Businesses have been using email marketing to promote and grow their business for many years. In spite of the benefits, many small businesses find it difficult to take full advantage of email marketing as they don’t know where to start or find it difficult to build an email list.

Building a list of potential customers is one of the first steps for any business. However this is also one of the biggest challenges, particularly for small businesses.

Email list building requires a strategic approach in order to achieve the desired results. Simply adding your sign-up form to your website is not enough. In this article we take a look at 21 effective strategies for obtaining more subscribers.

1. Use Custom Landing Pages

Landing pages are dedicated sales or sign-up pages that are designed to encourage conversions. Whether it is the sale of a product or a sign-up form for your email newsletter, use of well designed custom landing pages can play a significant part in lead generation. Dedicated landing pages give you the opportunity to promote your offer and highlight the benefits of joining your email list. If you plan your landing pages well and include the essential element, you can boost conversions manifold.

2. Use Good Email Marketing Software

Good email marketing software makes it easier to manage your marketing campaigns. It also makes email marketing more efficient and productive for your business. Time and resources saved as a result can be better used on other more important aspects of email marketing such as creating quality email content or promoting your newsletter.

3. Offer An Incentive to Sign-Up

Providing website visitors with an incentive to sign-up to your email list is a very effective technique to increase sign-ups. An incentive can be anything from a free eBook to a free account  on your subscription site. This is a great way to motivate users to join your list and increase conversions.

4. Make Your Sign-up Form Stand Out

The design of your email sign-up form plays a very important role in driving conversions. A visually appealing, well designed sign-up form that is placed prominently above the fold on your website can help to grab the attention of website visitors and encourage them to join your list.

5. Display on All Pages of Your Website

Consider displaying your sign-up form on all pages e.g. in your side-bar also improves visibility and will help to get more attention from users. Some websites, particularly blogs, are also able to increase sign-ups by displaying the email subscription form in more than one place on the page e.g. in the side-bar as well as below the post.

6. Use Multiple Placement

Consider displaying your sign-up for in more than one place on the page e.g. in your side-bar as well as below the content. This will increase the attention it gets from visitors and can increase conversions. See image below.

7. Use Call to Action in Button Text

Call to action motivates users to take the desired action e.g. encourage them to sign-up to your list. The button on your subscription form is very important. Use a bold design to make it stand out and highlight the ‘call to action’ in button text e.g. subscribe to our list or join our newsletter instead of using generic text such as submit or apply.  See image below.

8.Test Alternatives With Google Content Experiments

Split testing is an easy and effective way to test alternative versions of your email sign-up form to determine the version that works best.  It is a great way to boost your conversions. You can use it to try out variations in design, layout, or placement of your form to see what works best. Businesses have been able to increase list sign-ups by 327% using this simple strategy.

Split testing has become even easier and can be done from within your Google Analytics Dashboard. Google Analytics now includes a new tab titled “Content experiments” that allows you to run such tests on your website.

9. Take Advantage of Directional Cues

Visual cues e.g. arrows have become a very popular tactic for directing user’s attention and boosting sign-ups.  They are particularly effective in email sign-up forms. Visual cues such as underlining or circling an important word as well as directional arrows are a powerful way to redirect focus towards important elements that affect decision-making.

10. Experiment With Pop-Ups or Overlays

This technique has gained in popularity in recent years. It involves displaying your sign-up form in an overlay window when a user first visits a website e.g. in a pop-in window or modal box. Many businesses are now taking advantage of this method to boost sign-ups. See image below.

Sites that use this method have reported significant increases in sign-up rates.

11. Use Compelling Label/Headline

Use clear label or heading above your sign-up form and use it to highlight the benefits. Headings like “Learn How to Rank at the Top of Google” or “Get Practical SEO Tips” help to reinforce the benefits of signing-up and motivate users to join your list.

12. Make Your Newsletters Easy to Share

Make it easy for people to forward or share your email with friends. Displaying a simple “refer a friend” or “Share it on social media” link in your emails or next to your form can increase your sign-ups and increase the chances of going viral.

13. Display Social Proof

Knowing that there are others who are already benefiting from your email list can act as a powerful motivator for new users to join your list.  If you have a large number of subscribers, consider advertising your subscriber count next to your opt-in form e.g. “Join 10k users who have already signed up”.

If you don’t have a large enough subscriber list yet, consider showcasing your overall online following by aggregating email subscribers and social media fan-base.

14. Run Contests & Giveaways

Running promotions, contests or giveaways is another effective way to build your email database. Businesses small and large are taking advantage of contests to attract customers and encourage them to participate. All you need to do is make it mandatory for users to provide their email in order to participate.

Take a look at an example below.

15. Highlight the Privacy and Confidentiality of Customer Data

People want to know that the personal data they provide during sign-up is kept confidential and safe. Let them know how you intend to use their data. Put a link to your privacy policy next to the email sign-up form or display text to indicate that data will not be shared without consent. This will instill confidence among users at the point of sign-up and boost conversions.

16. Provide A Sample or Preview of Your Newsletter

Some users prefer to review a sample of your newsletter before they subscribe. Providing access to samples of past newsletters is an easy way to do this. Another useful approach is to publish an online archive of old newsletters on your website.

See image below.

17. Integrate Sign-up Into Other Forms

It is common for businesses to use several data capture forms on the website. It is easy to add to request email address from customers on multiple data capture forms on website. Adding a simple checkbox to opt-in to your newsletter at the end of all other forms that include an email field is a great way to leverage these forms to grow your email list.

See example below where a checkbox to sign-up for email updates is integrated into the comment form:

18. Promote Your Email List Externally

Your email list is not much different to any other product or service offered by your business. How many leads you get will depend largely on how well it is promoted online. There are several easy ways you can promote your email list.

• Promote it using social media
• Include a link in your email signature
• Leverage your existing contacts
• Write a blog post to promote your email list
• Promote it in the author box or byline of your articles

19. Display a Short Testimonial

Testimonials from other customers is a very effective way to attract new customers. Although this is typically applied on product sales pages, it can prove equally effective on your email sign-up landing page. Displaying a short testimonial near your sign-up form helps to build trust and confidence among users. It can also help to highlight the benefits of signing up.

20.  Promote Your Email List Throughout Your Website

The more attention your opt-in form gets on your website, the higher will be your conversions. There are several tactics to maximize attention your email sign-up for receives on your website. These include:

• Placing email opt-in form in more than one place on a page
• Making sure sign-up form is displayed on all pages, not just your homepage
• Using free plugins like ‘Hello Bar’ to highlight your newsletter

21. Add a Sign-up Tab on Your Facebook Page

Create an email opt-in tab on your company’s Facebook Page is an easy way to leverage social media to boost your email list. For best results, create a dedicated page accessible via a tab highlighting the benefits of joining your list and allow visitors to join your list without leaving your Facebook Page.

Bonus:

Offer Multiple List Building Opportunities

Although starting an email newsletter is one of the most common ways to build your email list, there are others effective ways to do this. Offering an email series, webinar, or another similar product that requires users to provide their email address to access the service can be equally effective. Popular website often use more than one approach to grow their email list.

Conclusion:

Email marketing has long been one of the most effective marketing tactics for businesses large and small. One of the biggest challenges business face is to grow and build their email list. The techniques above can help you to achieve this.

What About You?

Do you use email marketing for your business? Are you taking advantage of the tactics above to get more email subscribers? We would like to hear from you. Please share your response by leaving a comment below.