Build an Email List Part 1: The Chase

in Lead Generation

Currently, there is a lot of talk among people proclaiming that email marketing is dead or a thing of the past. We couldn’t disagree more. Qualified email subscribers are as good as gold because these are the people that often lead to sales. What is a thing of the past is bad email marketing. No more cluttered emails, no more hidden CTAs, no more walls of text. Everyone is over being bombarded with bad, time-wasting emails that honestly, you tricked them into signing up for when they were just trying to create an account.

Building a quality email list is where the challenge lies. You have to know where you will find the right audience for your information. Of course, once you find the right audience, you have to convince them to reserve a little part of their inbox for your company every week. A good place to start your quest to build an email list is right in front of your face. Think about where you may already have an audience that is captive and permissible to updates. Yep! Your social media channels should be the first place you go to grow an email list. Don’t stop there either, you should also be reaching out to other brands or companies that you may have partnered with to see if they will broadcast your message as well. While this isn’t guaranteed to get you a ton of new subscribers, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try all of the possible channels you can.

Sure, just putting it out there that you have an email list isn’t going to have people signing up in droves. And even though they already accept you into their social feed, doesn’t mean they will blindly let you into their precious inbox. Audiences are more willing to go all in as subscribers if you provide high-value content or the right offerings. What is this mystical high-value offering we are speaking of? Well there isn’t going to be a one size fits all solution, but we do have a few ideas to throw around.

High value doesn’t necessarily mean you have to promise a new car to everyone that subscribes. Value can be found in knowledge for a lot of your audience. Offer an ebook, webinars, exclusive videos, templates, or even as simple as a checklist in exchange for the coveted inbox position. The more immediate the better when it comes to sign-up offers, the instant gratification satiates the want of a good in exchange. The other good way to get quality subscribers is to make sure anyone visiting your site knows subscribers are part of an exclusive club that comes with unique offers. Email subscribers may get first dibs on new products, information, discounts during holidays, or priority for webinar sign-ups. Again the more instantaneous the better and urgency just adds fuel to the flame.

This should give you a good jumping off point. Part 2 will cover how to handle trying everything above and still seeing failure.