Posted on Jan 15, 2021

10 Ways to Grow Your Email List and Manage Your Leads for the Long Haul (Small Business Edition)

An email list is best described as the email addresses you accumulate primarily via opt-in and contact forms on your website. And it’s important to have a list and grow your email marketing leads for several reasons. 

A well-targeted email list gives you a direct line to potential customers engaged with what you have to offer. An email list is highly personalized and composed of consumers most likely to convert. Plus, you meet customers where they are — in their inbox. 

We’ll discuss 10 ways to grow your email list, broken down into two sections: 

  • How to build an email list from scratch 
  • How to get more email marketing leads 

We’ll also conclude with a list of email list management tools.

How to Build an Email List From Scratch

If you don’t have an email list yet for your company, now’s the time to learn how to build an email list from scratch. 

1. Create a personalized CTA (call-to-action) for your blog post or page 

Research shows that customers are more likely to subscribe to an email newsletter when they get a personalised CTA that speaks to them. This makes a lot of sense because customers come to you with something very specific in mind. 

One example of this is, if you have a lot of traffic visiting your “How to Choose The Best Business Entity for Your Business” blog or article, why not offer them something that entices them to subscribe to your list with a personalized CTA such as this “Click here to download our how to start a business guide” . Some other examples of incentives you can provide are :

  • eBooks  
  • A Free Checklist 
  • A fun quiz 

2. Add a Contact Form to Your Website

Add contact forms or opt-in forms to your website. Email collection is a key factor to grow your email list, and you need to give visitors an easy way to subscribe to it. 

3. Build a Landing Page or Sign-Up Box

To build your initial business email list, think beyond standard contact forms. Full landing pages and call-to-action (CTA) boxes that appear in your website’s sidebar are eye-catching and effective. Plus, they allow you to put your sales skills to good use. 

4. Leverage Social Media

When you learn how to build an email list from scratch, it’s easy to focus entirely on your website and skip the peripherals. Social media is a key player as well, so add sign-up forms to your social media accounts. 

For instance, Facebook allows you to add a full sign-up form or a custom sign-up link on your business page. 

5. Integrate Email Marketing Tools Into Your Website 

If you use WordPress, connect your website to your email list management tool. It streamlines operations and allows you to add, remove, and customize sign-up forms. 

How to Get More Email Marketing Leads

With the basics of how to build an email list from scratch under your belt, we can move on to how to secure more email marketing leads and experience greater email list growth.

1. Offer Sign-Up Incentives 

One way to get greater email acquisition rates is to give website visitors an incentive for signing up. 

An excellent way to increase your email marketing leads is to offer something free, like:

  • Discounts
  • Coupon codes, 
  • Downloadable guides 
  • Checklists

Just make sure whatever you offer is directly related to your CTA. Otherwise, your list could end up untargeted. 

2. Include Email Opt-In at Checkout

If you run an e-commerce website, it’s easy to integrate email sign-ups with your checkout process to boost your list of email marketing leads. 

These email leads will be very targeted since they’re from customers who have made a purchase from your store in the past. Put these email marketing leads into your repeat customer segment email campaigns

3. Ask for Sign-Ups In-Person

One of the list building tactics often overlooked is the traditional in-person request. If your business has a face-to-face component, you can always ask people directly if they’d like to sign up for your email list.

4. Use Pop-Up Forms Including Exit-Intent

Beyond standard contact forms, sidebar sign-ups, and landing pages, you can customize your email sign-up requests, too. 

Pop-up forms that overlay your website’s content are popular. Some pop-ups only appear in the corner of your website, so they aren’t in the way of your content. 

You can trigger these pop-ups forms to appear when a visitor:

  • Lands on your website 
  • Scrolls down the page
  • Moves the cursor to leave your website 

Another option is a smart bar, which appears at the top of your website. It’s hard to miss but not a distraction to visitors. 

5. Add a Sign-Up Link to Your Email Signature

You likely send out emails every day, so why not put the opt-in link in your email signature? It doesn’t have to be obtrusive, but its presence is an easy way to add to your list. And you can combine strategies: promote sign-up incentives in your email signature to build further interest. 

Email List Management

Email list management is the process of organizing email leads (email addresses) that have been input on your website for collection. You can segment these leads and send out highly personalized bulk emails to everyone who’s signed up — your target audience. 

The right automation tools are essential as your email list grows to help you create competent workflows. Before you grow your list with the tactics above, consider signing up for one of these email list management tools: 

  • Constant Contact 
  • SendGrid 
  • Sendinblue

Keep in mind prices vary for these email list management tools.

Final Thoughts: How to Build an Email List From Scratch for Small Businesses

It’s necessary to creating email marketing campaigns for your small business and grow your email list. With list segmenting, you can expand your company, increase the number of subscribers you have, and boost your customer base. 

The tips above will get you started on the right path to effective email marketing.

If you want to build an email opt-in landing page or need a professional email address to go with your email marketing efforts, iPage has you covered with hosting plans and marketing services.

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