Top 12 Best Practices to Grow Your Email List in 2023

Email List building is not as easy a task as it sounds, you need to have that patience and most importantly that strategy that makes your audience share their email address with you. Now the main question is how you are going to do it. How to build an email list?

Did you know over 4 billion people use email daily? A recent HubSpot study found that 64% of small businesses use email marketing as a way of reaching out to potential customers. But why is every business obsessing over email list building? Because email marketing is still the most effective way to generate leads. As a result, every business can achieve sky-high ROI in a highly competitive market. Or If you’re also dreaming of the same thing, this is your chance to learn about the whole process of building an engaged email list.

What is an Email List?

An email list in email marketing is a collection of email addresses that have been gathered from people who have opted in to receive emails from a business. This list is used to send marketing emails to subscribers, such as newsletters, product announcements, and promotional offers.

Email lists are an essential part of email marketing because they allow businesses to reach a targeted audience with their messages. When people opt-in to receive emails from a company, they are essentially giving the business permission to communicate with them directly. This can be a very effective way to build customer relationships and promote products or services.

Why Should Businesses Build an Email List?

When anyone starts a business there is one fundamental principle for them is that they want to make more money from their investments than they originally invested. No matter what kind of business you’re in, building an email list is always your most valuable asset like an owned channel. Having owned media is like you’re not at the mercy of algorithm changes or platform restrictions. You can control who sees their emails and when they see them. Moreover, it lets you reach out to your target audience in a more effective way which enables you to increase your ROI.

However, email lists are a direct line to your customers. When someone gives you their email address, they are essentially giving you permission to communicate with them directly. This is a powerful way to stay top-of-mind with your customers and build relationships with them.

It can help you to increase customer loyalty. When you send out valuable content or offers to your email list, you are showing your customers that you appreciate them and that you are committed to providing them with value. This can help you to build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.

According to Hubspot stats, If you invest in email your ROI will be $36 for every $1 spent while compared to PPC marketing, You will get $2 for every $1 spent- it proves that email marketing is an imperative marketing channel. So, for starting to generate leads and get more high ROI, you need to have an engaged email list.

Benefits of Having an Email List

If you are looking for a way to reach your target audience, build relationships with your customers, and grow your business, consider investing in building an email list. It is a powerful marketing tool that can help you to achieve your business goals.

1. Reach a targeted audience:

Email lists allow you to reach a targeted audience with your marketing messages. You can segment your email list based on demographics, interests, or purchase history to ensure that your messages are relevant to the people who receive them.

2. Build relationships with customers:

Email lists are a great way to build relationships with customers. By sending regular emails, you can stay top-of-mind with your subscribers and keep them informed about your latest products, services, and promotions.

3. Personalize communication with your customers:

Email lists allow businesses to collect data about their subscribers, such as their names, interests, and purchase history. This data can then be used to personalize emails, making them more relevant to the recipients.

There are a number of ways to personalize emails. You can use dynamic content, which allows you to insert different content into emails based on the recipient’s data. For example, you could insert the recipient’s name into the email greeting or include products that they have previously purchased. You can also use segmentation, which allows you to send different emails to different groups of subscribers based on their interests or demographics.

Personalized emails are more likely to be opened and read than generic emails. This is because people are more interested in receiving messages that are relevant to them. It can help businesses to improve their conversion rates.

How Does an Email List Help in Lead Generation?

When someone shows interest in your brand, they are more likely to share their personal information with you. Once you get their email ids along with other personal information through opt-in forms, it refers to you achieving leads. In simple words, if users share their email ids in return for free PDFs, free courses, or e-books, then your business gains email leads. For generating leads through email marketing you need a strategy. That’s why you need to know more about how you generate leads through email marketing.

Once you have built an email list, you can use it to generate leads in several ways. You can send email newsletters, promotional emails, and targeted emails to your subscribers. You can also use your email list to re-engage with lapsed customers and promote your products or services to them. Having an email list is essential for any business that wants to generate leads and grow its customer base.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy an Email List

Buying an email list can be tempting because it provides you with a ready-made list of contacts that you can use for marketing purposes. However, there are several considerations to keep in mind:

1. Legality and compliance:

Buying email lists can potentially violate laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States. These regulations require explicit consent from individuals before sending them marketing emails. Purchased lists may not have obtained this consent, putting you at risk of legal issues and damaging your reputation.

2. Relevance and quality:

Purchased email lists may not be targeted or relevant to your specific audience or industry. The contacts on the list might have little interest in your products or services, which can lead to low engagement rates and poor conversion rates. It’s generally more effective to build an organic and engaged email list through opt-in methods.

3. Reputation and deliverability:

Using a purchased email list can harm your reputation as a sender. If recipients start marking your emails as spam or unsubscribing in large numbers, it can negatively impact your email deliverability rates.

Instead of buying email lists, consider focusing on building an organic email list. This involves implementing strategies like offering valuable content or incentives to encourage visitors to your website or social media channels to opt-in to receive emails from you. By growing your list organically, you are more likely to reach people who are genuinely interested in your offerings.

Remember, building a quality email list takes time and effort, but it can lead to better engagement, higher conversions, and a stronger long-term relationship with your subscribers.

How to Build an Email List with Social Media?

We have already discussed how email marketing is an effective tool for lead generation. But you can’t take full advantage of this marketing tool if you don’t have enough subscribers to your email list. That’s why it is time to leverage your social media platforms. This strategy will help you to grow your email list subscribers.

1. Add sign-up buttons to your social media channels:

Include clear and compelling CTAs in your social media profiles, posts, and descriptions. You can use your website or landing pages to attract users and sign them up for your email list. Make the CTA visually appealing and provide a strong incentive to encourage conversions. To create effective sign-up buttons on social media for building your email list, follow these steps:

• Identify the social media platform where you plan to add the sign-up button. The process may vary slightly depending on the platform.
• Select a clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) that encourages users to sign up for your email list. Examples include “Sign up now,” “Get exclusive updates,” or “Join our newsletter.”
• Depending on the social media platform, you may have different options for displaying your sign-up button. It could be a dedicated button, a link, or an interactive element within your post or profile.
• Determine the destination for your sign-up button. It can be a landing page specifically designed for capturing email addresses or a form embedded on your website. Ensure that the page is optimized for mobile devices and provides a seamless user experience.

Remember to comply with the guidelines and policies of the social media platform you’re using. Some platforms have specific rules about promotional content and how sign-up buttons can be presented.

Additionally, leverage the power of your social media posts by including compelling captions that highlight the benefits of signing up for your email list. Use persuasive language and emphasize what subscribers will gain from joining your list.

By strategically placing sign-up buttons on social media and continuously refining your approach, you can effectively drive traffic to your email list and grow your subscriber base.

2. Collaborations and partnerships:

Collaborate with influencers or complementary businesses in your industry to cross-promote each other’s email lists. This can expose your brand to a new audience who may be interested in your products or services. Remember, when collaborating with influencers or businesses, it’s crucial to ensure that their values and audience align with your brand. Authenticity and relevance are crucial for successful collaborations that resonate with both the influencer’s or business’s audience and your own target audience.

3. Focus on contests and giveaways:

Run contests or giveaways on social media platforms where participants are required to provide their email addresses to enter. The prize should be attractive to your target audience and relevant to your business. This strategy can help you capture a significant number of email addresses and generate buzz around your brand.

How to use your website for building an email list?

Utilizing your website can be a smart decision in order to build an email list. Here are some tips which help to consider leveraging your website for the email list-building process.

1. Add sign-up forms:

Place opt-in forms prominently on your website, such as in the header, sidebar, footer, or within the content. These forms allow visitors to enter their email addresses to subscribe to your list. Keep the form simple, asking for minimal information like name and email address to reduce barriers to entry.

2. Avoid Pop-ups and Overlays:

While pop-ups and overlays can be effective for capturing email addresses and driving conversions, some marketers suggest avoiding them due to potential negative user experiences.

Most often it interrupts the user’s browsing experience and can be seen as intrusive or disruptive. They may frustrate visitors and lead to a negative perception of your website or brand. Moreover, it can divert attention away from the main content on your website, reducing user engagement and potentially leading to higher bounce rates. Visitors may quickly close or dismiss the pop-up without engaging with its content.

3. Add a Quiz page:

Adding a quiz page to your website can be a beneficial strategy for building an email list. Quizzes engage users, collect valuable data, and provide opportunities for opt-ins. By incorporating incentives, optimizing for mobile, and leveraging social sharing, quizzes have the potential to drive viral growth and personalized follow-up. Ultimately, a well-designed quiz page can enhance user engagement, capture email addresses, and contribute to the growth of your email list.

4. Offers a gated piece of content:

Content upgrades are closely related to email list building as they serve as valuable incentives for visitors to subscribe to your email list. A content upgrade is a piece of additional or exclusive content that complements a specific blog post or article on your website. It offers visitors the opportunity to access more in-depth information or resources related to the topic they are interested in.

When creating content upgrades, make sure they provide substantial value, are easy to access, and are closely aligned with the topic or theme of the corresponding blog post or article. Promote the content upgrade within the content itself, emphasizing the benefits visitors will gain by subscribing to your email list.

Let’s say you have a blog post titled “10 Essential Home Workout Exercises.” This blog post provides general information about various exercises that can be done at home. To create a content upgrade and encourage email subscriptions, you could offer a downloadable PDF guide titled “Home Workout Routine Planner” as the upgrade.

The “Home Workout Routine Planner” is a comprehensive resource that provides a step-by-step guide to creating personalized workout routines at home. It includes exercise recommendations, tips for scheduling workouts, and space for users to write down their own workout plans.

To access the content upgrade, visitors would be prompted to subscribe to your email list. They would enter their email address and receive a confirmation email with a link to download the “Home Workout Routine Planner” PDF.

5. Embedded opt-in forms at checkouts:

Now most e-commerce websites have come up with a new idea where users share their personal information with the specific website while at checkouts. So, they can get confirmation from that specific website. Moreover, they can get all the updates for their ordering. This is one most important checkout security that ever had in an e-commerce website. Also, it is one non-invasive way to build an email list and encourage subscribers.

6. Use referrals and loyalty programs:

It incentivizes your existing subscribers or customers to refer their friends, family, or colleagues to join your email list. When someone successfully refers a new subscriber, they may receive a reward, such as a discount, free product, or exclusive content. This encourages your current subscribers to actively promote your brand and share the benefits of being on your email list.

How to Build an Email List Offline?

Although your website is the best way to build your email list, you don’t have to rely on it solely. You can also grow your email list by using offline channels. Here are some easy ways to do this:

1. Use trade shows:

Trade shows are a great way for businesses to connect with other wholesalers and sell directly to consumers. You can capture email information at trade shows using the same signup sheets, upon purchase, or by hosting giveaways. You can also encourage people to sign up for your email list on your business cards. By using giveaways, business cards, and sign up sheets, you can capture a significant amount of email information at trade shows.

2. Utilize direct mail:

Include a call-to-action in your direct mail materials, such as postcards or catalogs, inviting recipients to visit your website or call a dedicated phone number to join your email list. Provide a clear incentive to encourage sign-ups.

3. In-store management:

People who visit your physical store can be converted into mailing list subscribers by using signup sheets at your store or checkout desk. By offering incentives you can encourage people who visit your physical store to sign up for your email list. This will help you to stay in touch with potential customers and promote your products or services.

Take a creative approach—for example, if a customer at the changing booth asks for an item that’s currently unavailable, encourage them to sign up for stock updates or notifications about new arrivals. It is important to note that you must obtain people’s consent before collecting their email addresses offline. This means that you must ask them if they are willing to provide their email address and explain how you will use it.

How to Manage and Maintain Your Email List?

Managing and maintaining your email list is crucial for effective email marketing. Here are some key practices to follow:

• Use a reputable email service provider (ESP): Choose a reliable ESP that offers features for list management, segmentation, and automation. Popular ESPs include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Brevo.
• Segment your list: Divide your email list into segments based on criteria such as demographics, interests, or engagement levels. This allows you to send targeted and personalized content to specific groups, increasing relevance and engagement.
• Regularly clean your list: Clean your list by removing invalid email addresses, unsubscribed users, or inactive subscribers. Most ESPs provide tools to identify and remove such contacts, ensuring your list remains up-to-date and engaged.
• Respect subscriber preferences: Honor your subscribers’ preferences and give them control over their subscriptions. Provide clear and accessible options to update preferences or unsubscribe from your emails. This helps maintain a positive user experience and avoids potential spam complaints.
• Provide valuable content: Keep your subscribers engaged by consistently delivering valuable and relevant content. Tailor your emails to their interests and preferences, and avoid excessive promotional or irrelevant messages. Encourage feedback and interaction to foster a two-way communication channel.
• Test and optimize: Continuously test and optimize your email campaigns. Experiment with different subject lines, email layouts, calls to action, and send times. Analyze performance metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to identify areas for improvement.
• Stay updated on best practices: Stay informed about evolving email marketing best practices and industry trends. Subscribe to reputable email marketing blogs, attend webinars, and network with fellow marketers to stay ahead of the curve.

By implementing these practices, you can effectively manage and maintain your email list, ensuring a healthy and engaged subscriber base that yields positive results for your email marketing campaigns.

Conclusion:

In 2023, email list building is one most essential goal for every business because it is the effective way you can make conversions and improve your ROI. Moreover, the power of email marketing lies in the ability to engage customers on a personal level. You’ll be building your email list from a lot of different sources if you use even a few of these ideas. With our email marketing services, you don’t have to worry about your email list building. As the best email marketing company, we are always here to help you. From building an email list to sending personalized emails to your target audience, all are managed by our experienced team. If you want to know more about our digital marketing services, contact us now. Keep an eye on our blog page if you’re interested in learning more about trending topics.