17 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List

Learning how to grow your email list is one of the best things you can do for your business. 

According to the Data & Marketing Association, 99% of consumers check their email daily. Similarly, Content Marketing Institute’s research shows that 40% of marketers consider email marketing vital to their content marketing success. 

The above statistics are a good indicator of why growing an email list is important for your business. 

How do you grow your email list? 

In this guide, we’ll share email marketing tips to help you generate more subscribers.

Here’s you’ll learn:

• What to do before you start growing your email list
• How to use your website to encourage visitors to sign up
• How to get more subscribers from your social media profiles
• Different ways to grow your list using offline methods

What To Do Before You Start Growing Your Email List

Before you start growing your email list, there is one thing you must do: create an interesting and engaging incentive. 

According to a McKinsey analysis, we spend 28% of the workweek reading and answering emails. 

That’s a lot to go through. 

The last thing anyone wants is more emails without a good reason. 

An exciting lead magnet provides value and encourages visitors to join your email list. 

Some email list incentive ideas include:

• A simple discount code
• A fun quiz
• An email course
• An e-book

A free incentive is more likely to help you get subscribers than just inviting them to sign-up for a newsletter. 

Once you have a great incentive, you can implement these 17 creative tactics to grow your email list. 

Use Your Website To Grow Your Email List

Your website should be more than a page that talks about your company.

Here are a few amazing ideas on how to grow your business email list through your website:

1. Include Sign-Up Forms Throughout Your Website

You should first add an email sign-up form on your homepage. However, your website visitors may arrive at other pages first, like a blog post, your services page, or the about page. 

Consider all the places where it makes sense to add sign-up forms throughout your website. Then, make it easy for anyone who decides to subscribe. 

2. Add a Call-to-Action in Every Blog Post

If you have a business blog, include a call-to-action (CTA) in every blog post you publish. The CTA should lead your visitors to a landing page where they can sign-up for your email list. 

You can also include a sign-up form in your blog post and a preview of your lead magnet.

3. Use an Announcement Bar to Promote a Lead Magnet

An announcement bar at the top of your website is great for promoting your lead magnet. Since it sits at the top of every page, it’s immediately visible wherever someone lands on your website. 

For example, your announcement bar should link to your email list sign-up form or lead magnet landing page. 

4. Ask for email addresses at the point of sale 

A Jupiter Research study shows that in-store and face-to-face events rank second in effective techniques for e-mail acquisition. 

Get the most from your efforts by training staff to ask for information from every customer and explaining what’s in it for them.

5. Offer Different Incentive Types To Segment Your List

Your website visitors won’t all be interested in the same thing. Nor will they be at the same stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Use different lead magnets to segment your email list based on your subscribers’ interests or buying potential.  

Segmenting your list helps you: 

• Grow your list faster
• Send targeted email campaigns, improving your open rates, click-through rates, and overall conversion rates

6. Offer Exclusive Discounts During Holiday Sales

For many businesses, holiday offers are their biggest revenue generators. But beyond that, holiday sales can also help you gain a lot of email subscribers. 

Here are a few crucial tips on how to grow your email list during holiday sales: 

• Offer an exclusive coupon code for visitors who join your list
• Make a super-secret product just for visitors who sign-up for your email list
• Promise exclusive sales through your newsletter
• Give subscribers access to sale items before the general public

7. Offer a promotional price with the purchase

Either ask for contact information at the register (or on your shopping cart checkout page) and hand over the incentive immediately or ask for an e-mail address to send a discount code on the next purchase.

8. Make every contact point an opportunity 

Every customer service call, every request for a brochure or catalog, every follow-up call, and every price quote inquiry is a golden opportunity to add another person to your campaign list.

9. Publish industry research 

Provide downloadable e-books, product catalogs, and owner’s manuals in PDF form to potential customers; becoming a thought leader in your area makes you the go-to resource for information. Require e-mail information to download the information.

How To Grow Your Business Email List Using Social Media

Your social media profiles are excellent places to promote your email list and encourage your followers to sign-up. 

10. Promote Your Landing Page With a Link in Your Instagram Bio

You can also add a link to your website in your Instagram bio. But, instead of linking to your homepage, link to your lead magnet’s landing page — complete with an email sign-up form. 

Make it easy for your followers to click through and join your email list. 

Promote your lead magnet at least once a week on your Instagram feed and Instagram Stories. If you have the swipe-up feature on Instagram Stories, you can use it to link to that landing page, as well. 

11. Add a Call-to-Action to Your Facebook Page

Consider taking advantage of Facebook’s business tools when determining how to grow your email list. For example, add a call-to-action button on your page, which sends your Facebook audience to a landing page for them to sign up for your email list. 

Some tools will help you add an email sign-up form directly to your Facebook page. Some email marketing providers offer this feature natively, while others can be integrated through a third-party app like Wishpond or ShortStack.

Here are some other tips on how to grow your email list through Facebook:

• Promote your lead magnet in Facebook groups
• Go live and mention your lead magnet
• Share your latest newsletter campaign and invite people to sign-up

12. Include Share Buttons on Thank You Pages

After someone signs up for your mailing list, redirect them to a thank you page with social media share buttons. Then, invite your new subscribers to share the valuable lead magnet they’ve received with their friends. 

When they share information about your lead magnet, more people will learn about it, resulting in more sign-ups for your email list.

13. Run A Contest

Social media contests can boost your engagement rate and help you gain new followers. They can also help you in your quest to learn how to grow your business email list. There are various contests to consider, including sweepstakes, photo captions, and comment-to-win. 

Contests can work well on any social media platform. For a successful contest, offer a valuable prize related to your main product offering. In addition, encourage email sign-ups by providing up-to-date information about the contest in your newsletter. 

Email Marketing Tips For Growing Your List With Offline Methods

You can also find subscribers outside the digital space. 

Here’s how you can grow your email list with offline methods: 

14. Use A Sign-up Sheet

Use a sign-up sheet to grow your email list if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront. For example, you can ask customers to sign up during the checkout process and offer a discount if they do. 

In addition, several sheets placed throughout your store might encourage buyers to sign up while browsing.

15. Collect Email Addresses at Events

Networking events or trade shows can provide excellent opportunities to grow your email list. You can use a sign-up sheet just like you would in your store. Some email marketing software even comes with a mobile app, so you can use an iPad to collect email addresses from event attendees.

Virtual events provide a fantastic opportunity to ask participants to join your email list. As a speaker or sponsor, you can post links to a landing page where attendees can learn more about your business. This landing page should also include a sign-up form that offers a download related to your presentation.

16. Use word-of-mouth advertising

Customers share their finds with friends and family whenever they enjoy an exceptional sale. Remember, Infusion found that 62 percent of business owners claim that encouraging referrals and word of mouth is the best lead generation tool. 

How do you encourage your customers to spread the word? Make them happy! Offer regular sales, bulk discounts, fun contests, and exceptional customer service.

17. Encourage People to Text to Join Your List

Make it easy for your audience to join your list by offering a text-to-join option. Some email marketing providers like Constant Contact and Mailchimp offer integrations that make it easy to enable this feature. Here’s a quick example from the SimpleTexting service: 

With this option, you’ll set a keyword (like “JOIN”) that people can text to a five-digit shortcode. Then you simply promote the keyword, and people who send a text to the shortcode are automatically added to your list.

Your email list is vital to the success of your business. 

This guide has covered email marketing tips to help you grow your list using your social media accounts and website. We’ve also shared tips on how to grow your email list with offline methods. Combining these tactics can greatly help you increase your subscriber count and engagement.

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FAQs on Growing Your Email List