Build an email list is essential for entrepreneurs in 2021. While many new channels allow you to engage your audience, not all of them have the same weight as traditional email marketing.
With a high-quality email list, you will be able to market yourself and your offerings better. You will also be able to sell more things since your audience will already be motivated to be in a communication loop with you.
Here are some useful email list building approaches that entrepreneurs can use:
1. Make your core audience an offer they can't refuse.
People want to feel like they have achieved something, that they have won. Re-enforce that feeling of victory by giving your audience something to tell their friends and peers about.
Understand what your audience wants and deliver exactly that and more.
This might seem counterintuitive to people who do not have experience in inbound marketing. But if you want to reach the absolute maximum number of conversions, then provide 70% of the most valuable knowledge or content you have to offer and keep the rest for people who convert.
Doing this will help raise awareness for what you or your brand does, and it also paves the way to make you a leader in your niche.
Being either, or better yet, both of these things will allow you to be someone that your audience would trust with their personal information like their email address.
To do this effectively, email marketing tools will make your life a whole lot easier. Luckily, HubSpot has a whole bunch of tools including ones for email marketing that you can start out with for free. Check them out here.
Go out of your way to delight your audience. And why, when you choose to ask your audience for something in return, they will respond in kind.
2. Use pop-ups only when they can convert.
Pop-ups are useful, but they can also be annoying.
Think of all the times you visited a website only to be bombarded with pop-ups every thirty seconds. Not fun.
Excessive use of pop-ups is not only detrimental to user experience, but it also makes your audience reluctant to part with any personal information like their names, email addresses, or phone numbers.
The best approach to use pop-ups is to use them sparingly and only when they have a high chance of converting. The attention span of your online visitor can vary. Depending on the person, they might be most interested in your web page as soon as they visit, in the middle or the end.
This makes for three pop-ups easily. But, three pop-ups are just on the edge of too many.
For best results, you might want to A/B test your pop-ups and go with the ones that consistently bring you new emails to add to your list.
Another popular strategy for using pop ups is to use them only when your online visitor is about to leave your website.
Understanding exit intent (the actions an online visitor takes when they want to leave your site) and capitalizing on it using pop-ups is done by many websites these days. You can also opt to use a live chat app or a chatbot to engage these people as they are about to leave your website.
By being thoughtful of the way you use and incorporate pop-ups, you will be able to get the intended action from your online visitors more often than you used to.
3. Get emails using social media platforms.
Social media is where your audience is at.
Finding a particular kind of person is made more accessible by knowing what social media platforms they are most likely to use. Once you know this, you can then go on these platforms, provide value, and get those emails you were looking for.
The best way to capture your core audience's attention (and emails) is to stand out from everyone else. Individuals and organizations that have a unique voice get greater traction on social media.
To be authentic and trustworthy, make sure that your brand's activities are relevant to your audience. If your audience feels that they aren't focused on, you will start to see a sharp decline in the business you get.
Here are a few methods that you can use to get emails from people on social media:
- Make your CTA button on your page a sign-up button.
- Thoroughly answer questions online and insert a link to your sign-up page.
- Run contests/quizzes and make all participants enter their email addresses.
- Invite people to join your private, high-value Facebook group only after signing up for your email list.
These are just some email list building ideas that you can try out on social media. By being creative on social, you'll be able to devise more strategies and implement techniques that boost your sign-ups significantly.
4. Create different landing pages for multiple audience segments.
Different people respond well to different options. If a person is particularly interested in a product's aesthetic, they might not convert well on a tech-focused landing page.
Ideally, you should identify different segments in your target audience and start from there. Doing this research work beforehand will allow you to create landing pages that convert higher than a general landing page.
Modern marketing requires you to be as specific as possible. By creating and optimizing your landing pages for different audiences, you will not only leave a good impression on your audience, but you will also be able to convert better.
The best landing pages have a singular call to action button. Since you want to collect emails, highlight only this point. Also, ensure that you are either exciting your audience or providing them with something that they will find valuable.
If these two things do not apply to your landing page, you might need to go back to the design phase. It's a give and takes world out there. And for people who want something, it has become the norm to give first and give more.
Conclusion:
Collecting emails is something that all businesses should look into. Even small companies have realized the benefits that email marketing brings to the table.
Entrepreneurs, in particular, need to be well versed in finding new ways to reach their audience. Email marketing not only makes you give your business a professional outlook, but it also helps set your business up for long-term success.
Author Bio
Hamzah Adil is a digital marketing executive for SwiftChat – a live chat app designed to aid your sales and customer support teams. His interests include reading, writing, and going down random, completely unnecessary rabbit holes on YouTube. Follow him on Twitter.