Creative and Organic Ways to Grow Your Email List
Managing Email Memberships Series Pt. 1
Email marketing is a great customer retention tool. You can’t expect immediate sales, but you can count on increased customer loyalty and repeat purchases when you start sending emails. The only tricky part of email marketing, however, is acquiring those emails and keeping them subscribed. As you’re reading through other blogs and guides to email marketing, you may see information about renting or buying lists. We suggest avoiding this at all costs. Growing your list organically is possible and will bring you the best results. As the saying goes, quality is better than quantity!
In this article, we’re sharing seven creative ways to capturing new, organic email signups. Later in our “managing email memberships” series, we’ll give you some tips to keep members interested and subscribed. If you find none of these methods working for your type of business, reach out to our email specialists for industry-specific tips and advice.
Email Opt-In Box During Online Checkouts
Acquiring new emails doesn’t always mean you have to look far. Give your new (or returning) customers an easy way to opt-in to your list by adding a simple checkbox near the purchase button. Most online cart systems will collect and compile your email opt-ins into a downloadable list. If you integrate FireDrum’s API, you can have new opt-ins added to your account immediately.
Working with a mobile credit card processor (like Square or Clover)? Most processors offer a similar signup feature. Enable these settings in your account and watch your subscriber count grow!
Leave a Signup Sheet by the Register
Even in today’s fast-paced, digital age, a pen and paper are still useful. Leave a small note or poster alongside a signup form that encourages visitors to leave their email. Since this method doesn’t offer as much detail as a webpage might, it’s vital that you list the basic subscription facts. How many emails should they expect per month? Will you be sharing their email with other vendors? Will they receive any special deals or promotions by signing up?
Integrating Your eCommerce System with FireDrum
Make it easy for your online shoppers to stay in the loop. Most eCommerce systems like BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce allows you to add a simple “subscribe to our newsletter” checkbox on the checkout page or on the “thank you” page once their purchase has been processed. We recommend filtering these emails into a separate list to send them personalized emails that will encourage them to rebuy your products.
Email-in or Text-in Deals & Giveaways
This method of email collection can be executed in a variety of ways. Choose what is best for your business by analyzing your customer’s behavior and watching your competitors.
Deals on Deals
Hanging up posters in your shop that offer a discount or giveaway in exchange for an email address will increase your signups exponentially. Who doesn’t like a good deal? This approach is useful only if you make your sales goals clear. Let them know why they should stay subscribed past this initial promotion. Will you be sending more deals and offers? If you have a membership program in place, will they get special benefits by subscribing?
One Time Promo
Like our ‘deals on deals’ suggestion, one time promos can be displayed throughout your store. Promote a killer discount or giveaway in exchange for an email address. If you’re not planning on emailing them more discount codes or sale promotions, make sure they’re aware that this is a one-time promo. List reasons why they’ll want to stay subscribed and give them some insight on how many emails they should expect.
Website Hook
Email-in and text-in promotions shouldn’t be limited to posters. Display your deals and giveaways online! Dedicating a footer widget, landing page section, or sidebar space to your sign-up deal can prove to be effective. Make it simple, but be clear about your intentions. (i.e., Sign up today for 10% off your first order. We send weekly emails with our latest sales and exclusive member discounts. You can unsubscribe at any time.)
Email Signup forms on the Website & Social Media
Take advantage of the traffic you already have. Adding email sign up forms throughout your website, on popups, and on your social media pages will prove effective over time. While setting up your forms, you need to keep a few things in mind:
- Forms aren’t meant to be intrusive. Full-screen forms with no exit option and forms that pop up every 5 seconds are considered invasive and will create a negative user experience.
- Don’t limit access to your content. Blocking off content until someone signs up will not increase your subscriber count. It will, most likely, increase your bounce rate.
- More is better. Like any sales pitch, it’s essential that you ask if the customer if they’re interested in buying (in this case, signing up), several times. This doesn’t mean you should throw the same pitch in front of them seven times. Instead, present your signup forms in a variety of unique ways.
- Social posts centered around subscribing is innovative. We suggest publishing 2 – 3 outreach posts per month asking your followers if they’d like to receive email newsletters.
Free White Papers or Educational Courses for an Email
Free is attractive, but free and educational is alluring. If your industry can offer some form of free literature, webinars, online courses, or whitepaper/guides, use it as a way to gather new subscribers! Create a landing page centered around the free item you’re offering and designing a simple signup form is all that’s needed to collect quality emails. Be sure to describe your sending schedule and what they should expect in the future.
Easy Sign up with Interest Categories
With the growing demand for personalization, we can all agree that user’s defining their own interests will help with the automation process. Throughout your website, we suggest setting up custom forms that filter signups into a specific list. This way, you can start sending relevant campaigns immediately. Read our next article “Segmenting Your Subscriber List in a Smart Way” for ideas on how to segment your subscribers.
Closing Note
We hope these strategies help you develop a plan of action to increase your email subscriber list organically. If you find these methods irrelevant to your business, reach out to our email specialists to help develop a custom plan of action.
Get a jumpstart on email marketing. Our email specialists are here to help with everything technical, design, and creative. Get a jumpstart on email marketing by contacting our team of experts.
