Email is one of the most effective marketing methods now available to digital entrepreneurs, price for price. It typically yields $42 for every $1 invested. According to Emarsys, this is why 81% of small to medium businesses utilise email as a tool for customer acquisition and another 80% do so for customer retention. But creating an email list is where it all begins.
You’ll discover the fundamentals of how to create an email list from the beginning through this guide, which covers both free and commercial methods. Email marketing entails gathering email addresses from customers who have bought your digital goods or shown interest in your company. Then, based on where each customer is in the sales funnel, you segment those email addresses.
What Is An Email List?
A list of people who have chosen to receive email updates about your company, its goods, and offers is known as an email list. Your email marketing tool hosts email lists for your company. You can establish an email list by using the form you generate on their platform and placing it on your website. You utilise their email service to prepare the email and send it to your contact list .
Email marketing software resembles a customer relationship management (CRM) tool in many respects. It stores your list of warm leads and clients, categorising them into parts and keeping track of your email correspondence with them.
How To Create an Email List: Importance of One
Your digital enterprises should develop as a result of your email marketing efforts. It aids in converting a haphazard group of people into devoted followers who consider themselves to be familiar with you. More significantly, it aids in converting those prospects into paying clients.
Today, email serves as the main form of communication between businesses and their clients. According to a think tank survey, 77 percent of consumers prefer email to other forms of marketing communication. Only 9% of consumers chose direct mail, which was the second most popular.
The most efficient approach to communicating with your fans is through email marketing. 66% of consumers make purchases through emails, claims a research group. The second-place option, direct mail, is a close second, but the third option, telephone, is only 24% as effective.
Why email lists are the best method for expanding your business:
- Someone who subscribes to your email list has done so because they are interested in what you do. They are often qualified prospects.
- Your subscribers are eagerly awaiting your message. They are aware that you will welcome them and send them promotional materials.
- A two-way channel exists. Your subscriber has the option to reply at any time and start a conversation with you.
Social media and email can be compared. Almost everyone uses social media. If you are relying on chance to get your message across, that is not going to work. People don’t want to be pitched on social media anyway. They use social media for social interaction, not for shopping.
You may communicate with anybody, anywhere, at any time via email lists. You can establish relationships by sending engagement messages. In order to advertise and sell your courses, you may also send marketing messages.
How then can you create an email list of enthusiasts who wish to purchase your courses? Let’s explore some original (and clever) approaches to accomplishing that. We’ll start with free options before going over some costly ones.
Create an email list for FREE!
Creating a subscribe page:
Many of your visitors will miss it if you only have one subscription form on your website. Make it simple for website visitors to join your email list. Create a Subscribe page. Then, in your navigation bar, add that page. Give it a title and click Subscribe. Briefly explain to visitors what they gain for subscribing. Concentrate on the value they receive.
Make joining your list as simple and painless as possible. Embed the form on your page to eliminate the need for visitors to click through to take action.
Creating lead magnets:
After you’ve developed your Subscribe page, you’ll need to create a lead magnet. Lead magnets are short-term promotions that are intimately tied to your product. They are intended to attract your target consumer and accomplish one of three things:
- Create excitement about your premium offer.
- Provide them with information that will assist them in becoming better buyers.
- Share useful knowledge that piques your interest and makes you want to learn more.
For example, you could make a:
- Report for free
- Buyer’s Manual
- A blog post-related resource
- PDF of a pillar post in your blog
- Template
Create a landing page for your lead magnet when you’ve created it. Tease the facts your visitor will learn from your lead magnet on that page. Then, in your email marketing program, compose a confirmation email. This email will be sent automatically to those who opt-in, and it will include a link to your lead magnet.
Optimise your website for subscriptions:
Don’t just stop there. Each visitor will look for your subscription form in a unique location. So make your entire website subscriber-friendly. Let’s take Exly for example.
A pop- up shows as soon as you visit the website. This form is visible to anybody who views the blog. It’s in our brand colour and swiftly explains why they should subscribe. Take note of how similar it looks to the blog’s banner at the top. This ensures that our messaging is consistent, so visitors understand what we’re all about.
Maintaining an interest of consumers:
A giveaway is a great method to make list building more fun. A giveaway has only one winner, as opposed to providing your stuff or information to everyone who subscribes. As a result, you can offer a larger, more valuable award.
Giveaways are particularly effective since they have the potential to go viral. When someone enters the giveaway, they are given the option to share it with their friends. Each time they share, their name is entered into the drawing one more time. The more they share, the more likely they are to win. Instead of developing numerous lead magnets, you can also urge visitors to sign up in order to have access to your most valuable content. However, you are not required to put all of your material behind a gate.
Instead, you could write some expert instructions and long-form pieces of 10,000 words and encourage people to subscribe if they want complete access. Some of your articles will become lead magnets as a result of this strategy.
People frequently prefer live presentations because they allow them to interact with the host and other participants. All they have to do if they have a question is ask.
However, many brands now provide evergreen webinars. These are on-demand recordings of recorded presentations. The visitor opts in and is directed to the video. When someone joins up, they are added to your main email list, as with all of our list-building strategies, so you can send them material, other learning opportunities, and marketing offers.
Premium content offers:
As you may have noticed, growing an email list is as simple as providing valuable content that answers your prospects’ questions. We’ve discussed written content and webinars. You can also design:
- A series of emails
- A brief video tutorial
- An audio program
Instead of one-off pieces of content, construct a series that you’ll send out via email over the course of a few days or weeks. This is very useful for teaching your email subscribers to open your messages. They must open your emails to acquire all of the information because you are delivering them one piece at a time.
Paid Strategies To Create An Email List
To fasttrack the entire process of list building, you could also set some money aside for it. A few things you could gain from this are-
Invest in advertising:
If you have a useful offer on your website, you should make sure that as many people as possible notice it. When you promote, you want your top clients to see it. This might provide you with more subscribers in less time. You’ll need an offer for this approach:
- Lead magnet
- Guide
- Event
- Webinar
Pay to promote high value content:
Your direct leads to an in-depth article with a resource offer rather than a landing page. Here’s how you cab do it:
Find your most successful blog post. This is possible with Google Analytics. Make sure it is relevant to your goods and will whet people’s thirst for more. Look for articles that can be used as a lead magnet.
Make a resource to go along with the content. Is it possible for you to make a worksheet or checklist to accompany this article? Offer it in the blog post and invite readers to sign up for access. Increase the post’s visibility. Set this ad to target your ideal consumer so that only qualified traffic is directed to your article.
Your boosted post will appear in the same way as a regular Facebook post, but it will only be shown to people who match your customer profile. They’ll read your article after clicking through. They will then sign up to download your content if they like what they see. This is a low-pressure method for growing your email list. It isn’t as direct as other ways, but it does provide you with a list of people who enjoy your work. You could also go with sponsoring popular media creators, from Instagrammers to Youtubers. Or you could look for a celebrity endorsement.
Wrapping Up
To make it all the more easier, you can build your email list on your website. But you might also use other platforms to attract new subscribers. It’s important to keep your list in one place, so you’ll need to import your contacts to your Exly email list. That makes it easy to promote your courses, coaching, and memberships.
To create an email list is essential for growing a successful business. And it’s simple to do with the right email marketing software.
Apply the tactics provided in this guide. Configure your email lists to support tailored marketing as well as whole-list blasts. Then, on a regular basis, begin sending emails to your list.
Email marketing will allow you to create a huge, engaged community of people who are passionate about your products. It will enable you to cultivate those relationships, increase loyalty, and sell more courses.
So, what are you waiting for? Start building your email list right away.
