15 Great ways to grow your email list

It’s heartbreaking, but your email marketing database degrades by about 25% every year. Your contacts’ email addresses change as they move from one company to another, they opt-out of your email communication, or they abandon that old AOL address they only use to fill out forms on websites.

As a business owner, it’s your job to make sure you’re always adding new contacts to your email marketing campaigns so you can keep your numbers moving up and to the right. If you’re not working on growing your email list already (or you’ve run out of creative ideas to do so), Here are 15 Great Ways to Grow Your Email List.

What is an Email List?

An email list is a compilation of email addresses gathered from individuals who have willingly provided their contact information, typically intending to receive communications, updates, or promotional content from a specific sender or organization.

Email lists are fundamental to email marketing, serving as a targeted and direct means of communication with a designated audience.

Why You Need to Grow Your Email List

Growing your email list is essential for businesses that want to expand their brand and reach more potential customers. With an estimated increase in email users from 4.3 billion to 4.6 billion by 2025 (Statista, 2021), email marketing has become more critical than ever in expanding your brand.

Having an email list allows you to communicate with your customers, subscribers, and prospects about new business updates, and a growing email list means your revenue will increase. Email lists are also valuable because they give you a way to stay in touch with your audience and build a relationship.

15 Great ways to grow your email list in 2024

1. Create incredible email content.

Your email content needs to be amazing if you want people to stay subscribed, create eye-catching content, it needs to be extraordinary and mind-boggling if you want people to stay subscribed plus read your content and also share it with colleagues, friends and family.

2. Place Your Signup Box At The Right Position.

There’s no correct or incorrect position for your signup box; you only need to experiment with different options to see which works best for driving signups on your website.

We recommend you test by placing the signup box in different locations on your pages to see how many new subscribers you get.
Should you have it in your homepage footer or header? Or in the middle of your homepage?

It also doesn’t have to be in a strategic position, building various opportunities for visitors to subscribe could work. There’s no harm in trying!

3. Promote your newsletter offline.

You may not have considered promoting your newsletter offline, as it’s always a challenge to implement online-offline strategies. There is no easy way to capture emails in an offline setting, however, offline can still represent an important touch point with your customers.

Why not try to engage them and lure them to your online database when they’re actually showing interest in your brand. Host your own offline, in-person events like meetups, conferences, hackathons, educational panels, etc., and collect registrations online using email addresses.

4. Attempt using Twitter Advert.

Social media channels are great for creating brand awareness. And paid social ads can boost your brand if you have specific goals, like getting more newsletter signups.

Sponsored Twitter sign up cards, for example, can help increase your mailing list, though it means you need to allocate part of your marketing budget to build a campaign.

Unlike the other suggestions we’ve been giving you, implementing a Twitter ad to promote your newsletter is cost-demanding – which is why it should have clearly defined goals.

You’re likely to see the best results for targeting these ads at your followers – people who already have a certain level of brand awareness. Social paid campaigns need regular monitoring of signup performance and quality of subscribers as time goes by.

5. Hold a Webinar.

Use the webinar service (e.g. gotomeeting.com) and require people to register via email address. Use these email addresses to provide follow-ups to the webinar and a way for the webinar viewers to receive value-added content, like a white paper or a free course or product trial.

6. Make them understand why they should sign up.

In exchange for people’s precious email addresses, provide people with an offer they can’t decline. A lot of marketers offer free content, which is nice, but unoriginal.

If you’re equal to the task, offer something distinctive, like a personal, one-on-one, 30-minute consultation with you, “the Expert.” Don’t be afraid to get creative here!

Also, make sure to let them know what they are signing up for (e.g. “Enter your name and email here to get daily updates on how to be awesome at sending email marketing campaigns”).

7. Add a Newsletter Signup CTA to Your Social Media Platforms

One effective way to grow your email list is to add a newsletter signup call-to-action to your social media platforms. This involves creating a landing page with an email signup form and adding the link to your social media profiles.

You can use a plugin to build a landing page in WordPress or see if your email service provider comes with landing page signup forms.

To add a newsletter signup call-to-action to your social media platforms, you can create a post or story that promotes your newsletter and includes a link to your landing page.

You can collect email addresses from visitors in a non-intrusive way and turn them into subscribers for your email list.

8. Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a valuable resource or incentive that you provide to your audience in exchange for their email address and other contact information. This can include resources such as ebooks, whitepapers, checklists, templates, webinars, free trials, and more.

The key is to offer something that addresses a specific problem or need your audience has and provides immediate value. For instance, you can create an ebook that compiles your most popular blog posts or offer a free email course that provides valuable insights over a series of emails.

By providing a lead magnet, you can entice potential customers to willingly provide their contact information, thereby converting them into leads for future marketing and sales efforts.

9. Promote an Online Contest

Another effective way to grow your email list is by promoting an online contest. Running an engaging and exciting contest can generate buzz, attract new subscribers, and boost engagement among existing ones. To run a successful online contest, consider the following tips:

• Set clear rules and guidelines.
• Offer attractive prizes.
• Keep the contest simple and easy to enter.
• Leverage social media platforms to amplify your reach.
• Utilize email marketing to announce the contest and notify winners.

You can promote your online contest across various channels, including social media, email marketing, and paid advertisements.

On social media, create eye-catching graphics and posts that highlight the contest details, prize, and entry requirements. Include a call-to-action that encourages viewers to visit your landing page and submit their email addresses to participate.

Running an online contest is a fun and engaging way to grow your email list.

10. Create high-value content 

When you create a blog that readers can subscribe to, you can effectively capture the interest of your audience and convert them into loyal subscribers, thereby growing your email list and increasing engagement with your content.

Encourage visitors to subscribe by promoting the benefits of subscribing to your blog, such as receiving exclusive content, updates, and offers.

When you offer an email subscription option, you make it easier for your audience to stay updated on your latest content, thereby increasing reader loyalty and engagement.

11. Ask at Events

You can get people’s email addresses at events when you ask for them for a particular purpose. Whether you’re hosting a conference, trade show, or networking event, you can collect email addresses from attendees by asking them to sign up for your newsletter or mailing list.

You can also offer incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or giveaways to encourage attendees to provide their email addresses. Be sure to follow up with attendees after the event with a personalized email thanking them for attending and providing them with additional resources or offers to keep them engaged with your brand.

By asking for email addresses at events, you can expand your reach and grow your email list with engaged subscribers.

12. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing tactic where affiliates promote another company’s product or services and receive a commission for each sale generated through their unique affiliate links.

To leverage affiliate marketing for growing your email list, partner with relevant influencers or publishers who align with your target audience. When setting up an affiliate program, ensure that you offer competitive commissions and provide affiliates with high-converting creatives and resources to market your products or services.

As affiliates promote your brand, they will likely encourage their audiences to sign up for your email list, thus expanding your reach and growing your email list with qualified subscribers.

13. Use Youtube

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, making it an excellent platform to grow your email list. With over 1 billion unique visitors each month, YouTube offers endless opportunities to generate leads and connect with your audience.

Here are some tips to utilize YouTube for growing your email list:

• Add a call-to-action (CTA) in your video content: Encourage viewers to subscribe to your email list by adding a CTA in your video content. You can also offer incentives like exclusive content or discounts to entice viewers to sign up.
• Create a lead magnet: Offer a valuable incentive, such as a free e-book or report, in exchange for viewers’ email addresses.

Leverage YouTube’s massive audience to effectively grow your email list and connect with potential customers who are already interested in your brand.

14. Facebook Ads

Running Facebook ads is an effective way to grow your email list by reaching a wider audience and driving traffic to your landing pages. Facebook offers a variety of ad formats, including lead ads, carousel ads, and video ads, that can be used to promote your email list and encourage sign-ups. When creating Facebook ads, be sure to target your ideal audience and use compelling visuals and copy to capture their attention. You can also offer incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or free trials to encourage sign-ups. By running Facebook ads, you can effectively grow your email list and reach a wider audience with your marketing messages.

15. Ask Subscribers to Share

Asking your subscribers to share your content with their friends and family is an effective way to grow your email list by leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

By encouraging your subscribers to share your content on social media, email, or other channels, you can expand your reach and attract new subscribers who are interested in your brand.

When asking subscribers to share your content, be sure to provide them with easy-to-use sharing buttons and clear instructions on how to share.

When you leverage the power of your existing subscribers, you can effectively grow your email list with engaged subscribers who are interested in your brand and are more likely to convert into loyal customers.

If you want to learn how to grow your email list to connect with your audeince, click here to learn how we can help you achieve that.

How do you create an email list for a marketing campaign?

Creating an email list for a marketing campaign involves several key steps, such as gathering data, summarizing results, managing A/B tests, and more.

Here are some effective strategies to build an email list:

• Choose the right email marketing software.
• Create a compelling incentive.
• Optimize your call-to-action (CTA) copy.
• Place signup forms strategically.
• Add an exit intent pop-up form to your website.
• Create landing pages that convert.
• Use a referral program.
• Promote signups on social media platforms and your email signature.
• Encourage offline signups with QR codes.

It’s important to keep in mind that your email list should be permission-based, receptive to your content, and simple to segment. You should also avoid asking for too much information and offer discounts, promotions, access to exclusives, and share useful content to encourage people to sign up for your list.

What is one way that a small business can grow their email list?

One way for a small business to grow their email list is by leveraging industry events like tradeshows and conferences to capture new contacts who are already interested in the field. Additionally, they can encourage existing contacts from their database to subscribe to their emails.

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