How to Build an Email List for Small Businesses

How to Build an Email List for Small Businesses

If you’re like most small business owners, your email marketing list is one of your most valuable assets. And if you’re not sure how to grow your list or keep it updated, don’t worry—we’re here to help! In this post, we’ll outline some of the best (and easiest) ways on how to build an email list for small businesses. So whether you’re just getting started or you’re looking for new and improved ways to attract subscribers, read on for our top tips!

One thing is certain, no matter if your email marketing list is bursting at the seams with names or if you are just beginning to build an email list. You can never stop working to grow your email lists – and you shouldn’t!

Email marketing is essential for businesses. It has the distinction of being the only channel you own. You don’t have control over your social media accounts, but companies like Facebook or Twitter do. There’s nothing you can do if your account goes down or is affected by a multi-hour outage.

What is an email list, you ask? It’s basically a list of email addresses owned by a company.

What is an Email List?

What is an email list, you ask? It’s a list of email addresses owned by a company.

If you’re new to online marketing, you may have heard the term “email list” but not be sure what it is. An email list is simply a collection of email addresses that belong to people who have either given you their permission to send them emails or who have purchased something from you in the past.

This list is updated with email addresses when customers give contact information to the company, either directly, or when they sign up for an email newsletter, content offering, or promotion.

Email lists are a great way to stay in touch with your customers and keep them updated on your latest products and promotions. Plus, they’re a great way for you to build customer loyalty and boost sales.

If you’re ready to start building your own email list, keep reading for tips on how to get started.

Why You Need to Grow your email list?

As I said before, you should not stop working on your email lists. This is because even if your email list contains hundreds of thousands of names it will naturally decline over time. This could happen from people switching to your email list, losing interest, unsubscribing or opting out of your product.

You won’t see much return on your marketing strategy if you continue to send to disengaged, out-of-date email subscribers. This is why it’s important to collect email addresses as often as possible so that your list stays fresh.

This also has a positive effect on your email analytics so that you can see how effective your email marketing strategy works. You’ll notice a higher rate of engagement, clicks and opens if you get rid of the old subscribers and customers who haven’t opened your email in years.

How to Build an Email List for Small Businesses

There are many ways to grow an email list. However, the best and most effective way to do this for a small business is through your most popular channels. These include blogs, websites, and social media. Below, we’ll cover each one of these ten with some actionable tips.

Here are 10 ways to grow and maintain your email list:

1. Email List Cleaning

First of all, it may seem counterintuitive to do a spring clean on your email list if you want to grow your list. Let’s not forget to mention that clearing out old email addresses and people who don’t want to hear from us opens up the possibility of your email list containing excited customers.

This will positively impact things such as open rate, clicks, and conversion rate. It also allows you to invite your active subscribers to join the effort to grow your list. Here are some suggestions:

  • Add share buttons to your newsletter, so that your readers can forward your email to a friend. Add calls to action such as “Know someone who might like our content?” Invite them to sign up!
  • To keep your audience engaged and share content that is relevant to their interests, segment your list by audiences.

2. Get New Subscribers with Engaging Content

After you have cleaned up your email list, you can start thinking about what you can offer people that will provide them with tons of value – enough to make them gladly give their email addresses.

This is giveaway content is called a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a great way to achieve this in content marketing. It’s a free download, ebook, webinar or course. Clicking on your must-have lead magnet will take them to a landing page, where they’ll need to trade their email to gain access to your content.

You can also create an interactive tool online that the user will need to submit their email address to.

3. Use Facebook to Grow Your Email Subscriber List

There are many ways Facebook Business Pages can put your email newsletter front-and-center for potential subscribers.

You can add a button at the top of your business page – including the Sign up button – to your profile. This allows users to go to a landing page or website to sign up for your newsletter.

Optimizing your profile and possibly your profile cover photo with information about the newsletter will allow you to grow your email subscribers right from Facebook.

4. Add a CTA on Your Blog to Subscribe

These pieces of content could be an additional reason to have people sign up for your email list if you have a website or are able to create one.

Your blog should have calls to action to sign up for new content as soon as it is available. A call to action (CTA) is a request made to the audience to take some specific action, often involving leaving a website or buying a product. CTAs are usually phrased as imperatives, such as “buy now,” “sign up for our newsletter,” or “download this report.”

By prompting readers to take an action, you can increase your chances of getting them to do what you want. This will give your readers an incentive to interact with you and return for more.

5. Use Youtube to Grow your Email Subscribers

Video content? It’s easy to add calls-to-action to your Youtube channel. This will encourage people to sign up to your email list.

Your Youtube banner can have up to five CTAs. Each CTA points to different links that will allow your followers to find your videos on other platforms.

Click the “Customize channel button” and go to “Basic Info”. Here you can add the URL of your landing page or site address so that subscribers can sign up for your mailing list.

You can add similar CTAs to cards at the end your Youtube videos with a clickable URL to the same landing page. You can even add clickable hyperlinks in your video descriptions!

6. Use Pinterest to Promote Your Content

Pinterest is a great place for engaging content and lead magnets to grow your email lists. Clicking on your lead magnet pin brings the viewer to the landing page. You can Pin these organically and/or create Pinterest ads from them.

7. Use Instagram to Drive signups to Your Email List

Your Instagram Bio link is a great spot to CTA your email list. Instagram Stories links can also be used to link your email address. To be taken to the landing page, curious viewers can swipe up from within the app. This feature is available to anyone, regardless of whether you are verified or have 10,000 followers. It was made available to everyone on October 27, 2021.

8. Add Opt-ins to Key Points of Your Website

Consider adding an opt-in form to your newsletter to your website. You could use sidebar widgets or in-line CTAs at the top and bottom of your website.

Your email list will grow faster if it is easy to sign up and access your email list from the most visited areas of your website.

9. Partner Marketing to Reach New Audiences

Partner marketing is a great way to quickly get your email marketing in front people with similar interests. You can trade guest posting opportunities, speaker profiles, and email features if you have strong connections with brands that appeal to your target audience.

In your bio, speaker notes, or post, make sure you link your email newsletter.

10. To Incentivize Signups Use a Contest, Promotion or Giveaway

Hosting a giveaway, promotion or contest on social media is my final tip to grow your email list. You can enter this contest by providing your email address.

A chance to win a prize or a discount makes subscribers more likely to give their email addresses without much fuss. A little promotion can go a long way in generating new email addresses. Your contest can be run on any of your social media channels.

Conclusion on How to Create an Email List for Small Businesses

Email list building is an important part of any small business marketing strategy. In order to create a successful email list, you need to first understand your target audience and what type of content they are most likely to respond to.

Once you have that information, you can begin creating content that will appeal to your target market and encourage them to sign up for your email list. You can also use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic back to your website and increase sign-ups for your email list.

Finally, make sure you provide incentives for people who subscribe to your email list, such as discounts or exclusive access to new products or services. By following these tips, you can create an effective email list that helps promote your small business online.

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About the Author: Brian Morten

I am a business mentor and the founder of Vivo Mentor. Vivo Mentor was started to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. My focus is on sharing strategic planning, marketing, sales and management strategies. It's my job to help you find the best strategies for your company so that it can flourish and reach its full potential!

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