Everything About Building an Email List From Scratch
Emailing is an incredibly powerful marketing tool. It is one of the best forms of communication with your customers. While social media attracts a lot of attention, the most effective digital channel for promoting products and services is still the use of the email list. Experts claim that emailing is more effective than any other form of online marketing, including regular and paid search.
According to recent research, the return on investment in email marketing can reach 4,400%. It means that you will get $44 for every one dollar spent on an emailing campaign. Thus, you need to create an email list from the ground and run your business successfully. So, how can you build such a list quickly and inexpensively? Read the answers below:
1. Define Your Target Audience
Before building an email list, you need to realize who are the recipients to whom you are going to send messages. Every essay writer knows how it is crucial to maintain communication with regular customers. You can just buy a broad base of emails, but this is not a great idea. It is much better to use your own resources and create a brand new business email list for your needs.
For that, it is recommended to create a marketing image of your ideal customer. The more parameters you take into account, the more accurate this image will be. Next, you need to determine where you can find your audience in social terms.
2. Create Your Website or Blog
You need a place where you can gather your members. At the same time, you do not need a big and tricky-out website for building an email list. In fact, you just have to create a one-page site with a registration form for visitors who will want to subscribe to your newsletters.
In just a few minutes, you can create such a website using services such as Leadpages.net, iContact.com, Hubspot.com, or Wix.com. Most of the offered templates have basic features, such as headers, images, and bulleted lists.
If you opt for using a paid advertising channel like Google AdWords or Bing, you have to ensure that your website complies with all of their requirements. Some advertising channels require a multi-page site with particular sections, such as contact information, privacy policy, and terms of use.
3. Choose an Email Marketing Service
You will need an email marketing platform to communicate with your subscribers. An email platform helps organize an email list and send messages. You can start with such a service as Mailchimp. As your email marketing develops, you will have more options for working with your mailing list. For example, you will be able to run various campaigns and work with target subgroups.
Start your emailing to new subscribers with a welcome message explaining how often you will send notifications and news to them. Also, describe in general terms what kind of information you will be sending, and do not forget about your initial offer.
Thus, the subscribers will be able to familiarize themselves with the offered assortment immediately. For instance, if a customer wonders, “How can I write my essay online?” — the answer will be found in the first message. Also, you need to keep in mind that the essence of building an email list is honesty. If you are honest with your subscribers, they will respond accordingly.
4. Come Up With a Tempting Offer
Whatever you do, you have to get people interested so that they will want to join your email list. To do this, you need to understand what your target audience wants. Usually, the best offers are your personal resources, which you can post on your website completely free of charge. For example, you can share your library, useful software, music, or other material that might be of interest to your future subscribers.
At first, it would be helpful to find out what your audience wants. You can do this using a survey. In this way, you can figure out what your future subscribers are looking for, and then you can give them what they want. No one wants to stay subscribed unless they get something useful or interesting.
Once you know what it is, you can use it as an incentive (product discount, white paper, check list, etc.) to subscribe to your email list. To make it less annoying, incorporate behavior-triggered smart popups that appear only after a specific users’ action on your website.
You probably already have several email addresses in your mailbox. Can you add them to your email list? Of course you can, but first, it is advisable to write to these people personally and redirect them to your registration form. They will make their own conscious choices and subscribe to your messages.
In the welcome message, you can thank them for the subscription, tell more about your product, and provide answers to frequently asked questions. Set up automatic sending of emails, and it will work well. In this way, you will not have to enter multiple addresses manually.
5. Think Over an Incentive System
Bonuses for a subscription are considered the best practice in email marketing. However, research conducted by MarketingCharts showed that B2B marketers are more successful at promoting subscriptions with incentive signups, while the B2C approach works perfectly with signups and without bonuses.
In other words, regular customers are less likely to accept your proposal for promotional bonuses, and businesses are more inclined to sign up for a small reward. However, bonuses remain a great way to show customers that you are interested in them.
6. Use Social Media
With social networks, you can get email addresses of many users. Social media allows you to make your information public, and you can easily go beyond your standard circle of friends and acquaintances. If you have an account in any social network, you can post a link to your landing page there. It will definitely attract at least a few customers for your future mailings.
Another effective method of using social media is to join existing groups of your target audience. In such groups, you can post links to your registration page. You should not separate email marketing and social media though. You will only benefit if you allow these two systems to work together. For example, SendPulseS has integration with Facebook. It helps deliver leads from your Facebook ad campaigns straight to your address book.
7. Use Paid Ads
No matter how much you spend on getting email addresses, you will undoubtedly receive income from this list. You can expand your list of addresses by purchasing ad traffic. Using the powerful segmentation features of social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you can quickly target your ads to specific audiences. You can spend a few dollars for each email address, but you will benefit in the long run.
8. Implement Content Marketing
We can compare an email list with a lawn. You need to mow the grass and remove weeds regularly. Otherwise, your garden will not look great. Do the same with your marketing email list. While the idea of having a large number of subscribers sounds appealing, your email list will not be beneficial if it does not have intrinsic value.
The power of content should not be underestimated. Content marketing has been and will be one of the most potent forms of marketing. Whether you are a beginner or advanced expert in content marketing, you probably know how effective it can be. You first engage users with your content and then invite them to become part of your mailing community. By posting a few targeted articles with thoughtful SEO, you can increase your site’s traffic and the number of subscribers.
Conclusion
Overall, you should build an email list only with targeted users. Fake and illegitimate email addresses will not do you any good. Besides, it is better to have a list with fewer interested subscribers than a massive list in which only a small part of users are really interested in your product. Emailing to inactive subscribers naturally decreases your brand value.
You can also try such advanced techniques as webinars, giveaways, and pop-ups. The more strategies you apply, the more your email list will grow. Thus, you do not have to reinvent the wheel to get more subscribers. Tried and tested email list management methods usually work better, but you can experiment and use new subscription channels for better results.