How to Grow Your Email List Organically

Email marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon. Of the many ways to grow your email list organically, there are easy ways too that marketing teams overengineer and are probably not taking advantage of.

Here are 4 tactics to help you grow your email list for free.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Fact: Email is one of the most profitable marketing channels with an average ROI of $42.

Millions of brands have adopted email in their digital marketing strategies as over 80% of small and mid-sized brands rely on email marketing for customer acquisition (Emarsys - 2018).

With such fierce competition, brands constantly test ways to increase TOMA (top of mind awareness) and convince their audience to subscribe to their emails.

4 steps to help you grow your email list.

Step 1 - Share exclusive content.

While this may come across as a no-brainer, many brands are yet to recognize the potential of exclusive content. Readers find very few things more captivating than the idea of exclusivity and the option to access something they cannot find anywhere else.

Yes, creating exclusive content takes more time and effort. However, it does not have to be difficult. You can take creative approaches to it.

A) Checklist to assess your content for your next email

- Is it exclusive to my brand? - Is it original?

- Does it help my subscribers in anyway way? How?

- How can I make it better?

B) Present your latest post from a fresh angle in your newsletter and engage your readers by sharing how your topic is relevant to them and end with a compelling call to action (CTA) that invites them to read the entire story on your blog.

C) List all of the ways your products or services can help your audience. Highlight their features to even your most engaged subscribers to take advantage of. Highlighting the features and benefits of your products or services one at a time not only allows you to boost engagement and sales but also helps you in creating a great content calendar.

Pro tip - It is important to focus on the benefit first, not your product or service. Make it about your audience.

Step 2 - Take advantage of Socmed (social media)

Probably the simplest tactic but there are brands who believe otherwise and prefer to spend their marketing dollars on alternate acquisition channels.

Having said that, in recent times, more brands have started to leverage their social media presence to grow their email databases.

A) Post about your upcoming content on your social media account(s) and add a link to your subscription page.

B) Use a conversational tone and let people know what your next email is going to be about, then add your CTA and the link.

C) Social proof - Reach out to highly engaged subscribers who enjoyed your content, ask them for permission to turn their quote into a testimonial. You can add it to your social media calendar, your homepage and your subscription page

Pro tip - The secret to grow your email list through social media is consistency.

Step 3 - Add a "Subscribe" button in your email

A one-time job that can help your email list grow without additional effort on your part.

Adding a "subscribe" CTA in every email makes it easier for people who have been forwarded your emails to subscribe to your list. So ensure you add a subscription button or a link to your subscription page in your email templates.

You can position the "subscribe" CTA at the beginning of your emails. If you feel that's too intrusive, you can always add it at the end.

Also, you could also ask your subscribers to forward your emails to those who can benefit from your email. It is very motivating to activate word of mouth marketing and get your audience's. That apart, every forward helps your email marketing efforts.

Step 4 - Review new email addresses in real-time

While you want your email list to grow, review the quality fo email addresses you gather. Are they real and valid? Is it safe to send emails to your new subscribers?

A) Enable double opt-in's: To maintain the integrity of your email list, you need to communicate with real people. With the double opt-in subscription method, you can limit the number of fake email addresses you collect. Also, it results in better engagement.

B) Add an email verification API: Enable all your subscription forms with the email verification API. It is a piece of software that reviews every email address in real-time and prevents typos, bots, and other types of fake and risky email addresses.

Even after you enable the double opt-in verification process and add the email verification API, you would need to validate your email list at least once a quarter and purge all the inactive email addresses.

Pro tip - It's less about the number of subscribers you have than it is about their validity.

Thank you

Yogesh Babu

PS - Do share your thoughts on the article in the comments below. I will respond to you as soon as I can.