How to Build an Email List that Converts

The oldest digital marketing channel, email, still retains a huge deal of influence on marketing. So, it is needless to say that you should set a good email marketing strategy. Not that we haven’t talked about email marketing and why it is so effective before. 

To carry out those practices, however, you surely need an audience -an email list in this case. Let’s see how to build an email list, how to grow it and convert your subscribers into customers.

Key Takeaways

• Defining your ideal reader is essential for creating content that will appeal to your target audience.
• Provide value in your emails and emphasise the benefits they’ll gain if they keep reading you.
• A/B test your emails for accurate results and use an email autoresponder series for convenience and conversion increase.

7 Reasons Why You Need an Email List

Email lists are crucial for your marketing because:

1. Foremost, it is highly cost effective and profitable as it brings you $36 on average for every $1 you spend.

2. Email is a place where you can utilise and customise your content all you want.

3. The email content is lasting unless subscribers delete your mails.

4. Email lists are traceable and modifiable. You can and should constantly update them for better results.

5. It is an excellent opportunity to bond with your customers and prospects.

6. It increases your visibility.

7. It is easier to get people’s email addresses than their numbers or convince them to follow your social media accounts.

How to Build an Email List from Scratch in 7 Steps

There are a few significant issues with buying an email list. Sending promotional emails to people without their consent might be illegal in some countries. Besides that, it wouldn’t be surprising if you took your place among the spam lists and got a bad reputation.

Instead, build one of your own and gradually grow that unique list as you enlarge your audience, which will actually read and engage with your content.

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer or Reader.

Knowing who you are addressing will make it so much easier to generate and design your content. What kind of groups is your product or service appealing to? What type of content would help them and attract their attention the most? Is your message relevant to their problems at all?

Answering these questions will help you understand your target audience, find ways to reach them, and make them join your mailing list.

Step 2: Create Content That Appeals to Your Target Audience.

After getting to know your audience, think about how to pique their interest with your content. That can be writing about something that addresses a possible problem or a general subject they might be interested in. 

Step 3: Use Social Media to Promote Your Content.

You must have already worked on getting a strong presence on social media. Being active and having a considerable amount of followers is important to promote your business and content. Ask for their emails to give them access to your content, to which you’ve redirected them through social media.

Step 4: Use Effective Lead Magnets.

There are many types of lead magnets that will bring you new email addresses. Address some particular problems with ebooks and case studies. Offer discounts and coupons, or create fun little quizzes that won’t take much time. It is easier to collect mail addresses when you offer some benefit in exchange. 

Step 5: Use Opt-in Forms on Your Website.

When a visitor comes onto your website, use pop-ups or embedded opt-in forms to remind them to sign up for your newsletter. You can use them at the beginning, middle or end of your content, bring pop-ups after they spend a specific amount of time on your website, or redirect them to a landing page.  

Step 6: Make it Easy for People to Subscribe to Your Email List.

The harder it is to fill out the subscription form, the less likely people will actually subscribe to your email list. 

• Make it less complicated: Place your subscription box somewhere visible and easy to find. 

• Keep it simple: Don’t bother the visitors with several questions. Their name and email address are enough at this point. 

Step 7: Use Email Marketing to Build Relationships with Your Subscribers.

Welcome your subscribers who newly joined your list with a friendly mail. Maybe even offer them a little discount as a welcome gift. Inform them about their purchase and ask for feedback with a little survey. Adapt your content into newsletter form, promote your products and past content and encourage the subscribers to join your upcoming events.

How to Grow Your Email List Once You’ve Started It?

Step 1: Provide Value in Every Email You Send.

Email marketing is a great channel to promote your products, sure, but how do you do it? Do you just show off your brand and say they should buy from you? Or do you show what kind of value they will get from even merely reading your mails?

If you are doing the latter, you are on the right track. They already get a myriad of those kinds of emails from brands daily that they don’t even open. Show them that if they keep reading your newsletter, they will get free educational content, discounts and offers from you. 

Step 2: Keep Your Emails Short and to the Point.

Convincing people to read your mails is already complicated as it is. Don’t make it more challenging with long emails that people won’t finish reading. Keep your sentences short and get to the point immediately. Don’t forget that your mail being opened among all the others means that you captured their attention. Don’t miss that opportunity!

Step 3: Send Emails Regularly, But Don’t Overdo It.

If you don’t send enough mails, subscribers may forget about you. And if you send too many, they will get annoyed —maybe to the point of unsubscribing. Once every two days is probably the best mail frequency. Enough to remind them of yourself, but not too much as to overwhelm them.

Step 4: Use Effective Call-to-Actions (CTAs) in Your Emails.

It is vital to maintain the reader’s interest and get them to engage with your content. You should use interesting and to-the-point CTAs to encourage them and find out the best placement and design for your audience.

Step 5: A/B Test Your Emails to Improve Results.

Monitoring and understanding the impact of your emails is critical to evaluate the success of your current email marketing campaigns. It allows you to decide whether you should make a change and helps to optimise open and click-through rates. 

How to Convert Your Email Subscribers into Customers?

Step 1: Send a Series of Welcome Emails.

When someone subscribes to your newsletter, they are already inclined to buy from you. But they might still need to be motivated to do so. Show that you appreciate their interest and participation in your brand with a warm welcome. 

Step 2: Offer a Discount or Special Deal to New Subscribers.

Another way of giving a warm welcome is by offering special discounts and deals. That can be a powerful motivator for them to go further and make their first purchase.

Step 3: Provide Valuable Content.

Understand your subscribers and, more importantly, show that you understand them. Segment your list and ensure you target your audience with accurate messaging. Find ways to help with environmental or social issues they care about, and create campaigns that they can also contribute by just being your customer. 

Step 4: Include a CTA in Your Emails.

They might enjoy reading your mails but might as well get reminded about the actual products and services you are providing. Don’t forget to incorporate eye-catching calls to action to canalise their interest in your products and eCommerce website.

Step 5: Use an Email Autoresponder Series.

All those are great tips and necessary steps for successful email marketing. Doesn’t doing them all sound overwhelming, though? If you were to perform them manually, yes. But fortunately, there are autoresponders that will do the work for you and send a welcome mail to new subscribers and send them emails with product recommendations that could interest them at a reasonable frequency of time.

Wrapping Up

A unique email list of your own lays the basis for a successful email marketing strategy. You will still have a lot to do, but without it, you will fail from the start. 

A/B testing and mail automation are also crucial for your emails’ current and future status. If you need a hand in this, Segmentify is here to talk to you about it. Just send a message or give us a call!