Your mailing list is your cornucopia. Your list of subscribers, people who signed up for your newsletters or courses, people who gave you consent to send them stuff on email. If you own a business, growing your list should be one of your top priorities. A high-quality list is a money-maker, because you’d be talking to people who are interested in what you offer.
You can grow your email list offline and online.
Offline:
Host an event or attend trade shows and community events.
Scope your local community scene and volunteer to speak or present at events. You can collect emails in exchange for the information you’ll share. Trade shows are networking opportunities you can’t miss, especially if you have a B2B service.
Post your membership sign-ups at your store.
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, prepare easy-to-fill flyer-and-clipboard or postcard forms. Offer on-the-spot discounts if they sign up, in exchange for taking the time to fill in your form.
Add QR codes to your display banners/ads.
People love whipping out their phones and scanning QR codes. Sweeten the deal with a free item, webinar, or a discount, and add an email requirement after scanning the QR code for access. You can use free QR code makers for this.
What’s in it for them? Tell them!
When you do any of these, make sure you’re clear that they’re signing up for your newsletter by giving you their email. You should be explicit about what they’d get–promos, exclusive discounts, sneak peeks, blogs/guides– and send what you said you would. Don’t surprise them with anything else, like promotions of other stuff, so they don’t unsubscribe.
Import the email addresses and get them organized
Constant Contact can import the emails you gather so you can get started on nurturing these leads via email.
Online:
Gated offers
All those FREE items you see offered on Facebook ads? Not free. You paid with your email to download it! Prepare and promote something really valuable your audience wouldn’t want to miss out on. That’s why they’re also called lead magnets. It can be an ebook, a report, a guide, a cheat sheet. They go to a landing page where they enter their email to download the high-value offer.
You can create both the Facebook ad and landing pages via Constant Contact. Constant Contact
Content Upgrades
You also need to genuinely give away good stuff to attract good customers. Show off your expertise, get them excited for more. That’s where content upgrades come in: bonus content attached to blog posts or long-form social media posts. E.g., your post gives away 10 tips on this or that, and the bonus content gives MORE tips, a more in-depth guide on EACH tip, or a related level-up: for example, I can attach an Email Marketing Guide to this blog post!
Guest blog on other websites with a CTA and landing page to subscribe
Offering content to other sites and blogs are always welcome in exchange for their audience. Sometimes you even get paid for your content! Sweet. But if that website has your target audience, you want to be featured there anyway, paid or not.
In your author bio, websites usually allow you at least 1 link. If you only get ONE, make it a landing page where you can talk about your brand’s benefit to your audience AND ask the visitor to subscribe to get a taste of those benefits!
Indirect list growing techniques
These are activities that don’t ask for emails outright but helps you get those emails.
Create great content.
If your emails aren’t a joy to read, people will stop opening your emails and unsubscribe. Great emails, on the other hand, would get your email forwarded to friends and family, who would subscribe to your email, too. If your blogs are good, people will want to subscribe.
Publish your reviews on your Facebook page, landing pages, and website.
This is your social proof. People want to see what others have said about you before they trust you themselves. It tells them you’re worth their time.
Don’t overdo your landing page form.
Asking for their name and email is enough. You can gather more information later on when you’ve started a conversation. I’ve seen forms that ask for birthdates, company position, company size, company name. That can be relevant, but not really. After all, why would you assume the downloader works in the niche you’re in?
Constant Contact has a WordPress plugin and web signup forms you can directly embed on your website.
Keep your signups visible.
Ready to capture your visitor’s email in case they get impressed with you on your Facebook page, your homepage, your About page, your blog post, or your Services page!
