4 Steps to Growing a Thriving Email Subscriber List
When it comes to marketing, there are a lot of different channels to choose from. Social media is great for building brand awareness and engaging with customers, but it can be difficult to cut through the noise and get your message seen. Paid ads can be effective, but they can also be very expensive and may not always deliver the results you're looking for.
But of all the various types of marketing, nothing compares with the power of email. With email marketing, you have a direct line of communication to your audience, and you can tailor your message to their specific interests and needs.
In this blog, we'll explore the benefits of email marketing and explore the 4 steps to grow a thriving email subscriber list.
The Amazing Reach of Email
The estimated number of email users has reached more than 4.25 billion. (1) That’s more than half of the planet. Compare that to social media platforms like Facebook with 2.96 billion users (2) and TikTok with 1.60 billion users (3) and email leads by a longshot. It makes perfect sense because emailing is all about getting direct messages right to you. And that’s what most people want.
One study shows that 91% of consumers (or more) check their email at least once a day (4). You can go days without checking your social media, but can you go days without checking your email? Probably not. It’s where the important messages go for most of us. It’s the reason why you say “email me” when you want to make sure you get a message.
Email is a direct communication method more than a social platform. About 74% of Baby Boomers, 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millenials, and 60% of Gen Z think email is the most personal channel to receive communication from brands. (5) Email marketers believe it’s the number one way to reach most businesses, and maybe most people, too.
What Exactly is an Email List?
An email list is a collection of email addresses that a business or organization has compiled for the purpose of sending emails to their audience.
You can use email lists to send newsletters, promotional messages, or updates to subscribers. The people on an email list usually (and legally) opt in to receive emails from the sender by signing up through a website, filling out a form, or providing their email address in some other way. Email lists can be managed through email marketing platforms such as ConvertKit, MailChimp, Flodesk, MailerLite or another software that allows the sender to send bulk emails to the list.
Think about the last time you signed up for an email list on a website. It may have been on a shopping site to get 20% off on your order, or to receive newsletters from your favorite health blogger, or from your yoga studio or doctor’s office. These are examples of email lists.
Why You Should Build and Grow an Email List
1. You Own It
The number one reason you should build an email list is that you own the list. Unlike social media where your followers are tied to a platform, your email list is yours. Even if you have a large audience on a social media platform, those followers belong to the social media company (e.g. Meta, TikTok, etc.) If one day the owners of a social media platform decide to abruptly close their doors, the followers you have on those platforms go away with them.
Social media platforms are also notorious for changing policies quickly and this can impact what content is allowed on your platforms and who will see it. This is what makes growing a following solely on social media a risky endeavor.
With an e-mail list, though, you have control over the list, where it is stored, and what you do with it. Your list isn’t going to disappear one day unless you delete it. You can choose when to message your subscribers and what to include in an email. There is no algorithm that dictates which audience may see the information — emails are simply delivered to the addresses on the list according to your instructions.
This means that your communications reach the audience – your audience – that you’re hoping to reach. And if you’re saying something worthwhile, don’t you want the people in your audience to hear it?
2. Return on Investment
Another reason you should build an email list is the return on investment. Email marketing is still the number one way to reach your audience from a financial perspective, with an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent (6). This reason alone is what drives many to invest time and energy into building an email marketing strategy! And the key to any email marketing strategy starts with who is on your subscriber list and how they got there.
3. Organic Growth
This method also organically increases traffic to your websites which improves SEO over time. As we’ve mentioned in other articles, this only grows over time.
4 Steps to Build (or Grow) Your Email List
1. Create a Lead Magnet
It’s likely that you’ve been on a business’ website and after a couple seconds, a pop-up opens to invite you to join a mailing list or download a freebie. For those in the marketing space, the freebie that circulates on a website with the intention of drawing people onto an email list is called a lead magnet.
You don’t have to stick with just one either — you can add more lead magnets to address the different needs of your audience, or different segments of your audience as time goes by. But don’t get overwhelmed — just start with one.
Lead magnets are an effective way to add subscribers to your email list because from the start, they get something of value from you for free. It can be small, but it’s what attracts them into your audience. Great lead magnets should be worthwhile, but give easy wins. A 100-page book is probably not an easy win. It’s too overwhelming. Good examples include:
Checklists they can’t find anywhere else
Quizzes for a hard to figure out topic
Fillable workbooks
Meal plans
Action-oriented plans
More than 70% of people who leave your website never return (7). For proof, just take a look at your Google Analytics and check out the percentage of new vs. returning visitors. While this can feel like a scary fact, the benefit of the lead magnet is that you’ll gain some new audience members through the lead magnet on their first (and possibly) only visit to your website. And if their interest is piqued by one product or service offering — enough to sign up for it — you may have just found a customer for life.
2. Drive Traffic to Your Lead Magnet
This is a step that’s often missing when people talk about email marketing. In order for this to work, you have to generate traffic to your opt-in so that people sign up for your lead magnet.
Your lead magnet should be promoted automatically and across your website and pretty much anywhere and everywhere else, such as your social media platforms.
3. Create an Email Welcome Sequence
A welcome sequence is a series of emails sent to new subscribers who have just joined an email list. The purpose of a welcome sequence is to introduce the new subscriber to the brand or organization, provide them with useful information, and establish a relationship with them.
Typically, a welcome sequence consists of a series of 4 to 6 emails that are sent over a period of several days to a week after the subscriber has joined the list. Typically the welcome sequence is triggered by a person signing up from a lead magnet on your website.
Not only will a welcome sequence make a new subscriber feel valued and engaged with the brand and encourage them to remain on the email list but it can do so without any additional work from you — as long as you are using an email platform such as ConvertKit or Flodesk that automates the entire process for you.
Now you’re growing a potential customer or client relationship in a thoughtful, but time- conscious and efficient, way.
4. Continue Providing Your Audience With Free, Valuable, and Consistent Content
Being consistent is important for a business because it helps build trust and credibility with your customers and clients. Once you’ve gained an audience — even if it’s small — continue to share information on topics that matter to you and your business and that add value to the life of your audience members.
This will help your list thrive!
Growing an email list takes time and effort, but it may be one of the best things you do for your business.
Before you know it, you’ll be communicating regularly and building relationships with your audience, increasing sales and revenue, and gaining some new, loyal clients!
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