20 Email List Building Tips

Continual attention to your email list building is required if you’re going to operate a successful online business.

Why? Well consider these findings from a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa which found:

• 72% of adults in the USA indicated a preference for companies to communicate with them via email
• 91% of these adults like to receive emails from companies that they do business with
• 69% of US adults have made purchases that were influenced by a company’s email

Those figures alone should give some indication about the value to your online business when you invest time and effort into email list building.

More Facts About The Value Of Your Email List

Here’s a few other facts to consider:

• When you have acquired a person’s email address you can be in constant contact with them to:
  • build a relationship with them
  • develop their trust and confidence in what you have to offer
  • promote your products and services to them
• It costs five times more to attract a new customer or client than to keep an existing one
• It is estimated that every email address you have on your list is potentially worth $1 per month in income

Email List Building Takes Time and Effort

You don’t have to be a genius to realise that people aren’t simply going to give you their email address just because you ask for it.

You need to give them something in return…..something of value to them. And you will have to work to get those email addresses.

The 20 list email list building techniques being provided here have been proven over time to increase the likelihood of getting visitors to your website to part with an email address.

Here Are The List Building Tips

(Note: Also check out my related blog article “About Lead Generation”)

Tip #1 – A giveaway ebook or free report

This is a very common technique for getting adding subscribers. In exchange for an email provide a short pdf report, or ebook that is relevant to your chosen niche. These obviously take time to prepare so perhaps think about getting access to and using PLR (Private Label Rights Content).

The above link takes you to a free membership sign up page, but you don’t have to sign up. Instead, take a look around to get an idea about the kind of content that is available to you, and then sign up if you like what you see.

Tip#2 – a free course

Similar to the previous tip, explain to subscribers that they will get access to a free course. This could involve a follow up series of say 5-7 emails, with each email being another instalment in their course.

Tip #3 – offer expiring

Add a sense of urgency to a free offer by explaining that your offer or giveaway won’t be available after a certain date, or time.

Tip #4 – sneak preview

If you are launching a product like a new ebook, or training program offer people a sneak preview if they sign up to your list.

Tip #5 – offer a discount

Related to Tip #4 if you are launching a new product offer a discount coupon if people subscribe to your list.

Tip #6 – offer ‘swipe material’

People love shortcuts so offer things like swipe files e.g. questions to help overcome writers block, or a list of attention grabbing headlines

Tip #7 – offer private label rights (PLR)

Tell subscribers that you will give them private label rights access to some of your articles or content. This means they can read, and use your content as they wish.

Tip #8 – offer republishing rights

This is an extension of Tip #7 where you are giving subscribers the licence to reprint or republish articles or content that you have given them access to. And, you may also provide the resources they need to be able to do this e.g. sales pages, email content etc.

Tip #9 – explain what’s in it for them

If you are providing training or ‘how to’ kind of content explain to subscribers exactly how your material is going to benefit them and solve their problems.

Tip #10 – explain their future problems

This is the reverse of Tip #9 – explain the difficulties your audience will potentially encounter if they don’t subscribe to your list.

Tip #11 – offer a prize

Entice people to subscribe by outlining a valuable prize you will be offering to a subscriber randomly selected each week (over the duration of your campaign).

Tip #12 – what’s coming next

Entice subscribers to your blog by outlining what future posts will be about and to sign up to ensure they don’t miss your valuable content.

Tip #13 – give access to your archived material

Offer new subscribers links to previous free stuff you’ve provided to existing subscribers. Simply create a web page with all the relevant download links and let them pick out what they want.

Tip #14 – create a free subscribers only section on your website

Basically set up a members area on your website so that you can provide content that only free subscribers will have access to.

Tip #15 – offer a time based incentive

Outline a special free offer that only the next 500 subscribers will receive. If they don’t subscribe they miss out on the bonus.

Tip #16 – tell your story

Develop an article where you’ll share what’s happened to you during your career, successes and failures. Make this exclusive content, add a bit of mystery to entice sign ups.

Tip #17 – what you’ve missed

Similar to Tip #13 – give potential subscriber an overview of past content which they will be able to access almost immediately when they subscribe.

Tip #18 – your unique content

Explain how/why your offering is unique and can’t be found anywhere else, so if they aren’t on your list then they are missing out.

Tip #19 – have an Q and A session

Explain that you have a regular Q and A email where you actively encourage subscribers to submit questions and then on a regular basis you provide answers to commonly asked questions.

Tip #20 – provide audio and/or video content

People don’t like to have to read all the time. Repurpose some of your ‘how to’ or information content into video and audio formats and provide exclusive access to this material to subscribers.

Email List Building Tips Sumary

Making the time for email list building is something all serious online entrepreneurs do.

The 20 tips I’ve provided here are really meant to be thought starters. There are many more strategies you could use to get more email addresses on to your list.

The key thing to remember though, and what the above strategies have in common is that in order to entice someone to give you their email address there needs to be an exchange of value.

Continually offering value to your subscribers and taking the time to build a relationship with them can pay off in the long run when you have list of subscribers that know, like and trust you.