14 Crazy Simple Ways To Grow Your Email List

You probably know all the buzzwords related to online marketing: social media, search engine optimization, conversion rates, lead generation, paid advertising, organic search – to name just a few.

But many of us tend to forget that email marketing is one the top performing marketing channels across all industries. Consider this:

• In 2017, global email users amounted to 3.7 billion users. This number will continue to grow to 4.1 billion users in 2021
• In 2017, the total number of businesses and consumer emails sent and received per day was 269 billion and is expected to continue to grow at an average annual rate of 4.4% over the next four years, reaching 319.6 billion by the end of 2021.
• Email has a median ROI of 122% – over 4x higher than other marketing formats including social media, direct mail, and paid search.
• 86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes.
• The average order value of an email an email is at least three times higher than that of social media
• Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.

Interesting figures, right? But despite that, there are a lot of businesses and organizations for which increasing their email list is one of the most challenging tasks.

You know you have something valuable to offer to your current clients and prospects, but how you can actually get the people sign up?

Fortunately, there are a lot of tools you can use to grow your email list. And I’m not talking about techniques for advanced users having an apparently infinite amount of time in their hands. But I’m talking about tools for those entrepreneurs who juggle twenty things at once and are not quite ready for A/B testing, search engine optimization (even if it’s very important) or other mumbo-jumbo tricks.

I’m talking about easy list-building strategies that can be implemented by everyone in less than 5 minutes.

That’s said, let’s dive into the old marketing mantra the money is in the list.

Include as few fields as possible in your sign-up form

This is not really a technique, but from my point of view, it’s necessary if you want to provide a great user experience to your subscribers. Do I really need this information? Do I do anything with it?

If your answer is no, then stop asking it. The more information you ask from readers, the less likely they are to opt-in.

And speaking of unnecessary items……

Cut down the clutter

How many call-to-actions do you have at the end of your articles on your web page?

How many options do you give to your readers at once?

If you overwhelm your readers with plenty of options, how can you expect them to take the action you want to take?

Do you want more email subscribers? Then you need to remove all the distractions.

As you can see, less is more...

Add a sign-up button to your e-mail

How many emails do you send per day? Ten? Twenty? More? But about coworkers?

If you are like most people, probably your answer would be “Lots! I send lots of emails!”

And if I would tell you that every mail is an opportunity - both to get or lose a subscriber? It’s true.

So, if you place a call-to-action (CTA) in your e-mail signature, you have the opportunity to turn every reader into a subscriber.

The link should lead to a landing page, your home page (if you placed an opt-in form) or to an article with a particularly opt-in “bribe”.

Encourage your current email subscribers to share and forward your emails by including social sharing buttons and an "Email to a Friend".

Email is a form of social proof – that concept according to which “if other people do it, and I trust those people, then maybe I should also do it.” While most marketers speak of social proof in the context of social media, email can be more effective at driving new lead gen than social media.

That’s why including social sharing buttons and an “Email to a Friend” button in your marketing emails enables you to gain access to fresh networks, friends, and colleagues who might sign up for your list.

At the end your emails, you should include a Subscribe CTA as a simple text-based link, so those who receive the forwarded emails can easily opt-in.

Put a sign-up form on your homepage and keep it on every page of your website

Your website is the first contact many people have with your business. So, why shouldn’t you use the homepage to put an opt-in form that sells visitors on joining your email database?

Also, it’s important not to make people dig around on your website to find the subscription options. Therefore, you should include call-to-actions that are linked to opt-in forms on almost every page of your website. Key places to consider for doing this are your website’s homepage, the main pages of your blog, About Us page and Contact page.

Create a lead magnet like a downloadable whitepaper or report in exchange for your reader’s e-mail address

You may call it as you want: lead magnet, giveaway, content upgrade and so on. It has many names, but basically, it’s the same thing: an efficient and compelling tool to get subscribers to your email list.

So, you can create a whitepaper, a report or other educational resource related to your industry or to any pain point of your readers and give it for free in exchange for their email address.

Add Exit-Intent Popup

Even if pop-ups don’t have the best online marketing reputation, they are an incredibly effective lead generation tool for collecting email addresses directly from your website.  

The exit intent pop-ups technology detects the users' behavior and allows you to display a message or opt-in when they are going to leave your website. Depending on the provider, there are different options enabling you to customize the pop-up, according to temper, target, and business.

Add opt-in forms to key locations on your blog

I’m sure you know that blogging is one of the best strategies for driving traffic to your website.

You create relevant content for your readers. And they know that, as they read your post from the beginning to end.

They appreciate you. They trust you. They like you.

This is the main reason for which your readers are the most likely to become your subscribers. And then, why shouldn’t you take advantage on this? Therefore, adding opt-in forms to key-locations on your blog is an important step for asking them to join your subscription list.

These locations are generally placed where people have come to expect to be an opt-in form. So, when someone wants to subscribe to your newsletter, he usually takes his first look in places like sidebar and after post.

So, adding opt-in forms in these places is a great solution for growing your mailing list.

Offer exclusive content and ask email address for registering

One of the best ways to get people interested to join your email list is to offer something they can’t find anywhere else.

If you sell a product or a service, give your newsletter subscribers a percentage off – either on an entire transaction, an offer or a highlighted item – in exchange for their email address. If you are a blogger, for example, you may create some exclusive content that will be seen only the newsletter audience. 

Anyway, when you promote your newsletter, point out that there are some behind-of-scene perks – such as special deals, brand new content, access to an exclusive community and so on – available just for subscribers. In this way, you’ll make them feel not just special, but also get new members on your email list. 

Set-up a landing page

There are many occasions when having a dedicated landing page for subscribing to your newsletter is a useful strategy to grow your email list.

There are many best practices for creating an effective landing page, but basically, it should be a simple page with minimal distractions that focuses on the core benefits people can get if they subscribe to your mailing list. 

When creating your landing page, think about what benefits you’ll bring to the subscribers. The more you highlight what subscribers will get out of it, the more likely they’ll want to sign up if it resonates with them.

If you have any incentives to offer (ebook, checklist, coupon), be sure to mention that here as well.

Also numbers and social proof work great here, showing not just the benefits your subscribers will get, but also it’s a great way to deliver trust.

Content upgrade

If you own a blog where you post regularly, for sure you should consider the content upgrade techniques to convert your readers into subscribers. The idea behind this concept is based on offering your visitors a bonus that is specifically related to your blog post. 

Brian Dean, the Backlinko’s founder, uses content upgrades in nearly every single blog post, where the readers can download a Step-by-Step Checklist for getting more traffic.

There are plenty of types of content you can use here, such as: 

• Checklist based on your post
• PDF version of your post
• List of relevant resources/tools
• 2nd part blog post (2nd part downloadable after opt-in),

and more. However, the great thing is that you can spend slightly longer on your blog posts and repurpose them into another content type or you may create something 100% exclusive for your subscribers.

Add a sign-up button to your Facebook page

Social Media offers powerful platforms for building an audience for your business. At the same time, you should also have to know that’s important to move the relationship off social media and encourage your fans and followers to join your email list.

Adding the Sign-Up button is easy, and it takes just a few minutes. On your Facebook page, click “Create Call to action” button.

Next, select “Sign Up” to point users to a basic landing page where you have an opt-in form. Once you’ve selected your button, enter the URL to your landing page.

Click „Save Changes” and.... that’s it!

Your Facebook page is displaying a Sign Up button that leads subscribers to your opt-in page. 

And speaking of social media, I’ve not finished yet.

Let’s move to.....

Link to a landing page in your Twitter bio

As I said before, taking advantage of the contacts you make via social media is a great way to build and grow your email list. One of the easiest ways for doing this is to insert in your Twitter bio a link to a landing page that includes an opt-in form.

This should be a landing page on your website where you offer a free special report, webinar or other incentives in exchange for an email address.

For doing this, you need to log in to your Twitter account and click the “Edit profile” button. You’ll be able to change your name, profile and header photos, bio, and so on. Add the text with your link and click Save Changes. 

That’s it and it takes you just a few minutes.

Host an online webinar and collect e-mail addresses at registration

Basically, webinars are the same as other types of informative or educational content, with the following key exceptions: 

• Viewers give you their email address before seeing or hearing the content
• Webinars are very popular right now
• Some people are much better and deliver valuable content if they are recording themselves speaking than they are at writing

Webinars are a very effective tactic for lead generation efforts, allowing you to grab a list of email addresses based on your value proposition. On the sign-up page, you should include a very brief copy to describe what the user will learn or get from your webinar. For quickly conveying the value of your webinar, it’s best to keep this information in bullet points form.

Ready to grow your email list?

Think about all the different situations when customers interact with your business, Could any of these strategies work for you?

Pick at least one of these strategies and see how it works. You’ll be amazed at what a big impact it could have on your email marketing and business success!