Email marketing can only work if your subscribers want to receive emails from you. Reaching your audience with the correct message at the right time has become highly important for smart marketers focused on obtaining good results. It all starts with your audience and nurturing an engaged one is critical to your success.
Below are 7 ways to build for yourself a captivated list of subscribers.
1. Make sure that your subscribers have opted into your list and want to hear from you from time to time. This is known as permission-based marketing.
Never buy a list. Most providers of email systems do not permit these types of lists, and you will not get results as well.
My own list is built through me offering my free online marketing reports, via the Your Viral sites from Matthew Graves where my referrals become members of my list which is a feature of those sites, and from my partnership in the Your Viral Traffic site.
2. Collect signups by using forms. It is the easiest and best way to do this to this day. Place these on your website, your social media pages, and on your online offers. It is fair to ask someone’s email address in return for your report or your free explanatory video.
3. Keep your signup forms short and only collect 1 to 3 pieces of information. Their email address is the bare minimum along with their name. You don’t have to insist on both first and last names. I just ask for a name. The person can fill in what they wish.
4. Gate your content on your site or social media. It is a handy way to collect subscribers who happen upon your website or your social media pages. This type of content is online materials, such as white papers, articles, and videos, that require that users fill out a form before they can access them. One way is through a popup box on the page the person is reading for example.
5. Measure where your subscribers are coming from and measure the level of engagement you are having with your audience. Remember that your list is your most valuable asset. I like to see a minimum 10+ percent unique open rate and a 2 to 3 percent unique click-through rate for the key link in my emails. Track where your signups are coming from to determine the performance of your ad channels.
6. Know the health of your list. Focus on an active list and not its size. There is no point in mailing people over and over who don’t open your material. Segment those off into a separate list and start a re-engagement campaign to get them back on board. Of course, continue to engage your active subscribers.
7. Provide valuable content and not just offer after offer to your list. Concentrating only on driving sales will begin to turn off or tune out your list. Send useful material that they can learn from balanced with the occasional but timely offer.
In the end, there is no magic shortcut to building an engaged email subscriber list. Be persistent and follow these 7 tips and you will be well on your way.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to provide feedback below or through emailing me.
Hi Mike
I enjoyed your post today. Your points make sense and are easy to implement with is always good.
I do have one question though. At some point I would like to see you elaborate on point number 4. How exactly do you do that? What tools do you use?
Thanks
Nick
Nick,
Keeping it straightforward is my aim. As per point 4, I will write a longer reply shortly. But just to say I have used WordPress plugins to pop open a signup page after a period of time on the site. The trick is to control that popup so that it does not become a nuisance to site visitors. I plan to re-enable this function shortly, upon which I will elaborate.
Thanks.
Mike G.
Aweber offers a Facebook page plug-in where people can subscribe to your list. I added it to all relevant pages.
That is a great way to expose your offer. I use Get Response. Will see if they do same.