A quality email list is one of the most important assets in brand marketing. While email alone should not be your only means of promoting a product or a service, it remains one of the most lucrative revenue generation channels. But, of course, a list of contacts should be large enough. So, how do you grow it naturally without compromising the quality of your leads? Below are the top strategies to help you out.
Website Analysis and Optimization Tips
A website is one of the primary methods of acquiring new contacts in your email database. Obviously, making a website work like a contact-generating machine requires a lot of investment — creating quality content, running Google PPC campaigns, constantly working on SEO, etc. All of those should bring a lot of new visits to your website. And there are a few other tips to ensure your visitors do not leave without a trace.
Monitor Real-Time User Behavior
Google Analytics is an excellent tool to give you general statistics on website performance, but other tools can show what visitors do in real-time — where they click, how far they scroll, what they download, etc. Woopra, CrazyEgg, and Mouseflow are good tools to start. There are also a few more specific tools aimed at lead acquisition — Leadfeeder and Snitcher, for example, can track exact user behavior and assign each new visitor a lead temperature score. They also can provide you with your visitors’ business emails, which is perfect for B2B email marketing but, sadly, not always effective with the B2C segment.
Give People a Reason to Subscribe
If you give your visitors a good reason to subscribe, you may not need any plugins to ‘snitch’ on their email addresses in the first place. Offering free downloadable materials to subscribed users is a general practice, but you can also try something different. For example, you can reserve some online content for registered users, or offer a welcome bonus with the first purchase, or anything else that applies to your brand’s specifics. Think about your ideal customer persona and offer them what they need.
Keep A/B Testing CTAs and Landings
This one should be a no-brainer, but many brands just leave their website as is after the development stage is finished. That’s not the way to keep growing your email list, so keep on testing. Hundreds of tools with a similar set of features can help you with that. The top, most useful ones are Google Optimize, Unbounce, Optimizely, VWO (Visual Website Optimizer), and Convert.
Growing an Email List from External Sources
Even though your website should eventually become the primary source of acquiring new email addresses, the beginnings are usually rough. So, if you are only getting started, it makes sense to use external resources as well.
This does NOT mean buying a ready-made email list — it is something you should never do. First, it will not bring any tangible results because there is no way whatsoever to segment purchased lists. Second, even more important reason is that sending bulk emails to invalid addresses or uninterested subscribers can damage your account reputation and have your business email account blocked.
There are more effective and 100% transparent channels for growing your email list from external resources. One such approach is to partner with companies offering the best cold email services, which specialize in targeted outreach campaigns. These services can help you identify and connect with qualified leads, ensuring higher engagement and a more valuable email list.
But there are other, more effective, and 100% transparent channels for growing your email list from external resources. The top ones are:
Contact Directories for Cold Leads
Professional, regularly updated contact databases offer a perfectly legitimate way of growing your email list. Here, SignalHire is a great example — the service has over 450 million verified contacts you can access and filter by practically any criteria you wish — location, place of work, job title, education, etc. This tool is especially useful for B2B marketing, but with some products and a touch of creativity, the approach can also work in the B2C niche. For example, if you’re promoting SaaS tools or any other products and services relevant to specific professions, i.e., in design, marketing, software development, or even restaurant business. Here, careful targeting is the key to success.
Relevant Social Sites for Warmed-up Prospects
Social media is an excellent tool for acquiring new contacts. The main trick is networking on sites used by your ideal customers and creating content that inspires shares, comments, and discussions. Engage as many people as you can and regularly add new prospects to your database. Often, you will be able to see users’ contact info directly on their profile page, so make sure to check out every new lead after they engage with your content through reposts, comments, or reactions. If the contact info is hidden, SignalHire has a browser extension to reveal contacts. If a person is already in the service database, a single click on a plugin icon will pull this data — you will not even have to close the social tab.
Also, do not forget to include links to your website on your brand profile page — make this info as eye-catching as possible. With quality content, regular posting, and clear CTAs, people will start coming to you all on their own.
Professional Sites for Business Promotion
Another great idea for B2B marketers or any other brand that has a specific product suitable for certain professions. Facebook and TikTok are great and fun, but they cast a wide net. And effective marketing, lead acquisition included, is about narrowing this net down. If there are specialized sites and forums you can use to meet your ideal buyers — go there and network as much as you can. The same tip applies to local onsite events — if there is a chance to go out and meet your prospects, use every opportunity to do so. And don’t forget to connect on social media!
How do you turn your customers into brand ambassadors?
Acquiring new leads and regularly growing your email database are important stages in the overall marketing strategy. But you should also keep in mind that existing customers are more important than new leads, so most of your efforts should go into nurturing meaningful relationships with them. The same is true for warm leads who haven’t reached the buying stage yet.
So, when crafting your email campaigns, remember the five golden geese of quality email marketing — that, by the way, work for cold leads just as well as they work for existing clients:
- Unique content that offers value: converting emails to be short, to the point, and offering something of value to the recipients.
- Referral programs: encouraging existing leads and buyers to invite friends is one of the surest ways to extend your reach over new audiences.
- Contests & giveaways: everyone loves a freebie, so hosting a contest (with prizes) can attract more leads and expand your email list.
- Consistent schedule: it’s important to stay in touch with your leads without getting too annoying.
- Quality lead segmentation: the most important part of any email marketing campaign is approaching every lead group differently because what works for regular buyers may not be convincing enough for new prospects.
Implementing all (or most) of these tips in your email marketing and lead acquisition strategies is mostly about consistency. This means nothing should stop you from naturally growing your email list if you stick to the plan. Sure, new businesses may not have the time and resources (yet) to implement each of these steps at once. But that is not a problem at all — just start small and keep scaling your efforts, and soon enough, you will see your contact database grow.
Andrej Fedek is the creator and the one-person owner of two blogs: InterCool Studio and CareersMomentum. As an experienced marketer, he is driven by turning leads into customers with White Hat SEO techniques. Besides being a boss, he is a real team player with a great sense of equality.