How to Build an Email List: A Guide for Authors and Small Businesses

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Email marketing is the most effective and profitable marketing strategy today. Period.

We’ve seen our own books become #1 bestsellers on Amazon in just three hours after we promoted them with nothing but one single email to our subscribers—no review requests, no social media, no blogging, no video trailers, no interviews, no word of mouth, nothing. The only people we told about the book were our email subscribers.

And we’re not the only ones—according to a Hubspot survey, 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions. But the really remarkable thing is that every dollar spent on email marketing generates a return of $38—that’s a 3,800% return on your investment!

That’s why email is the most powerful marketing strategy in the world right now, and why every author and small business owner should start building an email list. In this post, we’ll show you how to do it for free or at a very low cost.

How to Build an Email List

Below are 8 tips that will help you grow your email list and attract loyal subscribers, whether you’re an author or the owner of a small business.

1. Choose an autoresponder.

If you want to start building your email list like a pro, you’re going to need an autoresponder to reach out and interact with your growing list of readers.

There are two decent ones you can get for free: Launchrock and Mailchimp.

But if you have some room in your marketing budget, we’d recommend GetResponse or Aweber, because for as little as $15 per month, you’ll get better deliverability and customization options compared to the free autoresponders.

If you don’t know what an autoresponder is or how to use one, don’t worry! We’ve created a free training video series on email marketing. You can watch it below. No opt-in required!

2. Offer value.

The goal of most email lists is to convert your readers and followers into loyal customers. If you want to achieve that, you need to promise them value at every step of the process (and of course follow through on that promise).

And while asking for an email address might not seem like a very big request, it actually is. It’s an immediate link to direct contact with someone, just like a phone number or physical address—you don’t hand it out to just anyone.

So if you want readers to give you such precious information, you’d better promise something in exchange.

This could take several forms:

Content upgrades: Offer to email your reader a helpful resource, like a checklist, downloadable template, free ebook, or some other perk that’s relevant to the page they’re currently visiting.

Notifications: Let readers know that by signing up for your email list, they can get notified early about special sales, new posts, or other things they might want to know about.

Exclusive offers: Maybe your readers can get a 15% discount on your products or books by signing up, or access to special promotions.

Who doesn’t love having access to the “exclusive”? It makes us feel like VIPs, and enhances the perceived benefits of membership. Of course you want that members-only discount! Keep that feeling in mind as you entice readers to sign up for your email list.

You should always offer than something in exchange for their email, even if it’s just a promise to let them know next time there’s a sale or a new book out.

3. Create engaging pop-ups.

When it comes to opt-in forms, you have several options:

Embedded: The good old embedded form is probably the most traditional and also the least intrusive, which means it’s safe, but might not get you the most responses. Static embedded forms work best on high traffic pages in visible areas, like in headers, footers, sidebars, and splash pages.

Pop-up: Most pop-ups aren’t the huge nuisance they used to be. When placed strategically and timed appropriately, their average conversion rate is 3.09%. The important thing is that your pop-up doesn’t feel intrusive. You could time them to come up after a reader has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, or once they’ve scrolled a certain percentage down the page. (Base the appropriate time on the average time readers spend on your page.) Again, you’ll also want to make sure that the content is somehow relevant to what the reader is browsing.

If you use a pop-up, don’t make it too hard to navigate away. Yes, you really want users to sign up, but you should always keep their experience in mind. If your forms are too intrusive or hard to close, users will just remember that they’ve had a negative experience and probably avoid your site altogether.

Below is an example of an embedded opt-in form, which is found on the homepage of our website:

And here’s an example of an opt-in that pops up after you’ve spent some time on our homepage:

Learn more about how to create engaging landing pages and pop-ups using Mailchimp or Clickfunnels.

4. Inject some humor into your opt-ins.

You may have noticed that some opt-in forms make their “no thank you” opt-out text a little humorous or sarcastic, like “No thanks, I don’t want to lose weight,” or, “No thank you, I don’t need to save an extra $20.”

While you should definitely avoid snarkiness, users will likely appreciate a funny approach. They might even reconsider and actually opt in, or at the very least, they’ll remember they had a positive experience on your site and that you weren’t pushy.

5. Focus on increasing your site’s traffic.

Aside from the design of the opt-in forms, one of the best strategies you can use to build your email list is to work on increasing your site’s traffic, so that more people actually see those forms.

While there are all types of ways you can work on growing your traffic, the most effective is to create outstanding content that people want to read and share. Learn more about how to write a great blog post and do keyword research.

6. Promote your newsletter on social media and in your signature.

Even if you don’t have a long list of email subscribers, you might have a strong network on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms.

You can promote your email newsletter on your or your business’s accounts. The people who follow you there know they already like you, so why not give them the option to sign up for your newsletter?

Another option is to include a link in your email signature that takes recipients directly to your sign-up page, or perhaps to a blog post or landing page that features your opt-in form.

7. Monitor your list.

Even when it comes to building your email list, more isn’t always better. You want your list to be full of contacts who are engaged with your brand, as only these kinds of contacts will provide you with high conversion rates and produce strong results.

Email marketing databases naturally degrade by about 22.5% every year, mostly due to people changing their emails after joining your list. Delete any inactive subscriber on a regular basis (and even ones that rarely or never engage with your content).

Sending emails to inactive, invalid, or duplicate email addresses can increase your bounce rate and lower your deliverability rate.

8. Never buy email lists.

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find plenty of sites that claim they’ll sell you “quality” contacts that would be a great match for your business.

Not only are those contacts unlikely to be of quality, but the whole thing could just be a spam trap. And if those recipients reside in the EU, then you’re also violating the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), since you don’t have proof they signed up, which means you could face stiff penalties.

You don’t need to buy contacts to build a healthy email list. Just use the tips in this post so you can save your money and save yourself from these negative consequences.

What Is a Good Size Email List?

When it comes to your email list, size may not be the most important factor. Having thousands of subscribers is of course great, but the quality of your email list really matters more than the quantity of subscribers.

A few hundred subscribers who regularly engage with your emails and actually lead to conversions is better than a list of thousands who delete your emails before even opening them.

Better Email Strategies

Now you have some proven strategies for building your email list—but what about the actual emails?

If you want to keep your existing subscribers engaged and convert them into loyal customers, you need to make sure they actually open those emails and take action. Learn how to write email subject lines that ensure your message won’t be ignored.

Do you have any questions about email lists? Post them in the comments below and we’ll be happy to help!

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