Losing subscribers from your email list is inevitable. People’s email addresses change, they abandon old accounts, or they opt out for unknown reasons. In fact, email marketing databases naturally degrade by around 22.5% each year. This decline can impact your marketing substantially if you aren’t formulating enough new leads to replace the old ones.
So how can you grow your email database easily and efficiently? Here are a few helpful ways.
- Have a sign-up form on your website.
This is such a simple thing to do and it can prove incredibly effective in gaining email subscribers. Your website is a crucial component of your marketing, and it’s often the first thing a customer sees when they start researching your business. Prompting website visitors to sign up for your emails is a great way to get them engaged and help them learn more about what’s going on within your business. - Create excellent content.
If your emails are packed with unique, creative content that keeps your subscribers engaged, the more likely they are to remain subscribed. They also might forward your emails to friends and family if they like the content enough and deem it useful. - Segment your emails.
All of your customers are not the same and should not be treated as such. By segmenting them based on personas, you’ll be able to better target the content within each email and format it to fit each group. You customers are more than likely at different positions in the purchasing cycle, requiring varying information for each checkpoint. Segmenting your emails can help you reach all of them at the right time. - Promote gated content on your website.
Gated content is content that cannot be retrieved unless a website visitor provides an email address. You want to offer your customers something of informative value. Things like white papers, eBooks, webinars, and how-to guides are excellent forms of gated content. - Utilize social media to promote an online contest or giveaway.
Depending on your business, offer your customers something that’s worthwhile to them. For instance, if you’re a bakery, you could giveaway a free cake, or a carpet cleaning business might offer up one free room cleaning. Simply ask your social media followers to provide their name and email address to enter the contest. - Include ‘share’ buttons within your emails.
At the bottom of your emails, add icons and links to your various social media accounts. These ‘buttons’ will allow your subscribers to share content directly from the newsletter to their social channels. It’s also beneficial to include a ‘forward’ button so that users can forward the email to others. - Provide an offer in exchange for an email address (coupon, discount, etc.)
Consumers are always on the lookout for a good deal or discount. So provide them with one by placing a banner ad on your website that offers a free coupon or discount in exchange for their email address. - Start a loyalty program.
Just as customers appreciate a good deal, they also appreciate being rewarded for being a loyal customer. Create a loyalty program that provides benefits to customers who shop with you often. Simply ask them to provide basic information to join the program, including an email address. - Reward current subscribers for referrals.
If your current customers are recommending you to their friends and family, and you’re gaining more business because of it, those loyal customers should be rewarded for doing so. Offer incentives to customers that provide referrals. - Create a blog that readers can sign up for a subscription to.
Blogs are designed to provide your customers with useful information about the different areas and components of your business. Incentivize customers to subscribe to your blog in order to receive this useful information.
