How to Easily Get an Email List for Email Marketing?

Email marketing is one of the most powerful means of relating with customers and boosting sales and creating trust in any given business. In fact, email marketing has an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most cost-effective marketing channels available. Before you hit the high-performing campaign buttons, there has to be a good and sound email list for email marketing in place. So, breaking it down this way is essential for getting into an email list that works well for you and your business.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Email Lists

Avoid doing the most horrible thing: buy an email list. It appears to be effortless and quick but turns out to be not worth doing. People purchased with an email list for email marketing usually get low engagement, a lot of bounces, and many are marked as spam. In fact, emails sent from purchased lists come with an open rate of a mere 13.1%. Organic lists have better statistics at around 21.5%. Purchased lists do not generally come into compliance with data protection acts like GDPR or the CAN-SPAM Act, resulting in a rather pricey fine.

The better approach? Build your own email list for email marketing. This ensures you’re reaching people who actually care about your content, products, or services. Segmented email campaigns, which are only possible with organically built lists, generate 30% more opens and 50% more click-through rates than non-segmented campaigns.

Also read How to Build an Email List From Scratch: Start-to-Finish Guide

Methods to Build Your Email List

Here’s how to do it step by step:

1. Add Signup Forms to Your Website

Among the simplest and most effective ways of building an email list for email marketing is to add signup forms on your website, with strategic positioning of the same for maximum visibility and engagement

• Home Page: Most often, your homepage is the landing page in most visits. Have a sign-up form at the top of the fold—meaning in the viewable area before someone needs to scroll. This way, all visitors see the form from the beginning. Sites with well-positioned forms see up to 120% more signups than those without.

• Blog Posts: Put a sign-up box in the sidebar or at the bottom of your blog posts. The former is best for those with really engaging and relevant content since a subscriber will find a reason to sign up once he or she consumes quality material. Embedding forms in blog posts can increase conversions by 50%.

• Pop-Ups: Utilize exit-intent pop-ups where the pop-ups appear when a cursor is actually trying to close out of the tab, or is leaving the page. These can be used slightly to convince a person to add themselves to your email list for email marketing by establishing a need, such as exclusive content or discounts. Exit-intent pop-ups can yield as much as a 40% increase in email signups.

• Footer: Add a signup form to the footer of your website. That way, the call is placed in all of the views and not scattered. Subtle and constant is one thing about using footers that may work really well. Ensure your forms are as simple to complete as possible-require only information essential for signing up, optionally request their name.

Also read  Email Collection: 17 Best Practices to Exponentially Grow Your Email List 

2. Offer Incentives

Rewards offer reasons for people to want to be subscribers to your email list. If they perceive something of value, they’ll readily give up their email address.

• Discounts or Coupons: It is one of the most popular and effective ones, especially for any type of ecommerce store, such as “Sign up and get 10% off the first order,” where it gives an immediate benefit to subscribers. As a matter of fact, 76% of consumers have subscribed to a brand’s email list to receive a discount.

• Free Resources: Offer e-books, guides, templates, or any resource that you think is the most relevant to your niche. Example: If you were running a marketing blog, you would be giving away a free downloadable checklist on how to create an effective campaign. Providing free content will increase signup rates by huge.

• Exclusive Access: Offering members early sales, exclusive content, or unique products for some time creates that sense of scarcity to make users eager to sign up. The incentive will be according to the needs being addressed. When it is about a fitness brand, it can use a free workout plan. It can offer some collection of recipes if it happens to be some food blog. Rewards not only inspire sign ups but also create goodwill because they provide users with instant gratification.

3. Run Contests and Giveaways

Contests and free giveaways are one of the fastest ways for creating an email list for email marketing because people love free stuff, and the chance to win something with actual value will get them to sign up for sure:

• Choose a Relevant Prize: Choose a prize that has some meaning for your audience. For example, you can choose a free product, gift card, or even a service that you provide. For instance, a skincare brand could give away a product bundle.

• Entry Through Email Signup: Ask them to join your email list so that they may enter the contest. Now, you can obtain their contact information while they enter the contest. Contests and giveaways can even increase your email list by as much as 700% within a short time.

• Promote Widely: Share your contest on your website, social media, and other marketing channels. The more visibility it gets, the more signups you’ll collect. Be transparent about the rules and deliver the prize promptly to maintain trust. Contests not only attract subscribers but also generate excitement and engagement for your brand.

4. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a fantastic channel to reach more people and increase email signups. In fact, social media-driven email signups have 50% higher click-through rates than other channels. Here is the method of maximizing them:

• Add Links to Your Bio: Put the link to your signup page in your bio on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. This way, it’s easily accessible to all followers to join your list. Brands that add an email signup link to their social media bios have seen a 20% growth rate in their list.

• Promote Signup Posts: Make constant posts that enlighten the viewer on why a subscription to a newsletter is necessary. Give insider peeks about the content they would get and benefits they would derive exclusively.

• Run Ads: Use paid social media ads to reach potential subscribers. For example, run a Facebook or Instagram ad to promote a lead magnet such as a free guide. Send that ad to a landing page where users can sign up. Social media ads convert at an average of 9-10% for email signups.

Social media is not merely the space for promoting, but also a place to engage with your audience, answer questions, and build trust. A well-maintained presence can truly turn your followers into loyal subscribers. Businesses that actively engage on social media experience an accelerated higher email list growth rate than those that aren’t.

5. Create Dedicated Landing Pages

Landing pages are a web page designed and created for collecting email lists for email marketing addresses. They tend to be laser-focused with less distraction. Such landing pages prove to be really great for generating an email list. 

• Feature Your Offer: Use the landing page to clearly feature your incentive, whether it is a discount, free resource, or exclusive access. Include a strong headline and clear benefits to grab attention.
• Keep it Simple: Multiple links around are unnecessary A page should have a single purpose—to capture visitors as potential leads—and feature an eye-catching call to action that might say, “Sign up now” or “Get your free guide. Simplification of forms reduces it to a simple email field and can even increase conversions up to 26%.
• Promote It Everywhere: Share the link to your landing page across all your channels—social media, blog posts, email signatures, and even offline materials with QR codes. Landing pages promoted via multiple channels have higher signup rates than lead pages with limited promotion.

Landing pages are great for targeted campaigns or paid ads because all traffic goes to one signups-optimized page. It allows your conversion rate to increase and your list to be built effectively.

6. Use Referral Programs

Use Referral Programs Referral programs are a great way to organically grow your email list for email marketing by utilizing your current subscribers. People have trust in what their friends and family say. This strategy, therefore, proves effective because referrals drive 5x higher customer acquisition rates compared to other channels.

• Incentivize Referrals: Incentivizing both the referrer and the new subscriber Provide the referrer with points, discounts or content when their friend registers. Similarly, offer the new subscriber a welcome incentive, such as a discount on his or her first purchase. Referral programs with incentives have a 50% higher participation rate.
• Keep It Simple: Make the referral process simple. Shareable links or referral messages pre-written for email or social media can encourage subscribers to participate with little effort. Simplified referral processes can increase participation by 30%.
• Promote the Program: Promote your referral program via social media and email campaigns, as well as on your own website. Explain to them features and benefits, and then allow them to refer their friends. With active promotion, a referral program can help brands build their email lists WAY faster than they would without one!

Actually, referral programs are win-win. Your existing subscribers feel appreciated and their friends or colleagues are reached out through a trusted source, thus increasing the chances of engagement and sign-ups.

7. Host Webinars or Events

Webinars and events are valuable tools for building email list for email marketing whilst portraying your expertise. They are effective because they provide immediate value for the attendees. The registration-to-attendee conversion rates for webinars are an average of 35-45% conversion; therefore, webinars are a potent list-building tool.

• Require Registration: In order to participate in the webinar, ask people to register by giving their name and email address. Use a simple registration form to minimize the barriers to entry. Webinar registration forms with fewer fields see up to 50% higher completion rates.
• Provide Value: Focus it on a subject matter that people care about in the context of what they wish to achieve, but maybe aren’t experiencing success with at present. Thus, if one were in a fitness-related area, host one called “5 Quick Home Workouts.”
• Follow Up: Following the event, send follow-up emails with resources to your attendees, reaffirming their reason for signing up for your list. This means they are great opportunities to warm up new subscribers.

Webinars also help increase credibility. People attending the event that gain value are going to interact more with future emails and promotions from you.

8. Add an Opt-In During Checkout

The easiest and most frictionless way to collect email list for email marketing from interested customers is to add an opt-in during checkout. Businesses that include opt-ins at checkout see a 30-40% increase in email list growth.

• Position the Opt-In Clearly: Provide a checkbox stating, “Subscribe to receive exclusive offers and updates.” Keep it viewable but not intrusive so it does not disrupt the checkout process. .
• Highlight Benefits: Let the customer know why subscribing is worth their while. For instance, they will get to know about sales early, or get loyalty rewards, or personalized recommendations. 
• Keep it Optional: Avoid pre-checked boxes that should comply with your data privacy laws. Customers should proactively opt-in. This method works especially well as customers have chosen to spend money with you. 

Conversion of customers into a subscriber has opened doors for future engagements and repeat business.

9. Use Offline Opportunities

Don’t underestimate the offline methods for building email list for email marketing. They are best used in direct contact situations. 

• Events or Trade Shows: Set up a sign-up sheet and be available for attendees to provide their email address. Couple with an incentive like a raffle entry or an event-only discount to incentivize the use of it. Events with incentives see as high as 50 percent higher email sign-up rates.
• Use QR Codes: Print QR codes on brochures, posters, or business cards that link directly to your signup page. This makes it easy for people to subscribe without needing to type a URL. QR codes used in offline campaigns can boost email signups.
• Create a Personal Connection: When speaking to potential customers at events, mention your email list and what it offers. People are likely to subscribe when they feel a connection with your brand. 

Offline opportunities bridge the gap between in-person interactions and your digital presence, helping you capture new leads in a natural and approachable way.

10. Offer a Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a free gift that compels people to submit their email address to get something in return. People find this idea so attractive because of the instant gratification and that they can finally start trusting their audience. Email signups might go up to 50 percent or more from lead magnets.

• Types of Lead Magnets: Lead magnets may come in the form of e-books, checklists, templates, guides, or even free trials targeted to the interest of your audience. A graphic design business could use a free downloadable “Canva Social Media Template Pack” and a fitness trainer might use “7-Day Meal Plan.” Among the types, e-books and checklists lead the chart at 70% higher conversion rate.
• Strategically Promote: Use landing pages, blog posts, and social media ads to increase visibility. Create attention-grabbing headlines that state exactly what the user is going to get: “Get Your Free Beginner’s Guide to SEO.” Offer a clear call-to-action to drive up signups. Once lead magnets are strategically promoted, signups can increase by as much as 40%.
• Make Access Easy: Once a person subscribes, deliver the resource immediately through email. This not only meets their request speedily but also starts your email communication on a positive note. Instant delivery of lead magnets improves subscriber satisfaction by 60%.

A lead magnet not only boosts email signups but also positions your business as a helpful and credible source of information.

11. Create Exclusive Email-Only Content

Content offered to subscribers but not to others elsewhere on your site can make them want to join your list. This is a clear, direct incentive for users to subscribe.

• Weekly Tips or Newsletters: Provide practical insights, such as actionable advice, industry news, or how-to guides, that aren’t available elsewhere. For example, a finance coach could send “5-Minute Budgeting Hacks” each week to subscribers. 

• Exclusive or Behind-the-Scenes Content: Letting subscribers be the first to see, try, hear, or know about something just makes them feel special or, even better, like they’re part of an exclusive club of sorts!  “Behind-the-scenes” content boosts subscriber engagement by 35%.

Use phrases to state the unique value in your call-to-action such as, “Join to access subscriber-only tips and discounts.” When subscribers know that they are not paying for something generic, they will be much more likely to continue engaging.

12. Leverage Guest Blogging

Another tactic through which new audiences are achieved, growing email list for email marketing by engaging established sites is guest blogging. 

• Link to Your Signup Page: Insert the link into the author bio or inside the blog post. This way, the readers will find it extremely easy to subscribe to your email so they can get more from you. Guest posts that have used clear calls-to-action by the author bio receive more clicks.
• Valuable Content: Quality content produces actionable advice or insights that can solve problems is what readers love. The readership will be tempted to join the mailing list when your contents resonate with them. For example, a post by such title as “10 Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile” can have its free downloadable checklist for the sake of email subscribers only. .
• Target the Right Blogs: Choose blogs or sites that target your niche audience. So, for instance, a wellness coach could create cheats for a fitness or mental health blog to attract relevant readers.

Credibility is not the only thing guest blogging provides, it also puts the brand in front of a bigger audience that will funnel quality signups to the email list.

13. Use Testimonials to Encourage Signups

A very simple but powerful tactic you can use to generate new sign-ups is, as an email marketing tool, to put testimonials that testify to the value of your email list.

• Highlight Success Stories: Share success stories of people subscribed to your lists. For example, if any subscriber saved through the tips forwarded in your mails, add how they said like this: “Thanks to their newsletter, I saved 20% on grocery bills!” Sharing success stories breeds trust and thus increases sign ups by 20%.
• Add to Signup Pages: Display Testimonials on the Email Signup Page Trust is built in a testimonial. A strategically placed quote or video testimonial alleviates concerns in potential subscribers regarding the value in signing up..
• Include in Social Media Posts: Use customer testimonials in posts or videos and link straight to your signup form. A post like, “See why thousands of others are loving our exclusive email tips,” along with a testimonial, can spur on additional signups.

Testimonials create social proof and increase the chance that people will subscribe when they see the value your emails provide to others.

14. Use Gamification

Use gamification as a means of creating a fun and engaging activity for email signups. It will engage the visitor while providing them with fun and entertaining interaction while collecting contact information. Gamified experiences increase email signups by 400% or more.

• Spin-the-Wheel Promotions: Offer a virtual prize wheel for your Web site and award visitors discounts, free shipping, or other specials. To spin, however, they need to input their email address, which is an interactive way of collecting signups. 
• Quizzes or Surveys: Encourage quizzes like “What’s Your Perfect Coffee Blend?” and offer to deliver personalized results via email. This encourages sign-ups and personalizes the experience. Quizzes and surveys can increase your email list growth by 31.6%.
• Countdown Timers: This gives scarcity by creating a countdown timer for the offer. Example: “Sign up in the next 24 hours to get your free gift.” 

The gamification of the sign-up process is engaging; the user desires to participate and give an email address in return.

15. Collaborate with Other Brands or Influencers

Partnering up with other brands or influencers with audiences similar to your niche can boost your reach and build email list for email marketing.

• Co-hosted Giveaways: Collaborate with another brand and do a giveaway where people need to sign up for the email list to enter it. For example, a skincare brand could do a co-sponsored prize bundle with a wellness influencer. Co-hosted giveaways generate more engagement than solo ones.
• Cross-Promotions: Collaborate with other business firms and promote each other newsletters. For example: “Sign up for Brand A’s newsletter and get a free guide from Brand B.” It needs to come off as organic based on their interests and authentic to your readers. They raise the sign-up rates by 30% through cross-promotions. 
• Influencer Shoutouts: You can collaborate with social media influencers within your niche to promote your signup page to their audience. They can genuinely recommend your signup page with an explanation of why they love your content or products. Influencers increase email signups by 35%.

With collaborations you will be reaching out to new audiences who inherently trust your brand, and thus maximising your chances for signing up high-quality subscribers.

16. Utilize Free Trials or Demos

Free trials or demos are the best bet for potential customers. This way, people get to experience your product or service right in front of their eyes and you will build a longer email list for email marketing. Thus, there is an excellent win-win situation for you. Businesses offering free trials have a 60% rate of conversion compared to those who do not.

• Free Access: Require signups with an email to access a free trial or demo. This will not only increase your list but will also identify highly engaged leads, indicating their interest in your product. For instance, if one is offering software, he can give a 14-day free trial for an email address.
• Exclusive Features: If you have premium features or tools in your trial, charge users an extra fee to gain access to these features, only for the email subscribers. Promote these as a fantastic reason to join your list in your marketing.
• Onboarding Emails: Leverage the trials period to send follow-up emails like tips to use the product to its full potential, troubleshooting guides, or upgrades to paid plans. These emails encourage engagement and drive subscribers to explore your offerings in more depth.

By offering free trials and direct follow-ups, you are giving yourself the best chance to show the value of your product, all while nurturing a potential customer and eventually leading to conversions.

17. Offer a Birthday Club

A birthday club is fun and engaging with subscribers, helps grow your email list for email marketing, and makes subscribers feel special. It is a personalized perk that everybody loves, creating goodwill and loyalty. Birthday clubs boost email engagement by 481%.

• Promote the Perks: Advertise your birthday club throughout your website, social media, and in your physical locations. Provide exciting incentives such as free gifts, discounts, or exclusive access during the subscriber’s birthday month. A bakery could offer a free cupcake to its members on their birthday..
• Capture Relevant Info: Obtain the subscriber’s birth date as well as an email address during registration. Make it short and a breeze to be filled out..
• Personalized Campaigns: Automate emails with birthday deals and greetings. Text “Happy Birthday! Here’s a 20% discount just for you” is very personal and induces engagement. Birthday emails personalized have a 50% higher open rate as opposed to regular campaigns.
  

This strategy grows an email list further and also builds up stronger customers for you by making sure that you appreciate and celebrate your subscribers.

18. Use Email Signatures Across Your Team

The most overlooked and powerful tool in the promotion of your email list for email marketing is email signatures. They can be used consistently across a broad audience through routine communication. It can increase your email list by 10-15% through the use of CTAs on email signatures.

• Add CTAs to Signatures: In fact, add a clear CTA in your email signature; for example, “Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive deals and insights!” Add a clickable link to your signup page.
• Team-wide Application: Include the same CTA on each employee email signature, maximizing your reach across your various touch points such as customer support, sales inquiries, etc. This can increase sign-ups by as much as 25% for email signature campaigns across the team.
• Value Focus: Highlight some of the benefits of subscribing, like discounts, industry advice, or insider news. So a tech company might say, “Keep on top with the latest industry trends—subscribe now!”

Using your email signature to promote your list is a non-intrusive way to encourage subscriptions because it is consistently presented.

19. Leverage QR Codes

QR codes are a quick and modern method of connecting your offline audiences with your online email signup page. It is a simple way of allowing people to join your email list for email marketing. 

Add a CTA: Add a strong call-to-action, such as “Scan to subscribe and get 15% off your next purchase.” This gets people to do something right then. 

Use on Marketing Materials: Flyers, Posters, and Business Cards For example, a restaurant can place a QR code on their menu that says something like, “Text our list for special deals.” Print literature that has QR codes generates a 25% higher scan rate.

In-Store Displays: Companies with physical branches can place their QR codes beside the checkout counter or on packages. Customers may scan the code to easily be redirected to your signup form. 

20. Host a Podcast or YouTube Channel

Photo by Benjamin  Dominguez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/portrait-of-man-by-microphone-14772071/

If you have a content channel such as YouTube or podcast, then it will be used effectively to bring people to email signups. People who listen to podcasts or view YouTube channels are more likely to subscribe to email lists for email marketing compared to other people.

• Add Signup Links: Include links to your email signup page in video descriptions or podcast show notes. For instance, include “Join our email list for exclusive updates” in every episode description. Links in descriptions see a 25% higher click-through rate.
• Mention in Content: Encourage people to subscribe during the episode or video. Just a straightforward callout, like “Sign up for our newsletter to receive bonus tips from this episode,” works just fine.
• Free Extras: Provide downloadable resources that are related to the content that you share with your audience. Travel Podcast may even include a “Top 10 Packing Tips” PDF for subscribers. Free resources increase email signups by 35%. Podcasts and YouTube channels connect you with an engaged audience. 

This added value also helps cement your relationship and builds your list via email signups.

21. Encourage Sharing Through Social Proof

Social proof acts as a way for individuals to see the benefits that others have gained from successful email marketing through signing up for your email list This is can really help boost sign-ups because people trust other people.

• Forwarding links: Include a “Share this email with a friend” button in your newsletters. Your current subscribers get to introduce the content to your new potential subscribers. 
• Incentivize Sharing: Provide rewards for referrals in the form of coupons and free products for every successful signup, such as: “Refer 3 friends and get 20% off your next purchase!” 
• Highlight Subscriber Count: Show people how many others are benefiting from your emails. For instance, “Join over 10,000 subscribers who receive exclusive weekly tips.” It creates a sense of community and credibility.
  

Using social proof makes your email list more attractive and inspires your existing subscribers to become brand advocates.

22. Writing a Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)

Your signup form or pop-up will not do you any benefit if your call to action is not clearly defined and catchy enough to create a powerful email list you can utilize in email marketing.

Examples of strong CTAs include:

• “Get Your Free Guide Now”
• “Join Our Newsletter for Weekly Tips”
• “Sign Up to Save 15% Today”
• Avoid generic phrases like “Subscribe” or “Join.”

Legal Compliance and Best Practices

For the safety of the subscribers and your business, it is important to follow the legal specifications for growing your email marketing list. Ignoring these could result in penalties, among other consequences.

• Get Consent: Always have users give you their consent and this is done through an opt-in form, in this type of form subscribers intentionally opted to receive emails from you. They have to do something positive: check a box or click “Sign up” button. But it is unethical and likely illegal to add people to your list without their consent.
• Provide an Unsubscribe Option: Each email must include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link. This will also let recipients unsubscribe at their place thus minimizing complaints and maintaining a healthy list.
• Be Transparent: If your subscribers have a sense of what they’ll be getting and the frequency of the emails, they’re more likely to open them. For instance, let them know if they can expect weekly tips, monthly updates, or promotional offers. Transparency breeds trust and establishes proper expectations.

Keeping Your Email List Healthy

After you have leveraged your email list for email marketing, you need to keep it clean so that your emails are still effective with high engagement rates.

• Send a Welcome Email: Use the opportunity to say thank you, confirm the subscription and also tell them what they should look forward to in your emails. This first impression will shape your relationship.
• Clean Your List: Some subscribers people will become inactive over time because they will lose interest. Unsubscribe users who haven’t opened or clicked for 2 months. This means keeping an active list and only interested users which improves deliverability.
• Segment Your List: Divide your email list for email marketing based on preferences, behaviors or demographics. You can segment it based on their purchasing history or the material they engaged with. This enables you to craft highly relevant, targeted emails to both groups.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

To ensure success in your email campaigns, here are common mistakes you should avoid:

• Don’t Overcomplicate Forms: Ensure that your signup forms are short and simple. Requesting excessive information, such as phone numbers or intricate demographic information, would make people unwilling to sign up. Keep the form to the bare minimum, an email address, and maybe a first name.
• Don’t Send Blanket Emails: Instead of sending blanket emails, take the time to personalize. Utilize the reader’s name, mention their interests, or customize content according to their previous actions. A mass email will come across as generic and encourage people to unsubscribe.
• Don’t Spam: Your subscribers’ inbox needs to be respected and de-cluttered, therefore never sending excessively frequent emails or too irrelevant material. Stay true to the frequency you established at signup and ensure all your emails add value.

Tracking Your Success

Measure the performance of your email list for email marketing using these key metrics:

• Signup Conversion Rate: The number of sign-ups for your email list for email marketing compared to the number of visitors who view your signup form indicates how effective your form and incentive are.
• Open Rate: The percentage of subscribers who open your emails. It shows how your subject lines performs and your sender reputation.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): This tracks how many recipients click on your links. This is one of the key metrics of how engaging your content and calls-to-action are.

If your metrics aren’t what you’d hoped, experiment with various CTAs or subject lines, email styles or offers to find out what’s right for your audience. These metrics, when reviewed regularly can help you refine your strategy to improve results.

Final Thoughts

It may take time to build an email list for email marketing, but it is one of the best investments you can make for your business. Focus on providing value, and the subscribers will come. Once you have a list, nurture it with relevance, helpfulness, and engagement.

Always keep it simple. Treat your audience’s inbox. Remember to offer them something they care about. That is how to build a targeted email marketing list.