How are you doing? Today we’re going to discuss building a killer email list. Not that introductory crap—we’re talking big-time tactics. The kind of wizardry that magically fuels the growth and traffic of high-octane marketers. Purely free of charge. Strap on in, and get ready to shift your thinking with a bombproof game!
Crafting Irresistible Opt-in Forms That Convert
So, making an opt-in form that converts is less about the ‘where’; it’s a case of ‘wow, I just can’t resist that!’. The right CTA can increase conversions by 202%. Some studies suggest that personalising your online experience (including your call to action, or CTA) can boost conversions up to 202%. The idea here is that a good landing page keeps track of what pages folks visit most and what content they engage with, and it uses this information to personalise the choice of a CTA. Some authors claim that a marketing automation tool such as HubSpot or Optimizely can personalise your experience using cookies.
And, finally, your opt-in form’s language has to also register in the mind of your audience. The dull-as-dishwater ‘subscribe’ has to become something action-led and value-bold; ‘Get Your Free Guide’; ‘Join the Elite’; then it has to be stylised in a way that echoes the website’s overall design, so you convey brand quality and credibility.
Leveraging Advanced Segmentation for Hyper-Targeted Campaigns
More sophisticated segmentation based on detailed criteria such as demographics, engagement/lack of engagement, past purchases, and any of a large number of criteria. Once segmented, you can design your email campaigns specifically to the preference, interests and needs of each segment, which can help to maximise open rates and your chances of engaging with and (hopefully) converting each and every one of your lists. For a basic example, eCommerce sites can segment their lists based on their shopping history and send tailored offers based on past purchase activity that’s more likely to convert.
With tools such as Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor, this segmentation can even be automated, and specific email campaigns can be triggered when a user passes certain boundaries. This will also help increase conversions due to showing relevant content and offers at the right time.
Drive Sign-Ups with Cutting-Edge Content Strategies
Unlocking the Power of Content Upgrades
Content upgrades are a type of lead magnet that is specifically targeted to a single piece of content—ttypically an article or blog post—where you provide additional value related to the content topic at hand. For example, you might have a well-received blog post dedicated to search engine optimisation (or SEO) tactics. As part of this blog post, you might offer a content upgrade—such as a downloadable SEO checklist—tthat provides your readers something valuable at that moment for taking action.
When you add a content upgrade, it requires a thorough understanding of your readers’ interests and needs, which is exactly what’s required to deliver on that deeper level. Use analytic tools to identify which of your content is your most popular, and think of something you could provide for more value that puts some of the key ideas—and resulting reader interests and needs—into concrete operational form.
Harnessing the Viral Potential of Social Proof
If you’re building an email list, you can significantly improve the results of your email list designs with social proof too—a subscriber count, a testimonial, or a case study. For example, in weight-loss design, we saw how a testimonial can be placed next to an opt-in form where a new subscriber can read about the value of the expert’s weight-loss emails.
Have Trustpilot panels or Google Reviews you can display whenever you get positive reviews. Or perhaps add on some further social proof by showing real-time stats.
Innovative List-Building Tactics to Skyrocket Your Growth
Integrating Interactive Elements into Your Strategy
Interactive tools, such as quizzes, calculators, or interactive infographics, can also help boost engagement and get email addresses. A financial advisory site, for example, could offer a retirement calculator that can access personalised reports only after signing up with an email address. Not only does this keep the user’s attention, but your brand begins to be seen as a helpful resource that they might return to later.
You can make such tools yourself, using drag-and-drop interfaces such as Outgrow or Typeform to create them and then embed them in your site. You can also add analytics to see what people do with your tools, allowing you to refine them, tweak their logic, and improve your conversion rate step-by-step.
Exploring the Untapped Potential of Referral Marketing
Referral campaigns can transform your existing subscribers into evangelists for your brand. Personalised referral incentives—your own content, a discount on your products, a free item—can encourage your subscribers to direct their friends and family to your sign-up form, thus expanding your email list but doing so with high-intent users that are more likely to engage with your content than the average email subscriber.
Tools such as ReferralCandy or Friendbuy can set up your referral program for you and integrate with your email system to track and distribute rewards so that you don’t have to manually administer your referral efforts as they scale up.
Conclusion
Developing a profitable email list is a perpetual process of testing and optimisation. These expert techniques not only help you grow your email list but also help you enhance the quality of traffic and engagement coming in. A well-segmented and engaged email database is a weapon in your marketing arsenal that can generate massive amounts of traffic, leading to your business success. Keep your learning cap on and keep experimenting, and your email list will become a lead-generating monster for your business!
FAQ’s
Q: What is the most effective type of content for attracting email subscribers?
A: Lead magnets such as e-books, checklists, exclusive webinars, and other immediately valuable content are also very effective as part of an opt-in strategy. They should be topical and closely linked to the content that the visitor is already consuming.
Q: How often should I send emails to my list?
A: That depends in part on the nature of content that your audience has come to expect from you and in part on that audience itself. If your content retains value when refreshed at that frequency, then updates might come weekly, or even biweekly, with engagement metrics as your guide to increasing or decreasing that strategy.
Q: Can I use paid strategies to build my email list?
A: Plus, of course, because this is a post on free strategies, combining free and paid effort (through social media ads or sponsored content, for example) will let you go further, faster. Paid campaigns with precise targeting (age, gender, interests, etc) can cut out a lot of the heavy lifting, allowing you to build your list a lot quicker.