Best ways to build your subscribers

The way you build your subscriber list is crucial to how successful your email campaigns will be. While it may seem good to have a large subscriber list, it won't help if your beautifully designed campaigns are being deleted, or worse, marked as spam! If you build your subscriber list the right way, you'll find that the time and creativity you pour into your campaigns will pay off.

This video is lesson 3 of the How-To series for Getting Started with Email Marketing.

Make sure everyone on your list wants to be there

This may seem like a strange place to start, but think about it, if you receive an email about a service or product you're not interested in, haven't heard of or haven't purchased in years, you're likely to just delete it or flag it as spam.

A sure-fire way to be certain someone wants to receive email campaigns from you is if they ask to be there. Make sure they're clearly agreeing to receive marketing emails from you.

• If you have a booth at an event, put out a signup sheet for people who are interested.
• If you have a store, put out contact request cards for people to fill out and return to you.
• On your website, add ways for people to sign up as email subscribers using a subscribe section and a contact us section. You could also add them manually, one at a time or import a spreadsheet.
  Note: You can’t send marketing emails to a list of email addresses you get from yourself (such as a list of clients), a friend, a Facebook group, or any other source unless they’ve checked a box agreeing to receive marketing emails from you.
• Ask people to sign up to your email list from customer referrals, social media and videos by having people come visit your site.

Check in with recent customers

• Send marketing emails to all customers who have agreed to be on your email list, or check in with them individually.
• If someone purchased a product from you recently, like in the last 30 days, you could follow up with them. After all, they know who you are, they've shown interest in your product or service, and a little reminder or incentive, like a coupon, might make a repeat customer.
• If it's been longer than a few months, people might not remember where they purchased their product or service and wonder why they are suddenly receiving emails from you.

Using these methods, your subscriber list will grow naturally and you'll have better results from your mailings. And you'll have built a great reputation for treating people's information with respect!

More info

• Once you have email subscribers, create and send marketing emails.