There are proven ways to increase your email subscribers and take advantage of the many benefits a targeted email list can bring to a website or blog.
When you search Google on “how to increase your email list” you will find a lot of suggestions and although are good, are not as effective as the ways you will read below.
I can say that with great confidence because I was using those techniques for years and the results were not so good. Once I changed my tactics I saw a great increase in the number of people subscribing to my email lists. I tested the below methods on many of my websites and also on clients websites and the results were amazing.
What is the importance of having an email list?
Many people may wonder ‘what’s the big deal’, why spend time and effort in building an email list in a period where social media is dominating online networking.
Well, for starters because it works better than social media in many ways. That does not mean that you have to decide between the two, you still need both for long term online success; it simply means that you should not neglect the power of email list.
What do I mean by ‘it works better”?
People who register to your email list are interested to find out more about you, keep receiving updates from you so they are more likely to engage with your emails by visiting your website or blog.
Does it still work?
It does, that’s for sure and this is in short why:
- People do check their email several times per day.
- Email subscribers are more likely to convert than other types of users. Maybe you have heard the term ‘The money is in the email list’ before? (see this study by mckinsey which shows how more effective email is compared to Facebook and Twitter.)
- Everybody has an email account but not all people use social networks
- You can make emails personal and get better results
How to build an email list?
The best way to create an email list is to register with an email marketing service like mailchimp, aweber, constantcontact or just search google for ‘email marketing’ and you will get a lot more options. Most of the companies offer free packages for beginners so you won’t have to pay anything until your email list is above 2000 subscribers (number depends on the provider).
Once you register with them the next step is to add a form to your website or blog where people can subscribe to your list.
The big advantage from using such a service instead of trying to maintain your email list manually is the ease of use and the number of tools they give you to make adding/removing and sending messages (or newsletters) to the list easy and automated.
How to grow your emailing list?
Once you created your list, the next step is to grow it i.e. get people to subscribe to the list by adding their name and email. Let’s see how you can do that without losing your time and hope.
#1 – Content and purpose – This is first in my list and probably something you heard before but very important for the success of your email list. If you don’t’ have good content or a clear purpose of what your email list does, than any other tips or tricks you try to grow an email list, they simply won’t work.
In order for someone to make the decision to give their email address and enroll to your list, they need to like what you offer (content, products, services) and they need to know in advance why they are registering (newsletter, news, offers, announcement etc).
Assuming that you already have good and interesting content, you need to also make sure that you add a couple of lines above the registration box to explain to users why they should register to your list and what they should expect from it.
#2 – Position of the registration box – Where you place the email registration box is very important. Most websites tend to add this to the sidebar (either top or bottom) but this is the least effective position.
For best results make sure that the registration box is in the main content of the page. You can have it below or on top of your page or article.
See how I added the newsletter registration box here and how I added it to the home page of DigitalMarketingPro.
#3 – Exit Pop-up and Flyout Boxes – I know that some people don’t like pop-ups or flyout boxes but when it comes to growing an email list they are the most effective tools you can safely use.
When you try to exit (move the mouse like you are trying to open a new tab) the post you are reading now you will see a pop-up window asking you to register to my newsletter. This pop-up has more than 10% conversion rate for this website. This means that out of the 100 people that see the pop-up, 10 register to my newsletter.
I have tested this on many other websites and the results are also very good. If you don’t like this kind of pop-up you can use a flyout box (a window that pop-ups in the bottom right corner) or any other combination you want. What is important is to grab the attention of the user so that they see what you are offering in return for their email address.
#4 – Make it easy – Don’t’ ask for a lot of information since people are more willing to just type their email address instead of giving you their name or telephone number.
If you think about it, in the majority of the cases you only need their email address and you can later get other information by ‘connecting’ with them through email.
#5 – Give them real and immediate benefits – A great way to convince people to subscribe is to give them some benefit. A common practice is to give them an ebook or access to a protected area in return of their email address.
I have used this technique here and it is very effective; when you subscribe to the email list, you get free access to a fully functional fitness app.
What you should have in mind is not to trick people by giving them false information or making promises you cannot meet. Always remember that getting them to subscribe is your first goal but your ultimate goal is to make something out of your list (more traffic to your website, more sales etc). If you make false promise a lot of people will unsubscribe and mark your email as spam (and this is not good) and your overall interaction rate will be low.
Conclusion
Maintaining and growing an email list is as important as promoting your website in social media. Not only is a great way to increase your blog traffic but it’s also a very effective way to increase sales and interactions.
The best way to get more email subscribers is to position your email subscription box in the main content of your page or as a popup window.
Making it very easy to subscribe by asking only for an email address will increase your subscription rate.
If you used any other methods that made a difference in your subscription rates, let us know in the comments below.
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