Updated on November 4, 2019
Marketing experts from all over the world swear by email marketing. For that matter, the communication channel has proven time and again that it delivers the highest of ROIs compared to most promotional methods.
But what’s also commonly understood, is the challenge one faces in building a healthy email list - fast.
Digging into hacks that successful businesses and influencers have been making use of, we curated a list of ways to grow your email list 10X faster. The best part being, you can get started with these hacks right away!
Hacks to grow your email list faster
1. Optimize your home page
Your home page is more likely to get more traffic and also experience the highest of bounce rates. This happens because of an inconsistency between the message used to draw traffic to your site and what the home page has to offer.
While you may have multiple value propositions to offer, it is important that you optimize your homepage to maintain a consistent message. This lets the visitor understand what you offer better, builds trust and encourages him to interact with your business - another email address, achieved!
2. Use 2-part blog posts
Every business out there has active blog that covers absolutely every topic that their audience could be interested in. Even though these blogs are able to grab some attention towards them, most readers leave without subscribing to newsletters.
There are primarily two reasons behind this behaviour - the fear of being spammed by the business with promotions later and simply forgetting to subscribe for more similar posts. That’s where 2-part blogs come handy.
Kim Roach used this very hack to get 694 subscribers from a single post! Her conversions from this one post went up to a whopping 15%. But of course, the part 1 of a post needs to be valuable and compelling enough to make the reader want to be notified of the second.
For example, Exit Bee published a 20 growth hacking tools for startup marketers first - with a promising result coming in, they published another to share some more nifty tools!
3. Implement on-site retargeting
Every marketer knows how effective retargeted advertising is when it comes to acquiring more customers and staying at the top of their minds. Then why not use the same logic on your website or blog visitors.
On-site retargeting is a popular method that blogs use to encourage some sort of action from their visitors. For instance, implementing an exit intent campaign as soon as a reader is about to leave from a blog page, gives you the opportunity to subtly remind the reader of the value your newsletter can offer. The tactic has helped sites grow their email list by over 2,500%!
Similarly, making use of a full pager overlay that looks like a part of the blog’s design, is also a great way to attract more subscribers. From Neil Patel to Melyssa Griffin, we sure have some influencer inspiration to use this tactic.
4. Make use of a content locker
If you have established a name in your industry for offering high value content to the target market, it is time to start making those pieces work towards growing your email list faster.
Content lockers are a great way to grow a healthy email list. In this tactic, you basically let the reader know of the value you’re going to provide, the insights or statistics that are unique to your research and would not be found on any other site.
We love how Melyssa beautifully uses this tactic to her advantage. There are thousands who subscribe to her courses, worksheets and blogs - trust me, I’m one of them!
5. Invest in content upgrades
While it might seem like a tedious task, investing in content upgrades is a great way to build your authority in an industry niche and also attract more subscribers - the ones who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
According to the case studies on Search Engine People, using call-to-actions at the end of blog posts and informative content pieces, increased conversions by more than 116%. It also ensured that those who subscribed were quality readers who would be interested in more such pieces in the future - after all, they did remain engaged till the end of the blog post!
Based on the blog a visitor is reading, you can recommend a content upgrade at the end of a post with a direct call-to-action.
Or you could offer them the same upgrade on exit intent that encourages them to download a copy before they leave.
6. Include it in your email signature
While it might seem a little weird to include a subscribe link in your email signature, Noah Kagan of SumoMe shared that he makes use of this tactic to grow his email list at the Digital Elite Camp conference.
A signature usually links the reader to your website, social media profiles and shares your contact details. Then why not add a link to something that would let him know more about your work and how you can add value to him?
Imagine a team of even 5 people sending out emails of an alternate day basis. As long as you’re offering value to the end consumer in your email, the chances of getting a subscription from even your cold messages increases by ten folds.
7. Make the most of author bylines
Blogging shouldn’t just be about creating great content. You need to focus on optimizing every aspect of it to drive your readers to conversions - that includes the author bylines as well.
Including lead boxes in the author byline lets the reader know immediately where he is supposed to subscribe for receiving similar content pieces from the writer - serving as a subtle push at the same time, this approach has been used by Web Profits on their blog for all posts:
8. Write more guest posts
The only way to get your content discovered and drive more traffic to your site, is to write more guest posts. Find out where your target audience is active the most and seek an opportunity to contribute one of your pieces on that channel - be it another blog, a community or an online group. It can serve as a great way to also promote your content upgrades to the right audience.
Neil Patel swears by this tactic and also mentions that writing for sites like Entrepreneur and Mashable, helps drive in more opt-ins on his own website.
Conclusion
A healthy email list is hard to grow. You need to consistently offer value to your target audience, gain their trust and then drive them towards making an interaction with your business, and sharing their contact details - even when they’re not directly making a purchase.
What other hacks have you used to grow your email list?
Author Bio: Vanhishikha is the Growth Marketer at Exit Bee. She is always looking for growth hacks to boost eCommerce and B2B conversions with the team, with a focus on customer engagement.At all other times, she can be found brainstorming on Twitter.