By Sam Cyrus
It seems that with all the social media out there, people forgot the power of email marketing. Here is a simple fact: email is 40 times better at bringing in new clients than any social network. In fact, it’s number one marketing channel in any business field. When sending emails the ROI is strikingly lower than the amounts of money spent on social media marketing. But simply making a huge email list is not going to do the work. The goal is to convert your website visitors into email leads. Email leads are relevant recipients that have in some way expressed an interest in your business. Here are 7 tips on how to grow an email list loaded with relevant leads and boost your sales:
1. Create a lead magnet on your website
Many websites have lead magnets, it’s nothing new. But the way it’s presented will decide if you’re going to gather the desirable amount of leads. Just simply asking for emails with giving nothing in return won’t do the job. The key is to tempt your customers to give their email address for your free offer. There are different ways to create a lead magnet, depending on the type of your business. Creating a lead magnet on your website is only one of the elements which will help expand your email list, but it shouldn’t be neglected.
2. Get social followers to subscribe
As already mentioned, email subscribers will benefit your business more than social followers. A great way to expand your email list is to use your current following on social networks. Asking your social followers to subscribe can help you reach your goal, and the best thing is that it won’t cost you a dime. The most effective way is to ask your followers to subscribe on regular basis. A lot of the followers will spot only a part of the posts you share, so it’s important to be consistent.
3. Create Twitter lead generation cards
Promoting your business on Twitter can often be tricky. You need to pay attention to many different components if you want Twitter Lead Cards to work. With a great design you will more likely stand out from the huge amount of other tweets, and a call-to-action is necessary. Next, you need to increase your keyword list and personalized advertising. And of course don’t forget to measure the ROI, so you can keep track of the source of new leads.
4. Launch a giveaway
An amazing way to attract your audience and expand your email list is to host a giveaway. If done in the right way, giveaways are the go-to strategy. To make it work, you should follow the next few steps:
- Offer a tempting reward your audience would actually like to win
- Give bonus entries for referred entrants
- Give bonus incentives for those who didn’t win the prize
- Offer significant promotions for relevant audiences
With every giveaway you will attract subscribers that are not relevant, so make sure the prize will be of interest only to the targeted audience.
5. Run a contest to create engagement
Giveaways are fantastic for expanding your email list, but nothing will engage the audience with your brand like running a contest. Contests are great because they spark that ceaseless need within people to win. If you keep the entry barrier low, your email list will be loaded with new subscribers really fast. It’s a great opportunity to gain new subscribers who could potentially be your new brand evangelists. Maybe you won’t get as many emails like when there is a giveaway, but you will certainly win some new fans of your brand, and nothing is more valuable than that.
6. Apply pop-ups and slide-ins
Believe it or not, pop-ups and their slide-in counterparts are the most efficient way to score relevant email leads straight from your website. Over the years pop-ups gained a bad reputation, and the reason is that they were not used in the right way. To make pop-ups and slide-ins work, you must implement them in a non-intrusive manner, of course with the right targeting. You can use exit intent pop-ups that will open a message or use opt-in when someone is going to leave your website.
7. Paid advertising
At first, when you think about paying to have more subscribers, it doesn’t sound that appealing. But when you think about it, every strategy you use has a price. If you want to host a webinar, run a giveaway or a contest, have someone write a good article for you, or create a lead magnet on your website- you will need to pay for it. So why not use paid advertising to bring in new subscribers, if it turns out to be cheaper than other methods for growing your email list?
Conclusion
Hopefully, these tips will help you grow your email list and reach your sales goals. It doesn’t have to be hard. But what counts the most is what you do after gaining those subscribers. So try to provide quality in every aspect of your business to keep your clients happy and your business flourishing.
About the author
Sam Cyrus is CEO and co-founder of Agseosydney, a Digital Marketing agency from Australia. Sam is also a creative writer and likes to share his insights on entrepreneurship, business, and social media. He currently collaborates with Nirmal Web Design Sydney>.
