Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of reaching your customers online — in fact, it is estimated to generate $38 of revenue for every $1 spent, far outpacing other digital marketing tactics.
Of course, for email marketing to have the greatest impact, you need to grow your email list. People who opt in to your email communications are among the warmest possible leads, and are the most likely to buy from you in the future.
By creating opt-in opportunities at key points of your website, you can achieve greater growth for your email list, ensuring more sales in the future.
Make the Ask During Checkout
One of the easiest moments to get customers to sign up for your email list is when they are making a purchase. Email makes it easy for them to track shipments of e-commerce products or receive a receipt for their purchase. Because of this, asking for an email address is standard practice during checkout for many websites.
When you ask for a customer’s email address, you can include an extra box on the form that they can select or deselect if they wish to opt-in to other email communications. This is a great time to make the ask, since the customer is already engaged enough to want to buy from you in the first place. Adding them to your email list will make them more likely to buy again.
Provide a Compelling Offer
Even when customers aren’t making a purchase on your website, a lead magnet that is tied to a user’s email address can be a powerful way to grow your list. This is most often done with a pop-up notification that offers an ebook or white paper, a coupon offer, or some other relevant deal that is likely to appeal to the target audience.
To get the special offer, customers simply need to submit their email address. After sending the promised deal, a series of automated emails can help leads learn more about your products or services. When customers have already received something of value from your first email, they are more likely to click on future messages.
Create a Branded Signup Form
In reality, you can ask for email signups on any part of your website. With an attractive, simple form, you can get signups from your home page, about page, or a landing page. WordPress plugins like Mailchimp allow you to quickly add a customized, branded email signup form to landing pages or other parts of your site.
Clearly state what type of email content you will send to site visitors as part of the signup form so they don’t have to worry about getting overwhelmed by unwanted spam.
Start Growing Your Email List
As you undertake these efforts to grow your email list, you can’t overlook the importance of the email content itself. By providing high-value content (be it a newsletter or exclusive offers), your email subscribers will be more likely to click and make additional purchases from you.
With a website that drives email list signups and quality content, your email marketing can become a major source of revenue for your business.
