How to build an email marketing list from scratch for your small business
Having a website and posting on social media are great ways to attract customers to your small business. However, many businesses overlook the importance and effectiveness of email marketing.
On social media and in search engines, algorithms control who sees your content. In contrast, your email list belongs to you and gives you a direct line of communication with potential customers and existing customers, making it an extremely valuable marketing tool.
If you currently have nobody in your email list, it can be challenging to know where to start with email marketing. In this blog, we’ll show you how to build an email marketing list from scratch and create a valuable marketing tool that will help you grow your business.
Why is email marketing important for small businesses?
Email marketing isn’t just for large companies with thousands of contacts. It takes a huge amount of effort to get your business in front of potential customers so keeping them engaged once you’ve enticed them in is highly valuable.
Email marketing enables you to:
Stay in touch with potential customers
Build trust and credibility
Promote new products and services
Encourage repeat purchases
Drive traffic to your website
Generate enquiries and sales
It doesn’t matter whether you have 50 or 1000 contacts in your database, even a small list of engaged subscribers can provide great results for your business.
Start with the right email marketing platform
Before you start collecting email addresses, you’ll need to choose an email platform that will allow you to manage your subscribers and send emails.
Popular email marketing platforms include:
These are just a few of the platforms available and each vary in cost so research the platform that will provide you with the elements you need.
When choosing a platform look for features such as:
Signup forms
Email automation
Contact management
Reporting and analytics
GDPR compliance
Setting up your email marketing platform properly from the start will set you up for success and save time later.
Give people a reason to subscribe
Most people need a reason to share their email address with your business. So, when asking for subscribers on your website, think beyond just asking them to ‘subscribe to our newsletter’,
The following are examples of the value you can offer, depending on your business and what you do.
Service business:
Free marketing checklist
A helpful guide to your industry
Industry tips
Monthly advice
Ecommerce business:
10% off first order
Early access to new products
Exclusive offers
Product care guides
Local business:
Special promotions
Local event updates
VIP customer offers
The more inviting or relevant your offer is for your audience, the faster your email list will grow.
Add email signup forms to multiple pages on your website
Make it as easy as possible for visitors to subscribe when they visit your website. Add signup forms to your home page, blog posts, contact page and your website footer.
Making the signup process as quick and easy as possible will ensure more people enter their details.
Promote your email list on social media
Social media isa great place to promote your email list.Share useful content on your channels and encourage them to join your email list to gain access to further insights, resources or offers.
Create helpful content
Content marketing can help you build your email list. Publishing useful content that solves problems helps to build trust with your business and helps potential customers to see you as a trustworthy source of information.
Publish content such as:
How-to guides
Checklists
Industry insights
FAQs
Case studies
Video tutorials
Blog posts provide you with a great way to attract more customers to your website and to your email list.
Create a lead magnet
A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for someone’s email address. This should be a useful piece of content that provides value to anyone who signs up and enables you to continue communicating with them in the future.
Lead magnets include:
Cost calculators
Buyer’s guides
Free templates
Product care guides
Gift guides
Avoid buying email lists
When building your email list, it can be tempting to speed the process up by buying a list. However, purchased lists are completely cold contacts so can result in poor engagement and high unsubscribe rates.
Building an email list organically can take longer but it will provide much better results and a more engaged audience.
Start building your email marketing list
Building an email marketing list from scratch is a great investment for your business. It’s a great way to stay in touch with potential and current customers and build a loyal base of customers who will buy from you again and again.
It can feel slow to build an email list organically but everyone who subscribes is someone who has expressed an interest in your business. Over time, these subscribers could eventually become enquiries, customers and loyal advocates of your business.
Need help with email marketing?
At Rent a Marketer, we help small businesses create effective email marketing strategies and set up automated email campaigns that help to generate leads and sales.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to improve your existing email marketing, we can help you create campaigns that grow your business.
Get in touch or book a call today to find out how we can help.
