How To Build Your Business Email List

To effectively reach your customers and potential customers as a small business owner, email marketing can be one of the best ways. But to make the most of this email marketing, you need a good email list.

Creating an email list can be an effective strategy for small and medium-sized businesses to engage with their customers and boost their revenue. This is because it allows you to send targeted marketing emails to individuals who have expressed an interest in your company and products. Compared to other marketing methods, sending regular emails to a well-curated list is a cost-effective option, with a higher average return on investment (ROI), and one of the most successful ways to convert clients: with a 15% conversation rate.
Source: hubspot.com

We’ll cover the basics of email list building and offer effective strategies for building and maintaining an email list for your business.

Firstly, what is an email list?

An email list is simply a list of email addresses that you have gathered for the purpose of sending marketing messages to, they can include past customers, contacts, and people who have expressed an interest in your company.

The people on your email list are anyone who has opted-in to receive emails from you and has given you permission to contact them.

Why email list-building matters

Email list building is the process of gathering email addresses from your website visitors, social media followers, and other sources. You can use various tactics to get people to give you their email addresses, such as offering free resources in exchange for their email address, asking them to sign up for your newsletter, or offering exclusive discounts or promotions to email subscribers.

Building a solid email list is an important part of your marketing strategy because it allows you to communicate with your customers and potential customers directly. By having a list of people who have already shown interest in your business, you can easily get your messages to them and encourage them to return to your website or store.

Here’s a specific example: AppSumo.com is a 7-figure business and they report that 90%+ of their revenue comes from emails to past customers. We should know, we’re one of their customers!
Source: campaignmonitor.com

What are the Benefits of List-Building?

Get Messages to Customers

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your customers. With an email list, you can easily send messages about new products or promotions directly to their inbox.

Get Visitors to Return

By sending regular emails to your subscribers, you can encourage them to return to your website or store. This can help increase sales and keep your business top of mind for your customers.

A shocking 96% of your website visitors are not ready to buy from you, so by getting their contact details, it’s easier for you to keep in touch with them.
Source: sendible.com

Email Builds Trust

By providing value in your emails, such as helpful tips or exclusive discounts, you can build trust with your subscribers. This can lead to increased loyalty and repeat business.

Email Has a Personal Touch

Email marketing allows you to communicate with your customers on a more personal level. By addressing them by name and tailoring your messages to their interests, you can make them feel more connected to your business.

You Own Your List

Unlike social media followers or website traffic, you own your email list. This means that you can communicate with your subscribers even if social media platforms change their algorithms or your website traffic decreases. According to Campaign Monitor, re-engaging previous contacts is approximately 50% more cost-effective than trying to convert new visitors into email subscribers.
Source: campaignmonitor.com

Should You Purchase an Email Database?

No. NO. NO!!!

Sorry to shout, but this is a really important point. Never buy an email list.

Buying an email list is not only unethical and can land you in hot water with regard to UK-GDPR and other data protection laws, but it can also damage your email sender reputation with ISPs and lead to lower engagement rates.

It’s far better to build your email list organically from your ideal customers, even if it takes longer.

How do you build an email list?

There are many ways to build an email list, here are some effective email list-building strategies that you can try…

1. Offer incentives on your website

Your website is the first place to start building your email list. You can add a email sign-up form to your homepage, about page, contact page, product pages, any popular pages on your website really. You can include it in the sidebar or in the footer of your website, but make sure it’s still featured prominently elsewhere.

In order to entice customers to sign up for your email list, you need to offer them something of value. This could be a discount code on their first purchase, a free e-book or whitepaper, or exclusive access to sales and promotions.

We’ve discussed Lead Magnets and how to use them in this article here: What are lead magnets?

Remember – don’t ask for too much information on your sign-up form. Just ask for their basic contact details, probably only their name and email address to keep the process simple and quick – the more fields you have on a form, the less likely people will be to fill it in!

2. Consider a specific landing page

A specific landing page for newsletter sign-ups can offer multiple benefits for your business, such as clear messaging, increased conversion rates, improved user experience, and better tracking and analytics. With a dedicated page, you can create a compelling offer, encourage more people to sign up, and gain valuable insights into what is working.

A landing page also makes it easier to share out your email signup form in some of the other ideas we’ll talk about below.

3. Use pop-ups

While popup forms can be annoying, they can also be an effective way to increase sign-ups for your email list. The University of Alberta’s email subscriber list experienced significant growth within a year due to the implementation of a pop-up survey that only appears after a visitor has been on a news page for 10 seconds.
Source: blog.hubspot.com

Just try not to annoy website users by using a pop-up that only appears once a user has spent a certain amount of time on your website, or alternatively exit-intent popups that only appear when it looks like the visitor is going to close the browser tab/window.

4. Host a competition or giveaway

Offering a prize or competition that is relevant to your target audience and aligns with your brand, you can generate interest and encourage people to take action. For example, if you run a fitness brand, you could offer a prize of a free gym membership or personal training sessions to those who sign up for your newsletter. By offering a prize or competition to build your email list, you can increase engagement and create a sense of excitement around your brand.

5. Social media

By sharing your newsletter on social media platforms, you can increase readership and potentially gain new sign-ups. You can create social media posts that encourage followers to sign up and provide a direct link to your sign-up form or landing page.

Facebook pages and Pinterest offer tools like sign-up tabs and pins to promote new subscriber engagement.

Remember – it’s important to think about which platforms your target audience uses the most and focus your efforts there. We talk more about this in developing personas for social media here.\

6. Social sharing

Include sharing buttons in your emails to make it easy for subscribers to share your content on their social media platforms. This can help increase your reach and attract new subscribers – but for this to work, you have to make sure that your newsletter is worth sharing in the first place – make sure that your content is both relevant and interesting to your readers is the key to achieving this.

Including social sharing buttons in emails has been found to increase click-through rates by up to 158% compared to emails without them.
Source: wordstream.com

7. Forward to a friend

Related to the above, encouraging your subscribers to forward your emails to their friends and family can be a simple yet effective way to grow your email list organically. When someone forwards your email to someone they know, it can help increase brand awareness and potentially reach new customers who may be interested in your products or services by leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

To encourage your subscribers to forward your emails, you can include a clear call-to-action in your emails and make it easy for them to share by including social sharing buttons or a “Forward to a Friend” button.

See also Why Referral Campaigns Work?

8. In person

If you have a physical location, ask visitors to sign up for your email list in-store. You can offer a discount or free resource in exchange for their email address. Allow people to sign up on their own devices by having a QR code that points to your sign-up form printed on signs/posters, business and postcards or permanently by the cash register.

If you’re exhibiting at a trade show or conference, make sure to collect email addresses from attendees who are interested in your products or services. You can even offer a prize or incentive for people who sign up for your email list at the event.

9. Offer a loyalty program

A loyalty program can offer numerous benefits for your business, including increased customer retention, improved customer satisfaction, and increased revenue. By creating a successful loyalty program, you can build a loyal customer base and grow your email list at the same time.

Try offering coupon codes, promotions, exclusive content and rewards to members of your loyalty program, you can encourage customers to return to your business again and again. Just make sure that the rewards and benefits are relevant and valuable to your customers.

10. Networking

Networking can be a powerful tool for building your email list. Whether you attend industry events, join local business groups, or participate in online forums and groups, networking provides opportunities to connect with potential customers and partners who may be interested in signing up for your email list. By sharing information about your email newsletter and the benefits of subscribing, you can generate interest and encourage people to join your list.

Additionally, networking can help you establish trust and credibility, which can make people more likely to subscribe to your newsletter. As you build relationships with other businesses and individuals in your industry, you may also be able to leverage their networks to reach even more potential subscribers.

Get Your Customers Permission

We touched on this earlier, but make sure you always ask for permission before adding someone to your email list. There are two reasons for this…

Quality over quantity

Having a clear “opt-in” process ensures you have engaged and interested subscribers who genuinely want to receive your emails, leads to higher open and click-through rates. By doing so, you can increase the chances of attracting the right audience for your content and avoid spam complaints, low engagement and help you achieve better results from your email marketing campaigns.

Data Protection

Data protection is a critical consideration, and you must comply with legislation like UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) when collecting and storing customer data. To ensure compliance, it’s important to get explicit consent from customers before adding them to your email list. On top of that, by being transparent about data protection, you can build trust with your customers and avoid any legal issues related to data misuse.

Both of these points can be achieved through a clear and easy-to-understand opt-in process, which clearly states what type of communications the customer can expect to receive and how their data will be used.

Maintaining your list

Once you’ve built your email list, it’s important to manage and maintain it properly. Here are some quick tips to help you do this:

1. Keep your list up to date: Regularly remove inactive subscribers and update email addresses to ensure that your list is accurate and up-to-date.
2. Use Opt-In and Opt-Out Links: Make sure to include opt-in and opt-out links in your emails. This will allow subscribers to easily manage their preferences and ensure that they are only receiving the emails they want.
3. Segment your list: Segment your email list based on subscriber interests and behaviours. This can help you send targeted and relevant messages to your subscribers. We have advanced features available as a part of XposureHUB that can handle this level of segmentation.
4. Personalise your emails: Use your email recipients’ names and tailor your messages to their interests to make your emails more personal and engaging.
5. Monitor your metrics: Email platforms usually offer lots of metrics such as open and click-through rates, to understand how your subscribers are engaging with your content. Use this information to improve your email marketing strategy.

We go into much greater detail on managing your email list in this article here: Why “Less is more” when it comes to increasing your email conversion rate

Don’t overlook email list building

Building an email list is an important part of your marketing strategy. By following these tips, you can create an engaged and loyal email list that will help you grow your business. Remember to always ask for permission and to manage and maintain your list properly to ensure the best possible results.

It also takes time – but don’t give up. If you experience a low initial response rate, it can be tempting to abandon the idea of building an email list altogether. However, with perseverance, consistency, and a commitment to sending out quality content, your efforts can pay off in the long run. Keep providing people with opportunities to sign up and continue to deliver valuable content. Over time, your email list will become a valuable asset to your marketing strategy, allowing you to connect with your audience and grow your business.