Wondering how to build an email list from scratch or continue to add quality subscribers? Did you know it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one?

Focusing on customer retention is a valuable long-term solution for increased revenue and sustainable growth, but it’s not always easy to cultivate that kind of loyalty.

Email is the most effective marketing channel on the planet because you get to talk directly to the people who want to hear from you. And this opens up amazing opportunities to build relationships and sell your products and services. So the ROI for email marketing remains the highest among all marketing channels—$40 for every $1 spent. No other channels come even close to these heights.

If you’re starting from zero, building an impressive email list can feel like an impossible feat. Here, we'll cover some high-quality strategies to build an email list from scratch. Best of all, these strategies are designed to cultivate a loyal email subscriber base, so you can use your emails to attract better long-term customers.

What Is an Email List?

An email list is a database that contains the email addresses of people who gave their consent to receive your email campaigns. Anyone who has subscribed to your newsletter, blog, or website, or any emails that you gathered from people in person. The main purpose of building an email list is to increase the number of your potential leads. That way, you can convert them into loyal shoppers at a later point.

With the right approach, you can establish a relationship with the person on the other end of the line. When you talk to your subscribers, listen to their needs and personalize your solutions to their individual preferences, your list will become a high-converting tool containing loyal customers.

So we can say that your revenue depends on how large and healthy your email list is.

Before you start building your list

Creating an email list is akin to making a new friend. You want to make a good first impression and uncover common interests when you meet for the first time. The same may be said for email marketing. It's up to you to create a common ground and offer them something to start the relationship when someone comes across your brand.

This simple formula used to create  great email lists:

  • Be aware of what your target audience desires.
  • Make offers that people will enjoy.
  • Make it simple for them to sign up.
  • Share relevant, valuable stuff on a regular basis.

How to build an email list from scratch?

1- Choose A Trustworthy Email Marketing Platform

Honestly, before we even start, you must get an email marketing provider that you’re comfortable with and which can help you to build your email list. At first, sending basic email campaigns and managing your first contacts may be feasible through platforms like Gmail and Outlook.

But to efficiently manage and organize your growing email list as well as send automated email campaigns, you need a reliable email marketing tool. So, you need a platform that you can grow with and rely on its features to create engaging emails.

There are many email marketing platforms you can choose from, for example, Constant Contact, Confirtkit, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue, and the best one I recommend is GetResponse all-in-one solution for your business. Click here to know more about them. Choosing to invest in a robust email marketing platform will help you not only save precious time while building your email list from scratch but also capitalize on the full potential of email marketing right from the start.

2- Give People Incentives to Sign Up(Lead Magnet)

Having chosen an email marketing platform, you need to set up a way to start collecting emails on your website. But before you do that, you need to be able to entice people to sign up, namely, give them a reason to want to give you their email address.. Naturally, people won’t provide you with their email addresses for nothing. So if you want visitors to subscribe to your email list, you need to give them something in exchange. Something that they would find relevant, that called a lead magnet.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is an item or service value for your target audience, that you offer in exchange for contact information to grow your email list.

The most common examples of the lead magnet are:

  • A free eBook
  • A checklist summarizing steps from a blog post
  • A PDF version of a blog post or case study
  • A cheat sheet
  • A coupon
  • A webinar registration
  • A template or worksheet
  • A free course or email series

All of these offers give the visitor an incentive to sign up using their email address. Depending on your target audience and their needs, you can create lead magnets that will work best. But generally, you’ll find out that using a combination of these different ideas will give you the best results. The key point here is that if you want to grow your email list, you need to create content that your audience will want to trade their email addresses for.

3-  Add subscription forms to your website and blog

A webform a.k.a. a signup form is an HTML form that is installed on a website to enable visitors to sign up. There are different kinds of forms to choose from, e.g., a subscription form, download box, scroll form, fixed bar, lightbox, or an exit pop-up. Every page of your site could be an opportunity to build your list. Make it easy for people to find the signup forms.

Add a fixed bar or a pop-up form to the highest converting pages like the product page and about us. This way people who are interested in your offer might sign up and receive more relevant information. Also place an opt-in form at the end of each blog with a call to action (CTA), allowing readers to connect while you are top-of-mind.

Placing a signup form permanently in your footer ensures that the visitors who like what they are reading have an immediate way to take action. You can create a web form from scratch or with the help of an email list builder. Consider the quality-to-quantity ratio while creating your web form. If you want to reach a specific target audience, you may need to design a longer online form that asks for more information; however, if you want to reach a larger audience, you may only need to ask for basic information like name and email address.

The more opt-in forms you have on your site, the more likely visitors will become subscribers.

4- Create Pop-Ups For Your Website

Pop-ups may have the “notoriety” of being annoying and disruptive, but if they are carefully crafted and have a clear purpose, then they can be the game-changer in building your list. Pop-up forms provide visitors with a quick, convenient way to share contact information and subscribe to your list while they’re browsing your site, making them a powerful tool for audience growth.

But how can you use pop-ups without ruining the user experience?

There are new ways you can use pop-ups that minimize interruption. For example, give your visitors some time to read the content before triggering a pop-up. Use exit-intent pop-up forms, where the form pops upright when the visitor leaves, create a sidebox pop-up in this case the pop-up doesn't cover important content so the interruption isn't that bad.

In general, marketers have to make their pop-ups appealing through high-quality content and irresistible incentives such as freebies, coupon codes, etc.

Here are few tips to take into considerations before you start building opt-in pop-up forms:

  •       Choose an attractive headline: Make sure to include a good headline that will describe one important benefit that your potential customers will have by subscribing to your email list.
  •        Relevant description or Tag line: include a brief and clear description line, that will help you increase the conversion rate for your subscription.
  •        Simple form: Include only the necessary contact information, like name and email address.
  •        Include a call to action into the subscribe button: Make sure to use a non-generic call to action that will invite visitors to click right away.

Of course, You must have user experience in mind when creating your pop-up forms. This ensures that your pop-ups are relevant and well-timed.

5- Craft CTAs For Your Website/Landing Page

Your CTA is the button text that persuades people to click through! You probably recognize the classic ones:

Sign up

Register

Submit

Download

Very few people are going to search for the way into your mailing list. Therefore, you need to provide them with various options to do so through your content or web pages in general. If your digital marketing strategy includes any form of content marketing, then this is what you need.

Assume you have created a beginner's guide on buyer personas. In such a situation, creating a CTA like "Get these 4 BONUS Buyer Persona examples and raise your sales today!" to persuade customers to subscribe to your email newsletter is more than a must.

Even if you don't have a lot of resources to develop such high-quality content, people will appreciate it if you bring value to your audience. Of course, they won't feel compelled to sign up for your newsletter. Make the flow between visiting your website and signing up as smooth and contextually relevant as possible. Nail your CTAs and find that sweet spot where yours and your visitors’ interests overlap. 

6- Create A High-Converting Landing Page

You can build an email list from scratch outside of your home page.

 By creating one or more landing pages that are directly linked to your LinkedIn ads, Facebook ads, etc. Let’s say you want to offer free shipping, an exclusive offer, or a limited-time sale. It’s far better to direct users to a dedicated landing page than send them to your homepage and risk them getting lost.

This landing page will have far fewer elements than your store pages, as it is intended for high conversions by focusing on one product only. In order to capture the user’s attention and lead him towards the desired action, online businesses have to create a seamless experience for them. The transition from the ad to what users see next has to be “frictionless” and relevant.

Generally, to create a high-converting landing page, you need three key elements:

  • A strong headline emphasizing the benefits that the users get
  • Enticing copy to capture their attention
  • A powerful image to accompany the message

You can reap the benefits of high-converting landing pages with the help of GetResponse’s Landing Page builder by signing up for a paid plan.

7- Create A Referral Program For New Signups

Referral programs are among the most popular tools used in eCommerce to build a strong and loyal subscriber base. Nothing can be more impactful in growing your email list fast than having your customers spread the word about you and your brand. A direct recommendation from friends is a sure way to convince people to join your list, let alone trust your brand and purchase from you.

Once you have happy, engaged subscribers, you can persuade them to share the joy with their friends! 

There are free ways to get referrals, include:

adding the option to forward or share your newsletters or welcome email with others

adding the same option at the end of your lead magnets (videos, PDFs, cheat sheets, etc.)

But if you want to make a referral program more effective, give away something valuable in exchange for a referral. You should give them a good reason for doing so. by providing additional incentives for them. And that’s the most basic rule in marketing, namely provide more value!

This can be free shipping, a $50 coupon or discount, a 25% discount, or even a free gift.

Fortunately, there are various tools out there that make the whole process straightforward and user-friendly while eliminating the need for advanced knowledge. Such tools include ReferralCandy, Tapfiliate, and Partnerstack, to name but a few.

8-  Host A Giveaway

Giveaways are yet another powerful tactic that most eCommerce stores leverage nowadays to acquire new email subscribers. The reason behind their efficiency is that news of the giveaway spread fast, and you can collect tons of email contacts in a short period of time.

Giveaways are a great way to quickly build hype around your brand, especially on your audience’s favorite social media channels, such as Facebook or Instagram, which are not only popular but also reasonable in terms of advertising costs. And, with an intriguing (even viral) offer, you can get your cost-per-clicks as low as one cent.

There is one essential rule you need to follow when creating your giveaway. The prize that you’re giving away has to be relevant and directly aimed at your target audience. Make it specific, so that your entrants are also your qualified leads—which is the entire point of the giveaway.

To give you an example, if your audience is interested in tech products, then your giveaway should feature a relevant prize to tech rather than a car.

9- Use A Scroll box

Timing is everything. Your call-to-action works best if you catch visitors when they are, in fact, ready to take action. Figuring out when your visitor is ready to convert depends on your website viewers’ behavior. Depending on the content of the pages, a pop up triggered when website visitors reach a certain point can be a subtle yet effective way to capture their email address.

 So you’ll want to conduct A/B testing to determine where you need to place your CTA. Does it work best towards the bottom of a blog page, when it slides out to the right, or does it get higher conversions at the beginning of the page, sliding out from the left?

10- Run a webinar for your target audience

A webinar, also known as an "online seminar," "web conference," or "online meeting," can be a terrific way to establish a high-quality email list. The concept is simple: you provide relevant information to anyone who joins your mailing list.

Your target audience will undoubtedly be drawn to your webinar material if it has been carefully planned. To increase the number of people who attend your webinar, you can promote it through different internet marketing platforms.

11- Create a survey for website and blog visitors

Most people don’t visit a new website and think, “Huh, so where’s the email sign-up form?” Oftentimes, you need your viewers to feel invested in your content before you present them with a request for their emails.

Share an online quiz or survey—but then ask people to sign up to access the results! By the end of the quiz, you’ll have already piqued their curiosity and they’ll be itching to know the outcome. A great incentive to sign up.

The best forms of surveys are simple surveys, consist of one simple question, with a yes or no answer. Because most people don't want to participate when the survey is long.

12- Collect subscribers offline

Pop-ups, sidebars, landing pages all work great. But it would be a waste not to leverage the available offline methods to grow your list. Whether you are on a sales call, at a trade show or someone walks into your place of business, every encounter offers a chance to build your list. HOW?

In-store. Foot traffic can be converted to mailing list subscribers by using signup sheets at your store or checkout desk, if someone at the changing booth requested an item that’s currently unavailable, nudge them to signup for stock updates or new arrivals.

Trade exhibitions are a great way to meet people. Trade exhibitions provide businesses with excellent opportunities to network with other wholesalers as well as sell directly to customers. The same registration pages can be used to collect email addresses when making a purchase, organizing giveaways, and so on. If you're passing out business cards, you may also encourage people to sign up for newsletters. Print your business cards and exchange them with people when you meet them and talk about your business. Add received contacts to your list.

All means of list building are proper if only they are legal. And if you're collecting subscribers offline—such as with handwritten signup forms—then make sure you double-check the mailing list with an email validation tool. This will remove any sneaky typos or invalid addresses.

Conclusion

 List building is a continuous process, it cannot happen overnight. However, by following these simple and effective tactics mentioned above, you’re increasing your chances of building your target email list fast!

Some methods will work better than others. But at the end of the day, what’s important is to combine them and get the best possible result for your business.

You may think to buy an email list, although it may save your time, it is hard to get a perfect ready list for your business.

Following all methods mentioned above help you to get a perfect email list.

And remember! What matters is not how fast you can build your list but how effectively you acquire new leads to be able to retain them.