Email is still a highly trusted and resourceful route for website owners to communicate with prospective readers and grow their business. Email marketing is challenging and has limitations, still it works most of the time. An email subscriber list includes people within your target audience who are already interested in your product or service. The biggest advantage being everyone on the list is almost ready to buy. All you need to do is develop rich email content through which you can create relationships.

In fact, it is much more important than social media ‘likes’ which score far less on engagement metrics; hence have no real meaning. It’s encouraging to notice that the conversion rate of an email marketing campaign is close to 4-5 percent, which is higher than social media conversions any day.

Why it works?

There is a solid reason behind all this. If you think about it, a subscriber has already shown a great amount of interest by sharing the email and is ready at your doorstep to buy. The subscriber is already active and ready to engage. That’s why growing your email subscriber list should be the number one priority. And that is what we are going to talk about today.

Important note: Email marketing only works when you don’t abuse your access to the subscribers. As a website owner you should never subject them to spam.

With that in mind, here are the five basic ways to grow your email list:

Make it easy for users

Let’s say you have good content. People like reading it. The engagement is also fairly decent. The only way to make them sign up is to keep the opt-ins button on your most visited pages. Anything that a user likes, right from specific ‘blog posts’ to the ‘about us’ section, you should immediately have an option to capture the email.

Once people click on an opt-in, they shouldn’t be asked too many questions to begin with. There is a strong urge to abandon the subscription requests if the website owner is looking for a lot of information. Getting them onboard is the first priority here. If needed add an ‘FAQ section’ after you’ve captured the email. The idea here is to make the process relatively simple and fuss free for a new user.

Note: Yes, pop-up’s and opt-in’s work every time. But, you need to test them multiple times before you go live.

So, what are you offering for sign-up?

Giving something for free always works. It could be a useful tool, a freebie, or something else. The idea is to give something resourceful that your readers are interested in. Create something that is not easily available over the internet. It then automatically becomes a lead magnet for your site.

Also, if you ask any experienced marketer, webinars are considered to be really effective. It’s a major drawing card for your email marketing list.

Don’t forget to be mobile friendly

Mobile phone accounts for more than 50% of all emails that get opened. These days, especially with the new smart phones which keep on getting bigger in sizes, these devices are becoming primary devices for content consumption. That’s where most of the users will check out your content as well. Naturally, this is something that you have to pay attention to.

Double check whether the sign-up forms and the pop-up boxes work on the mobile platform as well. Also, try offering information that is bit sized, yet effective. Grab your attention through small and compact headlines. In short, keep your content optimized for portable devices as well.

Put call to action’s everywhere

Social media is a powerful tool for getting new subscribers. There are different kind of messages that you could use on social media posts; like a survey or a poll. When you get an opportunity, immediately invite them to sign for newsletters, and other promotional incentives through well optimized call to actions. Similarly, the blog posts, videos or any form of content on your website that attracts readers, should be coupled with a subscription link and a strong and relevant call to action nearby.

These quirky call to action’s should be like a sauce that is sprinkled all across your website and social media channels. Keep them fun and purposeful. In fact, it’s a good practice to revisit all of your call to actions after every couple of months to check whether they are potent enough.

Conclusion

The number one rule to increase your email subscriber list is to pay attention to what you’re subscribers want and customize your offerings according to that. The more you understand your customers, there’s a better chance you’d be able to get their loyalty and boost your sign-ups.

It’s all about how much you invest in their needs. Once a reader feels at home, they’ll hand over their email address with a smile. Treat them with respect, like your closest friends, and trust me, they will treat you in the same way.