15 Tactics To Grow Your Email List

Did you know your email marketing database degrades over a period of time? The email addresses of your contacts could change due to any of the following reasons:

  1. They change their email ids as they shift from one organization to another
  2. They chose to opt out of any form of email communication
  3. They abandon the email address they use to fill up forms or contact details on different websites

Now for those who aren’t aware, an email list (also known as an email marketing list) is a collection of email addresses that subscribers have shared with businesses to opt for their mailing lists which usually contain news or updates about their businesses.

Now if you are in the marketing profession, your job is to continuously update your email database so you can steer your business toward growth. Purchasing email addresses could be one of the options, but it’s best not to tread along this path.

Maintaining email list hygiene is an important aspect of any successful email marketing campaign. Email marketing databases naturally decay by about 22.5% every year. A bad email database can result in low email deliverability, high bounce rates, bad sender reputation, and even domain blacklisting or account suspension. Thus, email validation is an important aspect before sending any campaigns to your subscribers.

In this post, we will share some of the tactics on how you can grow your email list organically.

Top 15 tips to grow your email list

There are different ways to grow your email list — through emails, new content, Facebook, and so on. Today we will explore a few of these ways that will help you grow your email list.

1.    How will you grow your email list through emails?

How will you grow your email list through emails

a)     Encourage your email subscribers to forward and share your emails

Your email subscribers are your brand ambassadors. You need them to market your products and services. And how can you do that? The simplest way is by adding an “Email to a friend” button in your email content. Through this, you will easily have access to your subscribers’ friends and networks. Do not forget to add a ‘Subscribe’ button at the end of your emails (and it could be a simple text-based link as well) so that people receiving those forwarded emails can subscribe to your mailing list. 

b)    Create content that is unique to your subscribers

If you would like to retain your email subscribers then you will need to have them help you support you to grow your email list. And how’s that possible? By creating unique content that engages the audience. If your emails are successful in adding value to the life of your potential customers, they are more likely to spread the word in their networks. Eventually, this will lead you to gain more subscribers over a period of time.

c)     Send targeted content to different types of buyer personas in your email list

The needs of your entire subscriber base may not be the same. And that is absolutely okay. Email subscribers are more likely to click those emails that relate to their personal interests and preferences. You should consider different kinds of email subscribers if you would like to cater to a wide audience base. Through this, you will also increase the chances by providing options to your subscribers to subscribe to any one of the mailing lists. A study shows that segmented email marketing campaigns have noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue.

d)    Include opt-in landing page links to your email signatures

Do you have an older email subscribers list that you know will not add much value now? Then create another opt-in landing page link and send it to your old subscribers and give them an option to re-opt if they would like to and also state that you will remove those contacts who do not respond within the specified timeline.

It might seem odd to remove contacts from your old list in order to grow your email list but trust us, you will have only selected users who will genuinely engage with your product and it will also increase the chances of your emails being shared outside of your current mailing list.

2.    How will you grow your email list through new content?

a)     Create a new free tool, product, or a resource

This is a great way to ask your audience to subscribe to your email list. Free tools or resources make your subscribers’ lives easier and they feel they can derive more value if they subscribe to your email list. For example, Hubspot offers a free tool called Website Grader to gather email subscribers.

b)    Create an offer for generating leads

If you’re starting out, the best way is to provide a free ebook or a bunch of templates or worksheets. All you have to do is ask them to download their freebies in exchange for email signup.

c)     Create bonus content

To grab the attention of your visitors, sometimes you need to give them free content. You might start with a blog and offer generic or beginner-level advice and then offer them advanced-level content which they can access by signing up as a subscriber of your blog using their email address through a landing page. 

3.    How will you grow your email list through social media?

a)     Host a free giveaway

Social Media is one of the best ways of getting your potential customers to subscribe to your email list. The target audience stands a chance of winning some goodies by participating in the giveaway. For that, they need to enter their contact details, such as their first name, last name, email id, and mailing address (required only in case of physical goodies that need to be couriered to the participant).

b)    Create a lead generation offer using Twitter

Another way to get an email subscriber is by creating a Twitter campaign that promotes a free ebook or some other valuable resources.

4.    How will you grow your email list through LinkedIn?

a)     Share sign-up links with your connects

When you connect with your target audience on Linkedin, you can share links through InMail messages, threads, or comments with them to sign up via your landing pages. Through this, you are encouraging them to continue with the interaction you just had via your Linkedin page so they are able to receive high-quality information and content related to your products or services.

b)    Post information about your email newsletter

If you already have an email newsletter, you can share content snippets on Linkedin and let your users know that if they sign-up using their email ids, they will get full access to the entire content.

5. How will you grow your email list without a website?

Now let’s come to the most surprising fact of email marketing ever! What if I tell you, it’s possible to build your email marketing list even if you don’t have a website or a ton of subscribers. Let’s see how it’s possible :

a)     Collect email address at an event

Collect email address at an event

Offline events, such as an exhibition or a trade show are great opportunities for professionals like you to connect with potential customers. You might choose to demo your original product at any of these events and then have the interested parties share their contact details, including their email ids for further exploring the products or making a purchase. Do not forget to send a welcome email to those who shared their email ids once you are back at work.

b)    Host a webinar

Webinars are a great way of interacting with the thought leaders of your industry and talking about your industry with the target audience in general. The best part is that your audience could register for your webinar sessions by using their email ids so that that’s a great way of gathering email addresses and nurturing your leads upon registration.

c)     Integrate a QR code to your display ad

Integrate a QR code to your display ad

For your print materials, you can easily integrate a QR code so that people can scan that code for more information. You can set it up in a way that your QR code requires your customers to sign up with their email addresses to access more content. This is a great way of growing your list and also making sure that the addresses collected are relevant.

d)    Collect emails ids in stores

If you have a physical store, you get the chance to interact with your customers and learn how your product is being received by the end-users. You might consider sharing a feedback form where they can share their thoughts and how the product could be enhanced. Through this form, you can also collect their names and email addresses. Once you have made some changes to the product, you might consider sharing the updated information with your users. Alternatively, you can create an email campaign for your walk-in customers and ask them to keep in touch by sharing their names and email ids.

Conclusion

All examples stated above are a few tactics that you can do grow your email list. The best way to go about it is to use a single or a combination of multiple strategies in this list. As you start growing your email list with fresh subscribers, you will be able to convert some of these early-stage leads into sales-ready leads.

Let us know in the Comments section below which of these tactics help you most in growing your email list.

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