Email Marketing Weekly

Whether you’re just starting your email marketing program, or have been doing it for years, the question on everyone’s mind is how do you grow your email marketing list? The list is easily the most important variable when it comes to email marketing, as it affects everything – your copy, your timing, your response, your open rate, and your email marketing programs’ ultimate success.

We’ve put together 5 easy tips on how to grow your email marketing list – these are all permission based ideas, and can be used for a broad range of email marketing lists, if used appropriately. Take a read through, and see which ones you can leverage in your email marketing program.

1. Streamline your Subscribe. Do you really need all 30 questions to have someone subscribe to your email? Probably not. Clean up your form, so it’s just the key demographics you need for your online strategy (sometimes its as little as just their email address and first name…). The less fields there are, the less chance of the user turning away because they don’t want to share their phone number, address, blood type, etc.
2. Hold a contest/giveaway. Everyone wants to win something – perhaps a free consultation, an iPod, a donation made in the winner’s name… anything. Try putting the enter-to-win form prominently on your page, and let your visitor know that they have a chance to win, and see what happens. Its more to grab attention than anything – sure, you’ll come across the professional contest players, who just want to win, but you’ll also find that there are a lot more people who just needed a little nudge to subscribe. (Be sure to check local laws with regards to contests and giveaways)
3. Tell your subscribers to tell their friends. If you have a loyal subscription base already, why not ask your current users to tell their friends about your email newsletter? Most email tools today offer a quick and easy way to send a copy of your email to their friends, without compromising your permission marketing efforts. If the friend likes it, they can choose to subscribe. In fact, what if you offered a prize to the subscriber who tells the most friends?
4. Forms, forms, everywhere. Adding your email signup form to every page may just do the trick. Keeping it clean and unobtrusive is key in this case, but by adding a first name and email capture form is simple enough that no matter where the visitor is, they can opt in. Have more demographics you require? Tease them with just their email, and take them to the extended form on the next page.
5. Show them what they’ll get. List an archive of past email issues you’ve sent out, so they can see the quality and relevance of your email newsletters and promotions. This way, they can try before they buy, when it comes to your email program. Plus, having an archive of old, quality, and topical emails provide search engines with a tantalizing snack.

These tips on how to grow your email list are all simple, in fact, almost too simple – but they work quite well. Simplifying the process, and making the visitor more aware of what they are subscribing to is key to growing a strong, permission based email marketing list. Plus, if you can leverage your current subscribers, and encourage them to tell their friends, you’ll find very quickly that the saying “birds of a feather flock together” couldn’t be any truer.