How You Can Build a Large and Responsive Email List

Despite all of the hype in the online marketing world over the latest cool new digital marketing tools, there's a proven channel that's often overlooked; but it consistently continues to deliver results, not just “likes” or followers”, but real, bottom line results that lead to more sales!

What is this tool? Email marketing. Email marketing offers many benefits for online marketers that use it well and use it consistently. With email, you enjoy a flood of new and repeat traffic to your website. You can enjoy new and repeat sales. You can develop a loyal, even rabid fan base. All in all, it can be a wonderful addition to your online marketing plans.

But to succeed at email marketing, you need a list of subscribers to send your messages to. Your list is vitally important, both in terms of adequate size and in terms of quality – in other words, how often do your list members actually buy from you? It's been said, speaking of factors that affect results in email marketing, your list accounts for 50% of your results, your offer 30% and your copywriting 20%.

Today, let's talk about some ways you can build your email subscriber list. We'll also talk about building a list that's not just a collection of names and email addresses, but a loyal list that excitedly follows you and can't wait to hear what you have to say. And above all, a list that buys the product or service you sell!

4 Ways To Grow Your Email List

You want email list subscribers? Make it easy for people to sign up! Make it easy for them to find your signup form. Display it prominently on your homepage. Don't do like some website owners do and bury it on a “Contact” or “Resources” page. Put it on your homepage and make it so noticeable it can't be ignored!

1. Make it valuable.

When your website visitors find your email signup form, don't assume they will automatically join your list right away. They aren't suffering from a lack of reading material. On the contrary, chances are they are drowning in it. The term “drinking from a firehose” comes to mind.

You need to “sell” them on signing up for your newsletter. On your signup form, include some “tasty tidbits” of the benefits they can expect when they subscribe and faithfully read your emails.

Offer them a free special report that's only available to your newsletter subscribers. Tell them it's valuable, and follow through. Make it valuable. Load it with valuable information that can benefit your readers even if they never buy from you or never read one of your emails.

2. Gather testimonials

Here's a tip that could very well help you win new email signups: gather testimonials from your current list members that tell how great your email newsletter is. Put a few of these testimonials in your email signup sheet as “proof” of what you are selling.

Remember this: in marketing and sales, including adding members to your email list, potential customers or signups are much more likely to believe what your happy customers say about you than what you say about you. So leverage the power of testimonials to grow your email list.

3. Include social sharing buttons

Include social sharing buttons in your emails, and encourage readers to share them with their networks. You will win new list subscribers because of the “social proof” element. Like we just mentioned regarding testimonials, someone who receives a piece of your email content enthusiastically shared with them by one of their friends is more likely to be receptive to it than if you were sharing it with them directly or asking them directly to join your list.

4. “Offline” Ways You Can Grow Your List

There are a lot of proven ways to grow your email list, and not all of them require online communication. You can add new subscribers after you've met them at “offline”, in-person events. Here's an example: if you are giving a speech to a local business or civic group (by the way, this can be a great way to build your business and develop new networking connections), collect business cards from event attendees and add their email addresses to your list, with their permission, of course.

Is your company planning to host a booth at an upcoming trade show? This is another place you can sign up new list members.

Do you have a local retail business or restaurant? Offer to add customers to your email list. Of course you need to make it worth their while to join, just like you would need to do through the copy on your online signup form. An example of a “treat” you, as a local retailer might give new list subscribers, is a special, printable coupon sent to them by email upon signup, a coupon that can be redeemed the next time they visit your store.

To make it super simple for offline customers to join your email list, add a QR code to your printed marketing materials that takes them to a mobile-friendly email signup form. And of course, you want to make your email marketing and website mobile responsive. A lot of email subscribers check and read their email on mobile and tablet devices.

If you do direct mailing or offline marketing, mention your email list in your printed materials, include the appropriate URL, and of course, sell readers on why they would want to join your list.

Focusing On What Matters Most (Quality Over Quantity) 

In today's online marketing world where “engagement” is so highly valued, it's easy to focus on superficial, even meaningless statistics and ignore what matters most. Facebook likes and Twitter followers are nice to have and may ultimately contribute to future sales, or they may not. Likewise, it's possible for email marketers to focus on growing a large list but then forget about what matter most – selling products and services to that list.

Ask yourself: “Do I really care how big my email list is no one on the list ever buys from me?” Granted, you want to grow your list. But you also need to sell to your list. You need a robust open rate. You need to make email offers to your list members. In these emails, you need to “sell the click”, that is you convince them to click the link in your email. Then take them directly to a landing page where you try to sell them on buying your product or service.

Don't be afraid to do this. You are in business to make money. You've loaded them up with free valuable information. You've consistently emailed them stellar content they can benefit from even if they never buy from you.

You Have To Sell!

You offer a great product that helps your customers solve a problem or reach a goal. Develop the mindset that you are doing your email list members a disservice if you don't sell to them. When done honestly and ethically, selling is a noble, honorable endeavor. Don't be afraid to do it!

Some email marketers are afraid to sell to their lists because they fear unsubscribes or negative, angry emails from list members who “don't like to be sold”. Here's my advice: don't worry about it.

Remember what we talked about a moment ago: what use is a large list that never buys from you? If certain members are never going to buy and if they get offended by you trying to sell them, do you really want them on your list? Do you really mind if they unsubscribe?

Don't be rude, but my advice is to let them unsubscribe. Don't worry about it!

A Unique Way To Leverage The Power Of Landing Pages To Gain New Email List Subscribers

Once again, you want to “sell” your website visitors on signing up for your email list. You can do this with a few bits of copy on a signup form embedded in your homepage. But your homepage probably isn't the  ideal environment to try to convert them from website visitors into email subscribers.

Why not have a prominent email signup call to action button on your homepage? One that visitors  click on and are then taken to a special landing page whose sole purpose is to add email subscribers to your list.

When designed and set up correctly, a landing page is an ideal “conversion environment”. It doesn't matter if  your conversion goal is to make new e-commerce sales, to convince B2B leads to download your new white paper or register for your latest, value-packed webinar, a great landing page can increase your conversion rate much more effectively than a typical homepage.

You need your email marketing to help you make more sales. It needs to be part of your “big picture” marketing machine.  And the right landing page is an important part of this machine. Notice I said the “right landing page”, not “just any landing page”. Your choice of landing page platform matters.

You want a landing page template that is engineered to help you enjoy increased conversion rates and offers you advanced A/B testing capability. You want a landing page platform that offers you an eye-catching headline area that works with your great copywriting to captures page visitors' attention. If you run a local retail store, you could benefit from a landing page that features Google Maps integration, making it easier for customers to find you.

And as a busy marketer or business owner, you want a turnkey, “out-of-the-box” landing page platform  that's incredibly simple to set up. In short, you want Lander, the easiest-to-set-up landing page platform in the Universe! Lander gives you all of these wonderful features and so many more.

And here's something we're confident you will love. You can try any of our landing page templates for free!

Do you have any questions about Lander and how it can help you launch your online marketing results into the stratosphere? Contact us today. We'd love to visit with you!

Happy Marketing!