Imagine that tomorrow – Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all close. They are gone for good. Your followers, your likes all of it gone. Imagine having all of those contacts safely stashed in your email marketing list.
No sweat.
But, if you are one of the many businesses who have found collecting email addresses either tedious, hard work, or not necessary, then you’re missing out on something that might be coined as your most valuable list.
Email marketing is considered high impact. It is a very low-cost way of getting your products in front of hot leads – after all, they’ve signed up right?
For the sake of this article, let’s assume you don’t have an emailing list at the moment. Let’s build it from scratch.
CTA
A call to action on your website, and all of your social media ‘sign-up here’, ‘free PDF here,’ ‘20% off on sign-up’. Incentivize your call to action, and you’re going to be getting off on the right foot.
Of course, don’t expect that your list will be packed out immediately, you’ll need to keep working on it.
Typically, people need more than just a ‘please give me your email address’ type of button. They want something in return.
You can spin the wheel for your personal offer, a toolkit, a free information booklet, or even a quiz. As long as you are clear that they will be added to an email marketing list and offer the opt-out/opt-in checkboxes in plain sight.
Read also: How to Double Your Blog Traffic Using Pinterest
Pop-ups
Check what the most popular page on your website is, and place a pop-up there. You can also have a slideout on a timer, this will be based on the customer’s activities.
With some research, you can perfect the time in which the slide-out or pop-up should happen.
Hand on the door pop-ups are pretty effective. This is when the user displays ‘leave’ behaviors, it will be picked up, and they will be presented with a pop-up.
Time Options
As people scroll down the page, they are more likely to be looking for specific information.
Let’s face it, most people don’t arrive at your website site and head to your sign-up box. If the option isn’t presented, then they will likely just leave without leaving you any valuable information.
Time a pop-up survey that has a simple question, and the option to add their email address in. Have it only appear for around 10 seconds, it needs to be a non-invasive as possible.
Value
Present them a valuable asset. Your CTA should clearly tell them what they will get if they sign-up.
Download XXXX eBook now. Simple and effective.
Make sure that it is exclusive to the email sign-up, and isn’t available anywhere else on your website.
Email Signature
How many business-focused emails do you send per day? Well, start using your email signature to promote your list sign-up too.
You can also run an email tracking software to see what is getting engagement, like this one.
Landing Pages
Increasing the number of landing pages your website has, will, in turn, increase the number of leads you get (i.e., the email sign-ups).
It makes sense. Logically, different people are looking for different things – and they need different options. The more ways you can offer the list, the more sign-ups you’ll get.
Don’t Be Scared
There is a lot to be said for a great user experience, people don’t love pop-ups, they aren’t in love with questionnaires either.
So yes, they need to be well placed and not too intrusive, but you shouldn’t be scared to have them running. You are running a business, after all.
Tools
All of this is made much easier when you use the right tools.
If you have a website built on WordPress, there are some great plugins that take minimal effort to set up and have maximum impact.
You will want something cost effective though, in the early days, you might not have the spare cash to spend on a more significant program.
- ConvertKit is great for building landing pages, and collecting email addresses – then automatically delivering a full email campaign on a timer. It’s excellent and has a range of other options too.
- MailChimp one of the most used because it is so simple. It has plugins that you can hook up with your website and is so packed out with features.
- Optin Panda, this smart plugin locks content behind it. To access that fantastic blog post you’ve just written, they have to pop in their email address first.
- WP Subscribe, if you just don’t want a substantial weight program running, this is a simple install and activate the plugin – the free version works perfectly if you are just starting out.
Your email contact list is a fantastic way to deliver great content, share offers, and news and interact directly with your audience. Not only that, but it will give you access to even more analytics to improve your sales.
Email marketing list – it’s a must, not a maybe.
Stock Photo from Floral Deco @ Shutterstock
