What is one of the best ways to connect with customers and improve your conversion rates? A good old-fashioned email list, of course! On average, email marketing lists boost ROI an average of 38 times its original amount. The conclusion? Email lists work. (In fact, they work wonders.)
What’s the catch, then? Simply put, making a large email list quickly or organically isn’t always an intuitive process. So, without further ado, let’s examine some of the best, most creative methods for growing an email list that customers are delighted to be a part of.
Utilize Pop-Up Ads
We know what you’re thinking. Pop-up ads? Don’t customers find those really obnoxious? Well, yes, sometimes, if the pop-ups are distracting, repetitive, or irrelevant. When intentional and truly helpful, a little pushy salesmanship can go a long way, and can even lead to over 9% more conversions. That may not sound like a lot, but if we’re talking out of all the users who stumble across your site, it’s quite the leap.
Not only do pop-ups have a 100% view rate, but they also require users to engage. And if those users have to close out of the pop-up window anyway, they may as well plug their email and sign up for deals.
We suggest only showing one major pop-up ad per customer—a new member discount, an email signup ad for return shoppers, etc. After all, pages with two or more pop-ups can come across as unrefined or, indeed, obnoxious to users.
Offer Specials in Exchange for Information
If you’ve decided to go the pop-up ad route, congrats, you’ve just combined two techniques in one! If pop-ups aren’t your thing, you can still encourage customers to join your email list by offering special perks in return. This often manifests in a tasteful sidebar web form of some sort, where customers can enter their contact info in exchange for sweet deals. In many cases, names, phone numbers, and addresses aren’t necessary—just that email address. This is an email marketing campaign, after all!
Again, these so-called “special offers” have to be worth your customers’ time. No one wants to sign up for email discounts to find they’re barely earning 5% back. Similarly, don’t bombard your customer with emails—two to three a week should do it, and even less than that if you’re marketing to an older crowd.
Administer Customer Surveys
Post-purchase email surveys are a great way to get inside customers’ heads and understand what they really think of your brand. Not to mention that 24.8% of customers respond to targeted surveys, which means you’re reaching a huge market. Imagine how much those numbers would increase if said surveys had some reward or incentive upon completion? From there, you can add your survey-taker to that ever-growing email list.
Not sure where to start? Platforms like MailChimp are designed precisely for such questionnaires. What are you waiting for? Connect with customers, get some feedback, and watch that email list grow.
Host a Virtual Event or Webinar
Is your product a tad complicated? In other words, could it benefit from a live demo or question and answer session? Webinars are just the way to do that. Besides which, they’re great for getting customers who were already curious about your brand to keep asking questions and requesting more info. Allowing your audience either before or after the webinar to submit their email for updates is a savvy way to build your list organically.
Encourage Discussion and Calls to Action on Blog Posts
Does your content warrant a regular blog post? Do you have questions prepared to ask your customers, whether they’re direct or open-ended? Whatever the case, a call to action (CTA) drives engagement and can be a useful tool in building an email list. For example, say that the customers couldn’t respond or join the conversation until they provided their email address?
Once you’ve got people subscribed to your list, keep the calls to action coming! A single CTA can boost clicks up to 371%. Essentially, the end goal is not merely to get customers to sign up for emails, but to keep them regularly engaging with them, too.
Are you worried about the comment section getting heated, but still want customers to engage with your blogs? Consider disabling comments but allowing users to subscribe (*cough, cough* by email) to your blog or newsletter instead. If you go this route, make sure your written content is riveting enough—or otherwise worth subscribing to in the first place!
Snap: Grass-Fed, Cage-Free Organic Email Marketing
At Snap Agency, we’re dedicated to helping your business build its email list in a natural and straightforward way. For help crafting stellar email marketing content, customer surveys, blog posts, and the like, come talk with us.