How to grow your email list: Proven strategies for success
Why your email list is essential
Your email list represents your audience - the ones you truly "own." Yes you have your social media platforms but you're essentially renting space there whilst your email list is a direct line to your customers. The return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is around 40:1, compared to 2-4:1 for ads and less than 10:1 for social media. So why wouldn’t you leverage this powerful tool?
Email allows you to nurture relationships, personalise your messaging, and retarget warm audiences (like those who abandon their carts).
Remember - More people read your emails than see your social posts, building brand familiarity, trust, and loyalty. And that’s powerful stuff!
Optimising your pop-up strategy
You pop up is important because it’s the main place you collect email addresses so it have to kill it. Most pop ups I see have been set to forget and not been changed or tested in a long time, sometimes years, is this you? I see you!
So what are the rules about your pop up?
Value Proposition: Ensure the offer is enticing enough to warrant a click.
Timing: Display pop ups at optimal times to capture attention without annoyance.
Accessibility: Use teasers so visitors can access the pop up even if they close it initially.
Offers: Use pop ups to highlight special deals.
Test various things to try and entice your customers to handover their email address and don’t underestimate how hard it is to get those addresses - you have to offer a strong trade to get your traffic to hand over their addresses.
Tip - Aim for as close to 8-10% sign up as you can possibly get.
The VIP push
How actively do you promote your email list? Shift from passive mentions to ACTIVE encouragement. Use strategies like FOMO to highlight the scarcity of products or exclusive perks for subscribers. What unique benefits do your email subscribers get? Make sure it’s compelling.
Building hype for events
Every launch or event should include an email list push. Gather a warm audience beforehand by building excitement on social media. Use the event to talk non stop about your email list, encouraging followers to sign up. Consider running pre-event ads linking to a sign-up page to build this list too.
Discounting behind an email wall
Integrate this with your pop up strategy. Create a hidden page on your website accessible only to email subscribers. Use an embedded form to collect email addresses, and then send a link to the discount page via email.
Running exclusive sales for your email list encourages sign ups and engagement. This can work really well as it means even if they want to have a look they have to be on your email list.
Guest appearances on other brand emails
Grow organically by leveraging another brand’s audience. Get together with another brand and agree to swap some space on your campaign to talk about the other brand. Team this with an offer only they have access to where they have to go via an email sign up page to get access. This can include exclusive access or discounts requiring email sign up, driving traffic and new sign ups. The best part? It’s free!
Collaborations
Borrow audiences through product collaborations, guest blogging, content hosting, or influencer partnerships. These collaborations increase exposure and email sign ups.
Live chat box integration
A live chat box can boost conversion rates. Use it to capture email addresses for follow ups, or offer discount codes through platforms like Tidio and Zapier.
Referrals and forwarding
Encourage customers to forward your campaigns to friends or family. Offer incentives like discounts for their referrals. VIP treatments can motivate existing subscribers to share, driving new sign ups through referral links and unique discount codes.
Keep your content engaging
Your goal is to make customers look forward to your emails, ensuring high click through rates. Engaging content encourages sharing. Think about how often you forward interesting emails to others - create that same appeal for your audience.
Share previews and ask
Tease sneak peeks in your social stories and highlight what exclusive content email subscribers receive. Talk about what email people are getting that others are not. Direct people to a dedicated landing page for easy sign up - make sure it’s not asking them to go on the website and wait for the pop up or scroll to the bottom. Ask them to join!
My key takeaways
Value Trade: Ensure the offer justifies the effort of signing up.
Website Role: Your website should create enough desire to prompt email sign ups.
Email-First Mentality: Always be strategising on how to collect email addresses. It should be head and shoulders above lots of other activity
The main thing is the value trade. Is the juice worth the squeeze? It's also the job of your website to do the heavy lifting to create the desirability for them. Making it easy for them to give their email address to you. Always be thinking about how you can get their email address - think email first. I can promise you it pays off!