It may be daunting at first to figure out how to build an email list and how to steadily grow that email list. Especially when you want an email list that is of excellent quality and relevant to the needs of your business. However, with our top tips below you will be able to get the most out of building your email lists and by incorporating the methods below, you will be able to grow your email list positively.
Build an email list with pop-ups on your website
By adding call to action pop ups on your website across different pages, not just your homepage, you will be able to increase the chance of customers signing up to enter their details therefore increasing your chances of building an email list. There are a few things to consider so that you can make these pops up even more impactful on your customers.
Exit intent & Timing
You can trigger these pop ups when a user goes to move their mouse outside of the pop up frame. You can even take it one step further and make use of marketing tools to segment your users by only showing these pops up to those that have not signed up.
One thing to note here is about timing. You can also trigger these pop ups depending on how long a user is spending on your website. It may be more effective in some cases to delay showing the pop if a user is spending more than 5-7 seconds on your website. Of course, this would be in conjunction with the exit intent which has its own triggers.
Personalisation
Think about your experiences when you visit a website. What makes you stay longer? The content matters but it is also the level of personalisation which makes you feel more welcome. This can be harder to do when you have virtually no information about your visitors. However, with certain marketing tools, you can ensure that your user has a more personalised and memorable experience on your website. This can include personalising pop up CTAs or sign up forms.
Language and Tone
As well as personalisation, the language and tone you use across your pop up CTAs will also have some impact. Incorporate words that will add value to your website visitors. This can include words like “Bonus” and “Exclusive”.
In addition to this, adding humor to your CTAs is also an excellent way to entice visitors to sign up. Experiment with the words and phrases you use for the “yes sign me up”, and “no, I don’t want my business to get better” CTAs. Again there are plenty of A/B testing tools out there so you can continue experimenting to find the magic words that make users sign up and grow your email list.
A pop up CTA is not just for the homepage
Whilst it is good to have the pop up CTAs on your homepage, consider adding them to other key pages where you know your visitors will be staying for longer. This is because they will be engaging more with the information or products you are showing them. And once they are engaging in that content, you can most likely show a pop up CTA after 10 seconds or so.
Timed pop up surveys
As mentioned in the previous point, your users are more likely to interact with your pop up CTAs once they are more engaged with your content. Therefore you can do something even better: a timed pop up survey. Your users are already engaged with the content you are providing them so they will start to feel invested in your company so this is a perfect time to show them a pop up survey. By wanting to get their thoughts and opinions about the website, they are more likely to sign up, allowing you to successfully build an email list.
As a bonus, you also get some feedback about your website!
Personalised CTA for blogs and landing pages
If users are reading your blog then they are already somewhat invested. Placing carefully curated and personalised sign up CTAs throughout your blog posts is another excellent idea. However, when it comes to blogs, these CTAs should ideally be a bit more subtle and if possible, related to the content they are reading. One good example of this is a user reading a blog on how to improve their business. The sign up could then be a call to action for exclusive content which gives them 3 secrets on improving their business. This is both valuable and relevant to the user and personalizes their experience.
When it comes to landing pages, consider where they will be coming from. Did you promote this landing page on your social media, did you partner with another website to include an ad on their email newsletter? Once you have figured out where they are coming from onto a specific landing page, you can then personalize the landing page to better entice those visitors.
Easy opt-in form to build your email list
Adding an opt in/sign up form onto your website’s footer is one of the easiest ways to capture sign ups. If users really like your content they will naturally find the sign up cta in the footer. This is a great, easy to do addition to your website that requires very little effort once it has been implemented.
You can also experiment with its placement through A/B testing to see where it has the most impact.
Newsletter Sign up in checkout journey
So at this point, you have converted your user because they are checking out and if they are creating an account, it is also an excellent idea to get them to sign up to future correspondence and newsletters from you. That way you can make them a repeat customer. Also add the newsletter sign up opt in to your guest checkout journey too – they may not wish to make an account but they may be inclined to sign up to a newsletter, therefore increasing their chances of becoming a repeat customer in the future.
Bonus gated content that is valuable
Just like the footer sign up, bonus gated content is another no brainer. However, this one requires some initial effort. You want to give value to the customer but it also needs to be something that is considered a bonus or exclusive content. This can include a free guide, short ebook or a report.
Again make sure you use personalisation as much as you can and emphasise the exclusivity of this bonus offering. Bonus content, in conjunction with social media is an excellent way to get sign ups…which leads me onto the next point.
Build an email list with your social media channels
Utilise your social media channels to the maximum and create personalised CTAs. Some social media platforms will give you plenty of information about your users so that you can target them correctly. By offering them bonus content if they sign up via social media is something that many companies do over and over again. That’s because it is tried and tested – it works!
Also ensure that you change your tone according to the social media platform. Change up the CTA and the text to experiment with different call to actions.
You may also consider running social media ads. This is great to do if you have the budget and if you don’t mind paying for it. By running ads to get sign ups, you will be able to target the segments of users who will actually be interested in what you have to offer. Make sure that you do segment correctly, as making the audience as broad as possible sometimes is not the best way to go with ads.
Building your email list can be fun
There are marketing tools widely available now that allow you to present discounts in a variety of ways. If you are in a position to do so, you can offer your customers a discount. You can do this through a normal pop up CTA or even better: add some gamification to your website.
You may have seen some websites where as you enter their website, after 5 seconds or when they trigger the exit intent, a spin the wheel pops up offering them the chance to win a discount. This is different to just a standard CTA and visitors are more likely to interact with it. The idea is that your visitor spins the wheel, wins a certain discount and then in order to claim it, they need to enter their email address. This is a popular tool that works for many websites so definitely consider this as a potential way to increase and build your email list.
Overall, all of the above are key ways to build your email list and increase that list steadily. By incorporating a few or even all of these techniques you will start to see the impact very soon on your email list. Just remember to personalise what you can when it comes to the CTAs and ensure you use the right words – language and tone are equally important. However, in order to get these things right you need to know and fully understand your customers so engaging with them in whatever way you can is a great idea. Whether that is through social media, surveys or pay attention to their feedback and reviews.
