How do I get an email list for marketing?

Posted by Amos Fred on January 21st, 2020

The good ole emails are not going anywhere. Even in the 2020 decade, it seems. As far as the online marketing technique that offers the highest ROI is concerned, DMA reported that email marketing ROI averaged per spent in 2019. That’s more profitable than paid search and organic search combined.

Email marketing also helps small businesses to acquire new customers and retain existing ones--81% and 80% of SMBs, respectively (Emarsys, 2018). 

Also, there were about 3.9 billion email users across the globe in 2019, according to Statista. So, the potential to make a large chunk of your revenue and profits from a great email list await.

But it all starts with collecting targeted emails that will help you establish rapport, trust, and business with the people that own the addresses.

Here are some email list building methods that worked in 2019 and earlier:

• Using opt-in popups
• Newsletter subscription requests
• Providing highly relevant resources such as whitepapers, industry reports, and targeted case studies
• Requesting emails in exchange for accessing content upgrades

And here are ways to grow your email list in 2020 and beyond.

1.      Provide gated content

A powerful way to grow your email list in 2020 is to provide exclusive content that new visitors to your site will have to enter a valid email address to access.

Like in 2019, be sure your email service provider lets you verify new subscriber emails immediately they sign up. The readers should have to click a link emailed to that address to access the content—not before.

That way, they’ll give you their valid primary email address.

2.      Invite people to webinars

Webinars are a powerful way to build your email list in 2020.

Webinar subscribers have to voluntarily enter their active email address to receive an invitation and, later, a special link with details on how to access the webinar when it finally goes live.

When a section of subscribers does not watch the webinar, be sure to send them a follow-up email soonest possible with an option to watch the replay. That should help re-start your conversation.  

3.      Don’t buy spam email lists. Do this instead…

If you are in the U.S., buying email lists can lead you to a ,000 fine when you breach the CAN-Spam ACT of 2003.

If elsewhere such as operating in or targeting European clients, GDPR rules could crash your campaign and block your IP address.

Instead, use a credible data and analytics company that provides highly valuable assets to help profile your leads, create specialty lists, and clean them up to fit your target audience.

This personalized approach can help you avoid the spam-wreck-train which usually leads to annoyed prospects instead of curious potential customers.   

4.      Tell it like it is

Let your readers know you use email for all communications.

That way they are more likely to understand how important the email is in keeping the relationship.

The best part of this is the target reader is likely to enter their primary email address instead of giving you a generic address they use once in a blue moon.

Using emails for all communications also empowers you to keep the interactions going.

That way, when you have a promotion to run, you’ll have an easy time sending marketing emails to only the active emails. That ensures your promotion is opened and acted upon by the active subscribers.

What Next?

With these email marketing list building techniques for 2020, you can kickstart your journey to profitable email marketing. So, take action now and put the strategies to work. All of them are simple to implement, measure their impact, and you can start using them immediately.