So you’ve decided you’d like to send some emails to your customers – but your list is of email subscribers is really small. Gone are the days when the answer to this would be to buy a list of email prospects (unless you want to get your IP address blocked, this is a really bad idea). So how do you grow your email list with subscribers who actually want to hear from you?
Or maybe you already have a list but haven’t used it in a while. Many of the subscribers may have moved jobs, possibly changed email addresses or businesses may now have shut down. It’s therefore important to know how to add fresh contacts to your email list on a regular basis.
Here are a few simple ideas you can use to add to your business’ email marketing list:
- Provide something useful in return for a customer’s email address – for example to download a useful guide. You can also ask for an email address as part of entering a competition or giveaway. These offers and competitions can also be promoted across your social media channels to improve their effectiveness.
- Add a link to your email list to your company’s email signatures. This is another easy way to promote your email list to your contacts.
- Use social sharing buttons and ‘share this with a friend’ features on your emails to your existing list. This makes it easy for your current subscribers to share with their networks. Adding a ‘subscribe’ button makes it easy to add new subscribers.
- Add a newsletter subscription button to your Facebook page to generate more interest and subscribers. Your email list can also be promoted on Pinterest and on LinkedIn in relevant discussion groups.
- Run an opt-in campaign with an existing list of subscribers. We know of one example with a list of over 100k email addresses, they ran an opt-in campaign and lost 90% of that list. Bad news, you might think. But the response rates for campaigns remained unchanged– so large lists can be counter-productive. It’s better to have a well maintained smaller list that are engaged and interested in your business.
- Prospects’ email addresses collected at events such as trade fairs can also be added, provided you send them a welcome email with an opt-in confirmation to ensure you comply with email marketing legal requirements.
Last, but certainly not least, it’s also really important is to create great content in your emails. Useful, relevant content will keep your list engaged and to grow using the suggestions above. If you need any help with that, we’d love to hear from you.
