Is your email subscription list in decline?
Are you worried about the dwindling effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns?
It's time to act!
After all, email marketing databases degrade by 22.5% every year. As customers choose to switch email addresses and unsubscribe from mailing lists, any subscription list will naturally get smaller.
There are numerous techniques proven to help email subscriptions lists thrive. In this post, we're going to discuss these techniques and show you how to implement them into your email marketing strategy.
1. Opt-in pop-ups
Do opt-in pop-ups irritate you?
You're not alone. However, they still deliver positive results. Amazing results even. Email opt-in pop-ins are proven to work. So much so, that they are stated to drive 1375% more subscribers. In fact, the article by Crazyegg presents several case studies in which the opt-in pop-up functions prove to be a roaring success.
Image Source: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/08/18/opt-pop-ups/
In one case, the Darren Rowse Photography website upped his 40 email subscribers a day to 400, after implementing an opt-in pop-up subscription form on his site. The pop-up not only racked up a larger number of subscribers, but also made vast improvements to site visitor rates and bounce rates. What more could you want? With such positive results from a variety of case studies, it's definitely worth testing out an email opt-in pop-up on your site to see the results for yourself.
2. Ask your subscribers to share
Do you use your current email list to help you find new subscribers? If not, why not?
Sharing buttons allow your subscribers to forward your email to a friend, which not only helps spread the word but also grows your email list. Emails that include social sharing options are proven to have a 30% better click-through rate, than those emails that include no options to share the message.
No matter how you choose to display these options in your emails, there is no denying the success rate of making emails shareable. By including these options, you can quickly make your email more visually appealing and better target your key audience.
How exactly?
Well, the likelihood is that your subscribers that choose to forward on your emails are most likely to share with those with similar interests. Ultimately, this will result in a higher click-through rate and the additional subscribers to your email list.
3. Send visually pleasing emails
Statistics from 2012 showed that 144.8 billion emails are sent every day. Imagine how the numbers look now!
Subscribers check their emails in the morning, on mobiles during their commute, a couple of times during the day and maybe once or twice more in the evening. Don't you do the same? That's a lot of checking! And a lot of ignoring. If your email isn't able to grab their attention from the subject line, there's a good chance they'll dismiss it altogether.
If your subscribers are ignoring your emails, they're also not sharing them. If you're facing this problem, there's a good chance they might unsubscribe. To prevent this, make sure every email you send out is visually pleasing and full of engaging content. You only have a few seconds to catch the attention of your reader, so make it count. There's a good chance that if they like what they see, they'll share your email with friends, family and colleagues - great news for your email subscription list.
4. Sign off with a subscription form
If your website has a blog that you regularly update, then be sure to sign off every post with an email subscription form. This gives readers of your blog access to free content that can land in their very own inbox each week or month. It's also a chance to capture those new leads that might have landed on your site by searching your blog topic. If they like what they read and want to know more about you and your business, there's a excellent chance they'll subscribe. This technique of attracting new leads might seem like an old trick in the book, but it's often a forgotten component of many business blogs.
5. Touch base with your subscribers
Is your email subscription list overflowing?
Although this sounds great, it's more than likely you have a higher number of passive subscribers. If you're facing this problem, now could be the perfect time to get in touch with an opt-in campaign. This means getting touch with everyone on that list to see if they are still happy to be subscribed to your regular feed of content.
Giving your subscribers an option to re-opt-in might seem counterproductive, especially if many want to be removed. At this point, it's helpful to ask yourself - are you more concerned about the size of your subscription list or its effectiveness?
Filtering out subscribers that are not interested in your emails, gives you a clearer chance of focusing on those that are interested. And we're sure that you'd much rather be emailing people that are interested and engaged in your business, right?
6. Give something away
While contests and promotions will certainly grow your email list, they aren't always the best way to attract loyal and engaged followers. Offer big prizes and you'll attract the masses. After all, who hasn't exchanged their email address for the promise of a new car or jackpot sums of money? However, this isn't the best way to attract relevant subscribers that could convert into customers.
Giveaways that include eBooks, white papers and other free content are more likely to attract targeted audiences. Those searching for the information that you provide will happily hand over their email address and add to your email list of subscribers. Win, win!
7. Get social
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube can all be used to help grow your email subscription list. Each of these platforms can be used to promote your free content, regular email content, blogs and more. All you need to do is ask followers, friends and fans who are interested in leaving their email addresses in exchange for what you are giving away. The transaction is as simple as that.
Facebook business pages now also allow you to integrate calls-to-actions (or CTAs) in the top banners, so your fans and those who visit your page can click and leave their email address. YouTube also allows you to embed CTA's into your uploaded videos, so viewers can click directly on the link to subscribe. Sounds simple, right? It is, and it's worth giving a try.
8. Partner up
If you've never turned to another business for help, why not?
There are numerous ways you can work with a partner business to grow your email list.
For example, run a promotion or regular email newsletter through a partner website to attract a whole new targeted and relevant audience. Create sign up forms and relevant links that allow readers and visitors to leave you their email addresses. You could even pair up with a similar business to create some brilliant, free content, in the form of eBooks, white papers or whatever you wish. When it comes to publishing the content, ask your audiences to leave their emails and swap leads at the end.
Another way you could work with other businesses to attract new leads is by guest-blogging. Post a guest blog on your partner business website and sign-off with an email subscription sign-up form. Rather not include a sign-up form on your guest blog? No problem, just include a simple CTA that leads readers back to your website where they can sign up for more content.
Conclusion
Are you ready to start growing your email list?
Implement and test these eight different techniques and you will see your email subscription list thrive. Best yet, most of these tips are simple enough to execute in just one day.
When you're working on growing your email subscription list, it's good to keep an equal balance of quality and quantity in mind. Although it's great to have a large number of subscribers on your list, you'll also want to carry out regular re-opt-in campaigns. This will help you filter out those on your list that aren't interested in your content, giving you more time to focus on those that are. To keep growing your list, be sure to leverage all your opportunities for promoting your content and attracting new leads.
What tips do you have for helping your email subscription list thrive? Let me know below.