We have what can only be described as a good news, bad news scenario to share with you. Let’s start with the bad news. According to HubSpot, one of our favorite inbound marketing partners, your email marketing list, loses approximately 22.5% of its subscribers every year. The good news is, email marketing is still one of the most lucrative and highly engaged consumer channels you have in your arsenal of marketing tools. Now just imagine what your ROI could be if you were growing your email marketing list at a 22.5% annual rate! To help you grow your email marketing list like a boss and turn those subscribers into qualified leads, we recommend these five tips and resources.
1. Stop losing subscribers:
We’ve all heard the saying that retaining a customer is more valuable (and less expensive) than finding a new customer. The same holds true for your email marketing list. Before turning your focus toward inbound marketing tactics to grow your list, make sure your current content marketing strategy is relevant to your reader base and target audience. Great content keeps your current users engaged and makes the rest of these recommendations easier to implement and maintain. For ideas on how to energize your content marketing strategy and keep users engaged, we love Contently’s Content Strategist blog.
2. Make opting-in to your email marketing list easy:
If you have great content: share it. And make it easy for your readers to come back for more. Add subscribe buttons to your employees’ email signatures, share your content with an opt-in link via social media, include a newsletter or blog subscription button on every page and in your footer. Every inbound marketing and email lead may discover your content and website through different channels, so don’t assume that your visitors know where to look to subscribe to your email list or learn more about your brand. Your opt-in buttons should be ubiquitous throughout your site along with inbound marketing efforts you have in market. Get crisp on how to unclutter your site, reduce competing CTA’s, and create a hierarchy of marketing information for your customers on Unbounce. This go-to conversion site will help you understand how to make opting-in to your email marketing list easier than ever.
3. You can’t go wrong with email marketing promotions:
One of the quickest and easiest ways to build a solid email marketing list is to offer promotions or contests. Think about the last time you logged onto a retail site and traded your email for a discount code or chance to win free merchandise. The exchange is a win-win situation. The customer gets a promotion, and the brand receives your email information. Provided your content strategy is strong, this customer will keep coming back and engaging with your products as you email new promotions or share interesting content. Use CoSchedule to help you plan a content and promotional calendar that will tee up critical offers throughout the year that will be relevant to your target audience.
4. Don’t forget about social sharing:
Help your current customers and advocates help you by adding social sharing to your current email campaigns (check out EmailDesignReview.com for great ideas on how to creatively place sharing buttons), and to all your inbound marketing content. As people share your content, more people will sign up for your email marketing list to get in on the action. Social sharing is one of the main reasons your content marketing needs to be strong. Good content means more shares and more email leads.
5. YOU should be sharing too:
It should go without saying that you should be sharing your own content too. If you aren’t tempted to share your blog posts, emails, and promotions with friends and family or ask people to opt in your list at networking events, chances are your content marketing isn’t good enough yet. If you’re not ready to drink your own Kool-Aid, ask yourself why. And then fix it. Team up with other passionate people in your office and transform your email marketing strategy into something you are proud to promote.
You should know that we’re here to help. View our email marketing service page to see how we’ve helped other brands like you balance a flawless email marketing campaign. Together, we can do more.
