Easily Grow Your Email List With These 6 Strategies:

Email marketing is at the top of every entrepreneur’s list these days. Building an engaged and loyal list is one of the most important parts of creating a successful marketing strategy. And for a lot of businesses and organizations, it’s also one of the most challenging.

An email list can be considered an extension of your right arm if you play your cards right. Yep! You can actually make money with a strong list that believes in your products or services. But, like anything else in business, it takes a bit of work and planning.

In this post, we’ll show you 6 easy ways to grow your email list of online BFF’s:

Gather Emails at Your Next Event: The easiest way to gather emails from local businesses is to hold a raffle at a networking event. Have everyone throw their business cards in a pile and draw the winner(s) the next day. Add all the the participants to a separate list in your e-marketing software (Constant Contact/MailChimp) and send out an e-blast announcing the winner. Always have an opt-out option just in case they’re not into it.

Put a “Sign Up” Form on Your Website: Duh! This is a no brainer but you’ll have to be creative with your messaging and Call-To-Action (CTA). Simply asking your audience to “sign up for my newsletter” may not attract as many interested people as “Sign up to receive freebies + exclusive access to our upcoming events”. Read more about Call To Action Best Practices in this post.

Create a Killer Opt-in: Speaking of freebies, offering a free gift in exchange for an email address is common practice now and it works! It builds relationships and it so easy to do. Find a topic your audience would gobble up and write some compelling information about it for people to download.

Example: A local brewery may want to suggest “The 5 Best Homebrew Kits” for all those beer lovers willing to give brewing a try at home. The brewery will establish themselves as an expert in their field, and you’ll have happy beer enthusiasts brewing at home and following your advice for next time. It’s a win-win situation.

Follow this link to guide you on your way to writing a killer opt-in:

Use Facebook Paid Advertising: Now that you have a free gift to offer and a rock solid opt-in strategy, spend a few bucks advertising it on Facebook. Your budget can be small to reach a large audience so think about your goals and create an ad. or boost a post to get maximum exposure. **Be sure to have your Facebook Pixel on your website before doing this. You’ll want to track all traffic and those who chose to opt-in and those who chose not to. More on that in another blog post…

Join an Online Group Specific to Your Business: Facebook is an excellent source for this! There are groups for entrepreneurs in all business fields. These groups will act as a sounding board for your ideas but also will help with list building by offering and sharing your services with the group. You can test out your freebie, ask questions about your target audiences, and EASILY engage with other business owners that are interested in collaborating and using your services.

Host a Co-Marketing Offer: Chances are you collaborate or partner with other local businesses, especially around the holidays. Host an event (online or in-person) to draw interest from both audiences. Cross promotion always works but don’t forget to incorporate some on the ideas we’ve listed above – raffle, freebies, social media.