How To Build Your Email Marketing List

Email marketing has changed quite a lot in recent years. Its reputation has also cycled from a legitimate means for companies to stay in touch with their customers in the early days through a period of being seen as spammy, if not a bit scammy, and back to a fantastic way to keep customers engaged.

When approached with the right ethics, attitude, and goals, email marketing can greatly impact your business and customer satisfaction. We've written about accomplishing this without sales-y pitches or coming on too strong. When in doubt, check your country's or region's spam legislation to ensure you comply.

This article is about setting up your email marketing list and growing it organically and sustainably. An email marketing list is a curated collection of email addresses from individuals who have explicitly consented to receive marketing communications from a brand. Building a high-quality email marketing list is foundational to success.

Start On The Right Foot: The CRM

First, consider where you keep your general business contact list. Disorganized contacts can hinder your ability to build an effective email marketing list. Common but inefficient storage methods include:

• Contacts stored on your phone
• A stack of business cards from prospects collected at conferences
• Address books within your personal email program

To build a business, you need your leads, email subscribers, and other business contacts in one easy-to-find and easy-to-parse location. This requires a solid Customer/Contact Relationship Management (CRM) solution that will scale with your business. A Customer/Contact Relationship Management (CRM) solution is software that helps businesses manage, track, and organize their customer relationships and interactions.

Myriad productivity suites on the market offer different combinations of marketing tools, social media integration, CRM functionality, and even email scheduling and automation—all in one cloud-based dashboard for easy scaling. Do your research and pick one to build a solid foundation for your email marketing needs. Many platforms offer free versions that can get you started.

Leverage Existing Contacts

Once your CRM is set up, import your existing contacts. Get those phone contacts and business cards entered into your new CRM and begin outreach. Email your existing business contacts who have a legal basis for communication (e.g., a prospect showing interest), asking if they would like to subscribe to your new email newsletter, and include a clear opt-in link. This action will mark them as subscribed in your CRM, ensuring they receive your future messages.

Then, send a follow-up asking those who opted-in to forward your first newsletter to anyone they think would benefit from it. Good contacts often have other good contacts, so take advantage of your existing network to build your email marketing list.

Craft Awesome Content

To get people to subscribe to your email marketing list willingly, you must offer them something they value. The best way to achieve this is with a solid content marketing strategy built around regularly publishing engaging, informative blog posts. Offer industry news, in-depth looks at how your product impacts your sector, personal interest stories about your team, and anything else you know your target audience will find interesting.

Then, promote that content across all relevant channels to drive traffic and attract subscribers for your email marketing list. Key promotional activities include:

• Tweeting links to each story you publish, which can be automated.
• Posting to Facebook with additional updates and links.
• Notifying your LinkedIn connections when a new piece goes live.

Of course, don’t forget a call to action (CTA) in each of those updates. These CTAs are crucial for getting people to click through and subscribe for future updates from your email marketing list.

Create Engaging Email Content

After generating and promoting exceptional content, you must plan what to send to your growing email marketing list. You don't want to bore subscribers with rehashed blog posts, or they may unsubscribe. Similarly, avoid being off-putting by sending only pushy sales pitches. Instead, create a dedicated section in your content calendar specifically for your email newsletter.

To keep your subscribers engaged, offer exclusive content. This could include:

• Custom articles that are only available to your email subscribers.
• Polls asking for feedback on recent updates or products.
• Contests where the prize is branded swag or a free product.

Gate The Good Stuff

As your email marketing list grows and people engage with your content, it's time to create gated content. Gated content is premium online material, such as an eBook or whitepaper, that is only accessible after a visitor provides their contact information by filling out a form. This is a powerful strategy for converting website visitors into leads for your email marketing list.

Do not simply gate a standard blog post. Your gated content must be special enough to justify a user providing their contact information. Consider a deep dive into a popular blog topic or a comprehensive whitepaper on an industry trend where you have expertise. Any content that goes deeper into a subject your audience is interested in is a strong candidate for gating.

Use Pop-Ups And Slide-Ins Strategically

Using pop-ups and slide-ins to grow your email marketing list requires finesse. The goal is not to drive readers away with aggressive or persistent forms. Instead, you want to gently remind visitors that your email newsletter offers additional value and provide a simple sign-up form.

Ensure your pop-up or slide-in has an easy way to be closed and configure it to appear only after a brief delay and not too frequently for returning visitors. A well-implemented pop-up can be a highly effective tool for list growth.

Remember That Exclusivity Sells

As mentioned earlier, exclusivity is a powerful motivator. Your email newsletter must offer something beyond what a person can get by simply browsing your website, such as special offers or deeper insights exclusive to subscribers. Promote that these deals and information are only available to those on your email marketing list, and make the sign-up form easy to find.

The feeling of being an insider is compelling. People like having access to sales and data that others do not. The key is to make subscribing frictionless by including sign-up forms on every page of your site, in social media updates, and at the bottom of every email newsletter you send. This ensures an interested person never has to search for a way to join your email marketing list.