Do you use email marketing? If you don't, you should be! I've said it before but it is worth repeating: Email has the highest ROI of any digital marketing medium. In 2017, for every $1 spent on email, the average business earns $44.
I could go on about the value of email marketing, but I'll save that for another blog. Take my word for it: email marketing matters.
What is your experience with email marketing? Perhaps you've given it a try and not found it effective. Any marketer will tell you, the money is in the list. The subscriber list, that is.
"But Lindsey, I've tried to build a mailing list, and no one signs up. What do I do?"
You are in luck. Today I'm here to tell you how to dramatically increase the subscribers on your mailing list. It isn't a trick. It requires work and a some investment on your part. But you can do it. And remember, for every $1 invested, you could earn $44. Isn't worth a try?
Let's jump right in.
How to build a better mailing list:
Include an opt-in in your email signature
If you’re like me, you’re constantly receiving and sending emails for work. After your correspondence is complete, don’t let them forget about you. Keep reminding them of you, and your business, by encouraging them to join your mailing list in your email signature.
In my example above, I have several links, but the email sign up link is the only "call to action" where I am telling the reader to take an action. To really emphasize your call to action, include it as a "PS" or post script, since research suggests that people skim emails and are more likely to focus on the PS than the body content or the signature. See my example below:
Take Action:
Add a link in your email signature to your newsletter sign up form, either is part of your signature or as a post script. (Don’t have a sign up form? Create one now or ask us to create a dedicated landing page to get more sign ups!)
Instead of using boring terms like “Sign up for XXX newsletter”, make it fun, interesting, or enticing. “You don’t want to miss exclusive deals!” “Keep us coming to your inbox, join our mailing list!”
If you want to entice them, offer something in exchange for the click…
Offer something for free.
You’ve probably seen this type of offer hundreds of times. But it is popular because it works. We tend to guard our personal information carefully and we’re not just going to give it our to anyone. Like a date at the bar, you’ve got to lure them in with a free drink. Except in this case, you need something digital to offer.
What kind of things can you offer in exchange for their valuable information? Webinars, ebooks, and articles are all popular offerings. But if you don’t have the time or inclination for that kind of media, consider taking a popular blog article and offering that.
Take Action
On your website or blog, set up the offer in an obvious spot (at the top of the page). Tell them exactly what FREE item they will receive for entering their information. Then in the “Thank you” message that pops up after, insert the link to the content or to download the content if you’re offering something digital. You can use services like
Print Friendly to turn any one of your blog articles into a PDF for them to download.
Use a dedicated landing page.
A sign up form on your website or blog is great, but if you’re really serious about growing your subscriber list, a dedicated landing page will give you the best results. This is a simple (or long form, depending on what is the best fit for your offer) page that is created with the sole purpose of selling the conversion.
Take Action:
If you are really serious about building a mailing list and leveraging email marketing, services like our
MarketingWebsite include a conversion-focused landing page, lead capture, contact manager, and marketing automation. Partnered with a great ad campaign, this can grow your audience exponentially in a short period of time.
Use social media.
Depending on the social sites you use for business, they can help drive traffic to your newsletter sign up or free offer.
On Facebook:
Call to Action Button: Use the call to action button Facebook provides on your page to encourage people to “sign up”. Rather than just directing them to shop on your website, remember a subscriber has long-time value rather than the value of a single sale (unless you collect emails during the sales process, but that is a discussion for another day.)
Pinned Post: Pin a post that promotes your newsletter or your free offer (we call it a lead magnet) at the top of your page. This will guarantee that visitors will see it, and will increase the amount of engagement on that post, which will cause Facebook to boost it for even more views.
Use an Ad: This will work best for a free offer. Create an ad for the post and send traffic to your form.
Pay attention to the sign up form design.
“The details are not the details. The details are the design.” This quote by Charles Eames perfectly explains how important even the smallest detail can be in gaining conversions (in our case, email sign ups).
Color:
You probably know people associate different colors with different emotions: red = urgency, green = relaxation, blue = trust.
However, choosing the right color for your action button and overall form isn’t that simple.
Take Action:
How do you know what color is right?
- Pick a color for your button that stands out. It should have a good contrast to the rest of your page.
- Use a color that will send the right message to your audience and for your type of industry. For example, if you’re selling organic baby food, a red button might imply “stop” or “caution” rather than urgency. A blue button to encourage trust might be a better choice.
- Be consistent with call-to-action colors across your website.
- Test different colors. If your service allows you to adjust the color of the button (for our
MarketingWebsite landing page customers, we will make those changes for you), be sure to try different colors to see if one works better. Sometimes that is the best way to know.
Button Text:
The text on your button is just as important as color. They key here is to personalize it. “Submit” or “Join” are the worst things you can use.
Take Action:
Create button text that speaks to your audience. Make sure it is about them. Instead of using “Sign up” consider something like “Yes, I want more info like this”.
- Make it personal
- Use power words
Build trust through familiarity.
With so many websites and products available online, it is difficult to know whom to trust. You can help your visitors trust your business by including things like testimonials or favorable reviews from customers, logos of clients, ratings or awards. For example, an author will often include literary awards they’ve won or the fact that they are on a bestseller list to gain the trust of visitors.
Take Action
Find at last one favorable review, post on social media, or happy client. Put that within view of your form so visitors will feel better sharing their information with you.
Remove distractions.
We’re all in a hurry when we get online. We expect things to load quickly, to be easy to navigate, simple to read, and we’re unlikely to waste time on something that is confusing.
Keep your form simple. Don’t ask for information don’t you absolutely need (do you really need their phone number?)
I just clicked out of a sign up for a webinar that sounded interesting because they were asking me for more information than I wanted to give. I’d gladly have given them my name and email and the fake phone number I use on sign up forms, but the rest… nope, not worth it to fill out the company I work for, the city I am in, and so on. I just didn’t want to take the time.
Make that moment of impulse as painless as possible. Take a look at this landing page by Peter Henneke, who claims it converts almost 60% of the time, which is amazing:
Also, take note of all the trust content used on this page, like "as seen on" and quotes by notable marketers.
Take Action:
- Remove any unnecessary fields from your sign up form.
- Remove unnecessary images, ads, or text from the website page around your sign up form.
- Be sure the sign up is the only call to action on the page to maximize conversions.
Use a blog
Blogging is an obvious way to gain more traffic to your website, which could mean more sign ups for your newsletter.
This might not be for your if you don’t have the time or ability to write. But if you or someone in your business runs a blog for your company, you can include your newsletter sign up in several ways:
Pop Ups
While pop ups became a huge no-no several years ago, they’ve now come back in style. A nice designed pop up form can have a great conversion rate, as long as the visitor can easily click out of it if they don’t care to enter their information and view the content they want.
Another great tool is the exit pop up. This only pops up when a visitor is going to leave the page, and can entice them to leave their information behind.
Comments
If you enable commenting on your blog, most blog programs allow you to require an email before leaving a comment. You can then choose to add them to your mailing list (just be sure they have the option to unsubscribe).
Bio
Just like in your email signature, include an email opt in in your bio encouraging people to sign up. Then instead of visiting your page once to read your blog, they will get your content in their inbox, which is way more powerful. An additional benefit of a sign up in your bio means every time you guest post on other blogs, you'll have access to a whole new audience.
Sidebar
Give these methods a try, and don't forget to send traffic to your optimize forms and landing pages with a little
paid advertising. Tell me how it works for you. Share your email marketing experiences, or ask any questions in the comments below.
