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If you’ve even begun to look into marketing on the Internet, you’ve heard the marketing mantra “It’s all in the list”. And nothing could be truer.
If you want to engage your customers and give them a better reason to purchase from you and spread the word about your products, having an active list is the key factor in growing your business online. Let’s go over 10 Ways to maximize your email list that anyone can accomplish.
The first five topics below cover easy to implement actions that will get your customers to sign up for your email list. The last five are things that you should do once they have already signed up. There’s no point in getting email subscribers that opt-out almost immediately!
Step 1-5: Get Them To Sign Up
- Make Signing Up Easy: You can’t expect people to sign up for your list if they have to search to find the signup form. Ensure that it is front and center on your website.
- Ask Your Customers to Subscribe: It’s not enough to have an easy to find subscription form. You need to ensure that there is a call to action as well. A list form should ask the customer to subscribe with text like “Join our other happy customers”, or “Don’t Miss Out On Important Announcements!”
- Add Value for Signing Up: One of the fastest way to gain a large subscriber base for your email list is to give your customers an incentive to sign up. Offer a discount on your product or, better yet, offer to give prospective list members something for free. Offering a free brochure or informational book will more than triple opt-in rates. This is one of the 10 Ways to maximize your email list that should never be ignored.
- Be Persistent, Not Pushy (Politeness Counts): It’s completely acceptable to have multiple signup forms on your website, and most customers will probably forgive a pop-over window asking them to subscribe to your list, but be courteous! If a reader decides not to accept your offer, ensure that he or she won’t see that popup again for at least two weeks. If they have to close a popup every time they visit your site, they will stop coming.
- Test, Test, and Re-Test: Don’t get comfortable with your opt-in placement or rely entirely on one incentive to get customers to subscribe. Test different offers, try different wording and change the bonuses given for signing up. Keep solid records and always strive to get the most out of your opt-in forms
Step 5-6: Keep Them On The List
Now that you’ve got subscribers on your list, you have to keep them there. Just selling your product isn’t enough. Let’s cover 5 things you can do to ensure that your customers are eager to open those emails once they get them.
- Thank Them for Signing Up: It might sound like common sense, but never forget to send a friendly thank you email to each and every customer who subscribes to your list. It’s a personal touch that leaves your customer feeling good about their decision.
- Update Regularly and Predictably: One of the fastest ways to gain the trust of your email list subscribers is to update your list on a regular and predictable basis. If they know to expect an email on a certain day of the week, or every morning at 10 am, they’re more likely to open that mail. If you send only every three months, your customers will likely just ignore the mail or unsubscribe. Once that happens, you’ve lost that person.
- Give. Give. Give. Then Ask: Be sure that the bulk of the mailings that you send are not sales pitches or product emails. Send several mailings that are of value to your subscribers without asking for anything at all. After a few of these, introduce them to a product that they may be interested in. They’ll be more likely to buy if they trust your opinion.
- Ask for Opinions: One of the most often overlooked ways to get people to stay connected with your email list is to simply ask your readers what they think. Letting them give you input makes them feel like part of a process that involves them and less like someone who is being sold-to.
- Thank Them Again: Be sure to end every mailing with a quick thank you note to your readers. (Yes, this was covered in #6 on sign-up, but it applies to individual mails as well.) Every person that subscribes to your list needs to feel like they are important to you.
The previous 10 Ways to maximize your email list touch on some of the most important aspects of growing and maintaining a list of subscribers who will actively open, read and engage with your list.
There are a lot more things that can be done to improve performance and engagement, but if you start with these 10 things, you’ll see a rapid growth in your list with fewer drop-offs.