6 Simple Ways To Boost Your Mailing List

As more and more business come back to the realisation that email marketing, if done correctly, still works, the power of making it successful is through relevant subscribers and constantly growing them to expand your reach.

Every mailing list needs to start somewhere, which means even if you are sending your first few out to a small subscriber list, this should not put you off, as unless you have a lot of money to grow your list quickly, you will need to work on organic growth, which as with most organic things, takes time, effort and a lot of patience before you see results.

But, you have to grow to make it worthwhile, so here are 6 simple ways to really boost your email marketing list.

Offer A Free Downloadable Guide

Free guides work across all industries, so never believe that you are in an industry where this method simply would not work for you, because, it will. I offer free guides about SEO and AdWords for example, but a window cleaner could offer a free guide to keeping your windows cleaner for longer, or a garage could offer a free “top ten things you can do yourself” guide. Never fear that you are giving too much information away for free, because for every one person that might follow your guide and do it themselves, there will be 9 others who won’t or can’t, but your guide will instil confidence in your company and grow your mailing list, which really is a double win. And, you can use your guide anywhere to promote your business, even turning into physical hard copies that you can sell on Amazon for example.

Run A Competition

Who doesn’t like a competition if you actually stand a chance of winning something that is 1) something you want or 2) something you need. Once again, pretty much every business can offer a competition, as the prize can either be related to their business or can be something of use. For example, a garage could offer a free service, a window cleaner could offer a free clean or if your business is really struggling to offer something of interest, opt for an Amazon voucher or iTunes voucher. There is nothing wrong with this kind of encouragement, as you are simply doing what hundreds of big brands do every day, as for your business the cost of investment is minimal but the exposure and reach such a competition could have is massive, especially if you run a campaign to promote it.

Offer A Discount / Free Gift

Once again, following from our above point, there are very few businesses that cannot offer something for nothing without it really impacting their bottom line. For example, keeping with our window cleaner example, you could offer the 6th clean for free, or if you are a garage, offer a free MOT if they have a service with you. Not every business can find a route to success here, but it does not have to be a gift or discount that is worth tons to the customer, it just has to add value to them, which could be a free review, or simply free P&P on their next order. There really is, generally, always something you can offer.

Make It Easy On Your Site

Too many businesses tuck their sign up form or box away, thinking that as it will not lead to an instant sale, it is wasted space on the site and this is just not true. If you think that the average customer takes 8 – 9 associations with your company before they might turn into a hot lead or a sale, getting them onto your mailing list is ticking another box, and it gives you the chance to slowly sell to them via your amazing newsletters. Therefore, make signing up easy, make it prominent and make sure you do not undervalue the power of email marketing simply as you do not believe it will offer you a good return.

Forward To A Friend / Introductory Offer

This might get dismissed, but the power of word of mouth is proved, so if you can encourage your existing subscribers to make their friends, family and colleagues also join your list, then this follows exactly the same logic. A friend telling you to do something carries more weight than a business you might not really know telling you, which means if you can incentivise your current customers to bring more subscribers to the table, then this can actually bring some pretty decent rewards.

If At First You Don’t Succeed …

The final point is that asking once might be ok for some, but in most cases you cannot expect potential customers to do what you ask at the first time of asking, meaning that you should not fear asking more than once, or offering them different reasons to join up. For some, a free guide is going to be enough, for others, they may prefer a discount or physical gift and for the rest, well it might be a combination of a few things. It can take many associations with your company, maybe on social media or a comment they have read before they wish to sign up, and even existing customers can take a bit of persuading when it comes to allowing you to contact them regularly.