Your email list … you know how important it can be for your online business.
It does not matter if you are just establishing contacts with your prospects or trying to sell them your products and services, you are going to need that email list. It is definitely the most personal, effective and targeted form of online communication.
When you’re building an email list, you have to take care of many important things. It can easily go wrong if you are not paying enough attention. This post, therefore, is to give you a comprehensive overview to your entire email list building process.
Below you will find 6 simple questions that you’ll have to ask yourself. Consider this post as a checklist. Whenever you are building a new email list, take care of all the following things mentioned here. It will make the entire process really simple and straightforward for you.
1. Is Your Subscription Form Compelling and Interesting?
On the internet, it is always about grabbing attention with short, powerful headlines. The same rule applies for your email list’s subscription form.
Ask yourself: is your subscription form compelling and interesting?
First of all, make sure that it is located at the right place (more on it later). Secondly, the headline – which can also be known as the ‘Call to Action’ – should be easily viewable and readable.
Last, but not the least, the call to action must be interesting and compelling for your readers. Check out best practices of subscription form design.
2. Is There a Solid Incentive?
This is the reason why so many bloggers, internet marketers and online entrepreneurs offer free products to their subscribers. Without giving your prospects a solid incentive, it can be very hard to build an email list.
Ask yourself: is there a solid incentive for your prospects to fill that subscription form?
There should be one.
A free 50-page e-book is often the most common giveaway product. Similarly, if you have a digital product, you can offer a free trial period for your subscribers. It can be a very effective solution to your email list building problem. Always remember that it’s free will, the right to say “no” to your newsletters, that distinguishes email marketing from spam. Here is a little bit more on the difference between earning emails and email scraping.
3. Where is Your Subscription Form?
There are various “hotspots” that grab the most attention. You’ll have to find those hotspots by rigorous testing.
However, until you test and find those spots, you have to select a reasonably good position to place your subscription form. Various studies and testing results indicate that there are three such places that you can effectively use:
- The top-right corner of the homepage – which is usually referred as the sidebar.
- At the end of each blog post – if you have a blog.
- In the header of your webpage. The following screenshot shows an example of it.
All these spots bring good results. But you can further improve your list building campaign by finding the sweet-spot that works best for your specific website.
So, ask yourself: where is your subscription form? Is it located at the right place?
4. Does Your Form Have Too Many Questions?
Well, it shouldn’t.
Your subscription form should be short and simple – as much as it could be. There is simply no need to ask tons of useless questions that only make it hard for your prospects to sign up. Reduce the barriers of entry and you’ll instantly see your email list growing faster than ever.
So ask yourself: does your form have too many questions?
If your answer is yes, revamp your subscription form now.
For a simple rule, there should be nothing more than two fields: your prospect’s name and her email address. It would be even better if the e-mail address is all you want. One line, and that’s it.
5. Can Your Subscription Form be found on Every Webpage?
It can easily be the decisive factor for you.
Ask yourself: can your subscription form be found on every webpage?
This is very important because it isn’t always your homepage that brings you subscribers. You can get them from anywhere. Therefore, it is only logical to place your subscription form on every webpage, making it accessible from every corner of your website.
Give your prospects a chance to easily connect with you. One of the best ways for that is to place your sign-up form on every webpage.
6. Do You Have a Separate Squeeze Page?
It is by far the most common mistake that most email marketers make.
When they place their subscription form on every webpage, they don’t find it necessary to create a separate landing page. This is where they could lose many potential subscribers.
Ask yourself: do you have a separate squeeze page for email list building?
You should.
Furthermore, you would also have a free product for your subscribers. It is, therefore, important for you to promote that product by using a separate webpage. It conveys the real value that your subscribers will receive, making them more interested in filling that subscription form.
In Conclusion
You can always tweak these things, based on your personal preference and style of online business. However, these 6 points almost always work for quality email list building.
Whenever you’re trying to build an email list, make sure to check these 6 points – as a checklist – to see where you stand in the list building process.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
I am just an email marketer.
Photo by opportplanet