As an email marketing agency, we know that email marketing is an extremely effective marketing technique for building a rapport with your customers. The relatively low cost of outsourced email marketing means it can deliver an excellent return on investment. On average, every £1 spent on email marketing can see a return of around £40.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But effective email marketing isn’t quite as easy as putting together an email about your business, sending it out to the world, and waiting for the money to roll in.
The importance of an email marketing list
In order to harness the power of outsourced email marketing, you need a strong email marketing list. And when it comes to emails, quality is just as important as numbers.
You could have a hundred thousand people subscribed to your emails, but if none of them are interested in your business, you won’t see any results. The more people you have on your list who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, the better results you can get.
So, how can you increase the number of high quality subscribers who will be delighted to receive your emails in their inbox? Here’s a couple of tips for building up your email marketing list.
1. Make it easy to sign up
Making it as easy as possible for interested people to sign up to your emails should help increase your subscriptions.
There’s two elements to this. Firstly, think about the placement of your email sign up box. Visitors to your homepage may not be ready to commit to signing up to your emails as soon as they arrive on your website – they might need a little convincing first. So, make sure there’s plenty of opportunities for visitors to sign up throughout your website.
Secondly, to make the process of signing up as easy as possible, try to remove any barriers. Don’t make the sign up process too long and complicated, and don’t ask for too much information straight away.
2. Demonstrate the benefits
Make it as appealing as possible to sign up to your emails by highlighting the benefits of becoming a subscriber. Will they receive discounts or useful information, for instance?
Try testing different copy to see if that has an impact on the number of people signing up to your email list. Visitors who weren’t tempted by your ‘email newsletter’ may be keen to subscribe to ‘Insider updates’ or ‘Marketing tips’.
You could also offer targeted incentives – such as a free guide or white paper – to attract the type of people you want on your email list. This can work extremely well when used in conjunction with related content. For example, an accountant may offer a free self-assessment checklist at the bottom of a guide to self-assessment tax returns.
3. Segment your subscribers
Segmenting your email marketing list makes it simpler to send out emails targeted to specific groups within your subscriber base.
Having an email marketing list full of people genuinely interested in your business lends itself well to segmenting your subscribers.
The different segments of your email marketing list will be based on the different categories your audience can be broken down into. Segmentation will be affected by things like your subscribers’ demographics (age, gender, occupation, etc.), their location, their level of engagement with your business, their interests – and more.
Creating different emails for the different segments of your email marketing list means you can create content more likely to appeal to those subscribers. They in turn might recommend your mailing list to other people who they think might be interested in your emails too.
A note on compliance
It’s very important to grow your email marketing list in a way that complies with data protection laws.
Ensure that you have permission to email everyone on your list. You should also be clear and transparent from the get-go about what subscribers are signing up for. Telling your subscribers you’ll only be sending the occasional email, then bombarding them with twice daily updates won’t win you any new business – but it might well put people off you.
If space allows, let your subscribers know how often they’ll hear from you, and provide reassurance that you won’t be selling their email addresses.
It can feel overwhelming trying to create a meaningful email marketing list from scratch. If you need help, get in touch with Cognique today – we can help with all your digital marketing needs, including email marketing.
