Building a strong email marketing list is essential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to engage with their audience and drive business growth. The key is not just growing your list but ensuring that the contacts are relevant and genuinely interested in your products or services. But how can you build an effective email list to grow your SME’s audience? Here’s a simple guide to help you get started.
1. Make signing up easy and visible
Potential subscribers won’t join your list if they don’t know it exists or find it difficult to sign up. There are a few things that SMEs must do to simplify the sign up process for their customers. Firstly, add a sign-up form to your website. This is probably the easiest way to get sign ups, since the user is already on your website. Make it prominent and easy to navigate. Also, make the sign up from short and sweet. No one wants to spend more than a few seconds signing up to a mailing list You could also think about adding some pop-ups or slide-ins. These can help grab the users attention, just make sure it’s not too intrusive or frequent.
2. Offer an irresistible incentive
Nowadays people are less inclined to part with their personal data, especially their email where they can get bombarded non-stop. So ask yourself, why should people sign up to your mailing list? What’s in it for them? A valuable incentive like product discounts, coupon codes, free resources or exclusive content can help tip the scales in your favor.
3. Leverage your existing customers
Your current customers are your best advocates and advertisements. By encouraging current customers to join your list and refer others, you could see your subscribers boom. But how can you get loyal customers to sign up? If you have an ecommerce business or physical store, add an option to sign up at the end of the checkout process. You can even entice them with some offers we discussed in point two. To encourage referrals, set up a referral scheme. For example, give current customers a referral link. If any sign ups come from those referral links, offer the current customer a discount, coupon or freebie.
4. Use social media
Social media can be an absolute treasure trove for finding interested contacts. However, it all comes back to point two – offer them incentives or provide something of value in exchange for sign ups. Some of the most successful social media email building list campaigns are contests and giveaways. However, if you don’t want offer any incentives you can also use social media to build a community. Host live streaming events, share informative content, and provide valuable advice.
5. Collaborate with other businesses
Partner with complementary businesses to grow your email list. For example, if you’re a local florist you may want to partner with a local wedding venue. You could run a joint giveaway, host a webinar together or collaborate on guest posts. This way you can tap into both of your audiences. Just make sure you include a CTA in all joint activities so that users know where to sign up.
7. Keep it GDPR compliant
With all of these tactics, always make sure you are GDPR compliant. Always get explicit permission to email people and let them know what they’re signing up for. You must be transparent and always include an easy way to unsubscribe.
We hope you enjoyed learning how to build an effective email list to grow your SMEs audience. By following these steps and focusing on quality over quantity, you’ll create an email list full of engaged subscribers eager to hear from your SME. If you have any more questions about building email lists, get in touch with us. We’d love to help! Until next time – happy marketing!