You have probably heard business owners and email marketers say that “money is in the list.” But what does it actually mean? If you are a smart business owner, you know how to take advantage of technology, like the Internet. You also probably know the importance of creating an email list that will drive sales.
In this article, you will discover the easy steps in creating your first email list starting from ground zero. The following are the steps and tips if you still don’t have an email list.
Know your audience.
You must understand who your audiences are because these are the people you will be targeting on your email list. One way of targeting your audiences for your email list is by creating a marketing persona.
A marketing persona is the foundation of your marketing. It will let you know if the content of your email marketing appeals to your target audience and drive to your website.
In creating a marketing persona, you must consider some details, such as:
- Age
- Location
- Interests
- Language
- Stage of life
- Where they get their information, e.g., the Internet, TV, and so on.
Write a compelling Call to Action (CTA)
A call to action (CTA) is a statement that tells your audience to immediately respond or encourages an immediate sale. No matter how catchy your subject line and how interesting the content of your email is, if you don’t have a CTA or if it is not well optimized, you will not increase your email click-through rates.
Each signup of your target audience in your email list is the result of a well-optimized CTA. So, it is important to guide your target audience using strategic CTA to make sales.
Here are some simple yet effective CTA examples that you can use in marketing:
- Sign up.
- Subscribe.
- Try for free.
- Get started.
- Join us.
- Learn more.
Remember that you should create an offer your target audience can’t refuse for them to sign up for your email list. Create an offer that your target audience will want.
Create your landing page
You need a landing page for your email marketing. This is a standalone web page solely created for marketing and advertising purposes. When your target audience clicks your CTA (Call to Action) in your email marketing or ads, they will be redirected to the landing page.
The main purpose of a landing page is to convert your traffic, which is your visitors, into leads. It is a form that captures your visitors to give up their information for your email list in exchange for an offer like a freebie. Some common types of freebies are:
- Discount code
- Video tutorial
- Email course
- PDF guide
- Checklist
After they have submitted the form, they should be redirected to a “thank you” page.
Here are the best landing page builders that you can use according to zapier.
- Carrd– best for building landing pages quickly
- Mailchimp– best for driving email newsletter signups
- KickoffLabs– best landing page builder for competitions and giveaways
- Unbounce– best landing page builder for small businesses with a budget
- Wix– best for building a landing page that you can expand on later
- Leadpages– best landing page builder for selling products
- Instapage– best landing page builder for easily making lots of landing pages
- Landingi– best landing page builder for professional marketers
And here are some great resources to get more conversions with your landing page:
- 10 Powerful Conversion Tips For A Better Newsletter Landing Page
- 9 Landing Page Design Tips To Improve Conversion
- 9 Essentials Of A High Converting Landing Page
You must have an email marketing provider
You need an email marketing provider for you to start communicating with audiences on your email list. Having an email marketing provider is the most cost-effective marketing strategy, especially for small businesses.
Email marketing providers use an email marketing software that is responsible for actually delivering the email to your target audience. A good email marketing provider allows you to create an email newsletter in a different layout easily, ideally through a drag-and-drop editor.
You can also manage your email list and segment users by groups and easily send personalized emails through marketing automation. And most importantly, your email won’t end up in the receiver’s spam folder.
There is a lot to consider when choosing an email marketing provider. You can check our previous blog to know the top email marketing platforms for small businesses through this link.
Create surprise pop-up forms
You can use pop-up forms for each of the web pages on your site. It is also crucial that you strategically use these forms. When not properly utilized, some audiences find this bothersome. There are also some audiences that will find this a desperate gimmick because you are hoping too much that they will sign up for your newsletter or promo.
Instead, you can use timed pop-up or on-site retargeting at a certain amount of time or amount of pages a visitor spent on your website or when they are ready to leave your site.
If done right, you will appeal to your target audience, and the signup rate will increase significantly.
Use a persuasive content marketing
The most crucial part when you create your email list is content marketing. Executing your content marketing well will attract your target audience to your content and entice your target audience to be part of your mailing list.
To gain an in-depth understanding of content marketing and how you can grow your business using the power of digital content. You can enroll in The Complete Content Marketing Course from Skill Success.
You can also take advantage of these two other courses about learning the secrets and basics of creating an email list.
Ready to learn how to create an email list? Click here to get started.