How to Grow Your Email List

Copywriting / 06 Oct 2021

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? According to Hubspot, it’s checking your emails. 99% of email users open their inboxes every day, sometimes checking their inbox upwards of 20 times. Based on those figures, and the demand for our white label copywriting services in this area, email marketing is very much alive and kicking. No matter what you might have heard to the contrary on LinkedIn.

When done right, email marketing is extremely lucrative, with a high return on investment. So how do you ensure your clients’ emails attract, engage, and convert the right prospects into paying customers?

It’s all about your list.

Nurture that bad boy like you would a prized pumpkin. Plant the seed in a perfect location, water it every day with the nutrients it needs, look on proudly as it grows over time. Before you know it, it’ll be harvest time, with pumpkin pies all around.

Attract Subscribers by Creating Quality Content

First things first, quality over quantity every time. If you’re churning out rubbish nobody reads, you’re not going to see the results you want. Just a lot of disgruntled, soon to be, unsubscribers.

A great way to encourage subscribers to join your email list is by creating an exceptional quality lead magnet. Promoting it everywhere you are online, and more importantly, where your ideal subscribers are likely to be is the logical next step to success.

Lead magnets take many forms. They’re downloadable content like webinars, state of the industry reports, hacks and how-to guides, even templates, printables and checklists. The world is your proverbial oyster.

Lead magnets are all about offering instant relief to pressing pain points, so you need to act fast to leverage that pain and provide sweet relief. You need to convince your prospect that your downloadable content is of sufficient value to be worth exchanging for their email address.

The offer needs to be irresistible. On the flip side, your lead magnet must deliver on its promise. Otherwise, it’s a one-way ticket to unsubscribe.

Clean Up Your List Regularly

Data privacy is of the utmost importance in today’s digital environment. Since GDPR, it goes without saying that when working with clients who have pre-existing lists, it’s always wise to check where they got their subscribers.

Gone are the days when businesses could covertly add personal email addresses to their lists without asking permission. And for a good reason, too. No one wants to be spammed regularly by companies in which they have no interest. 

Making sure you’re crystal clear about your ideal subscribers and assessing whether your current readership fits that demographic is an intelligent play. As is ensuring your email marketing efforts focus on people who want to hear from you. 

Clean up an existing list by sending another opt-in message and removing those who don’t respond. In the short term, your list may reduce in size as disengaged, defunct email addresses, and unwilling participants are removed but don’t overthink it. 

Growing an engaged list is more than a numbers game. Your email deliverability will improve when your audience more actively connects with your content down the line.

Promote, Promote, Promote Your Email List

A fundamental piece in the email marketing puzzle is promotion.

You need to showcase what you offer and what potential subscribers are missing if they don’t act.

Social media promotion is a biggie. You can do it using multiple paid and organic methods:

1. Add subscriber page links to your business profiles on your social channels.
2. Mention your lead magnet and email list in comments, posts, and DMs.
3. Share snippets, giving a flavour of what’s on offer.
4. Offer high value freebies people can only gain access to if they’re on your email list.
5. Add social sharing buttons to your content. Get your subscribers to share the love and spread the word for you. Social proof sells – if someone recommends your content, people are 40% more likely to engage than if you asked them yourself.
6. Then, of course, there are paid ads targeting specific demographics and lookalike audiences to specifically grow your audience. 

Use Your Insights to Find Out What Your Subscribers Want

Your insights are there for a reason. Regular testing helps you to assess what’s hot and what’s not. A systematic review will tell you what subscribers respond to based on the number of opens, click-throughs, and actions.

Want Us to White Label Your Agency’s Copywriting?

Crafting the perfect lead magnet to attract, curate, and engage a specific audience takes time and skill, even for an experienced copywriter.

Please think of us as a natural extension of your team, ready, waiting, and at your disposal when you next need us.

Drop us a line today to talk about our truly terrific copywriting services.