Discovering how to build an email list from scratch can seem overwhelming, especially if you plan to do it quickly and efficiently. However, it is definitely worth working from the beginning, as your email list will be your most important investment.
Targeting your audience through email marketing is a proven and effective method that it still generates an impressive $42 ROI for every $1 spent.
This guide will explore and explain 14 effective tactics you can leverage to build your email list from scratch fast. And best of all, by following these tactics, you’ll not only acquire new email contacts, but also a loyal and engaged subscriber base.
So, without further ado, let’s look at those tactics!
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1. Choose a Reliable Email Marketing Platform
The first step in building an email list is selecting an email marketing platform. At first, sending basic email campaigns and managing your first few contacts may be doable through platforms like Gmail and Outlook.
But to efficiently manage and organize your growing email list, as well as To send automated email campaigns, you need a reliable email marketing tool. So you need a platform you can grow with and rely on its features to create compelling emails.
Choosing to invest in a strong email marketing platform will help you not only save valuable time as you build your email list from scratch, but also get the full potential of email marketing from the start.
Moosend is no stranger to that. By signing up for a free account, you gain access to proven and effective signup forms to drive email signups, as well as advanced segmentation options to maximize the efficiency of your campaigns.
But don’t rely on my word. . See for yourself!
Start Building Your List Now – Try Moosend
If you plan to build your list organically, you may want to look into other useful email features. marketing platform of your choice. Such features include a landing page builder, marketing automation, and finally, A/B testing capabilities.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 50-60%
2. Offer people incentives to sign up
Having chosen an email marketing platform, you need to set up a way to start collecting emails on your website. But before you do that, you need to be able to entice people to sign up, that is, give them a reason for wanting to give you their email address.
Of course, people will not provide you with their email addresses for nothing. So creating a simple email signup form that says “Sign up for our email list to receive our latest great content” will likely result in low conversion rates.
One of the best ways to Capturing someone’s email is creating a lead magnet that draws them to sign up. Some ideas include:
- A free eBook
- A checklist outlining the steps of a blog post
- A PDF version of a blog post or case study
- A cheat sheet
- A coupon
- A webinar registration
- A template or worksheet
- A free course or email series
All of these offers give the visitor an incentive to sign up using their email address. Depending on your target audience and their needs, you can create lead magnets that work best.
But in general, you’ll find that using a combination of these different ideas will give you the best results. Also, as your marketing strategy evolves, content updates (an additional piece of content specific to a particular blog post) will give you optimal results.
Estimated New Subscriber Rate: 25% -50% depending on how strong the incentive is!
3. Create popups for your website
Popups can have the “notoriety” of being annoying and disruptive, but if they are carefully designed and have a clear purpose, then they can be the game changer in building your list.
One key piece of advice I can give right away is that you should keep the user experience in mind when creating your popup forms. This ensures that your popups are relevant and timely.
There are now several ways to use popups. For example, you can create a “surprise” popup box that appears after the user has spent some time on the page or, alternatively, has scrolled and interacted with the page. This can offer a discount for your first purchase, for example.
As you can see in the Sierra Designs example, your popup can be simple and straightforward, without spending tons of money. time and effort to create it.
On the other hand, if you have a clearer understanding of your audience, you can take advantage of that and create a more visual form that also emphasizes the value of your offer >.You’ll also see that the Flash Tattoos form asks for the user’s date of birth, which will help create custom birthday campaigns.
So, in general, marketers should make your popups attractive through high-quality content and irresistible incentives like giveaways, coupon codes, etc. There are several online form building tools that can help you create beautiful forms that look like they were made by professionals!
Estimated New Subscriber Rate: 10-30%
4. Create CTAs for your website/landing page
Understandably, very few people are looking for a way to get on your mailing list. Therefore, you should give them several options to do this through your content or web pages in general.
If your digital marketing strategy includes any form of content marketing, then this is what you need.
First of all, it would be a waste to have great resources for your audience and not take advantage of them to grow your list.
For example, suppose you have created a beginner’s guide to buyers and has considerable traffic. In that case, it’s more than a must to entice people to sign up for your email newsletter by creating a CTA like “Get these 4 BONUS Buyer Persona Examples and boost your sales today!”
Even if you don’t have a ton of resources to create such high-quality material, as long as you provide value to your audience, people will appreciate it. And, of course, they won’t feel “obliged” to subscribe to your newsletter.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 15-20%
5. Create a High-Converting Landing Page
When building your email list from scratch, it’s smart to use ways other than your landing page. In this case, by creating one or more landing pages that directly link to your LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.
Say you want to offer free shipping, an exclusive or timed offer limited. sale. It’s much better to direct users to a specific landing page than send them to your home page and risk getting lost.
As you can see on the ProBlogger home page, the message is clear (exclusive offer for new subscribers) and value is emphasized (receive 180 blog post ideas). So, compared to the home page, it is very focused on converting people and acquiring their email addresses.
To grab the user’s attention and guide them to the desired action , online businesses have to create a seamless experience for themselves. The transition from the ad to what users see next should be “frictionless” and relevant.
In general, to create a high-converting landing page, you need three key elements:
- a strong headline that emphasizes the benefits users get
- attractive text to grab their attention
- a powerful image to accompany the message
You can reap the benefits of high converting landing pages with the help of Moosend’s landing page builder. Feel free to sign up for a free account to try it out, and if you’re satisfied, join one of our paid plans starting at $9/month.
Estimated New Subscriber Rate: 50%
6. Leverage your social media accounts
Social media is a boon that can help boost your email list building. If your business does social media marketing in addition to email marketing, then you need to take advantage of this channel.
First, you can include a signup button or subscription form on your Facebook page. to boost your overall lead generation. It’s easy to do, and if you’re just getting started, it can mean a lot.
Also, you can run a social media campaign encouraging your social media followers to join your Newsletter. As you know, social media offers great reach and increased visibility, so whether you’re running a small business or not, it’s definitely worth doing.
Also, social media can be used to help with advertising. It’s a good idea to run ad campaigns that offer exclusive discounts and coupons to people who sign up for your list.
Facebook also offers the ability to run Lead Ads, which allow form submissions on the platform that minimizes friction. Such ads are mobile-friendly and do not require the creation of a landing page.
Finally, as you will see in the following tactics, social media is a great way to promote your contests and giveaways and maximize your reach.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 15%
7.Run a Viral Contest
A viral contest is a contest that encourages people to share it in exchange for additional entries. For example, you can provide 25 bonus entries for every referral who later enters the contest. To sign up, the person needs to enter their email, which makes this a great list building technique.
This option is great to start with because it encourages participants to do their marketing for you and attracts people to sign up.
But that’s not all! Viral contests are a great way to get people to create User Generated Content (UGC). This type of content, in addition to being original and authentic, has the power to increase trust in a brand and encourage more people to connect with it.
This pretty much means more registrations, some of which inevitably They will become new customers. So you have a double benefit when using UGC.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 35%
8. Reach out to your personal contacts manually
Another idea on how to build your email list is to reach out to your personal contacts. It is likely that there are at least a few people on your contact list who would be interested in signing up. Send an email to let them know you’re building an email list and explain why it would be beneficial for them to sign up.
You can also encourage them to share the news. with your own contact list.
You can do the same thing if you have a user base for your product but don’t have an email list to promote content. Reach out to your users and ask if they would also like to receive your emails about your latest and greatest content.
Estimated new subscriber rate: 80%
9. Create a referral program for new signups
Nothing can have more impact on rapidly growing your email list than having your own customers spread the word about you and your brand.
A direct recommendation from friends is a surefire way to convince people to join your list, let alone trust your brand and buy from you.
Therefore , it is essential to design and establish a referral program for new subscribers. People naturally want to make their friends happy, so you should give them the chance to do it.
Plus, you’ll be giving them a good reason to do it. Of course, providing them with additional incentives. And that’s the most basic rule of thumb in marketing, which is to offer more value!
Discounts, special offers, and redeemable store points work well. The secret to working your way up to a bigger, more engaged email list is to make people who like what you’re doing a part of the process and your growth.
Referral programs They are among the most popular tools used. in eCommerce to build a strong and loyal subscriber base.
Fortunately, there are several tools out there that make the whole process smooth and easy to use, while also eliminating the need for advanced knowledge. . Such tools include ReferralCandy, Tapfiliate, and Partnerstack, to name just a few.
Estimated New Subscriber Rate: 30%
10. Host a Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are another powerful tactic most eCommerce stores take advantage of today to acquire new email subscribers. The reason behind its efficiency is that the giveaway news spread quickly and you can collect tons of email contacts in a short period of time.
This is especially true when you use social media channels, such as Facebook or Instagram, which are not only popular but also reasonable in terms of advertising costs.
There is one essential rule that you must follow when creating your giveaway. The prize you’re giving away has to be relevant and directly aimed at your target audience.
This way, you’re not just getting more subscribers to your mailing list. You are acquiring qualified leads, which are essential to growing your business.
To give you an example, if your audience is interested in tech products, then your giveaway should include a relevant prize instead of a car , Let’s say. The following example was built via Gleam.
There are other giveaway tools or WordPress plugins you can use to create great giveaways, like Rafflecopter and Woobox. Another way to run giveaways is FindKeepLove.
FindKeep.Love is a full service co-sponsored giveaway facilitation, FindKeep.Love contributes to your campaign traffic and reach, which is a major differentiator of the software. giveaways in the marketplace.
Last but not least, giveaways have the added benefit of increasing brand awareness. There’s nothing wrong with attracting new leads while growing your list at the same time.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 30%
11. Use a scroll box
Presenting your audience with a call to action at the right time is paramount. This is why scroll boxes are necessary for lead generation.
Depending on page content, a popup that fires when website visitors reach a certain point it can be a subtle but effective way to capture your email address. It all comes down to determining when users are likely to be ready to convert.
Business owners can identify this “right time” through A/B testing, based on visitor behavior in the page.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 10%
12. Experiment with popup forms (exit intent, inline, full page)
We’ve talked about some of the enabled popup forms, but there are more options for you to use and experiment with.
There are also hundreds of pop-up examples to get inspired by!
First, you should consider using exit-intent signup forms, which essentially pop up to website visitors when they “intuit” your intention to leave the page. These are useful to have, as they can draw in subscriptions that might otherwise be lost.
To maximize your effectiveness, make sure you create compelling copy. Here is an example from BigCommerce.
Next, try some attention-grabbing alternatives, like inline or full-page forms. Online forms have the ability to blend seamlessly with the rest of the content on the page while also grabbing attention. Take a look at the HappySocks example.
This is an unobtrusive but intriguing way to encourage new subscriptions without interfering with the user experience.
On the other hand, if you want to make sure you have visitor’s attention, you can harness the power of a full-page one. Make a strong value proposition and it won’t go unnoticed.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 10-15%
13. Encourage Subscriptions Through Your Email Signature
Another handy tactic to boost your email list growth is to include a newsletter subscription link in your signature email list.</p
It requires minimal effort, is easy to set up, and of course is perfect if you’re growing your list from scratch.
Think of it like this. You and the other employees of the company communicate daily with other people through email. By having a signup link in your email signature, you give people the opportunity to explore your company further.
Of course, if those interactions are successful and fruitful, chances are those emails sent attract more new subscribers.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 5%
14. Supplement list building with offline methods
Popups, sidebars, and landing pages all work great. But it would be a waste not to take advantage of the offline methods available to grow your list.
First, if you have physical stores, be sure to leave your business cards at the counter or in the booth.
Also, encourage people to leave their own business cards for an effortless email signup experience. However, this means you’ll have to manually do the work afterwards and send a double opt-in email.
Finally, if you’re participating in events or trade shows, make sure you have a signup list that has a box for email addresses so you can collect them.
Estimated percentage of new subscribers: 7-8%
Conclusion
Building an email list from scratch cannot happen overnight. However, by following these simple and effective tactics above, you are increasing your chances of building your new email list in half the time!
Some methods will work better than others. But at the end of the day, the important thing is to combine them and get the best possible result for your business.
As you become familiar with the techniques on how to build an email list, you will want to move on to more advanced ones. such as webinars and podcasts.
Remember! What matters is not how quickly you can build your list, but how effectively you acquire new leads in order to retain them. And if you need a great tool to not only capture but also nurture your audience, you can give Moosend a try!
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