Building your list is the best way to reach the greatest number of people. But, with the tight rules on spam, getting those coveted email addresses is the newest hurdle faced by email marketers these days. Jeremy Smith, columnist for Marketing Land says that email addresses are the most sought after pieces of information on the Internet. In the most basic of terms, an email address is a lead and a lead is a potential profit.Instead of just waiting and hoping people will subscribe, there are some highly-viable ways to get email addresses, which in turn become subscribers.
Simply Ask
The simplest way to get email subscribers is to ask. Ask when they are checking out, both online and in the store. When they are visiting your website, add an icon to give them a chance to subscribe. On your social media, send out a plea asking them for their email address. When they call in for customer service or do a live chat, inquire about their information. The worst they can say is no, but guess what? You can ask again. Every interaction with your customers is an opportunity to request their details.Smith suggests a number of ways to ask for emails:
- Pop-ups
- Simple forms
- Sidebars
- Email capture forms at the end of blog posts
- All of the above, because persistence is the key!
Promise something
Remember that time you asked your wife if you could do an all-nighter with your buds and she flat out refused, but you came back with an offer to take her to that restaurant she’s been drooling over and her answer changed? Well, it works the same way in the marketing world. If your ask doesn’t produce results, promise something. What you want to give your customers is up to you, but the most important thing is that you deliver. If you tell your customers that they’ll get amazing and valuable content if they subscribe to your emails, you better give it to them. Of course, the promises can be more worthy than just the content. Offering giveaways, subscriber discounts or privileges and other incentives definitely sweetens the pot and gets your customers throwing their addresses your way.Smith says you need to answer the question, “what’s in it for me”. You are basically promising something in exchange for the email address, so you need to strategize and ensure it is worth it. When you are hounding someone for their email address, they don’t really care what you want, they only care about what they’ll get, says Smith.
Solve problems
If you can solve a problem for a customer, they would be more willing to give you their email addresses in order to get more problems solved. This could be a general problem that all of your audience has, or a specific problem that only this customer has. Either way, solving it for them will definitely earn you brownie points and then you can employ strategy #1 again – simply ask them for their information.
Challenge them
Some people just love a challenge, especially if you are helping them meet their goals by offering the challenge. Constructing a challenge for your potential customers might be an awesome way to get them to hand over their addresses. Depending on what your niche is, your challenge should be somewhat related. If you are in the food industry, challenging them to lose weight (and then showing them how and what they’ll get when they do) will have people subscribing to your emails in no time. You can create a challenge for almost any industry, from fitness to email marketing. You can promote your challenge on your website, social media and in stores, but it can only be taken once your customers have subscribed, so they can get the updates.Smith says “If you ask, you will receive” and if you follow these four tips, you will definitely build your list.
