Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to foster long-term relationships with customers and clients. Before you can start reaping the rewards of a successful email marketing campaign, however, there’s some groundwork that must be laid. Specifically, it’s important to create a strong email marketing list and to put an infrastructure in place to ensure that list keeps growing.

Exploring the Benefits of Email Marketing

Before we get into our guidelines for growing your email marketing list, though, it may be helpful to briefly reiterate some of email marketing’s main benefits.

• With email marketing, you’re able to connect with customers who have opted in to communications from your brand, which means they’re generally going to be a very favorable, receptive audience.
• Most people check their email multiple times daily, which makes this marketing channel one of the best ways to engage people in a way they’re already very comfortable with.
• Email marketing not only allows you to drive traffic to your business website, but it also allows you to retarget customers who have already engaged with your brand in some form or fashion.

There are plenty of other reasons to add email marketing to your existing strategy, but again: All of these benefits are contingent on you having a robust email marketing list.

5 Tips for Growing Your Email Marketing List

To build a strong email list, it's important to understand user intent. In other words, you need to have a clear understanding of the needs, goals, values, and pain points of the people who are opting to receive your content. Developing a massive email database isn’t valuable if it’s full of people who have little interest in your brand, or whose true commercial intent you don’t have a handle on.

Consider a few tips for building a list that’s founded on user intent.

1) Offer Freebies

First and foremost, remember that your customers aren’t all the same, so they don’t need to receive the same types of content. Segmenting your list into smaller crosstabs can help you customize your content options, providing each customer segment with something that’s relevant to their needs.

There are a couple of ways to approach segmentation:

• Segment based on user demographics, such as age, location, or gender.
• Segment based on past behavior, such as purchase history or other actions taken on your business website.

A specific tip: It’s hard to convince your customers to share their demographic information without offering them something in return. That’s why it often makes sense to offer freebies in exchange for email sign-ups… whitepapers, industry reports, webinars, or behind-the-scenes access.

2) Create a Competition

Another way to get your customers to surrender their demographic information, allowing you to better segment and target, is to create an online competition. Simply ensure your users are required to submit their personal information in order to join in.

Setting up an online raffle or drawing provides a good pretext for soliciting user information, and tapping into the spirit of competition can coax a high level of participation.

3) Use Plugins for Lead Generation

Still, another option for generating email marketing leads is using plugins that track the activity of your website visitors, prompting them to join your email list before they’re about to leave.

This method can be especially valuable when combined with the freebie option. As someone prepares to navigate away from your site, hit them with one last pop-up, offering some free information in exchange for an email address and other basic content info.

4) Use Opt-In Forms

Maybe you don’t have the resources to use advanced website plugins. An alternative approach is to place an email opt-in form midway through each blog post or Web page. Once you’ve got readers interested in your business, brand, or subject matter expertise, prompt them to become a subscriber. Just make sure you place your opt-in forms in contextually relevant places across your site.

5) Ensure Strategic CTA Placement

Finally, never underestimate the power of a well-placed, clearly articulated call to action (CTA).

Sometimes, the only thing your readers need is a gentle nudge in the right direction. Ensure plenty of well-positioned CTAs reminding them of why they should sign up for your email marketing list and providing a quick and easy way for them to do so.

Start Building Your Email List Today

Email marketing can be a game-changer, but only if you invest in building a strong list and cultivating ongoing interest. The tips outlined here should set you in a direct direction.

Additionally, we invite you to contact the enCOMPASS Agency team to discuss email marketing strategy further. We’re always happy to talk about different ways of growing your list and using it effectively. Reach out to our team whenever you’re ready to chat.