While email is one of the oldest digital marketing channels, it is also one of the most effective, with strong conversion rates across multiple industries. In fact, the average conversion rate for landing page traffic sent via email is over 6%, a huge jump from the standard commerce conversion rate of 2.5-3%. Email marketing is also profitable: Businesses can earn an average of $44 for every dollar spent on email marketing.
Convincing someone to give you their email address during their first visiting your e-commerce site is easier than convincing them. to make a purchase – it costs them nothing, and you can add incentives such as discounts or freebies.
Of course, to unlock the potential of email marketing, you first need an email list. While your email subscriber list will grow as you start to generate sales, there are steps you can take today to start building your email list even before you sell your first product or subscription.
What makes a great email list?
Every successful email marketing campaign starts with a high-quality email list. There’s no point in creating advanced email campaigns with fancy design, compelling copy, and special offers if your email list isn’t segmented and targeted correctly.
To build a great email list that drives sales, your top three priorities are:
- Quality. Get real, complete information from people real: and never buy email lists. Bots, spam accounts, and abandoned email addresses don’t make purchases.
- Relevance. It’s hard enough to convert potential customers who already want what you’re selling. When building an email list, only target people who are genuinely interested in your products or services. Otherwise, you’ll see leads unsubscribe as soon as they joined.
- Number. Once you’ve checked off the first two priorities, you can begin to focus on growing your email list and expanding your reach to include new or broader audiences.
How easily build an email list
- Add a pop-up offer to your homepage
- Include a signup form in your navigation or footer
- Collect emails at your physical or in-person event
- Add a social media sign-up button
- Create custom landing pages
- Include an opt-in option newsletter signup at checkout
1. Add a Pop-Up Offer to Your Home Page
While you shouldn’t teach shoppers to wait or expect discounts, promotional offers can be a powerful tool in converting first-time website visitors sooner. that they press the back button. . With home page popup forms, you can add to your email list and save a potential sale in the process.
If the term “popup” gives you pause, consider the rate The average conversion rate for the Up Forms popup is just over 3%, and the best popups convert at around 10%. Depending on your overall website traffic, numbers like these can dramatically increase your email signups.
To get started using popup forms to capture emails on your ecommerce site, start with a popup window. exit intention. These will only be displayed if a visitor moves their mouse off the page, which usually means they intend to navigate somewhere else. Using the targeting options in the marketing platform of your choice, you can disable these popups for past customers and visitors already on your list. This allows you to focus your copy on new customers only.
After visiting a “How To” post in Grovemade’s newsletter, I received an offer of 10% off my first purchase.
Because a visitor lost before their first purchase can be hard to recover, you should consider including some type of discount, as long as the math makes sense. Your product’s overall price, profit margins, and potential supply will determine how viable various discounts are for your business.
2. Place a subscription form in the navigation or footer of your site
One key to capturing new subscribers for your email list is to give visitors ample opportunities. That’s why, in addition to a landing page or product page popup form, you should also consider adding an email signup form on every page of your website.
Most website platforms allow you to place signup forms in locations where shoppers are looking for additional information about your business, including margins, the navigation bar, and the footer. Because these forms are often subtle and sit below the page, your overall conversion rate is likely to be low. However, the contribution they make to building your list can add up over time.
To increase your conversion rate, be sure to add a strong CTA on signup value, whether it’s a coupon, exclusive content, or regular news and updates.As a shopper heads to the footer of your site to learn more about your brand, what kinds of offers might grab their attention and encourage them to sign up?
Beardbrand describe your newsletter in terms of value that the reader can expect to receive. It’s not just about product updates – it’s a place to learn the art of grooming
3. Collect Email Addresses at Your Store or In-Person Event
Face-to-face connections are still the most effective tool for converting leads to customers, even if the transaction isn’t done in person. Whether you have a physical store or are promoting your business at an event or pop-up store, your in-person interactions can help you build your email list, leading to more digital sales.
Remember that forms often associated with email marketing and lead generation can easily make the transition from URL to IRL. For example, you can bring a clipboard and ask people to type in their name and email address, or to better sync with your email marketing tool of choice, you can provide an iPad where people can submit their address directly. . You can even include a CTA on your business cards to encourage email signups.
As with your online forms, be sure to use a strong CTA to encourage signups in person. For example, “Sign up for our mailing list for a chance to win a $25 gift card” or “Sign up for our newsletter to get 25% off your first online purchase.” It’s also a good idea to segment these lists by location or event, so you can send emails tailored to the needs of each audience.
More information: How to write a sales email welcome cash
4. Add a social media signup button
People follow brands on social media for many reasons, but the most important reason given in most surveys is to stay up to date on new products . By adding an option on your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts to sign up for email updates, you can give followers another way to stay in the loop while engaging them in more personalized email nutrition campaigns.
Most social media platforms support buttons or forms, allowing you to add a simple email signup option to your page. For example, you can include a call-to-action button on your Facebook business page to encourage your followers to sign up for your email list.
For social platforms that are less link friendly Like Instagram, explore alternative solutions to boost email signups. For example, you can use Linktree to include multiple links in your Instagram bio: one to your eCommerce website and one to direct visitors to a signup form for your email list. You may want to consider separating the new subscribers added through Instagram so that you can roughly keep track of how well you are influencing your list growth.
5. Create custom landing pages
When it comes to convincing visitors or followers to provide your emails, there is no one-size-fits-all offer. Depending on where they discovered your business online and where they are in their buying journey, different prospects will respond to different email signup CTAs. With that in mind, you should plan to create multiple landing pages with signup forms and messaging tailored to a particular segment of your audience.
To get started with custom landing pages, consider your ecommerce website’s traffic sources. What are Facebook users looking for? What about Amazon users or trade show leads? Whether you’re creating a landing page for an evergreen audience or capitalizing on an event or holiday, make sure your on-page messaging and CTA are clear and consistent with the offer that inspired prospects to click on your site on first place. place.
The Shopify App Store includes dozens of tools with easy templates to help you quickly design, test, and publish landing pages to drive more email signups. While it will require an initial investment, creating individualized landing pages will pay off in the long run: research shows that personalized calls-to-action have a 42% higher form submission rate than generic CTAs.
6 . Include a newsletter subscription option at checkout
It’s not surprising that many online business owners neglect their checkout page as a marketing tool; after all, they have already secured a client. However, the buyer’s journey does not end with a single transaction. In fact, many customers choose to complete their purchase without creating an account, limiting their future interactions to messages about their transaction. By encouraging users to sign up for your email list at checkout, you can turn a single transaction into a lifelong fan and repeat customer.
Add a checkout newsletter subscription option Checkout can be as simple as including a checkbox below the field Customers are using to provide an email for order confirmation.Be specific about the value shoppers will receive, whether it’s exclusive email discounts, how-to content, or updates on new products. This will not only describe your incentive to participate, but also ensure that you are compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
In addition to a checkbox or text field, you can also carry your payment CTA to the next level with a pop-up or banner on the purchase confirmation screen. By investing in a more exciting design, you’ll have a better chance of grabbing a customer’s attention and gaining an email list.
More info: The 11 Best Email Marketing Software Email For Online Stores
6 Advanced Strategies To Accelerate Email List Growth
Once you’ve established a solid foundation and have Once you’ve started adding subscribers to your email list, it’s time to look at more advanced tactics to accelerate your email list growth. Here are some ready-to-use solutions to help you take your email list building to the next level.
- Add chatbots to engage with prospects
- Take advantage of third-party tools email list growth for groups
- Drive email signups with ad campaigns
- Survey your target audience
- Engage visitors with content valuable
- Run contests or giveaways on social media
1. Use a chatbot to interact with potential customers
Although it is still realizing its potential, chatbot technology already offers a number of effective tools to help you automate your messages with website visitors. This can help you not only save valuable time and effort in customer service, but also create unique offers and generate email list signups.
Shopify Inbox (available on all plans) lets you create automated messages for customers and get insights to focus on the chats that will drive conversions. Messaging is an extremely popular method for consumers to engage with brands, and it can succeed where a standard lead capture form or landing page fails.
2. Take Advantage of Email List Growth Tools
There are plenty of easy-to-use apps to help you build your email list, some of which add clever twists on proven approaches. Shopify Forms is a free app that helps you grow your marketing list and convert new leads. Here are a couple of third-party tools to consider:
Spin to Win is an application that can be used to collect email addresses on your website in a Wheel of Fortune. In an interesting twist, well, on the usual pop-up offer, by entering your email, shoppers can win various prizes (like discount coupons) that you set. Just be considerate and cautious about what it could mean if buyers “lose” this game and miss out on a deal entirely.
Personizely includes a lot of features to help you alert visitors with a message just in time. emerge. What makes it interesting for merchants looking to build their newsletter is the built-in ability to use a traditional form or Facebook Messenger integration, giving you the opportunity to communicate with Messenger users in the same way you would contact a subscriber to an email list. .
Many emerging tools, such as Personizely, offer a variety of ways to convert passing readers into subscribers, whether through email or messaging apps.
3. Drive Email Signups With Ad Campaigns
Since landing pages are usually built with a single result or conversion point in mind, they are often very useful for build your email list. By isolating landing pages for specific campaigns, you can not only create a clear offer on a distraction-free page, but also measure your results more accurately. Because of this, landing pages are also a great place to send traffic from digital ad campaigns.
Whether you’re looking at social media, search, or some other advertising channel, there are countless options for boosting the email. subscription list with online ads. For example, you can place banner ads on YouTube videos related to your industry or run targeted Facebook ads to take visitors to a downloadable guide related to your product (for example, a cookbook to match your cookware). .
With the powerful audience targeting tools in Google AdWords and Facebook Ads Manager, you can create an offer with an audience already in mind, then modify attributes like location, age, gender, profession, interests, and more to reach the right audience. people.
4. Survey your target audience
Creating an effective digital marketing strategy is all about collecting the right data. With visitor surveys and questionnaires, you can collect valuable information about your audience’s wants, needs, and feedback while capturing their emails for marketing purposes.
To use an online survey, start with a specific objective, such as market research or even collaborative blog content.You can include a field in your survey to capture email addresses, and then invite respondents to join your email list at the end. Once you have a goal in mind, there are many lightweight tools and services for creating customer surveys, including Google Forms, Typeform, and SurveyMonkey.
Send your survey to friends and family, post it to Facebook groups, mention it on social media, and include a special offer for people who complete it. For example, you could say, “By completing our short questionnaire, you’ll get a special code for 10% off your first online purchase.” You might even consider sending out a questionnaire before your product launches. This is a great way to start your email list and bring friends, family, and potential customers on your startup journey.
5. Engage visitors with valuable content
When building your email list, it’s important to remember that your physical product or subscription isn’t your only value proposition. You started your online business to solve a problem or address a need, which means you have some valuable ideas and solutions. By sharing those ideas in the form of blogs or downloadable content, you can create a lead magnet that adds value for your target audience and builds trust in your brand, leading to more email signups and ultimately more customers.
Tortuga backpacks offers a free packing list plus ongoing travel tips when you sign up for their newsletter.
Content marketing is a broad and complex topic, and there are Lots of content options that will inspire prospects to give an email address, including podcasts, webinars, and videos. If you don’t currently have a great understanding of how much the average subscriber is worth to your business, you may want to invest in an initial content marketing offer that has an initial cost, but no ongoing costs after the offer is complete.
A free eBook or guide, usually in the form of how-to content, case studies, or additional tips and tricks in your product category, is a perfect example. After the cost of your time (and yes, your time is precious!) or associated writing and design fees, you can offer a strong incentive to join your email newsletter and have no recurring costs, other than hosting guiding himself.
6. Run contests or giveaways on social media
Contests and giveaways can help accelerate list growth by turning signing up into a shareable and winnable event. The added boost of a contest can be especially valuable in the early days, when your subscriber list is small and you don’t have existing traffic to take advantage of.
One way to amplify this strategy is to partner with other merchandise brands. e-mail that they sell to similar customers. With the right partner, your products will complement each other, making the offer more attractive than if you ran the contest alone.
Another option is to look for influencers who are already reaching your ideal customers on social media. platforms like Instagram. Since influencers often use giveaways for their own purposes, typically to break the noise and grow their following, you may be able to justify the cost of offering your product in exchange for its ability to boost your marketing campaign. giveaways.
If you want to create a landing page dedicated to your giveaway so that there is only one destination and traffic is easier to track, you can try solutions like ShortStack or ConvertFlow.
Bonus: Marketing Tools to Manage Your Email List
As you grow your email list from a few subscribers to a few thousand, it’s important to invest in tools and platforms that help you manage, organize and take advantage of your data. Here are some email marketing solutions to get you started.
Shopify Email
If you need to build an email list for your eCommerce business, look no further than Shopify Email, Shopify itself. email marketing solution. With Shopify Email, you can create, send, and track campaigns to grow your email list, automate key marketing moments using pre-built automation templates, and capture leads for free using Shopify Forms, all from your existing Shopify account. With your first 10,000 emails free each month and affordable rates after that, Shopify Email is the perfect tool to help you start putting your email list to work.
MailChimp
MailChimp offers start with a free plan that offers basic email template creation, as well as scheduling and automation options. With a paid subscription, you’ll have access to more premium email templates, as well as advanced tools to give you insights into your email list and campaigns.
Zapier
One of the most challenging aspects of building and leveraging an email list is figuring out how to seamlessly integrate all the different platforms and technologies you’re using to run your mailing list. email. business. Zapier allows you to create automated workflows that bridge the gaps between your tools without the need for a software developer. With Zapier’s workflows, you can automatically get new email subscribers from social networks, landing pages, survey tools, or live events into your email database, taking the manual work out of organizing your lists.
Building an email list is just the beginning
No two businesses are exactly alike, so it’s important to try several strategies to build your email list and find the one that works best for you. works better. Once you have a solid collection of relevant and targeted leads, you can start refining your email marketing to achieve your specific goals.
For ideas and examples of successful email marketing campaigns, check out our guide: The 18 Best Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaigns for 2022.
What list building tactics helped you build your email? list? Let us know in the comments below.
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