Growing an Organic Email Marketing List – In Seven Simple Steps

As the harvest season draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to focus on the benefits of growing your email marketing list. More importantly, how growing your list organically will help you to achieve better results.

According to the Email Marketing Industry Census 2015 by Econsultancy, email continues to be a leading channel for delivering ROI. With this in mind, how much time do you invest into data collection? In order to maximise your results, emphasis should be placed on collecting engaged subscribers to enhance your list and ultimately, boost results.

Send great emails & include great content

First things first – content. Think about what you’re sending to your subscribers. Is it both visually pleasing and useful? Ideally, you want them to love what they receive to increase the chance that they will spread the word and share your content with others.

Tip: Ensure you’re sending responsive emails, 53% of emails are now opened on a mobile device, and many won’t bother reading or sharing an email that isn’t mobile optimised.

Include a ‘Forward to a Friend’ button

Make it as easy as possible for your subscribers to send your marketing emails to their friends. This is a quick win and requires little effort from you. This option also stops the original subscriber being unsubscribed by the people they’ve forwarded their email to.

Tip: Most ESP’s provide forward to a friend stats in the reporting section so you can keep a track of numbers.

Make sign-up easy

How easy is it for new visitors to find your newsletter sign up? Make sure that you have a sign up option that is clearly visible on your homepage. If people are on your site, they’re interested, so don’t neglect this opportunity and make them go searching.

Tip: Include a simple sign up function on your homepage to grab browsers.

Newsletter landing page

Take this one step further by creating a dedicated landing page specifically for the newsletter sign up purposes. This page is your opportunity to hard sell your marketing emails. Include what prospective subscribers can expect each month and the exclusive offers and content they’ll receive. It’s also a great idea to include current/past editions to tempt subscribers further.

Tip: Link to your dedicated newsletter sign up page from your social accounts when promoting your emails.

Offering Downloads?

If you’re offering downloadable content on your site, make sure you’re protecting the download with an email address submission form to encourage readers to join your mailing list. This is another quick win, as these subscribers are already showing high interest in your content so could potentially be keen to receive more.

Tip: Running a competition? Encourage entrants to sign up for your newsletter as part of the entry process.

Offline & in-store

Events, shows or in-store are all perfect opportunities to collect email addresses. Follow these list additions with a welcome email to confirm their subscription, letting them know what they can expect from you and why they’ll want to receive future communications.

Tip: Use an Ipad at events and at the till – it’s a no-fuss way to get visitors to sign up themselves instantly using your sign up page.

And finally, get social

Don’t forget to promote the exclusive email deals, info and updates that your subscribers will receive if they are signed up for your marketing emails. Link followers to your newsletter landing page and watch your email list bloom.

Tip: You can create a ‘Sign up’ call to action on your Facebook profile that feeds directly into your list.

If you’d like to grab a coffee and learn more about the benefits of email marketing for your business, give us a call on 01273 208913.