We see a lot of momentum with email marketing but it can start to be a drag when our list stops growing. You are reaching out to the same people over and over again and soon enough that will reflect in your analytics, but it really doesn't have to be that way! Whether you are just starting up or you need to rejuvenate your email marketing, there are plenty of moves to be made.
Here are 6 ways to grow your email list fast.
If you have something to offer people, half the time they won't think twice about typing in their email quick. Offer up something useful to demographic you are looking at. There are multiple ways you can do this. E-books are a popular one. If you give them a free e-book in return for adding them to your mailing list… seems like a pretty easy trade. Maybe you just have a couple free tips that are just a step up from what you offered in your blog or on your website. You can use those to entice people. Throw together a little PDF with these tips and begin your exchange.
Depending on what kind of site you use for your blog, this process can be more or less difficult. If you use WordPress, a simple solution is by adding the Jetpack plugin. You can also use a cloud service like Enginemailer to quickly build online forms and start building an email base. No matter how complicated the process is, it is still worth the trouble. This way people that want to see your posts won't miss them and it's an automated process that you don't have to do anything with.
A common opt-in option is a pop-up box. It is common for a reason. It is a very successful way to get emails quickly and simply. But that isn't the only option that you have. Opt-in can come from chat boxes if you are looking for a more conversational, casual approach. You may make your customers feel like they aren't just giving it away whenever. You can also collect emails from Facebook/Instagram ads. This process is almost mindless for people because their email is usually already input for them they just keep hitting the next button to get to what they want.
If you want to get a little more creative with your approach, you can try hosting an online webinar. The nice thing about this is that you can record it once, set it up to host every 15 minutes or so, and never have to put time into it again. That way you have people that have access to it pretty much all the time. It also feels more personal even if you aren't attending the live webinar. (A great way to create even more of a personal feeling is to interact with the people during the live webinar and have a chat box included.) You automatically get every person on your email list by requiring their email to register for the webinar. There are tons of different webinar software that you can use, prices ranging pretty widely. A few cheaper and common options include WebinarJam and Everwebinar.
You do not have to be a big business to host a giveaway. As long as whatever you are giving away is relevant to your demographic, this is an easy win for you. For example, you may have a fitness company. You are giving away one free foam roller. That's it! Barely any money out of your pocket and this can generate hundreds/thousands of leads. If you are doing it on a website, you can use registering your email as a vote. If you decide to do it on social media, like Instagram, you can easily add more to it. Although having 10,000 followers or more does make this process easier (because you have more options, like the swipe up to your website), there are still plenty of ways to go about it. A common way you see looks something like this. To enter the contest, do the following: 1) Like Picture 2) Go to the link in the "bio" section and enter email 3) comment "done" below and 4) you get one bonus entry for every friend you tag in the comments. Not only are you driving more people to your site, getting easy emails, but you are also having your followers do your marketing for you. You can even require them to tag friends to enter. The options are endless.
The most important part of customer referral success is to have a great referral program. It can be as easy as a free t-shirt, but you have to show some sort of appreciation to the customer that is doing the referring. People are much more likely to give something a shot that they may normally question if it were referred to them by someone they know. Understandably, they are more trusting of a friend than a business. You can approach customer referrals in many ways. You can have it included in the post-sale or you can include it after the star-rating process. There are plenty of options. It is important to keep it short and simple and to the point. "Refer 1 friend for 20% off. Refer 2 friends for 30% off." It is as easy as using a pop-up like that.
There are plenty of ways to grow your email marketing. The best part is that a lot of these come at little or no cost to you. You don't have to be a multi-million dollar company to have a successful email marketing campaign. If you have a computer and some Wi-Fi, you have a great chance at improving sales with email marketing.