What do you think is your most important asset as a business owner? Is it your unique product? Your employees? Or maybe YOU, the owner?
It’s none other than your email list!
Your list contains the names and email addresses of the people who actually gave you consent to reach them via email. Most likely, these people are interested in doing business with you. That’s why they allowed you to enter their inbox.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “the money is on your list”.
Whoever said this truly knows the real value of email marketing!
According to Jeff Walker (famous author of Launch), each individual on your list is worth $1 a month or a total of $12 per year. Given that the average ROI from one email is $36, it simply means that for every dollar spent, you earn 36 times more.
The earning potential from email marketing should give you enough reason to focus on this aspect of your business.
You need to keep your current list engaged so that they don’t lose interest in your business and in the relationship that you’re building with them.
How do you maximize your content to have more subscribers opt-in to your list?
Here are 5 tips:
Convert ungated to gated content
If you have been in the business for quite some time, you may already have a lot of valuable content that should not be given away for free. From ebooks to podcasts or even webinars, the high-quality content that you own should come at a price before potential subscribers get hold of them.
Putting some degree of restriction on your valuable content will allow you to gain more qualified leads for your business because you’re exchanging value for value. You just have to ensure that the payoff to your subscriber is worth more than them giving you their email. You have to make it worth their while.
Remember that your gated content should be highly targeted and suited to your audience to give you higher chances of converting potential leads to highly engaged subscribers and eventually, customers!
Segmented list = customized messaging
Having your own list is not just having an inventory of emails you send daily emails to. It’s about getting to know them on a personal level enough to know what they like or dislike, their preferences, or what their struggles are.
Knowing the people on your list on a personal level will allow you to segment them into buckets/categories so that the content that you send their way will match their interests and preferences. Once this happens, your open rates will improve because the messages in these emails resonate with them. When your message is relevant, your subscribers can relate to the message and that’s when the conversion starts! They would want to find out more until such time that they pull out their wallet and ultimately do business with you.
Give them a priceless lead magnet
If you just ask potential subscribers for their name and email without giving them something in return, chances are you won’t get it. A person’s email is very valuable because it’s where people who do not have the time to talk to you interact with you.
Having an irresistible lead magnet (something that people wouldn’t easily get anywhere else) gives you an edge as a business owner because it’s an opportunity for you to give solutions to their problems or provide exclusive information that they won’t find elsewhere. If you overdeliver using your lead magnet, your subscribers will likely stay engaged in your list and potentially explore your other offers as they see fit.
Optimize your Opt-in forms
Opt-in forms can either be embedded in your website or appear as a popup. A popup opt-in form is beneficial because it stands out from all the other elements on your page. It can be a timed popup or one that appears once you scroll halfway through the website, or exit-intent popups. Since most visitors spend only 15 seconds or less on your website, you need to catch their attention right away without being downright annoying. You can even add additional questions here which you can use to segment your list early on.
Embedded Opt-in forms are also good because they’re non-intrusive. In order to maximize these, you should place them in visible areas like headers, footers, or sidebars.
This might be your only chance to get people’s emails, so better make the most out of it!
Incentivize
Aside from giving potential subscribers outright discounts once they are opt-in, another option is by doing promotional pop-ups throughout the customer journey in order for them to avail of exclusive offers. In order for this to convert, you need to put out relevant offers within the customer’s buying journey. For example, if they browse through one category and they didn’t buy anything, one option is to offer them a discount right there and then without actually telling them to buy this or that.
You can also do this through giveaway campaigns for every successful referral to your newsletter. Delighting your potential customers when they least expect will surely make them feel special and be more willing to hand over their personal data with you.
In summary, list building is one of the most important aspects of your business. Given the ROI from emails, we cannot deny the fact this is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there. Relationship building by ensuring your subscribers are engaged and delighted at all times will convert them to paying customers and will most likely lead to more referrals for your business.
Keep in mind that this is not just a numbers game. In order for you to make the most out of your list, you need to ensure that you put out high-quality and targeted content for your subscribers to solidify your connection with them and ultimately build trust and credibility for your business.
Are you ready to implement some of these tips for your business? Go ahead and pick one or two strategies that you can implement and do your best to make it work!
