9 Tips for Building a High-Quality Email List

Did you realize that a typical email list loses approximately 25% of its subscribers each year? This attrition is due to bounces, unsubscribes, and inactives – people who lose interest and no longer open and click through email messages. That means marketers always need to be actively growing their email lists to counteract the natural attrition. Here are nine easy and effective ways to help you get and keep your email list growing at a healthy rate:

1. Give away something valuable. Encourage people to opt-in to your email list by offering an incentive, such as relevant, high-value information through email newsletters, whitepapers, industry reports, and e-books.
2. Establish affiliate relationships with other companies. This involves working with other organizations to include your sign-up form on their websites, which allows people to opt-in to receive your newsletter or promotions. Be sure the boxes in these sign-up forms are not pre-checked. In other words, design it so people have to take a specific action to receive your emails. In this way, you’ll build a high-quality list of people who are truly interested in your organization’s products/services.
3. Post summaries of articles, white papers, and reports on social media sites. Then, require your social media followers to subscribe to your email list if they want access to the rest of the information described in the summaries. For example, when you publish a new white paper, you can post a teaser and link on Twitter that leads to a designated landing page with a sign-up form. Once visitors submit the information you require, they have full access to your research. Remember to ask only for the information you truly need for your email list to reduce barriers to completion.
4. Share e-newsletter articles on your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. This is a good way to demonstrate the valuable information people will get by opting in to your email list. You can also integrate an easy-to-complete newsletter sign-up form within your Facebook page. Many email service providers have built mechanisms that make this easy to accomplish.
5. Cash in on the mobile trend. Many people use their mobile devices to access the Internet today, so make it easy for them to sign up for your emails. Create and include a QR code that links to your opt-in page on all of your print advertising, including business cards. Then, people can simply point their smart phone’s camera at the code and read its contents. Click here for information about how to create QR codes. You’ll also want to be sure your opt-in page is optimized for mobile viewing and data entry to ensure that visitors can easily complete their sign-up.
6. Add a link to your opt-in forms on blog posts. That should include both your own blog on your website, as well as in your responses to other people’s blogs, when appropriate.
7. Create a promotional video and post it on YouTube. Describe the benefits of signing up for your emails, letting viewers know the link to your opt-in form within the video. Plus, add a link to your opt-in page in the YouTube video description. Be sure to include a keyword-rich description of your newsletter content in your YouTube description to maximize the results you get from YouTube’s search functionality.
8. Include a link to your opt-in page within your presentations. Also consider uploading your presentations to SlideShare to reach more potential customers. Slideshare allows you to choose whether or not to make your presentations downloadable so you retain control of your content.
9. Put a link to your opt-in page on all of your online and offline marketing materials. Here are few examples of places you don’t want to miss:
   • On every page of your website
   • On your social media sites (e.g., “information” area on Facebook, Twitter description, your company’s LinkedIn page)
   • In your email signature
   • On your company’s business cards
   • Within your e-books and webinars
   • In your pay-per-click ads
   • In all brochures and direct mail pieces.

The quality of your email list will have a direct and significant effect on the profitability of your email-marketing program. If you need more help in building and maintaining a high-quality email list, FulcrumTech can help. Email or give us a call at 215-489-9336, and we’ll get you started on building a better list today.