Achieving high email deliverability rates is the email marketer’s dream. Email marketing still remains one of the most powerful forms of communication, which is why growing an organic email list is so important for your business.
Email marketing is an important part of any marketing strategy, but it’s a complete waste of time if your campaigns don’t even reach your subscriber’s inbox.
Purchasing and borrowing email lists is a thing of the past. So, how do you go about building your email list organically?
It can take a lot of hard work to build your email list to a significant level – but despite all your hard work, unsubscribes will still happen, and your email list will dwindle.
But don’t worry. It’s normal, and it happens to everyone.
Your ex-subscribers may have felt like they were getting too many emails, or perhaps the content wasn’t relevant to them. Your campaigns could have even been going straight into their spam folder.
It’s not all bad, though. Unsubscribes mean that you'll have a clean email list, and you can feel more confident that your data is healthy.
Now you’re left with a list of subscribers who genuinely want to receive your content. So, how do you make sure that those guys don’t jump ship, too? Keep reading to find out.
Why is building an organic email list important?
An organically grown email list is the key to getting higher deliverability rates.
As a marketer, you need to entice more people to sign up to your email communications. Better emails will result in higher open and click-through rates.
So, here are 7 easy tips to help you build an engaged email list.
1. Create great content
If you want your contacts to remain subscribed, it goes without saying that your email content needs to be impressive.
With content at the core of your email marketing strategy, you can build trust with your audience, improve conversions, and connect with your audience, all while growing your database.
The modern consumer expects consistent and relevant content from the brands they love. If your content is interesting and entertaining, it will keep your subscribers coming back for more.
2. Offer an incentive
The average subscriber won’t give their email address away just because. People like to feel that they’re getting something out of it, too.
The solution? Give them an offer they can’t refuse. Everyone likes a freebie or a discount. Alongside your signup form, offer free delivery or 10% off to thank them for giving their email address.
3. Run an online competition
Who doesn’t love a good giveaway?
Similar to offering an incentive, running a giveaway can grow your brand recognition, as well as your organic email list. Enter your subscribers into a prize draw in return for their email address.
On top of increasing your email signups, for each person who enters the content, you’ll be able to collect some valuable information, such as their age, location, and other demographic data. You can then use this to deliver highly-targeted email campaigns. The more context, the better.
Remember - it's important that your competition is GDPR-compliant. Under the GDPR, you can't use competition signups for marketing purposes unless the opt-in is clear - it can't be assumed. For any contest, giveaway, or prize draw you run, always make sure to include an option for the user to give consent, such as a checkbox.
4. Use an email marketing platform
You’ll need to communicate with your new, organic email list, and using email marketing software is a great way to do this.
It will organise your organic email list for you, and you’ll be able to automate your email campaigns.
With a powerful email marketing tool, you don’t need to be a professional designer to create stand-out campaigns. Most of them provide visual email builders where you can simply drag and drop the different elements of your email – no HTML knowledge required.
5. Create a blog that readers can subscribe to
If you don’t already blog, you should! Blog posts are a great way to collect email addresses for your organic email list.
Tell your blog readers that they can keep up to date with your posts and lots more interesting content by signing up to your newsletter.
6. Use social media
Use social networks and ads to bring visitors to your website.
Social media is a great way to interact with potential customers. Encourage your social media followers to sign up to your newsletter, and discuss topics around what’s trending and use hashtags to gain more exposure.
You could also promote post links to gated content, so your followers would need to give their email address in order to access it.
7. Try winning back old contacts
Sending win-back campaigns to cancelled subscribers can be one of your most powerful sources of subscribers.
Make them want to come back. Create an engaging campaign and ask them to update their preferences if they still want to receive your content.
Start building your email list now
Creating exciting, relevant email campaigns for your subscribers is essential.
Your readers will expect consistent, personalised communications. Collecting data will help you to ensure you’re sending targeted campaigns to the right people who will, in turn, be more likely to remain loyal to your brand.
Make sure you’re following all of these practices with an easy-to-use email marketing platform. And If you want to find out more, you can contact us here.
