How To Build An Email List From Scratch

Statistically, it has been found that even today 99% of consumers check their email inboxes regularly. So, email marketing is not dead. It plays an important role in maximizing the profits of a business. Email marketing is also cost-effective. So, it won’t leave a dent on the operational expenditures. However, it is ineffective if the number of subscribers or customers is not in bulk. It is here that we need to implement strategies to build an email list.

The entire foundation of any venture is based on providing quality services to the public. So, the success of a business lies in building a loyal community of customers. For both online and offline ventures, electronic mails or e-mails have proved to be an important tool. Once the email ids of the subscribers or customers are collected, regular promotional emails are sent. These promotional emails are smart marketing tools. Letting your customer know about the new collection or enticing offers, always helps to increase sales.

An email list is a broad list of email information of customers who have either subscribed to a particular website or have given their contact information while making a purchase. This list is used for cold email campaigning.

Having an email list is not sufficient. You need to target and pitch your product to the correct audience. Understanding customers’ needs and expectations are essential. Most consumers receive a ton of emails in the promotion section. So, your email needs to stand apart. Implementation of data mining is a smart way to recognize the pattern of buying among your customers. Designing cost-effective yet efficient marketing strategies become easier after data mining.

Hubspot has revealed that for every $1 spent on an email, it returns a revenue of more than $38. Thus, the conversion rates for emails are very high. Therefore, before we dive into the steps to build an effective email list, let us look into why an email list is important.

Even promotional messages can be personal. Emails allow the company to directly send a message to a customer’s inbox. There is no SEO score or page ranking involved. If techniques like Data Mining are used to understand the purchasing pattern of a specific customer, then automatically the information that the customer will receive, will be specially crafted for him. In case the customer has any query, he can directly mail the questions without putting his privacy at risk. It helps in building trust and loyalty between the two parties.

When a customer subscribes, it means that the person is interested in your service or product. So, the emails that will reach the customers are always purposeful. Using segmentation, you can highlight special offers and other incentives for a customer. This step increases the relevance of a message.

Though social media marketing is also constructive, it also has certain disadvantages. The most significant one is using the banner of the host for marketing. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and therefore, the social media campaigns and SEO efforts are futile once the host companies change their policies. Therefore, owning your email list will help you make decisions independently.

One digital platform that is common across all generations, is the email. An email caters to all types of consumers with simple User-Interface. Almost, half of the population in the world uses their email accounts, actively. Currently, there are more than 3.8 billion active email accounts. Some big corporates have very tactfully used their social media platforms to get customers to subscribe to their email list.

Before you proceed with sending emails, take your time to pick and choose the email software that you would like to use to build your email list. Most of these email software has similar features and benefits. The difference lies in the pricing, the business owner’s preferences for the interface, and other various factors.

These email marketing platforms promote hassle-free applications. So, they will help you achieve your goals in email marketing without a lot of effort on your end. Most importantly, sending promotional emails from personal ids is not a viable option. So, take advantage of this service.

An average working person already receives an average of more than 100 emails per day. 49% of consumers have reported that they receive unnecessary marketing emails. So, to stand apart in such a crowd, you will need to provide incentives. Do not be vague about your offer. Specify the discounts and their availability. Make the pop-up advertisements visually attractive, too.

After a visitor has scrolled through the content of your website or blog for a specific amount of time, a pop-up survey makes it convenient for the customer to sign up for more content. The pop-up survey can also take over the screen right before the visitor decides to exit. Use humor to create the survey form. Do not simply keep the options of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Sometimes, using, ‘Yes, Sign me up!’ and ‘No, thanks’, makes the visitor hesitate before clicking on the negative option. So, play around with the words.

Starting, it is not possible to have a long list of subscribers. Here, use your social media handles to optimize traffic and email list for your business website. Post on your handles regularly, reflecting your work. People who follow you on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and are already familiar with your work, will eagerly sign up for the email list. Even if you are not comfortable pitching your email newsletter, simply attaching the link to your bio or profile, will help in growing the community of users.

Recognizing your lead magnet opportunities is a definitive way of preparing the customers for purchase. A lead magnet is basically, a free item or service that is given away to collect contact information of clients and customers. Trial subscriptions, e-newsletters, free consultations, discount coupons are some of the techniques that are implemented by most companies. You can even start with a Facebook group or a resource library to avoid having any financial investment.

Incentives are the most popular way of attracting customers. Use creative User-Interface Designs to introduce offers to the visitors. Analyze the posts that have received maximum vies and utilize them for better SEO grades. It does not necessarily have to be financial.

Quality work always gets recognized. So, in the process of building an email list, make sure to maintain the quality of the content. Depending on your niche and audience, upgrade your content periodically. Regular updates make you more professional in the eyes of your subscribers. Conduct live streams or webinars, discussing more your work or introducing a new product or idea. If you are a blogger, conducting a webinar on ‘How to earn through Blogs’ might be a good topic to hold a Webinar on.

Giving the optimum user experience is the most important marketing strategy. Making your website stand out involves certain simple steps.

Adding a subscription bar on the side makes sure that the content of the website is not covered for the reader or the visitor. Navigating the website gets easier. The size and color of the sidebar should be carefully picked to make sure that it blends with the rest of the website and at the same time, attracts the visitor’s attention.

Sticky Pages are constant at the top of the page. As the visitors go through the web page, they are not nagged for signing up, but at the same time, they are aware of the option.

If growing the email list is your primary goal, for now, you can place a Subscribe box at the beginning of the Homepage. Strategically design the box to make sure that it does not drive visitors away and at the same time increases traffic for your website.

In case you have an e-commerce website, then make sure that all customers are signing up before making their respective purchases. It will also allow you to observe the purchasing patterns of different consumers. Signing up with their email ids will also eliminate the need for subscribing to the blogs, separately available from the e-Commerce website. Merge these two sections for easier collection of data.

Refrain from using the conventional and traditional method of offering reports and e-books in bulks. It is common knowledge that even if consumers sign up for such resources, most of them do not go through most portions of content. Instead, redirect the visitors to another page, where on signing up, they get the relevant user access for the documents. It increases the professionalism and also, helps in collecting the personal email id of the visitor.

The companies who had started small, are now catering to hundreds of customers abroad. They have created their name in the competitive market due to their efficient services and loyalty to customers. Make sure to introduce the promotion in the subject line, itself. Highlight and Brand your header and break up the body of the email. Remember to add visuals to your email as it makes it more visually attractive. Finally, keep a professional signature at the end of the email. Take the help of email marketing softwares to get optimal marketing recommendations. Also, a great email list contains more information than just the email addresses. Having more insights, it increases the content relevance of the promotional emails that the subscribers receive. Own your mailing list and take your business to new heights.