Fifty-seven percent of marketers say that email marketing is their preferred channel for developing and interacting with high-value leads. Chances are that email marketing is working for you, too. The stat heard round the world, thanks to the Direct Marketing Association, is that for every $1 you invest in email marketing, you can earn $28 in return on investment.
So, you’ve made your email content calendar, you’re sending regularly, and you’ve integrated your social and email promotions. And it’s working! Now, like any smart marketer, you want to grow your email list, to expand that great return on investment.
The question is: How do you do it?
What NOT to Do
First, a word to the wise: don’t buy (or rent) email addresses. First, because it doesn’t seem to work. That’s my professional opinion after seven years in the business and more than a few failed campaigns. Even very reputable list brokers can’t get much response from a list of email addresses whose owners didn’t sign up for what they’re about to get.
Second, buying or renting email lists can mean you’re sending to unsuspecting recipients who will be more likely to mark you as spam. If enough recipients say that you’re spam, then in the eyes of inbox providers like Gmail and Hotmail, you are spam.
Pay-Per-Click
There’s a good alternative, though, if you want to grow your list quickly and are willing to pay for it. Create a pay-per-click search marketing campaign, through a service like Google AdWords, that puts your company in front of those who need your products or services.
Let’s say your restaurant serves the best pizza in Kansas City. You could buy the search term “best pizza in Kansas City” and similar phrases so that, whenever someone searched for it, your company—and a special offer or discount—would turn up in the results.
When visitors click through to your website, ask them for an email address in exchange for a coupon that will be sent directly to their inbox. Make it clear that they’re signing up for ongoing emails from you, the first of which is the coupon email. No trickery!
Events
Not ready for a pay-per-click campaign? How about collecting email addresses where you’re already doing your marketing? If you attend trade shows and conferences, or if you sponsor industry events, include a register-to-win promotion at your booth.
Again, set expectations and ask permission to send ongoing emails via a checkbox on the registration form. Don’t pre-check the box. Sell the value of the emails you’ll be sending, and if they want it, they’ll check the box, and they’ll be very likely to read and engage when you email them.
Social Media
How about your social media audiences? Have you invited them to subscribe to your emails? After all, the view rate of a post on social media is 5 to 10 percent, but email marketing’s average view rate is closer to 30 percent. Your email subscribers also are more likely to convert to buyers if you can deliver customized, timely emails right to them.
In-Store
If you have a physical location, you can and should collect emails in-store, too. Restaurants have had success for years with paper sign-up forms left at the tables while diners wait for their meals. Admittedly, it’s a pain to read the handwriting on those paper forms and then physically type the new addresses into your list. Retail stores can have their associates ask for an email address during checkout (if they’re clear that the customer is opting in for emails). The only downside to that is the bounce rate for mistyped email addresses can be as high as 20 percent!
One of the best parts of technology is that it continues to solve these little marketing challenges for us. The QR code may be ugly, but it can be a quick way to get in-store shoppers to sign up for email while they wait in line. In my experience, they’ll make the effort for the right offer.
Or better yet, encourage customers to text their email addresses to you to sign up for email. Your customers don’t even need a smartphone to sign up this way. Buyers are still slow to sign up via text message offers, but if you make it clear that they’re simply using text to send you their email address, and you have a strong offer, this can save you a lot of data entry.
On the Web
The best place to grow your list, though, is on your own front porch: your website. Your website should have an email sign-up “above the fold”—meaning it’s visible before visitors scroll—and it should be built into the page design, so visitors can sign up no matter where they are on the site. The sign-up form should clearly offer the value of signing up.
As a bonus, try progressively capturing more information, starting with the simple email address and then asking the visitor for more information on Page 2, so even if they bounce, you still will have gained their email address. There are also a ton of great email list building tools that can help you build your list on the web.
Want a secret that can increase your sign-up rate by 400 percent or more? Try a lightbox sign-up. Sometimes called “pop-overs,” you can set up a lightbox to appear over the content on the page to invite your visitor to have content sent right to their inbox if they like what they see. This can grow your email list four to 10 times as fast as a built-in sign-up form in the sidebar of your website.
