An easy way to boost your email contact list is to treat it like you would treat your love life. This involves a bit of out-the-box thinking, but bear with me....
As of February 2017, there were 3.7 billion email users worldwide, with The Radicati Group expecting that number to reach over 4.1 billion by the year 2021. However, if you can't get anyone to give you their email address, there may as well be 0. It's basically the same as going out, you can be surrounded by people but if you refuse to talk to anyone you may as well be out on your own (welcome to my world). As a business or an individual, you have to make the first move and encourage people to interact with you.
Around 269 billion emails are sent each day with the average office worker receiving 121 emails a day and considering 49.7% of them spam. There is a common misconception that email marketing is dead, that is simply not the case.
So, how do you grow a list? Here are 4 easy ways to build the contact list of your dreams!
1) Sexy Websites and their Calls-to-Action
First impressions matter!
Your company needs to have a well-formatted, professional website. Although it may seem that they aren't initially connected, I guarantee that you will find it far easier to convince people to give their personal information to a good-looking website rather than one thrown together at the last minute.
Once your website is looking pretty, the easiest way to start building an email list is to ensure you have an optimized Call-to-Action (CTA) on your website. Make sure your CTA is placed in an easy to spot place and that it engages visitors with a title like 'Become a VIP' or in a dating sense, 'Lemme have those digits', rather than a simple 'Click Here'.
If you don't believe me, imagine someone wearing their PJ's asking for your number in a bar, it's the same concept. You dress to impress, so make sure to dress up your website as well!
What makes up a professional website?
High Quality Photos - Pixelated photos are as bad as the Pixels movie by Adam Sandler. Yes, really.- Easily
Readible , Informative Text - Don't make people squint to read a misspelled sentence! - Simplicity - Less is more. Don't overwhelm with tons of graphics, just
impress with one or two. - Relevance - Keep the information on your website up-to-date. No one wants to read news from 2007...
Once this has been done, the best way you can encourage people to give you their personal details is to...
2) Offer Something of Value
Create great content. Content creation has proven time and again that it is an incredible tool for marketers. Use your expertise to build a plethora of valuable resources for people who visit your website. Eventually, regular visitors will begin to offer their details to ensure they don't miss out on any potentially useful information.
Another added bonus is that by making numerous useful free content, once you decide to create something that takes a little more time, such as a how-to guide or a whitepaper, your website visitors will be far more likely to provide their details to receive it.
This surely (hopefully) goes without saying, but this is true in the dating scene! If you offer little value in a conversation, odds are that the chance of a second date won't come your way. Offer that value!
3) Use Social Media to your Advantage (cue Tinder...)
Let's assume (hope) that you already have a social media presence and tons of devoted followers. (If you don't then click here!)
If the like one of your pages, encourage them to like the remainder and submit their details to become part of your mailing list. "How can I do that?" I hear you ask. Simple, I refer you to point 2).
Offer incentives to your followers to give you their email. Send out regular 'email only' promotions and discount codes, as well as company news and blog updates. Although we don't want to flood your subscriber's inbox, we want to provide them with a bonafide reason to want more emails, not a reason to unsubscribe.
Want another top tip? Make sure to use personalization once you have their email. Tinder has 32 million users, with over 9 BILLION matches to date. Do you honestly think simply messaging 'hey' is going to increase your chances of a response? Email marketing uses the same concept. Emails with personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened. Don't miss out!
4) Share the Love!
Modesty is a curse! (Starting to realize why I'm still single...)
At this point, if you've followed the above steps your emails should be a thing of beauty. They're filled with original, innovative, useful content and they are appreciated by everyone who receives them. Be proud of them.
Don't be scared to ask people to share them, if they enjoy reading the content half as much as you enjoyed writing it then you're on to a winner. Encourage people to share it with their friends and your list will slowly blossom into the beautiful marketing flower you want it to be.
Be proud of your accomplishments. Numerous studies have shown that confidence is considered an attractive quality by both men and women. Just don't over-do it! Trust me...
So now you know how to build a fantastic email contact list, which is the envy of all your competitors...now what?!?
For some additional quick tips on how to optimize your email marketing strategy, click here.
