Fact: Email is still the most universal, widely used medium where business is conducted online.
Top 3 Reasons Why:
- Email is made for business.
- People guard their email accounts, so engagement is much higher.
- Email is more popular than social media. You’re competing with “fun” on social networks.
Litmus, an email marketing analytics company, reported that email regularly offers better value for every dollar spent than search and paid ads:
Here’s the downside:
An email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% every year. -HubSpot Click To TweetPeople’s email addresses change as they work from one company to another or opt-out of your email communication. It can also be because they are no longer using that old email address for a long time.
The solution is, keep your numbers moving up and to the right…
Make sure to constantly add fresh contacts to your email marketing campaigns. Click To TweetIf you’re looking to hire virtual assistant to actually work on building your mailing list, here are 13 creative ways a VA can do to increase the number of your email contacts.
Mailing List Building: How to Grow Your Email Database at No Cost
Before anything else, one must remember one thing: Your content needs to be amazing. Create remarkable email composition if you want people to stay subscribed and be encouraged to forward your emails to their friends.
1. Identify the Best Locations for Opt-in Forms On Your Website
Keep your offers up front, and place opt-in forms where they count. Click To TweetInclude calls-to-action that capture email signups throughout your website.
Key places to consider are:
- Feature Box or Pop-up Box
- Homepage – typically top of the sidebar
- Main page of your blog
- Bottom of Article (Below the Footer)
- ‘About Us’ page
- ‘Contact Us’ page
Also create ‘Hub’ Pages to address an important topic in your industry. Link to 5-10 pieces of your best content (on a particular subject). This is a win for both of you and the readers since they can zero in on the best content on your site they are interested at. You can then include an opt-in box for continual updates.
Incite Subscriber Hype Using Email
Gain access to fresh networks by encouraging your current email subscribers to share and forward your emails. Social sharing buttons are popular among their friends and colleagues who might sign up for your list.
2. Add an “Email to a Friend” Button in your Emails.
“Subscribe” is a great CTA to add at the bottom of your emails. Just a simple text-based link so that those receiving the forwarded emails can easily opt-in, too.
3. Create Multiple Email Subscriptions Types
Send more targeted content to specific segments of your marketing personas. Recipients are more likely to click through emails that have been targeted at them. Creating multiple, targeted subscription types can increase the chance that visitors will subscribe to one of them.
4. Promote Online Contests
Have people sign up or submit entries using their email address. Contests that offer a free giveaway are a good start. Don’t forget to promote your contest on social.
5. Have a Stale Email List? Do an Opt-in Campaign Reinforcement
Create an exciting opt-in message and send it to your older list. Motivate contacts who wish to re-opt-in and promise to remove all contacts who don’t respond.
Why? Because emailing only engaged contacts could improve your deliverability. This can also increase the chances of your email getting shared with those outside your current database.
6. Add a Link to your Team’s Signatures
Make your employees add a link in their signatures that leads people to a landing page where they can sign up for your mailing list.
Create Extra Lead Generation Offers – With New Content
Downloadable resources can be an exceptional source of new email leads. They also provide useful information that helps prospects get more use out of your product or service.
7. Create Free Downloads
Require visitors to provide their email address in order to download your freebies like an ebook or whitepaper. Other opt-in downloadable can be:
- Video series
- PDFs
- An archive of content
- An audio download
- A free template
Using Social Media
Social media virtual assistants can setup your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. These are some campaigns a VA can do:
8. Promote Lead-gen Offers on Twitter
Create a Twitter campaign to promote an ebook or a freebie your followers can get in exchange of their email address.
9. Use your Facebook Page to Endorse an Offer
Promote offers on your Timeline that requires an email address submission. Add social sharing buttons to the landing pages and thank-you pages so your leads can also share those offers.
10. Add a CTA button to the top of your Facebook Business Page
Link the call-to-action button to a landing page that needs an email address for access.
11. Publish Articles with Links on your LinkedIn Account
Share posts with targeted URLs in your newsfeed, LinkedIn company page or in appropriate and relevant LinkedIn group discussions.
Related: How to Use LinkedIn to Market and Generate Leads For Your Business
12. Collect Email Addresses at Meetup Events
Face-to-face events like trade shows can generate a pool of new leads you can import into your database. Be sure to send these contacts a welcome email that confirms their opt-in to your mailing list.
13. Host Your Own In-person Events
Create and organize your own Meetup groups, conferences, forums, educational panels, etc., and collect registrations online using email addresses.
Most of these useful hacks are not complicated or difficult to implement. The key is to take charge of your email list-building efforts from as many angles as possible. As you develop your email list with fresh, opt-in contacts, you’ll be able to cultivate them with middle-of-the-funnel offers that allow you to convert leads into actual sales.
Email marketing provides the most direct line of communication for turning leads into sales, which is why the savviest entrepreneurs have no intention of giving it up any time soon.
Register for our Upcoming FREE Webinar on How to Use LinkedIn to market your business and generate new prospects each month!
We will cover proven techniques on how to leverage your LinkedIn.com account to generate new prospects and build your email marketing lists.
This webinar will feature Ken Varga, who has built 35 successful, profitable businesses in his career of 38 years. One of Ken’s off-line businesses had over 460,000 ongoing customers. He has also developed and sold multiple businesses for over 9 figures.
Sign up for one of our upcoming webinars that is most applicable to your business:
For Business Owners: Wednesday, November 09, 2016 from 8:00am-9:00am PST / 11:00am-12:00pm EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7292910370967727876
For Insurance Agents: Thursday, November 10, 2016 from 8:00am-9:00am PST / 11:00am-12:00pm EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6635610225255493124
For Network Marketers: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 from 8:00am-9:00am PST / 11:00am-12:00pm EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6557567989427615748
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