Grow Your Subscriber List Like a Boss

So, all of your friends and colleagues have tremendous success with email marketing, but you have yet to reap similar benefits for yourself. What’s going wrong?

Email is a great way for small business owners to communicate with customers and grow their business, but it isn’t easy. Whether you lack enough time, talent, or the know-how to create quality emails, there are plenty of challenges that can prevent you from developing a healthy email list.

To help you grow your subscriber list and attain boss-status, here are some tips from the email marketing pros:

Tip 1: Create Compelling Content

The best way to encourage your customers to sign up for and read your emails is by giving them a reason to do so in the first place. Remember, what makes an email great is the audience-centric content that goes inside of it. Your quality content should be engaging, interesting, and well designed so it’s easy on the eyes.

But what if all of your competitors are talking about the same things? To combat this common issue, think about why your business is so valuable to your customers. By focusing on what makes your brand unique, you can differentiate your content in a way that still resonates with your audience.

Social Media Examiner, for example, publishes informative and relevant content about digital marketing in addition to social media. As a result, they’re able to bring more value to their audience.

In addition to content that covers a number of different topics, this email example also proves it’s okay to get into the nitty-gritty of a topic. Content that focus on the why’s and how’s a specific sub-topic can be extremely successful in helping customers.

Tip 2: Offer Valuable Incentives

You probably don’t want to admit it, but some people may be hesitant to sign up for your emails — and that’s okay. Offering an incentive to tip the scales in your favor can be a great way to attract new subscribers. Just make sure the incentive makes value, not only shows it. Sure coupons and freebies are great, but exclusive content, products, or services that can directly benefit your customers can be real selling points.

On Social Media Examiner’s website, you’ll find multiple opportunities to get a free copy of their social media marketing industry report emailed directly to your inbox, such as the one right here:

This is a smart move because 1) People can easily sign up to receive the report anywhere on the website (via lightbox form, sidebar form, etc.) and, 2) who wouldn’t want the latest report on social media marketing from the industry leaders themselves? It’s an incentive that makes value.

Tip 3: Be Mobile-Friendly

Mobile is no longer the future of marketing– we’re already there, and we can’t emphasize this enough. According to Litmus, a web-based application that tests and tracks emails, mobile accounts for 51 percent of all email opens. Fifty-one percent! With that level of traffic coming in through cell phones, tablets, etc., your emails should be easily accessed and viewed on all mobile devices — including ones with multiple screen sizes. With the release of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as other larger-screen Android phones already on the market, this is a detail that can’t be overlooked. Luckily, choosing a mobile-responsive template should do the trick!

And don’t forget about your signup forms, either. By ensuring these are mobile friendly, it’ll be easier for people to sign up for your email list when browsing your website on a cell phone.

A lot of people will be reading your emails on-the-go, and it’s important to keep this in mind when creating email content as well. Think brief bits of information that’s easy to digest. Using a short headline that grabs a reader’s attention, for example, will increase the chance that it’ll stand out in a crowded inbox. And if you really have a hard time determining if your subject line works or not, test it in Litmus’ subject line checker to make sure.

Once again, Social Media Examiner does a great job of not only ensuring their emails are optimized for mobile, but that their signup form can be easily accessed as well:

Before you begin overhauling your email marketing strategy, just keep one thing in mind: it may take time before you reap the benefits. But if you stick with it, you’ll find it’s certainly worth it.

How have you grown your subscriber list? Share in the comments below!

Grow Your Subscriber List Like a Boss