What would you do if you knew there was a marketing tool at your fingertips that could potentially earn you $1 in returns for every $40 you spend? Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, it’s the real deal, and what’s more, it’s something you already use; email.
Your email mailing list is a potential gold mine. Unlike social media and pay-per-click advertising, it’s also one you have complete control over. You don’t need to worry about algorithms or search engines getting your message across. It’s an essential instrument in any customer engagement strategy.
But how do you build your subscriber list in the first place? In this post, we’ll show you. Here are some tips on how to take advantage of all that email has to offer.
1. Know and define your target market
First, you have to decide who exactly your business is for. You need to have a clear idea of who you want to subscribe to your emails before you try to contact them.
Businesses that try to appeal to everyone will albania email list 215428 contact leads waste a lot of time and resources. They create problems for themselves in the process. For example, a company that specializes in selling skateboards is not going to try to sign up local clergy.
You probably already have a good idea of who you want to attract. If not, you need to do some market research.
2. Conduct market research and find your current audience
To do this, you need to analyze the people who already use your business . This may sound complicated, but thanks to the internet, it has never been easier. You need to consider several factors:
- The age range of your customers.
- Their location.
- Their income.
- Demographics.
- What equipment they use.
All of this data can help you better understand your customer base and respond effectively.
A lot of useful information is generated when shopping online, which you can use to influence your strategy. For example, if your sales are all generated locally, you’ll know to target the surrounding community. On the other hand, if they’re from abroad, you might consider adapting your website so that it’s available in different languages to make it easier for overseas customers to use.
There are tons of online analytics tools that can help with this, such as Google Analytics. The more you focus on meeting their needs, the more likely they are to sign up to your mailing list.
3. Check your product for defects
This may sound obvious, but it bears repeating: always examine how your product can be improved. What problem does it solve? What issues does it have? Increasing the former and decreasing the latter should always be at the forefront of your mind.
After all, your product is why your customers are there in the first place. If it’s not up to par, then it doesn’t matter how good your email strategy is.
Let’s say the aforementioned skateboard company got lucky and found a pastor who happened to be an extreme sports enthusiast; if the wheels fell off a month later, it would all be for nothing. Yes, they were able to make the sale initially, but later they had to refund a very hurt and frustrated customer who most likely clicked “cancel subscription” as soon as he got home.
4. Conduct a competitor analysis
Finding out who your competitors are targeting and how successful they are is another important part. There are various ways to conduct a competitor analysis.
For example, if your competitors use blogs, you can use online tools to see which of their posts are performing well. You can use programs like Content Studio to analyze how your articles are performing on social media.
It’s also worth taking the time to check out their web pages, especially if they’ve created segmented landing pages for their audiences. If they have a particularly user-friendly and efficient setup, there’s no reason you can’t try to replicate it for your site.
5. Create Buyer Personas
Once you’ve gathered as much data as possible about your buyers, you might find it helpful to create buyer personas .
As a child, you probably had an imaginary friend. For marketers, a buyer persona is the equivalent of an adult persona. This semi-fictional character isn’t meant to alarm your parents and teachers; it helps you understand who your ideal customer is; the more detailed and specific, the better.
Well-defined buyer personas will help you understand your target audience and optimize your marketing campaigns accordingly. Arguably, their most important benefit is helping to identify who you shouldn’t target. There’s no point in repeatedly chasing leads from people who aren’t interested.
So what happens based on the information you gather? How can you tailor your approach specifically to them?
6. Create a different landing page for each product
A great way to help generate sales is to make the customer experience as personalized as possible. One way to do this is through dedicated landing pages .
Landing pages help to attract a specific audience and are therefore a great way to encourage people to sign up for your mailing list. Take this one for example;
The company is running a mock exam promotion for aspiring app builders. They created this landing page to promote it with the same audience in mind. They’ll be researching SEO and choosing language carefully to attract clicks.
Anyone in that demographic who finds this page will feel like their needs are being directly met, and as a result, they’ll be more willing to sign up for the email list.
7. Create an engaging lead magnet
One thing to keep in mind is that building an email list requires a certain level of trust. Your contact information is personal data, and it’s natural that some people would be hesitant to hand it over. They’re wary of scammers and spam, so it’s understandable that they’d be cautious.
One way to build that trust is to offer them something in return. This approach is called a lead magnet. The freebie can be anything; a discount, a consultation, a white paper, it’s up to you.
Pop-ups are a great way to deliver a lead Sales Generating Email List magnet, provided you don’t break the golden rule: they can’t be annoying. If a visitor to your site closes a pop-up, it shouldn’t reappear after ten seconds, and there shouldn’t be one pop-up on every page. Otherwise, they become intrusive and will only encourage people to leave your site and never return.
As effective as they can be, they should be used with caution and effectively. Check this out:
It’s eye-catching, the discount offer is in the center, and you can see the “X” to close it. No one likes searching every inch of their screen trying to figure out how to close an unwanted ad, so anyone who isn’t interested in the deal can quickly close it. This type of pop-up can attract extra customers without being so intrusive that it turns people away.
8. Free gifts and discounts
Let’s assume you need to invest in a desktop computer. After doing some research online, you discover that an electronics store is selling a top-of-the-line model that would be perfect for your needs. Best of all, there’s an introductory offer; new customers get 15% off. All you need to do is provide your email address.
It’s hard to say no, isn’t it? A few marketing emails in exchange for a price cut is a fantastic deal. You take the plunge and save a ton of money. A few weeks later, when you’re cleaning out your inbox, you find another email from the company advertising a laptop sale. Your daughter will be heading off to college soon; maybe she needs a new one?
Maybe you just want to make your first purchase and take advantage of a discount. That’s understandable; everyone loves a bargain. But the computer you bought is fast, reliable, and a great value. The company has earned your trust, and you’re about to become a repeat customer.
Without the email, you wouldn’t have heard about the laptop sale, and if the initial discount hadn’t prompted you to sign up, you wouldn’t have seen the email. It’s a common marketing tactic, but it works.
9. Free Shipping
Free shipping is another popular type of lead Sales Generating Email List magnet. The cost of shipping goods can be off-putting, and many sales are lost because of it. For example, a trendy and eye-catching t-shirt for $30 might look appealing, but what if you add $15 for shipping? Not so much. Maybe it’s worth looking elsewhere?
That’s why free shipping offers are so attractive. Customers want to know the total cost of an item upfront and don’t like extra fees. You can’t ignore how much it influences purchasing decisions:
If you do consider offering free shipping, there are a few things compression members do telegram you have to keep in mind. Are you offering it as a one-time program for first-time customers or as a long-term program? You also have to maintain standards; free shipping cannot be an excuse for items to be lost or damaged. There’s no benefit in generating a ton of new sales if most of your customers never come back.
10. Gadgets
Widgets are the unsung heroes of e-commerce. They’re invaluable tools for capturing data, and most of the time, people don’t even notice they’re there. That little chat button in the corner of your website that says “Help”? That’s a widget.
They’re also relatively easy to set up. Most feature a copy-and-paste code block that you can embed into your website without making drastic changes to the framework.
The goals of the web widget are to:
- Encourage customers to use self-service resources
- Allow guests to send messages to your team
- Enable them to start a live chat
They can be very effective when used properly, and considering how often they are overlooked, they are a handy tool.
Summarize
Email is an effective marketing tool, and it’s wise to make full use of it. Once you’ve built a database of subscribers, though, you should use it wisely. Be sure not to send a dozen emails a day; flooding your customers’ inboxes will turn them against you.
Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way Sales ar numbers Generating Email List to building a massive email subscription list. Make the most of email (and your list, of course) and it will yield incredible returns.
Author Bio
Martin Gessner is the founder of Focused on Strength . He has worked at Salesforce for over 10 years in various roles including Business Analyst, Project Manager, Consultant, and Solutions Architect. Along the way, he has earned 10 certifications, published The Salesforce Career Handbook, and helps Salesforce professionals learn more about Salesforce, grow their careers, and prepare for certification.
