Build an Email List from Your Website for Better Conversions
Email marketing is still one of the best converting form of online marketing. Building an email list can be simply a good way to stay in contact with stakeholders. It may also be the main way your business makes money online. Combined with an omnichannel marketing strategy, email should be an important part of your marketing strategy.
The quality of your email list is important. You’ll find that sending anything to a low-quality list – lists that are bought or incentivized – can be a waste of resources. It’s true that some purchased email lists can work well, but they must be vetted and verified. Incentivized lists may also work, but when there is a giveaway or contest, you’ll find that many customers are there for the promotion and are never interested in anything else. They either unsubscribe or stop opening emails after the promotion ends.
Quality email lists can be grown and cultivated from your own website traffic. Email sign-up forms should be short. The less information you ask for, the more likely you are to get the subscriber. Ask for only an email address, and possibly the person’s first name. As you develop a relationship with the subscriber, you can ask for more information and develop the data on your email list. You will also be able to learn more about subscribers through their interactions with your website and order history if you are an e-commerce site.
Make sure your email sign up form is mobile friendly. The majority of your website traffic probably comes from mobile devices. Your website should have a mobile first design, as should your email sign-up forms. Small tweaks like adding a delay before asking for an email address can help build your list faster. I made my mobile sign-up on https://askcybersecurity.com more visually appealing and found that adding a five-second delay increased my sign-ups by 10%.
If you are using social media advertisements, you also have an opportunity to do some lead generation there as well. Get the email addresses of your followers on social media. It’s good to build a large following on social, but if they are only followers then Facebook and Instagram own your data, not you. If you only have them as a follower on social, you are always at the mercy of the social channel for contact.
It is okay to incentivize the user. Offer them a coupon if you are an e-commerce site. Offer them a digital download or whitepaper if you are an information website. It is true, you will lose some of the subscribers from an incentivized sign-up, but you will retain some of them as well. Ask users to forward your emails to friends.
Of course, mind your legal obligations and make it clear how you will be using collected email addresses. Subscribers have the most confidence if you never sell or share their email addresses with anyone else.