So You Want More Email Sign Ups? Build An Email List From Scratch

Email marketing is still one of the best and most cost-efficient ways to attract and retain customers. Building an email list of subscribers from scratch can greatly improve your marketing ROI and overall marketing effectiveness.

Many people outside of the marketing world see email as one of the least effective forms of marketing. This is because a lot of us use features like spam filters to help sort our emails so that we only see the most important messages, or emails from companies that we really value. As a result, a lot of the marketing emails that we get are simply ignored or discarded, rendering them virtually useless.

But that doesn’t mean that email shouldn’t be used and that it is a bad form of marketing these days. In fact, far from it. Email can help you boost the number of website visitors and social media followers.

By building your list of email subscribers and using it strategically, you can also increase the pool of potential customers for your products and services, and drive meaningful customer engagement tied to relevant content.

Email marketing is still incredibly effective when used correctly.

Email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools available to businesses that want to grow their audience. Enticing customers and teaching them about your products and services via email is one of the best ways to grow your company, making email marketing one of the easiest ways to achieve those goals.

Marketing itself is a complicated process that makes use of many different kinds of content and tools, from opt-in and pop up forms to lead magnets, social media and blog posts.

Email is just one of the methods that we use to reach out to audiences. It’s a tried and tested method that has been optimized over many years of trial and error, which is why it’s still such an effective means of advertising, lead generation and customer retention.

In fact, one of the reasons why email campaigns are still so popular is due to the fact that retaining customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones. This means that marketing methods like email become incredibly cost-effective when fine-tuned for customer retention.

You likely already have an email list of people who are interested in your products or are past paying customers. This makes them very valuable pre-qualified leads. Their past association with your company almost immediately makes them suitable candidates for retention. In other words, they’re already inside your tent. Now, let’s keep them there. Email can help with that.

But one of the biggest challenges to running an effective email marketing campaign is building your email list from scratch. While you probably have customer emails from product purchases or opt-in forms, do you have enough?

If you haven’t focused enough time and resources to collect email addresses, your current list may not be substantial enough to run a robust and successful email marketing campaign.

There are a number of ways to bring more attention to your email list sign up form so that you get more email sign ups. So how do we go about getting more visitors to your site to build an effective email list?

Make a good landing page to get people interested in your products and services.

One of the best ways to grab your audience’s attention is to make better use of landing pages as a springboard to the email list sign up process. When you start using search engines to build your digital presence, landing pages are often used especially if you want to appeal to customers in particular demographics or geographical locations.

These pages are essentially lead magnets when used correctly with signup forms. They can lead to more sign ups to help build your email lists when designed correctly. Here are some of the things you should look out for.

• Less is usually more for a landing page. Effective sign up form pages use as few words as possible to communicate their messages and invite people to subscribe. Your list building efforts will likely go to waste if you use too many words to describe something. Keep it short and sweet, and include only the most important information on the sign up form.
• Make your landing page clean and legible. A clean landing page makes it easy for search engines to navigate and it also improves legibility for website visitors.
• Have relevant content and a strong value message on your landing page. It’s important to have that strong value message to draw in your target audience as well as new subscribers. Whether you’re offering a free ebook, an enter-to-win, or have a strong call to action in the first heading, you have to do something to grab their attention and encourage them to sign up.
• Use trust signals and testimonials. Online businesses can be difficult to trust, but that’s why it helps to have a Facebook page full of testimonials or trust signals in the form of emblems and awards from other trusted businesses, and happy customers and subscribers.
• If you’re using sign up forms, keep them short. A landing page should have an opt in form near the top for collecting email addresses, that encourages people to sign up for more information. It’s a great way to start building an email list. But you need to keep the form short and concise.
• Ensure your pages look good on all platforms. It helps to have your website look consistent on all platforms regardless if it’s mobile or desktop. This makes your website much more attractive to a wider range of audiences, new subscribers and paying customers on all platforms. You’re likely to get more sign ups if your pages and forms work consistently across platforms.
• Tailor your content for specific audiences. An effective list building strategy is to focus on sign ups from specific audiences. You can do this by tailoring content such as a blog post, guest posting, or other social media posts to attract those audiences as a priority.
• Always test your pages for issues. Lastly, make sure you test your sign up form page for any issues. If there are bugs or spelling errors, then you’re going to get customer retention issues and wasted advertising costs. You may also be reprimanded by your email service provider if broken links are a regular feature of your emails. Not only is this frustrating to your customers, but your email service provider may embargo your emails until the problems are resolved.

Use an “opt in form” to encourage your visitors to sign up to your email list.

Opt in forms are a great list building strategy because it helps you build your email list from scratch. You can create lead magnets with high-quality landing pages and relevant content offerings that respect your audience because you’re not sneakily collecting email addresses.

Instead, you’re being honest about your desire to collect emails and your audience gets to choose whether or not they want to opt in. This can lead to more sign up opportunities to build an email list while also building trust.

However, you may want to get a content upgrade on your opt in forms so that you’re more likely to attract new customers. Enticing copy can be a huge benefit when creating a great email list since it attracts your target audiences and interests new subscribers too.

Should you use an email pop up to grow your email list?

An email pop up is essentially an opt-in form that pops up instead of being a stationary button on a website. These usually appear when you first load a landing page, but they might only appear after you’ve scrolled down a page for a set amount of time.

Or, you may also employ an exit intent pop up to grab your visitor’s attention to prompt a sale or other engagement mechanism before the visitor exits your webpage.

This is a great way to attract your target audience when used correctly. Email pop ups typically have a very short opt-in form that only requires the customer to enter a name and an email, and it’ll list a few of the biggest benefits for signing up.

The benefits could be product discounts, or a “call-out” to chat with a customer service rep for more information. Or, the pop up could be related to a one-time offer for a new customer, or exclusive access to a video or an eBook download.

But whatever the offer or perk, it must be perceived as being “of value” to your customer. When used incorrectly, email popups can be very poor at generating more subscribers because it seems like low-effort spam. And no one likes spam.

However, if you can show value plus write compelling copy that encourages your audiences to pay attention, then an email pop up window can be a great way to start collecting email addresses and building your email community via your landing pages.

How to make your email marketing more effective in the long run.

Email marketing isn’t easy. However, if done correctly using marketing automation, list segmentation, landing pages, pop ups and lead magnets it can have a big payoff when building an email list. There are certainly ways to generate leads without drastically changing your existing content, marketing approach, or spending a ton of cash.

Use a personalized call-to-action whenever possible.

A personalized call-to-action for every sign up makes a lot more sense than copy and pasting the same one multiple times. Each page should be tailored to a specific audience that will be enticed by different calls to action.

Make use of humor when appropriate.

Humor and sarcasm are great tools to use when you want your business to seem more down-to-earth and approachable. The purpose of this is to inject a little more personality into your emails. This helps your business seem a little more relatable and helps audiences learn more about the way you do business and how you interact with customers.

These should typically be positive messages. For instance, you could add little notes to your sign up form that say “Yes, I would like to get amazing discounts” and “No, I like wasting money” to create a bit of contrast and humor. These are also great to add on a pop up email form.

Humor and approachability can go a long way in establishing a connection with both your target audience and new subscribers alike. Use it sparingly and judiciously until you have a sense of how your customers are responding. You’ll know.

Always talk about value.

Value is important to talk about when you want more email subscribers. If you don’t talk about the benefits of signing up, then it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to get your visitor’s email address. Whether it’s giving them exclusive deals, sales alerts, or even free content that you normally charge for, it’s a good idea to clearly state what it is that you can offer your audience.

Include social media in your list building strategies.

Social media platforms can be an excellent way for you to drive traffic, spread the word about referral programs, and even generate new email subscribers. This is because social media is all about sharing content, talking about your products, and interacting with your audience. It’s the perfect way to start email list building and can become a lead magnet once you gain a large enough following. Just make sure your social media bios have relevant information and you’re using the right social media accounts to represent your business.

Conclusion

Getting visitors to subscribe to your email list can be challenging, especially if you don’t get many website visitors because your pages are relatively new. With signup forms and social media channels, you could garner a lot more attention that will improve your list building efforts and email marketing campaigns.

Of all the marketing strategies that you could utilize, lead generation with email marketing is often the best way to find more potential customers and retain existing ones. So, build an email list to get you started on the road to email marketing success.