6 Latest Trends to Build your email list from Scratch (#5 is a Must-Know)
Now that you’re familiar with email marketing and want to give it a trial, you may be thinking of how to begin. This cornerstone article gives you a detailed step-by-step guide on the latest trends of building a mail list from scratch in 2021.
Email marketing involves only three crucial steps which include;
- Building email list
- Sending optimized emails
- Analysis of the results.
According to B2B marketing, an average buyer will interact with your brand 7 times before making a purchase decision. The point is, NOT everyone is in BUY NOW mode! Experienced marketers know that only 3% of the overall web traffic will make an immediate decision to order a product or service. You need to concentrate on the remaining 97% even as you scramble for the first 3%. Your ads should give the option of making purchases even as you offer detailed information to skeptical traffic that will soon trust you after capture their information. That’s where email marketing is critical for making follow-up with the largest market portion which is further divided.
Basics of email marketing
Outline
You’re likely to encounter the following terms while reading this article;
- Bounced mails– The emails that are sent but not delivered. This majorly happens because the provided email address could be invalid or a problem with the recipient’s server. A mail may also bounce after the recipient blocks you.
- Call to action (CTA)– An appealing message prompting the reader to take an action. The action may include downloading a video, subscribing to a newsletter, or making an order.
- Open rate– the proportion of emails opened in relation to the emails delivered. The number of emails delivered is found by deducting the number of bounced emails from the total emails delivered. Assume when you sent 10,000 emails and 50 bounced then the mails delivered will be 9950. Out of the mails delivered, if 8,955 mails were read then your open rate is calculated as 8955/9950 =0.9 or 90%
- Click-through rate (CTR)– the percentage of email readers who click the links within your email. For example, if out of the 9950 delivered mails only 100 people click your link, then the CTR will be 100/9950, approximately 1%
- Forward rate– Sometimes, your call to action may be that the readers forward the mail to others. The forward rate is the proportion of emails forwarded in relation to emails delivered.
How to build an email list from scratch for affiliate marketing
Most affiliate marketers build their email list from their customized landing pages where the readers subscribe to their websites. It’s possible to build an email list from scratch for purposes of affiliate marketing if you own a website. There are other affiliate marketers who rely on other platforms such as Q&A and social media for promotions. You may not have the right to customize your landing pages in such cases although you can still build your list.
Disclaimer: I don’t recommend you buying an email list from anyone. There are online survey companies that sell email addresses and sending emails to someone who never provided an email address is against GDPR.
Below are the proven ways of building your email marketing list from scratch and I guarantee you better results IF followed PROPERLY.
#1 Creating targeted landing pages
Landing pages on your website as its name suggest is a standalone page that your visitors land on after clicking a link. The link may be an advert that compels your readers to click and read more. Upon landing on the targeted landing page, you will give more details for the traffic to remain on your website. One of the hooks for building a better landing page is to place a shortcode of a form where readers can give you their details. There are various plugins and software for creating landing pages. Some of the free plugins on your WordPress include Elemntor, Convertful, Master Popups among others. Ideally, almost all email marketing software can help you create a landing page on your website.
NB: You don’t have to create only one landing page and watch the results.
You could create 5-15 landing pages for a specific audience and build your list. Always check on the best practices for building actionable landing pages. Remember that 3% of the market may want to make an immediate purchase. Therefore, your landing page should have a link directing your buyers to the product you’re promoting as you educate your audience.
It’s important to give educative and entertaining content to your page visitors. If your landing page only promotes a product, the conversion rate is likely to be too low. Keep in mind that an average customer will interact with a brand seven times. If your content doesn’t educate or entertain your traffic, someone else will do and the traffic will be diverted from you.
Your logical flow of ideas on the landing page will boost your conversion rate. Try to keep everything simple and stupid for your readers to follow. Always be honest and genuine in your landing pages especially when placing testimonials. Follow this consistently and the results will be a high conversion rate. Your emails should be simple and mostly educative, with an actionable CTA.
#2 Using lead magnet
Have you ever visited a website and you’re offered free training, eBook, video, or anything in exchange for your email address or other details? That’s the simple logic of a lead magnet. It’s a free service or product in exchange for your details. It works miracles! You may be wondering how to make an eBook when you didn’t have a budget? You can use PLR websites to get free eBooks and video training that you can offer. Simply Google “PLR eBooks” and you’ll get free material that you can customize and share with your audience. You can also hire freelancers on platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork for such tasks.
Always ensure that your free products are not crappy. The internet is full of crap, don’t offer something that doesn’t add value. I strongly recommend that you create or hire someone to create for you the free materials to offer your visitors. Ensure that the content isn’t more of a promotion, rather, educate your audience they will yearn to come back for more from your website.
#3 Sign-up forms from organic traffic
Affiliate marketers with their websites can schedule sending their traffic weekly or monthly newsletters or latest offers. Just as landing pages, the signup forms can be created using software and free plugins. If you’re offering weekly or monthly affiliate marketing newsletters, always ensure the content is educative otherwise your subscribers will click the unsubscribe button. Worse still, you could be viewed as a spammer and that’s disgusting, right?
Once subscribers fill your sign-up form, you need to redirect them to your “thank you” page and send them an automated welcome message. Always customize your messages for the readers to feel that you’re addressing them. One of the most popular ways of customizing your email messages is by using their names. It’s important that you continually clean up your email list, possibly after three months to ensure that you send messages to only active subscribers. You need to eliminate all the bouncing emails to increase your open rate and CTR.
#4 Pop-up forms for visitors
Gimmicky pop-ups are disgusting, right? Some have even installed anti-pop-up ad-on on their computers. It’s because some websites use the forms inappropriately. Pop-up forms when properly and timely placed can be useful in email list building. The best practice is to program the pop-up forms to appear when a visitor stays on your page for 15 seconds or more. In some cases, you may design the pop-up form to appear when a visitor intends to leave your website. The most important consideration is ensuring that the pop-ups don’t reappear for traffic who had previously provided their details.
When designing the pop-up forms, place a high-quality image and if you’re giving away an eBook, think of putting the book cover as one of the pop-up components. If it’s free training, you can give a video preview of the event and always mute it in settings so that it doesn’t make noise in the environment where the reader may be.
The pop-up forms should also grab the attention of your visitors. If possible, you should optimize them for mobile users considering that most internet users utilize their mobile phones. You can always place a shortcode for the pop-up form to appear on a specific page.
#5 Use humorous or Urgent CTA
If you can’t educate your readers, entertain them else someone else will do! You can build your list by placing humorous CTA and you’ll be mesmerized by the number of subscribers for your list. If your niche is on health and you’ve discussed a product that can help someone lose weight, then you can have a CTA at the bottom with two options. The two CTAs that you can use are
Yes- give email to receive latest offers
No- I care less about my health
Even those who care didn’t know their weight problem will click Yes and offer you an email even if it’s a fake one. Such a tactic works wonders and is the Midas touch when it comes to email marketing.
Your offers could also be expiring in the next few hours or days, you need to place the urgency on the mind of your readers. Mostly, Black Friday offers in November have a count-down clock or remaining quantities to make the visitors take action. Some of the visitors could click the link but not finally make purchases. Here is where email triggering comes in handy. You could check with the visitors the reason for abandoning the cart and seek if they need further assistance.
#6 Gamification
I’m sure you’ve come across an online puzzle or game. Sometimes, you’re prompted to spin a wheel and see the offer. But then, before spinning the wheel, you’ll provide necessary details including an email address. If you’ve ever done any of the above, then the website owner successfully built a list through gamification. This method may fit in websites with specific niches such as gaming and casino sites.
Bottom Line
The process of building an email marketing list requires the consistent application of most of the above methods. It’s prudent to combine at least two of the above trends for optimum output. Beware that as your list continues to grow, your free membership for email marketing software may limit your activities. As a result, you may upgrade or integrate additional email marketing services with your website. Considering that for every $1 invested in email marketing proves an ROI of $38, you can opt to upgrade as your business keeps growing. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to succeed in the email marketing niche, all you need is resilience and persistence as described here.
