An email marketing campaign is a great way to reach out to potential customers and prospects. If you want to get started, you’ll need a list of email addresses. How do you collect them?
You’ve probably heard that email marketing lists are valuable assets. They allow you to send messages to targeted groups of people who might be interested in your products or services.
There are several ways to collect email addresses. The easiest way is to ask for them directly from your audience. For example, you can offer a freebie or discount to those who sign up for your email newsletter. Another option is to create a landing page where visitors can opt-in to receive emails from you.
Before we go into that, let me ask.
Should You Send Email Newsletters?
Do you use an email marketing service provider or an email marketing software as part of your email marketing efforts to grow your business?
If so, do you know how to collect email addresses for email marketing? Read on to find out.
Some time ago, I received an email. Though I didn’t recognise the sender, the subject caught my attention. It surprised me that the email escaped my overzealous antispam app and landed straight in my Inbox.
Against my better judgement, I opened it, albeit with my antivirus app on alert!
The content of the email addressed a pain point. I realised that it must have come from some kindhearted person who knows that I face that challenge.
The email content was convincing and had relevant calls to action. I thought a marketing expert crafted this message since they sent it through a well-known email marketing platform.
Since I did not subscribe to their mailing list through an opt-in form, the sender got my email address and added it to their mailing list without my permission!
It is spam. So right away, I hit the spam button. If it were in Europe, with their GDPR law in place, the sender could have been in big trouble if I had reported them.
If you are the sender and reading this post, pay attention. Let me teach you how to collect email addresses for email marketing.
Email newsletters have existed as a means of news sharing for individuals and organisations since the early days of the Internet.
If you want to keep your target audience abreast of the latest in your organisation, email newsletters are cost-effective.
However, before you send your email newsletters, there are some things you must put in place.
Privacy Policy
It is almost impossible to do business on the Internet without collecting personal information from people who visit your site or social media channels. Even when people contact you on the phone or chat, you still have access to their data.
There might be cookies on your site that collect information about your visitors’ website use. For example, the web pages they visit or if they experience any technical issues.
The information collected by your cookies on your site must be anonymous. It is only meant to help you improve your website experience, understand your site visitors’ interests, and measure marketing effectiveness.
Therefore, you need to have a privacy policy stating how you intend to handle the personal information that people share with you via your signup form.
Landing Page
If you collect email addresses online, have your subscription forms placed in strategic locations throughout your site and your social media channel.
Besides, it is advisable to have a dedicated landing page for people to subscribe to your newsletter or mailing list. Fortunately, your email service provider will have all these features included in their solutions. A dedicated landing page is a powerful tool to boost your conversion rate.
Unsubscribe Link
You must provide a means by which subscribers to your mailing list can unsubscribe. Fortunately, most email service providers (e.g. MailChimp, Constant Contact, VerticalResponse, etc.) have this feature incorporated into their solutions.
So please ensure that you respect their wish and desist from sending the person your email message. Place the unsubscribe link in a prominent location.
What Is an Email List?
When a business collects email addresses (with permission) from existing or potential customers, they are building an email list. Business owners need to work on growing an email list.
Subscribers to your email list are persons who have permitted you to market your product or service to them.
Some unscrupulous individuals and organisations offer to sell you an email list. Don’t waste your time or money. You don’t know what dubious means or the email marketing tool they used to gather the contact details on their list. The contact details might be fake and will harm your email deliverability.
My candid advice is to grow your email list from scratch. You are marketing to real people who have shown a genuine interest in your product or service.
How to Grow Your Email List
Here are seven superb ways to grow your email list depending on your type of business.
Create an E-book
Create a remarkable piece of content and offer it to your people for subscribing to your email list. An ebook improves lead generation. It boosts your brand credibility and builds brand loyalty with your target audience. It can also help to generate sales. But for your ebook to achieve all these things, you need to promote it at the right time and through the right channel.
Here are seven superb ways to collect email addresses for your marketing campaigns. Click To TweetCreate a Free Tool or Bonus Content
Various online tools promise to make your life easier in exchange for your email address. If you add these features to your website, you can collect email addresses from your site visitors.
For instance, when you publish a white paper, video tutorial or guide, you can give out the essential information for free in your post. Then create bonus content that contains further information and offer that bonus content to your reader in exchange for their email.
Create a Contest
Create contests and sweepstakes, whereby people give you their email to participate. Offer enticing prizes that will attract people to take part.
Collect Email in Your Shop/Store
When customers visit your shop, humbly ask them for their email addresses. Let them know you wish to inform them when you have new products or services that might interest them. Be cautious about using this method so it does not backfire.
Gather Contact Info at Trade Shows, Workshops, Seminars and Other Events
Do you take part in trade shows, workshops, or seminars? These are significant events for you to collect email addresses and offer subscribers your promotional items such as pens and key holders.
Collect Contact Info at Webinars
Online webinars are great ways to collect email addresses. Make sure the webinar topic is something that will attract your target audience. Invite other notable persons from related industries (not your direct competitors) as your co-hosts for the webinar.
Frequently Asked Questions
– How to Get Email Addresses from Customers
Grow your email list by asking customers you’re already speaking with on the phone. Offer them something for their email.
– How to Get Email Addresses for Email Marketing for Free
Use opt-in forms on your website. If you want to get addresses in person, attend or exhibit at a trade show or networking event and bring a newsletter email signup clipboard, book or iPad. Offer them something for their email.
– How to Collect Email Addresses from Facebook
One of the best ways I’ve discovered is to run ads and request email addresses from potential customers who fill out your contact form.
– How to Collect Email Addresses on a Website
Use opt-in forms in strategic locations on your website.
– How to Collect Emails Without a Website
There are several ways to build an email list without having a website. You can use a third-party landing page, your social media page, personal contacts on your phone or other devices, referrals from family and friends, guest blog posts on someone else’s website, podcast appearances/interviews, and publishing articles on Medium, answering questions Quora and posting slides to SlideShare. These are ways to collect email addresses.
– How to Get Local Email Addresses
Create a loyalty program and get in-store customers to sign up in exchange for discounts, etc.
– How to Get Bulk Email Addresses for Free
I never recommend clients to patronise any vendor that engages in shady ways of harvesting bulk email addresses for free. Please don’t do it.
Conclusion
These are seven ethical ways to collect email addresses for your marketing campaigns. If you have questions, contact our digital marketing agency in Nigeria or tweet me at @ademolaabimbola.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it. Please share it with your friends and colleagues.
Related Article(s)
- How to Make Your Email Marketing More Effective
- 13 Benefits of Email Marketing
- 5 Common Misconceptions About Email Marketing
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