Tips to grow your email list (a.k.a. your Fan Base)

A plethora of essentials are needed for a business of any size, and a good email list is one of them. Having the email addresses of your clients, subscribers, readers, and customers allows you additional flexibility to directly communicate with your audience. This is especially helpful during the trying times of social media outages (the unforgettable day of Oct. 4, 2021 – the day Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram servers were down for almost a full, very long day, and the misguided hope that your posts will refresh) or yet another platform algorithm update. 

If you start with an email database, YOU have more control. You can communicate with your general audience and send curated content and revenue-generating campaigns to a segmented group. With a good email marketing service, you can analyze and track engagement of the email campaign. TIP: this is very useful to help keep your email list healthy and your audience looking forward to hearing from you.

If you start from scratch and don’t have an email database? First, make sure to have a reliable email marketing service (such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Emma). There are many good options out there that should meet your strategy and budget.

And now, on to the Tips:

Options On Your Website

1. Make it easier to join your email newsletter with a call-to-action pop-up box.  
2. Add an email subscription button at the top of the home page, and maybe your footer, if it makes sense.
3. Create a downloadable informative guide/e-book/infographic enticing enough that your website visitors will offer their email address in return (and opt-in) to join your database.
4. Offer exclusive content upgrades to email subscribers on your Blog or Informative Resources page.
5. Offer a coupon/discount to new email subscribers on your home page.

Options On Your Social Media profiles and business pages

1. Add email subscription sign-up links in your profile bio.
2. Create a contest/giveaway and one of the entry requirements is to sign up for your newsletter.
3. Post snippets of your email newsletter and tell them about the exclusive content they are missing; stir up some FOMO.
4. On Instagram, use the stories swipe-up feature to lead them to your site (or create a landing page just for sign-ups)
5. Create a visual content draw on Pinterest that drives them to the content on your website. Have a call-to-action pop-up to invite them to subscribe.
6. If you have video content and have a YouTube channel, you can add Action Cards to your video and draw them to your website/landing page.

Options With Current Email Database

1. Include a call-to-action option to share with friends and family.
2. For those with an aging email database, consider a list cleanse and re-invite your database to opt-in; and in turn, those that do not opt-in should be archived.
   1. You’ll benefit with better data insights on an active audience. Data that can be used to gauge when and what your true audience engages with as well as give you the opportunity to bring in relevant revenue-generating partnerships.

Options To Increase Subscribers IRL (In-Person Events or Storefronts)

1. One easy way to quickly sign-up new subscribers to your email list is with a QR code that will take them to the designated landing page. Best to create a minimal landing page focused mainly on the visitor subscribing to your newsletter.
2. As previously mentioned, draw new subscribers in person with an activated coupon and exclusive offers/content for subscribing.
3. Should you sponsor an event, ask the event organizer about including a post-event email campaign to the attendees inviting them to join your e-newsletter.

Partnerships are a Thing of Beauty

1. Look for opportunities to form beneficial partnerships/allies and collaborate on projects that may interest your target audience. Projects may include webinars, social media “Live” interviews and conversations, and podcasts. Make sure to include call-to-action options.
2. Guest blogging: Reach out to allies and ask them to write a blog post for their audience with an invitation to join your database.
3. Collaborate on a promotional initiative, and market it on each other’s platforms and websites.

Some of these email database tips are standard and most have worked pretty well. As a turnkey media services publisher, GLM Custom can create and manage your email marketing strategy plans and ongoing projects. Our publishing professionals are industry veterans who have seen the industry evolutions and technological advances, adjusted to them, and continued to improve upon the publishing process. We have listened, learned, and had countless successes. Let GLM Custom advance you with your email marketing initiatives.

We plan to cover a variety of topics in this space. We hope you’ll come to learn a little bit more about us and how we can help you communicate with your audience to keep them engaged, informed, and returning for more. Reach out to us for a no-cost, no-obligation quote at 844-GLM-2456 or hello@glmcustom.com.