• Make It Clear What They Will Get – “First, the most regular advice that I provide to marketers is to emphasize the value exchange. Sure, you can just ask for email address and then move on, but the better strategy is to actually take the person to another page and lay out the value proposition. Really what you want are people that WANT to be on your list AND are going to give you their primary email address. Lack of value is going to get you their junk email address. You know, the one YOU use on sites where you just don’t care. Well, you’re always going to get them, but if you don’t “sell” your program and offering, you’re more than likely to get the junk email address. So, tell the subscriber why your program is awesome. You’ll find that you get more quality!”
• Promote It at the TOP of the Page – “This is always the battle of real-estate. To get the most out of your acquisition, put your “ask” for the email address, or link to another page to sign up, at the TOP of the page. I have commonly seen that rates for acquisition increase by 50% when you have it at the top vs the bottom. So, fight the battle with your UX/Tech group, but remind them that email addresses are golden and a ticket into the inbox…whenever the company wants.”
• Validation – “It’s a must these days for a few reasons. One being that we’re all in a hurry and sometimes we make mistakes when we’re typing our email address not to mention doing it on the mobile. So having validation at the time of submission is key to ensuring that you don’t have high initial bounce rates or addresses that could have easily been checked at the time of submission. Also, make absolutely sure that you have CAPTCHA on the sign up page to avoid fraud or problems with bad emails entered into your system. What we’re trying to accomplish is maximization of our acquisition. Sometimes “Killer List Building Tips” are about making sure that what you get…you can actually use.”

• Leverage Other People’s Email Lists – “One of the most effective list building strategies is to have other list owners mail your offer to their list. You can pay other email list owners to promote your product or service. These are typically known as Solo Ads. I also refer to them as Email Media Buys. Find relevant websites that target a similar audience as you do, and ask them if they sell email ads to their email list. For someone who is a beginner to building a list, this is a fast way to get your first email subscribers.”
• Use a Multi-Step Opt-in Page – “When you send a visitor to your site, you want to make sure there are clear instructions on what they need to do next. For instance, you can have a call-to-action button such as, ‘Access Your Free Gift Now’. Once they click on the button a box pop-ups asking for their email address. This multi-step opt-in strategy can increase opt-in rates by 33% or more. The psychology behind this is that when someone clicks once, they are more committed to finishing the process. Most popular landing page software have this multi-step opt-in feature available.”
• Test, Test, Test – “Many entrepreneurs who are new to digital marketing underestimate the power of split-testing. One small change to your landing page, or your call-to-action can make a significant difference in the success of your campaign. Do be afraid to test. Make sure you track your test results and scale the ones that perform the best. Never stop testing.”

• Delete “Dead Data” – “It’s a bit off-piste but the first tip to growing your list is to delete your old dead data and start with a pot of only your most engaged contacts. It’s always scary seeing your send numbers drop when you have cultivated them for a long time, but removing the people who have hard bounced, non-engaged in any content for a while (or ever in some cases), or who have opted out of all communications from you will pay dividends. It’s a quick win to seeing increased deliverability for your remaining contacts and ultimately will result in higher success metrics. It’s not cheating to only communicate with those you know will be interested and ultimately, its engaged contacts who purchase or convert! ”
• Tell People About Your Email List + Where They Can Sign Up – “Once you’ve cleared out your data, you want to encourage new sign ups. Having a simple but clear newsletter sign up box on your website homepage is a really easy way to do this. You can also include the option to opt into more email using a consent tick box which links back to your preference centre and grow multiple send lists at once! Sign up boxes should also be placed throughout your customer journey on your site. You can also think about including links to them on social media, at the end of webinars or even cross promote with affiliate companies. Ensuring you tell people where they can sign up is vital, without signposting and making it clear, people who do want to hear from you might be missing out. A lot of people have suggested using popover displays or light boxes on your website to encourage sign up (think groupon or wowcher), personally I think these are a turn off, but there is no reason not to test them as part of your ongoing list growth activity. ”
• Generate + Share Amazing Content Via Email – “Generate amazing content and then put it behind a marketing sign up wall. Okay so in the days of GDPR you can’t force someone to sign up to your emails to download the document. But you can encourage them to do so by telling them you can send a copy of the document to their inboxes or informing them that content like this is available in your regular email updates. Sing the praises of your email communications and let people know what great stuff they could get from you, whether this be whitepapers, research materials, offers or sneak peak sales etc. You’re doing good things that people want to know about so shout about it and make it seem like a no brainer to sign up. ”

• Ask! – “The worst they can say is, “No.” You’d be amazed how many small business owners feel like they’re imposing if they ask someone to join their mailing list, but an in-person ask is one of the most effective ways to grow your list. It’s hard to turn someone down when they’re smiling at you and asking you to sign up for email-only deals, updates, and events.”
• Use a Dynamic Subscription Tool on Your Website – “Whether a pop-up, bar, fly-out, or scrolling tab, the movement of the tool catches your website visitor’s attention. Make your pop-up compelling by offering a free resource (like a guide, white paper, or checklist) or a special offer (% off or free product) for subscribing to the list. By providing something of perceived value, your visitors will be more inclined to subscribe to your mailing list.”
• Use Your Email Signature to Grow Your List – “Don’t forget: you’re sending multiple emails back and forth to prospects and customers, so that repetition of a direct call-to-action (subscribe to my list) is ultimately going to lead to a conversion if they see it enough.

  Consider enhancing your signature to something like:

  Best, Bryan
  CEO of Bryan Caplan Marketing
  —–
  Do you want my marketing tips and tricks in your inbox? Click here!”

• Don’t Ignore the Importance of Keeping Existing Subscribers – “This may seem obvious, but one of the best ways for growing a list is to keep it from shrinking. By spending all your time focusing on growth you run the risk of losing focus on those leaving your list each month. For every person you lose, you need to get two just to stay ahead. Ironically retention begins at registration.

  • Start by sending new registrants a welcome program introducing your brand and letting them know what they will receive.
  • Use web and email behaviour and survey data to send them information that they want
  • Be brave enough to not send what you want to say if it is not right for them.

  As Dorothy Neville famously said, “The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

• Be Wary of List Growth Targets Based on Percentages – “A 20% list growth target is fine when your list is small. In fact it may be too modest, but as your list grows so does the number of registrations you need to hit that 20%. It is unreasonable to think that the potential audience for your product or service is going to grow at the same rate as your target. The only way to achieve that target, is to get registrations that are not into your product or service. You just end up spending money on acquiring people who will not buy, leave your list and have to be replaced.

  Either set a fixed number target or if you have to use a percentage then make it a percentage of traffic to each collection point. The percentage should reflect the potential of getting the opt-in at each location. The opt-in rate on your website will be very different than it is in a shop or on social media.”

• Smart Pop-Ups – “The first two tips were really about making list growth easier, so here is a tip for growth itself – POP-UP. I hope by now we are past the discussion about how we all hate pop-ups. They may clash with our brand ethos, but they work – even the ham fisted ones that appear as soon as a consumer lands on your site.

  That said, we are in a new year and if you haven’t yet, you should make 2019 the year of the smart pop-up. Think about going to a party- you want to get into the room, feel the vibe and then start meeting people. Nobody likes the over eager guy who hovers by the door waiting to pounce on the first person who walks in alone.”

• Actively Ask for Sign-Ups and Make It Easy – “The most important thing in building your mailing list is actively encouraging people to sign up to receive your emails. Email sign-up needs to be a core element on your website, blog, and other marketing channels. It’s essential to prompt email sign-up messages at the right time when your website visitors aren’t busy doing something else like buying your products. You should also make it extremely easy for people to sign up, so forget a mile-long sign-up forms and cumbersome processes.”
• Set the Right Expectations at Sign-Up – “This might sound like a deja vu, but digital marketers can’t really stress the importance of setting right and realistic expectations for email sign-up enough. When your website visitors or (prospective) clients sign up to receive email from you, you’ll absolutely need to give them an extremely clear idea of what they will receive and how often. If you don’t do this step well enough, you’ll certainly end up with tons of unsubscribes and your mailing list might end up shrinking without growing.”
• Present the Best Content to Your Audience When They Want It – “When you have an email sign-up and you’ve set the right expectation with them, it’s time to wow them! Segment your audience very carefully. Then, get to know each segment really well and try to anticipate what kind of content they like. Present them with highly relevant content, whenever they want it. Once again, if you try to cut corners here, you’ll end up shrinking your mailing list, and that’s gonna cost you a lot of money. Remember, mailing list building always goes all together with a killer segmentation and content strategy.”

• Survey Existing Subscribers – “Survey your existing constituents to know what interest areas they have in common to know how you can help them become better at what they do. That is really how you will fine tune your value proposition and offer value to future subscribers. Building your list must be equally beneficial to both you AND the subscriber. The type of email address given (Primary, Secondary or Junk) will vary based on the perceived value of your content so a little pre-list building preparation will go a long way to building a quality list.”
• Killer Content + Refer a Friend Functionality – “Once you fine tune your value proposition, craft or curate killer content that is immediately useful to readers. The content is immediately consumable to existing subscribers using a “refer a friend” functionality of your communication platforms to motivate them to share content that is relevant to their connections. A content teaser is immediately available to non-subscribers and access to full content is behind a subscribe widget or data/sign-up collection form. The teaser should contain enough text to motivate a non-subscriber to give their email address to you.”
• Make Use of Every Opportunity to Promote Your Email List – “Have the subscribe/sign-up form available on your website’s header ideally and all social media profiles you have a presence on. Also add links to sign-up to all transactional emails (receipts, registration confirmation, triggered notifications) and outbound SMS/Text Messages. Also add links to sign-up in the footer of the email in the event an email was forwarded to them but are not currently a subscriber. A side note to make sure forwarded HTML messages don’t have many or any layout shifts (it’s common that HTML layouts break when forwarding an email using the forward button in any email client) is to stick with a single column fluid layout.”

“Certainly in the UK, in the post-GDPR world, we’ve seen lawyers (rightly or wrongly) advise many brands to cut databases to ensure compliance. In many cases, these cuts have all but decimated marketing databases.

So now it really is time to go ‘back to basics’ for brands to start to rebuild and use every opportunity to do so – but whilst clearly explaining what you intend to do with that data, what the recipient can expect to receive (for compliance), but perhaps most importantly, what VALUE are they going to receive from you.

For me, the value exchange has always been the most important, and often overlooked element of any data collection – and perhaps now, more than ever brands should really be dialling in on how they are going to create something unique and with a high level of perceived value for the recipient.”

• Lightboxes/Pop-Overs/Exit Intent Monitoring – “For me, this is still number 1 for organic growth – after all, if you’ve managed to get someone onto the website it’s a totally wasted opportunity to not use this.

  As for the arguments that they are annoying etc…well, they are if you don’t think about how to execute properly. Do it right, and they work. Fact.

  The key is in having flexible technology to trigger them intelligently…and most good Marketing Automation platforms should allow you to do this.

  Here’s how to use them effectively and what to avoid.

  – Don’t make them pop up immediately when I land on your site! That’s definitely annoying. Give the recipient time to browse for a while. If you’re working with a company using exit intent monitoring, it may be beneficial to use this to trigger the lightbox.

  – Don’t keep making them pop up if I keep hitting the ‘close’ button! Clearly I don’t want to leave you my data, but I’m happy to shop your site…keep annoying me though and I may change my mind on that too…!

  – Don’t make them pop up if I’m already a subscriber…do you not know who I am…??! As mentioned before, a good technology platform should be able to intelligently display only if I’m not already subscribed.

  – Do be super clear on the value exchange. Why should I give you my data now? What’s in it for me, but more importantly, what will I miss out on if I don’t sign up.

  Remember, incentives don’t always need to be monetary – whilst many brands seem to still want to give discounts/ free shipping etc. consider instead something exclusive. This could be first access to new products or exclusive content or offers that they won’t get if they don’t sign up.”

• Use CRM Tools to Target Prospects – “Technology has evolved fast – many platforms now give you the opportunity to leverage Google and Facebook Ad networks for acquisition. And of course this also increases reach into the likes of YouTube and Instagram.

  Intelligent, AI driven profiling gives you the opportunity (for B2C brands) to identify their best customers, profile them and target lookalike audiences through CRM based ads into social networks.

  Being targeted like this not only helps control spend (ie. you’re not blanket advertising to everyone), but it’s more likely also to engage those people who are most likely to actually buy from you, or be higher spenders etc.

  Think about something special and unique for those who you attract this way – really go to town in making this compelling for them to signup and link through to a landing page that presents a seamless experience (ie. branding/ offer/ feel/ messaging) and makes it very easy to sign-up. By this I mean only collect data you actually need right away…you can always add preferences later or build their profile and tastes based upon their actions.”

• Build an Immediate and Solid Welcome Program – “Capturing data is all very well, but actioning and nurturing is key to success. This means that time is of the essence once a recipient has undertaken an action, and the first message of ‘Thank you for joining’ should be immediate.

  Structure a solid Welcome Program which is a journey of touchpoints to push engagement, experience and ultimately drive that first purchase.

  It’s always been my recommendation that Welcome Programs should not be too hard sell. Think about the next step you want someone to take to increase their engagement – this may be to create an account for example, or engage in more content on other channels.

  Make it more content focused for value rather than simply pushing product or discount – how can they use your product, how will it benefit them etc.

  By way of example, a friend of mine runs a makeup brand. Whilst they do sell concessions in department stores, the majority is online, so engagement with brand across channels is key.

  The entire journey from signup is rich content driven to give people makeup tips and techniques.

  They then start to recommend their products to ‘get the look’. The value is in the learning – the products are then much easier to recommend and sell…”

“Above all – and as with everything, keep measuring, testing and refining!”

• Make Your Signup Form Visible on Your Homepage – “My top most tip would be to add a sign-up form field on your website’s homepage. Offer an incentive which would interest them – this could be anything from a competition or to receive a newsletter. This will also help you determine the demographics that you are reaching and therefore you will be able to then better segment future communications based on their preferences.”
• Decide on the Type of Person You Want to Target – “Profile customers so that you can see whether they meet the requirements of your company. Once you know the type of person you are targeting you can tailor your content for this purpose, which in return will gain you the needed numbers on your list.”
• Engage Contacts You Already Have From Other Activities – “Buying lists from 3rd parties is never a good idea. Why not make use of email addresses that you have at your disposal? Maybe there are contacts that could be ported over from your social media or PPC/SEO campaigns? Direct them to a personalised landing page asking them if they want to receive your content. Natural list growth using already acquired data.”

• Leverage Affiliate Marketing Networks – “Ensure that you have set yourself up across all the top affiliate networks offering email marketing as a traffic source, potentially the main traffic source on your campaign.

  If you have PPC/SEO set-up already, email marketing with the correct content is an excellent tool along with search in growing your database by allowing the content on both to work together and increase visibility on search engines.

  When running an email marketing campaign, you need to ensure that your email creative is content focused, providing the reader with all the relevant and important details of the product you are selling within the email. By providing the focused content you can then direct the reader/user to the purchase/checkout page and cut out any middle landing pages that could become drop off points within the process. This will encourage a much higher conversion rate, or opt-in from the customer to be contacted again without them dropping out during the process.

  You need to ensure that you have an opt-in on your checkout pages and get permission for you to market to the user. These opt-in boxes may not be pre-ticked under GDPR regulations, but once you have the double opt-in, which is the customer accepting the terms and privacy and to receiving future emails, you will be growing a solid high-quality email list with interested parties that have shown intent.

  Affiliate marketing gives you access to email marketers that already have their own data lists and can be targeted correctly, to ensure that your product and email is being seen by the relevant demographic.”

• Re-Targetting – “Retarget marketing is becoming more and more relevant these days. A pop-up providing the customer with an incentive to return to your website when leaving the page or site altogether is a sure way to increase your database, either by them making a purchase from the incentive or asking them to opt-in to receive future communication within the pop-up.

  There are also GDPR ways of retargeting your customers directly through email marketing. Companies such as SmarterClick provide technology that allows you to engage to the fullest ability that you can and not miss out on those all-important email addresses and the customers potentially moving onto the competition.

  In some cases, it is known that up to 80%+ of traffic can leave a website without engagement. By hitting this leaked traffic, you are sure to increase not only your email list, but your sales and future email communications too.”

• Never Rent or Buy an Email List – “Under no circumstances should you use rented or bought email lists. These lists are very dangerous as there are loads of fraudulent and bad lists out there. These can cause great damage to your company/brand name and can also lead to large fines, especially now with the new GDPR regulations that are in place. Always ensure that when working with email marketers, they have legitimate opted-in emails and the provider is registered on ICO – https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-fee-payers/ – and they are fully GDPR compliant.

  Working with reputable networks and data-list owners will go a long way to ensuring that this happens, but my advice to you is to always be vigilant and ensure you know who you are working with. This also gives you comfort that the targeted email data is trusted, high quality and relevant and will grow your own email list with the same quality.”

“All the above are the best ways to grow your data lists outside of your standard search and seo marketing. Content is king and run correctly through the right partners, you can grow your lists with high quality email addresses.”

• Create a Cross Channel Plan – “Don’t think of marketing channels as just verticals; they all play an important part in your cross-channel online marketing strategy. If you have a strong social presence, leverage that to engage with current and perspective customers by promoting exclusive promotions, offers, or “freemium” content, and drive them to individualized landing pages on your website. Landing pages should be designed to collect 1 to 2 pieces of demographic data, along with their email address. Focus product or content-based posts on Instagram and Pinterest and then utilize Facebook and Twitter for time-based or transactional promotions, so they can easily be shared and retweeted. Utilizing multiple channels can lead to exponential lead generation opportunities and generate a larger online presence and reputation.”
• Leverage the Power of YouTube – “YouTube, now the world’s second largest search engine, offers a unique platform to generate leads and create a community of loyal customers for products and services. YouTube provides several ways to integrate videos and content with your company’s website, through call-to-action cards and embedded media. Videos you share on YouTube should be about creating perceived “added value”, through a combination of demonstrations, how-to’s, and testimonials. Adding YouTube’s call-to-action cards on your channel page will direct viewers to a localized product page on your website, by utilizing customized images, titles, and calls to action. Create individualized product pages on your website, each containing a lead form to capture specific data about each potential customer. These landing pages can offer additional content, offers, or promotions. Combining this demographic data and product information is vital for you to be able to personalize future email campaigns.”

• Leverage Other Companies’ Email Lists – “If you’re looking to grow your email list don’t start from scratch, look at other marketers or businesses that already have an email list and make them an offer or offer something of value to them so that they share your product to their audience., ie, time, money, or resources.”
• Use Paid Ads – “Don’t be afraid to spend money on ads to grow the list because if the numbers make sense, you’ll make your money back fast. Do the math first and work the numbers out before you spend the money on ads.”
• Give Your List Lots of Value…Often – “Email your list and give them value, as simple as this sounds, you aren’t emailing your audience enough, they have hundreds of emails and if you’re not in front of them with something they find valuable often they will forget about you, your offer and your company. Best way to find out if someone will open your emails or want to buy from you is email yourself or friends first, wait a few days and look through your inbox and see if you’d want to open up your own email, if not try again.”

• Laser-Like Focus – “Be incredibly well targeted and don’t stray too far from that niche in any of your marketing. It helps massively if your audience both recognise themselves in your marketing and also believe you are the go to person for solving their problems.”
• Keep Your Message On Point – “Test and reuse your sales and marketing messages and keep them targeted. Even if you have a legacy client in a different sector or demographic, don’t be tempted to mix your messages. Oh and keep them short in the beginning.”
• Use Video – “BOOM! The stats are there, it’s incredibly easy with your mobile, a video editor (also on your mobile) and a basic filing set up.”

• Affinity Marketing Gets Best Results – “Say you work in credit Reports and you want to grow your business. Strategic partnerships with loan companies, debt management and ID theft solutions where you get opted in is a quick way to garner growth.

  Non incentivised co reg campaigns will build quick volumes, profile openers and conversions in order to make future co-reg media buys more efficient for a greater return on ROI.

  Well tested landing pages that are focused on demographic information capture i.e. name, email, etc. For accurate campaigns it is important to have a verification system for data accuracy.

  Survey data purchase to find hand raisers.

  Data profiling by taking converting users and then targeting similar profiles on other channels with follow up email campaigns to get conversion.

  Relevancy and personalisation allows you to cut through the wastage, and if one uses an omni-channel approach the target consumer will become aware of and feel comfortable with brand.”
  

• Choose Your Email Marketing Software Carefully – “The email platform you use is critical to any campaign. It’s important to understand that a lot of your success with email marketing depends entirely on the email marketing software you choose because they are responsible for making sure that your emails actually get delivered.

  If you aren’t careful, then you will end up paying a lot more money for fewer features and terrible deliverability (which causes you to lose even more money). A good email marketing service enables you to create highly engaging emails. It also allows you to manage your contacts, segment users into groups, and track the performance of your email campaigns.

  Five I have used and recommend:

  1. MailChimp
  2. ConvertKit
  3. Drip
  4. Aweber
  5. Infusionsoft (Infusionsoft is a very robust email marketing provider)

  These above give you a shared IP with a good reputation and should get you started, but once comfortable, it is worth buying your own package and building your own reputation. Your IP is what email service providers use to work out if you are a spammer. So don’t blast a million emails on day one; spread it over 30 days and build that trust organically with consumers and with companies that control the inbox.”

• Use Analytics to Really Get to Know Your Customer – “Analysis of the results can be used to determine when your customers are likely to buy one of your products and what that product is going to be. To achieve this, you need to use transactional, demographic, geographical and most importantly behavioural data. By combining and analysing this information, it is possible to understand your customers and their individual journeys. You’ll then be in a position to send the correct message, to the right customer, at a convenient time, on the apt device, using the appropriate channel.”

• Use the Right Tools – “There are so many tools out there now but we have found the best ones are full contact for Gmail ( paid version) as it cleans up emails automatically and also Zapier (https://zapier.com/apps/gmail/integrations/linkedin) this cuts down time and gives is great results building a list to over 100,000 in 2 years and growing at 1000 emails a month which obviously increases exposure and sales.”
• Find Where the Target Market Is and Engage With Them – “Join as many groups on LinkedIn as possible that relate to your services or where the target market is they will then see your posts, which you need to do at least 3 times a week with relevant useful content. Like and share other articles and follow as many leaders as possible.”
• Be Authentic When You get in Touch – “Import all Gmail into sendgrid and use an auto drip campaign (https://zapier.com/apps/sendgrid/integrations) and try and be as “yourself” as possible with useful relevant content, even if it’s an image on a regular basis. As Gary V says “the race is long.”