{"id":276263,"date":"2015-03-27T01:12:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T14:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/pro-education\/7-tips-growing-email-list\/"},"modified":"2015-03-27T01:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T14:12:35","slug":"7-tips-growing-email-list","status":"publish","type":"au-pro-education","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/pro-education\/7-tips-growing-email-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven tips for growing your email list"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seven<\/p>\n

Did you know that due to closed email accounts, employees switching\u00a0companies and unqualified prospects opting out, your\u00a0email list can\u00a0decrease by about 22.5% every year<\/a>?<\/p>\n

That means if you have an email list of 500 subscribers and you’re not actively seeking\u00a0new opt-ins, your list could completely disappear within five years, leaving you with nobody to read your\u00a0killer email marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n

To ensure your list grows at a steady\u00a0pace to counteract ‘database decay’, follow these 7 tips for growing your email list:<\/p>\n\n

1. Landing pages and lead magnets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Create a landing page<\/a>\u00a0and lead magnet: tools designed to entice people to surrender their email in exchange for a\u00a0report, tips, look book, secrets and other valuable information pertaining to your products, services or industry. Include a link in your email signature that directs people to this landing page with your newsletter sign up form, and add\u00a0a call to action like,\u00a0“Sign up now to receive our free industry\u00a0report: Wedding Photography Gone Wrong”.\u00a0<\/em>You can also promote your lead magnet across social media with a link to the sign up form and\u00a0some shocking, compelling or entertaining teaser text introducing\u00a0the contents of the report.<\/p>\n

2. Facebook\u00a0button<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Add a newsletter signup button to your Facebook Page using Facebook’s Call-to-Action Button<\/a>. This tab can be customised to a title of your choosing and direct visitors to a specified URL, such as the newsletter sign up page or other landing page of your website.<\/p>\n\n

\"Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n\n

3. Social media giveaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Social media apps such as ShortStack<\/a>\u00a0can be used\u00a0to gate competition entry by\u00a0email address submission. In short, if somebody wants to enter your competition, they need to surrender their email and any other mandatory fields you decide\u00a0when creating your competition entry form. Just be sure that whatever your competition involves, it adheres\u00a0to\u00a0Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines.<\/p>\n

\"shortstack<\/a>
Source: ShortStack<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

4. Power of Pinterest<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pinterest users spend\u00a0more money<\/a> than any other\u00a0users on popular social networking sites – isn’t that the kind of inbox you’d like your email marketing to end up? When marketing\u00a0giveaways, discounted items or limited offers, promote them on Pinterest using a high quality image with minimal text overlay highlighting the offer. In the description, add relevant hashtags and include a link to a landing page designed to capture the entries.\u00a0For more information on making the most of Pinterest for lead generation, check out Hubspot’s\u00a0Pinterest Lead Generation 101<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"hubspot<\/a>
Source: HubSpot Pinterest<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

5. Seminars, events\u00a0 and trade shows<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you’re hosting a product launch or exhibiting at a trade show, collect email addresses using an incentive such as a giveaway or welcome offer for new subscribers. This can be done with printed entry forms or asking prospects\u00a0to drop their business cards into a bowl. If an exhibition stall is out of the budget this year, consider creating your own MeetUp<\/a>, launch party or VIP event where attendants must hand over\u00a0their email in exchange for an invitation or membership.<\/p>\n

\"wedding<\/a>
Source: MeetUp<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

6. Referrals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ask people to forward your newsletter\u00a0to friends who might be interested in your content by adding a “Forward to a Friend button<\/a>“. If they like what they see and take the next step to signing up, you’ve got yourself a new subscriber at\u00a0zero cost. Depending on your marketing spend, you could \u00a0offer existing clients gift vouchers to give\u00a0to friends, requiring the friend to email you first to redeem or activate their voucher code. Voila – you’ve got a new subscriber!<\/p>\n

7. Guest blogs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When providing articles for non-competitive wedding businesses in your network, include a call to action in the byline with a link for readers to subscribe to your newsletter\u00a0to receive more great content. You could even consider adding an incentive for subscribers who sign up for your\u00a0newsletter by a specified time.<\/p>\n

Don’t have a list or email marketing provider? It’s never too late to start! Check out some of the big names like MailChimp<\/a>, Campaign Monitor<\/a> and Aweber<\/a>\u00a0for easy to use, drop and drag template builders and inexpensive (or even free) memberships for beginners with small lists.<\/p>\n

Now before you go importing your 500+ LinkedIn contacts, check the Spam Act<\/a> first – in particular the part about inferred\u00a0consent. And whatever you do, resist all temptation to\u00a0purchase a list; the fact that you can purchase emails means\u00a0they’ve probably\u00a0been bought, used and abused in the past, causing recipients to up their junk mail settings\u00a0and send\u00a0your mail direct to the\u00a0trash.<\/p>\n

Start with the seven tips above and you’ll be well on your way to a healthy database full of\u00a0qualified leads ready to\u00a0let you into their inbox with great offers and valuable content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268875,"template":"","au_pro_edu_tags":[],"class_list":["post-276263","au-pro-education","type-au-pro-education","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","au_pro_edu_categories-marketing-tips"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education\/276263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/au-pro-education"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"au_pro_edu_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au_pro_edu_tags?post=276263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}