage in June 2014, and after about a month, we saw 1,300 new registrants added to our list as a direct result of the popup. To put that into perspective, from January to June, we had 2,058 registrations. That means in a month, we had over half of what we had all year. That is some major lift in subscribers, and it for the most part, the addresses are healthy.
If you’re in an industry where you can offer a promotion with your popup, you can further ensure list health by offering an incentive that requires the entry of a valid email address.
Popups are an email marketer’s dream. They’re not only easy and quick to create, (and remove if necessary), you’ve got an abundance of options for how intricate you want to get with this tool as far as targeting options, reporting, and animation.
#3: Keep It Above the Fold
I know—I, too, have heard people say keeping important content above the fold on your website is old news and no longer necessary. But I gravely disagree and believe your newsletter signup form should exist above the fold on nearly all of your landing pages. If you have a popup on your website, especially the homepage, double-down and add a one-field opt-in to the top half of the design.
#4: Understand What Your Subscribers Value
This tip is twofold. First and foremost, make sure you’re only sending out content that is timely, relevant, and valuable to your subscriber base. Give subscribers what you promised them they’d get, when they’d get it. That is the easiest way to ensure happy readers. Next, test what content subscribers deem worthy enough of sharing their emails for. Think of coupons, discounts, gift cards, free shipping – whatever is feasible and makes sense with your business and customer base.
#5: Encourage People to Share
Quit being shy! I’m sure a number of your subscribers look forward to your emails and love what you do. Why not make it easy for them to share your emails? Not enough email marketers are using the tools that help readers share your content.
This goes beyond the standard social buttons that should be in your newsletter and email campaigns. In addition to that, you could pre-populate the messages sent from those links and include tweet links inside your actual content. The other day, I even saw a site using a tool where you could highlight any part of the content you like and it would populate a Twitter text box with the selected text.
In addition to implementing clever techniques that make sharing easy, why not just ask your subscribers to spread the love and share your emails? Some people need extra reassurance to feel comfortable sharing content that isn’t their own. There’s no harm in including a request to share.
#6: Never Pre-check Boxes to Subscribe People
Pre-checking an email signup box is cheating. And as we all know, cheating never does you any good. By pre-checking the box, you may garner some extra subscribers, but they probably don’t want to be on your list. And those are going to be the first to call spam on your email. It’s best to not go there.
More Ways to Grow Your Email List
There are far more than six ways to gain subscribers. In fact, we have an eBook talking about 57 Tips for Growing Your Email List. I just wanted to outline a few to get you started, and hopefully boost your list just in time for some holiday sending.
