4 Steps to Build Your Email List Today
Email marketing is one of the BEST ways to develop a relationship with your customers. It gives you an unfiltered way to speak directly to your audience. You own and control your outreach, without the limitations of a social media algorithm or a pay-per-click price tag. You can reach your audience at the right time, with the right message according to a customized and targeted strategy. Did I mention there are upwards of 4 BILLION Email users worldwide? It’s no wonder email marketing boasts a 3,800% ROI! It’s a marketing opportunity you cannot skip if you want to ignite sales.
But where to begin? How do you grow a high value subscription list? Getting subscribers is all about making an exchange with your audience. It’s a transaction: subscribers give you access to their inbox and attention, and you deliver awesome content and value. So you must approach all your list building and content development with a service-oriented mindset. Here are four practical steps to take as you map out your strategy.
Step 1: Introduce Yourself
If emails are the best way to build a relationship with your prospects and customers, make sure you’re starting with a solid foundation. Before you dive in, make sure you’ve properly introduced yourself with a solid web presence. Potential subscribers should be able to check you out and make sure you’re worth their time and attention. They’ll want to know who you are, what you’re about, and whether you can deliver solutions to their problems. Depending on your business model, you may consider creating a website, blog, portfolio, etsy page, or social account. Whichever platform you choose, subscribers need to be able to find you online and make an initial decision to trust you. And the more value you provide on these platforms, no strings attached, the more likely they are to share their information in return.
Step 2: Develop Lead Magnets
Now that you have an established online presence, it’s time to beef it up with some digital offers, or “lead magnets” to get subscribers on the hook. Think about your audience’s goals and figure out how you can help them get there. At this stage, you can offer something on the cheap (or free) that solves an immediate problem they have. Common lead magnets for B2C businesses include discount codes, giveaways, and other contests. With B2B businesses, white papers, cheat sheets, and webinars are more common. What you offer and how you deliver it will depend entirely on the nuances of your industry, but it should be valuable, exclusive, and even fun!
Restaurant: Subscribe to watch our exclusive video cooking tutorials released every Tuesday
Realtor: Download the ultimate guide to home inspections before you sign that contract
Local Concert Hall: Subscribe to get early access to tickets sales
Accountant: Download your Ultimate tax prep checklist
Step 3: Promote
You have your web presence, you’ve created your lead magnet, now you have to promote the offer and get those subscriptions rolling in. You’ve built the trust, you’ve made your offer, now it’s time for your ask. Think about your usual avenues of promotion for sales and leverage them to build your list first!
Collect business cards at trade shows
Have a subscription list available at your brick & mortar shop
Drop a call to action (CTA) on your website
Add pop-ups on your home page
Advertise on social (organic first, paid second)
Encourage influencers and business partners to share
And remember – keep it simple by asking for names and emails only. It’s still early days in your relationship and the more you ask of them, the more hesitant your subscribers will become.
Step 4: DELIVER!
Just when you thought you were done, the truth is the journey has only just begun! Your subscribers shared their info in exchange for the promise of awesome content, so now it’s time to deliver. Make sure every single email you send provides value, whether by educating, entertaining, encouraging, or in some other fashion. Do not send emails just for the sake of sending emails… you risk the dreaded unsubscribe! If you fail to deliver on your promise of valuable, power-packed content, your subscribers will be quick to run away with your lead magnet offer and quickly unsubscribe. Delivering valuable content is the most challenging part of your list building activities. While there are some basic templates you can leverage, your email content must be customized to your audience, message, and value proposition. Each email address is a new relationship to develop, and each outreach should move that relationship forward.
