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5 Step Email List Building Refresher
The days of “email blasts” are in the rear-view mirror, and today’s modern marketers are aspiring to send highly targeted, personalized email campaigns that deliver relevant experiences to their subscribers.
Consumers expect to see the right message to the right person at the right time. This is the new age of email marketing.
However, to power those messages, marketers have come to realize they don’t just need a large email list–they also need a quality email list.
5 Steps to creating a quality email list
Having a massive email list means nothing if it’s filled with inactive subscribers, or worse, subscribers that find your content irrelevant and mark it as spam.
If this is the case, you’re likely to see massive declines in some of your most vital email benchmarks, along with a rise in the undesirable ones, including your unsubscribes, spam reports, and more.
The key is no longer building the biggest email list you can. Instead, you want to focus on building a healthy, powerful list that serves an audience that wants to hear from you. If you’re new to email marketing or are simply looking for a quick refresher on how to create your email list, here’s our simple five-step process.
1. Choose the right email marketing software.
Not all email software is created equally. While there are plenty of free email software options for those looking to save a few bucks, they don’t always provide the services that you need. For example, the average Gmail account only allows sending and receiving from a single address. That means a brand using this method has to create multiple accounts necessary to run their brand. Meanwhile, G-Suite allows brands to create custom email addresses and create more than one address so that multiple people/departments can have a brand email.
When looking for the best email marketing software for your brand, consider the following:
- What are you willing to spend?
- What features does your team require?
- How many users can use the software?
- Available integrations
2. Build a subscribe form.
Once you’ve got your email software up and running, it’s time to turn to your website and social media platforms to start encouraging subscriptions from your current audience. However, to do this, you need to have a subscription form designed and ready to use.
As a marketer, you know collecting relevant data is vital. However, when trying to build your email list, you don’t want to ask too much of your new subscribers. It’s better to keep things as simple as you can. Remember, these are individuals who happened to find your site in search of information, so you don’t want to scare them off.
Source: WordPress
3. Utilize double opt-ins.
Once you’ve started collecting emails from your new subscribers, you want to make sure you are building a list of people who genuinely want to be a part of it. The only way to do this is by using double opt-in. Many individuals sign up for an email list for a special incentive. Once they get it, they tune out or unsubscribe.
So, to ensure you are collecting the right names for your list, send a second opt-in email asking them to verify that they want to be on the list.
Source: Really Good Emails
4. Offer value to readers with every send.
Once you’ve started gaining subscribers, you must provide them with value consistently. They’ve come to you for something, so make sure you are addressing whatever it is you’ve told them you could help with.
This can be done through newsletters, blog sharing, sharing curated news, and so much more. Just make sure you are sending relevant information, or your list will start to check out.
5. Maintain a healthy list.
Finally, once you’ve started growing your list, you want to make sure you are maintaining a healthy list. A healthy email list is one that contains active subscribers that are interacting with your messages regularly. If you start to notice a decrease in activity, such as email opens and click-throughs, then it’s time to see who is still active and who isn’t. If someone hasn’t interacted with your brand in some time, then try to re-engage with them. If they still don’t respond, then it’s time to remove them from your list.
Source: Really Good Emails
Wrap up
We’ve written about how to grow your list like a superhero and tips for improving your email sign up forms, and now we’ve wrapped it all up in an ultimate guide. This new guide outlines the 2-step process for capturing email addresses and includes numerous tools you can use to build a large, quality email list that can help grow your business.
Get your hands on the Ultimate Guide to Email List Growth today and discover how you can combine quantity and quality to grow a productive email list for your business.
