5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new sales opportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there’s no guarantee they’ll return later.

But when you build an email list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.

Here are five ways to integrate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best prospects:

1. Build an opt-in form on your home page.
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to create a list is to integrate an email opt-in form into your home page. To get attention, place your form “above the fold,” so visitors can see it immediately and don’t have to scroll down.

To get an opt-in form code, you’ll first need to sign up with an email marketing services provider, which will cost you up to $20 a month. The cost will likely increase if your subscriber list becomes larger than 5,000 members. This type of company allows you to collect email addresses, manage your lists and send messages to your subscribers. Once your account is set up, log in and follow the instructions in the company’s help section.

Related: Email Marketing is Not Dead (Video)

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating an opt-in form:

• Generally, the less information you require to opt in, the more sign-ups you’ll receive. Most webmasters find that requiring only an email address and first name — or even just an email address — results in the highest opt-in rates.

• You’ll also get better results if you offer a bonus for providing your email address. Many merchants find that delivering a coupon code or free e-book encourages more sign-ups.

• Depending on the email marketing services provider you’ve chosen, you may be able to split test your opt-in form. If so, try designing two different versions of your form that will be displayed randomly to visitors and will help you determine the most effective approach.

2. Include an opt-in option on your About page.
Don’t stop with your home page. Include a second opt-in form on your About page. After all, visitors who arrive on this page have taken action to learn more about you and your business. Encourage them to get to know you even more by joining your email list.

Consider the experience of popular blogger Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. By adding an opt-in form to the main text of his About page, he saw an increase of 446 percent in email newsletter sign-ups over a two-month period.

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