How to Build a List of Subscribers: A Complete Guide
If you have a list of subscribers to your website and a digital product like an eBook, then this is a perfect combination that you can use to generate vast amounts of sales. Many gurus describe mailing lists as the single most important tool available to webmasters and digital marketers and if you can build a relationship this way then you’ll have an almost guaranteed market for your products if they’re good.
The email marketing game is cutthroat. Even if you have a great product and excellent customer service, it’s still difficult to stand out from the crowd. But when you consider that according to Statista, nearly 77% of people prefer to receive promotional emails from brands they follow rather than advertisements via social media or other online channels, it makes things even more challenging.
Add that to the fact that businesses spend less on each medium but invest more in digital advertising. You can see why it’s becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses to compete. But with the right strategy and the best tips, you can build a list of subscribers that will help your business grow.
Digital Product
If you have a website and a digital product, such as an eBook, you can use this combination to generate a lot of sales.
Digital marketers rely on mailing lists because they are the most effective tool for establishing relationships. If you can build a connection using this technique, your products will have an eager market if they are good.
Who is a subscriber?
A subscriber is someone who has signed up to receive your emails, whether that’s for updates about new product launches, newsletters, or other marketing materials. Subscribers can be broken down into three types:
- Promotional subscribers are customers who’ve signed up to receive offers and discounts from your company.
- Transactional subscribers are recipients of receipts, shipping updates, and other order-related emails.
- Editorial subscribers are people who have signed up for content such as tips, guides, and other written material.
Subscribers represent an opportunity to create brand loyalty and build trust, so it’s important to nurture relationships with those who have opted in to receive communications from you.
Welcome to the email marketing game
Email marketing is a great way to build customer relationships, increase engagement, and drive sales. But you can only do that if you have a list of subscribers to send emails to. Unfortunately, building a subscriber list from scratch is a long and sometimes difficult process.
But don’t worry.
With the right strategy and the best tips, you can build a list of subscribers that will help your business grow.
Creating a great product
Email marketing becomes easier when you have a product people want to purchase. If your product solves a problem, appeals to a large audience, or is a must-have item, the chances of sales are increased. However, even if you have a great product, you might not be able to build a list of subscribers because of two things:
A lack of trust in your brand:
If your website isn’t secure, isn’t optimized for mobile, or doesn’t have a legitimate SSL certificate, people won’t trust you.
A lack of incentives:
If you only sell one-off products, you will have difficulty convincing people to sign up for your list.
Fortunately, you can increase trust in the brand with a few simple tips:
Always use a trustworthy email address
If you’re sending emails from a free provider, it’s not uncommon for people to receive emails from an unknown or unexpected domain. The same goes for your website’s ‘from’ email address.
Use a legitimate SSL certificate
This tells people they’re on a secure website and that their information is protected. An easy way to do this is to use an email marketing provider that offers a free SSL certificate.
Update your terms and conditions
Your terms and conditions are important because they outline expectations, such as delivery times and returns policies. This is important because it can help you build trust with your customers and make them feel more comfortable engaging with your brand.
Build a responsive website
Your website is the first thing people will see, and it should be responsive. This means it will display correctly on all devices, which is important because one in three people use mobile devices to make purchases.
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you will lose sales and have difficulty convincing people to sign up for your list.
A responsive website also means that your forms are optimized for mobile, making it easier for people to sign up for your list. When it comes to building a responsive website, there are a few things you can do to make this process easier.
You can invest in a website builder designed for ease of use or hire a developer to design and build a responsive website for you.
Create an effective ad
If you want to build a list of subscribers quickly and easily, you can start by creating an ad on social media. Ads are one of the best ways to start building a list because they are targeted toward a specific audience, meaning they are more likely to click through.
Even if you start small with just one ad, you can always scale up once you have more subscribers. Test different ad copy, ad images, and ad types to see what works best for your brand.
How do you begin building a list of subscribers? Here are some simple steps to get you started.
Sign Up for an Autoresponder
MailChimp and Aweber are examples of autoresponder services that help you manage your subscribers and send out confirmation emails, among other things. These services will also allow you to create sign-up forms that look professional on your website.
When deciding which autoresponder is right for you, ensure that the service you choose offers the essential features to your business.
For example, you might want an autoresponder with email marketing software that integrates with your website. If you want to track the success of your marketing efforts, make sure that the autoresponder you choose offers detailed analytics.
You also want to make sure that the service offers the level of customer service that your business needs. An autoresponder is a critical piece of your marketing strategy, so you want to make sure that the service you choose offers 24/7 customer support.
Add a Form to Your Page
Sign Up Forms:
Sign-up forms can be placed in a variety of locations. You put them at the bottom of each article or in one of the side columns on your website.
They can also be placed on the landing page of your blog or website. Essentially, you want to put them in places where they have the highest probability of being filled out. Visitors might visit your website’s landing page, but they might not be in the buying mood when they get there. A sign-up form on that page allows visitors to opt in. Visitors visiting articles can also choose to sign up if they want to.
Landing Page:
Instead, you can create a landing page dedicated to driving conversions and signups and then use PPC campaigns, SEO, and social media to drive traffic to it.
Pop-ups:
Because of their popularity, pop-ups are also trendy now. Having readers remain on the page for a certain amount of time triggers these windows to appear over the content. They have been shown to boost sign-ups dramatically. However, please ensure you do not annoy your readers and send them away.
Build a newsletter with email marketing software
You’re doing it wrong if you manually build a list of subscribers.
This isn’t the 90s.
You have no excuse for not using email marketing software. When you create a newsletter, you may manually add subscribers or import them from your website.
You can also segment your list, allowing you to send emails to specific groups as needed. If you’re starting with a small budget, try using Mailchimp. It’s one of the most popular email marketing tools and incredibly easy to use. You can also try Aweber and ConvertKit, though they are more expensive and geared towards intermediate to advanced users.
Ask for an email during the onboarding process
You can also ask people to sign up for your list during onboarding. If you are using a CRM, you can prompt customers to sign up to your list when they are ready to purchase their first product or if they are ready to start a free trial.
This is a good idea if you want to build a list quickly and easily, but only if you are 100% certain that you wish those customers were on your email list. If you are unsure if you want a customer to be on your list, you can always ask them to sign up for your Newsletter. This way, you are not committing to action but still getting their information.
Use an Incentive
Another great way to build a list of subscribers is to offer something free, such as a guide, e-book, or other written content that solves a problem or helps customers.
Setting up an email list can be a make-or-break deal, and whether or not people sign up is heavily impacted by the incentives you set up. Visitors love getting things for free and giving away a free eBook or chapter is a great strategy to incentivize them to buy the whole book later on. Incentives like this are a fairer exchange than simply getting people’s contact information for free.
For example, let’s say you’re a web designer. You can offer a free guide on how to write better content for your website. But instead of just sending a PDF link out via email, you can embed a live editor so readers can change the sample content to whatever they want.
Tip:
When creating a free incentive, make sure it’s something that your ideal customers would be interested in and that it’s something you can deliver to them. You don’t want to make your customers feel like they are being taken advantage of, and you don’t want to give away something that you can’t afford – it’s not good for your brand.
Talk About Your Mailing List
Creating a mailing list is a great strategy for bloggers to promote their services. If you set up a form, don’t forget about it. View it as an important aspect of your business and explain why people should sign up and what interesting content they would get if they did.
Tip:
The best way to get people to sign up is to offer something they can’t get anywhere else. The more personalized your content, the more people will be interested in signing up.
Make sure you have a clear message and keep your readers in mind as you create content. The more interesting and helpful your blog posts are, the more likely people will sign up for your mailing list.
Send exclusive emails
Building a list of subscribers isn’t just about gaining the initial sign-up; it’s about maintaining that relationship. One of the best ways to do that is to send exclusive emails to your lists, such as
- product updates
- design insights, or
- helpful tips and tricks.
This shows customers that you care about what they want and are willing to give back. When it comes to sending emails, there are two things to consider:
Always follow your email marketing best practices:
This means always using a double opt-in process to make sure you’re only sending emails to people who want to receive them.
Schedule your emails:
The last thing you want to do is send a bunch of emails in one day. Doing so will result in your emails being marked as spam in people’s inboxes.
Plan your emails to build subscriber engagement
When you have a new blog post or product, you can use email to announce it to your subscribers. This is a great way to keep subscribers engaged with your content.
You can also use email to let subscribers know about new offerings and deals, sweepstakes, or other useful information that they might find useful. It’s important to consider your reader’s perspectives and keep them in mind when you’re writing emails.
Ask yourself, “What do my readers want to happen after reading this email?”
When you can answer that question, you’re well on your way to creating helpful, useful, and engaging emails that your readers will want to read.
Add new subscribers to a Google Doc spreadsheet
Start a conversation with a fresh set of eyes, and add them to a Google Doc. This can be done by creating a template and adding the information that you want to be filled out in each column.
After the new subscriber has been added to the document, send them a quick message that you have added them to the spreadsheet and that you look forward to collaborating with them. This is a great way to give your subscribers a quick thanks for signing up and a way for you to start a conversation quickly.
Final Words
It is important to remember that building a list of subscribers is a long-term process. Don’t give up after the first month. It can take time to bring people on board and convince them to part with their email addresses, so be patient. In addition, you’ll need to have a plan to keep that list growing. Every time you send an email, make sure to include a call-to-action that encourages people to sign up.
When you have a list of subscribers, you can build your relationship with them. These relationships could lead to sales or other business opportunities down the road. The more subscribers you have, the better, and the sooner you’ll see the benefits in your business.