As I mentioned in a previous post, I now have a new routine in my schedule. I’m taking one day a week to learn, re-learn and educate myself on marketing, entrepreneurship, and self-development. In this week’s self-improving session, I read a lot of good tips and articles on how to grow an email list and how to re-engage inactive subscribers. I’m sharing these and more with you.
Today in One Day a Week Is all it Takes
| How to Grow Your Email List |
| Email Marketing Re-engagement |
1. How to grow your email list – neatly.io most recommended tips
Every now and then I take a look at all available opportunities to invite people to sign up for a client’s list. There are countless strategies to grow your email list, from the straightforward website welcome pop-up to the very effective “subscribe to get this guide”.
I separate my strategy in direct and indirect steps to grow an email list.
Direct steps include actions such as:
– Add a newsletter sign-up field that shows on every page
– Include newsletter CTAs in blog posts and social media page descriptions
– For posts that have a second part, you can use a CTA to have visitors subscribe to get the second part
– Add a sign-up form on Facebook
– Ask social followers to subscribe
– Create a welcome on board discount in exchange for a newsletter sign-up
– Use opt-ins for free eBooks, consultations or even discounts
– Use an opt-in that pops on exit intent (just make sure it’s not annoying)
– Include opt-ins and strong newsletter CTAs in pages that get most traffic from organic and referral traffic
– If you deliver physical goods, include a CTA on your Thank You note
– If you have a brick and mortar store, have a QR code banner near your reception
– If you have an offline event or meetup outside your store, organize a giveaway to get people to sign up to your list (this works very well for bridal shops)
Indirect steps include actions such as:
– Build a personal reputation as an expert in your business’ field outside your store by writing on a blog, curating a very beautiful Instagram profile, speak at an event, joining Facebook or LinkedIn groups and networking
– Include a newsletter sign up CTA in your email signature
– Reach out to media and podcasts (provided you have knowledge or a really interesting story – content that will provide value to their audiences)
– Answer questions on Quora, Reddit, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter
– Work with influencers or reach out to create partnerships that will provide perks or valuable content in exchange for email
– Optimize website pages featuring opt-ins and schedule several social updates throughout the year redirecting visitors to those particular pages
– Create landing pages with opt-ins enticing list signup for bonus content, share these pages on social media with different images and CTAs
– Create a SkillShare or Udemy course and inform students there you have a newsletter they can join for more valuable content or special discounts
You can find more list growth strategies on the links below:
2. HOW TO RE-ENGAGE INACTIVE EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
This one is a special kind of an email marketing challenge. You see your list growing, but there are more and more people who stop opening or clicking through your emails.
As nice as a big email list looks (and makes you feel), the more inactive subscribers you get per campaign, the more resources you’re wasting. And that’s especially true if you’re not seeing any conversions.
- Check your email campaign performance. It could be a scary thing to do, but it’s important you know how many inactive subscribers you have. You can perform checkups every campaign or every month (depending on how many campaigns you send out). My rule of thumb is to check on email subscribers who did not open every 5 campaigns for three-four months just to have something to compare data against and then re-engage and cleanup.
- Do your research. Before you start sending out an email asking if they’re still alive, take the time to research and understand your audience. I look at their track record – how often did they open before going completely silent, how did they sign up, when did they do it, have they purchased anything in the shop, if so, what value and if they used any discounts.
- Based on that data I can define this inactive audience and create a re-engagement campaign. I target subscribers who open but don’t click and don’t unsubscribe plus subscribers who did not click any of the last 5 campaigns. The content I create takes into account their experience with the brand. Another thing I do is to target subscribers who did not open recent campaigns but have interacted with a campaign or link on the website.
- Set a campaign goal. Ask yourself what is the goal of your re-engagement campaign and what would be considered a success. One example is re-engaging inactive subscribers (by how much), click-through rate and even sales. Be prepared to part ways with your subscribers when they don’t re-engage. It’s going to be soul-crushing and it will make you feel like you’re sending out breakup texts. But, when you send your next campaign and you see bigger open and click rates, you’ll get back your confidence.
- Tailor your content. To get a feeling of what they like, I look at the emails they did open and clicked. I check the email subject, the visual, the CTAs and the click map. At times, I create several re-engagement campaigns with different content to make sure I appeal as much as possible to their needs and expectations.
Let’s say someone signed up for my email after reading this article, they open two or three other campaigns and then they go radio silent. In my re-engagement email I would send an email marketing focused message linking to a new article on that same theme or sharing a new resource they might have missed. In that same email, I will include a highlighted text that lets them know they can subscribe any time if they no longer want to receive the content.
If you have the budget, another way to re-engage inactive email subscribers is to setup a Facebook ad based on Custom Audiences. Download your email list and upload it in Facebook Power Editor to create a targeted ad campaign based on your actual email list. It’s a chance to interact with subscribers on Facebook and see if they’re still interested in your business.
Learn more about re-engaging inactive email subscribers:
- Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers
- Lessons learned from Airbnb’s Email Specialist – An interview with Lucas Chevillard of Airbnb
- Email marketing at AirBnb: Imagine yourself here
- The Top 10 Ways To Re-Engage Dead Email Subscribers
- How to Use Email to Re-Engage Sleepy Subscribers