Could your business benefit from significant email list growth? I haven’t been shy here with my feelings about the importance of focusing on email list building. Start attracting quality new subscribers (read: potential customers) to your database! I’ll show you how with my three-part series on Email List Growth Success.
Email List Growth Success, Part One: Positioning
Today, we dive in by talking about bait.
Yes, I said bait.
Like fish bait.
What do you put on the line to entice that potential subscriber?
When you go fishing, the type of fish you attract is correlated to the bait you cast. In email marketing terms, the types of email subscribers you attract will directly correlate to what you have to offer your email subscribers.
If you merely ask your customers “Would you like to be on our email list?”, odds are that the answer will be no. Who (besides email marketing nerds in the name of market research, a-hem) needs to be on another email list?
At minimum, your question will be met with another question:
If your customers are turning over their email address to you, they are doing so because of the compelling value that you offer in exchange for their attention.
That’s your bait.
No matter where you go about collecting email addresses from your customers, align how you ask with what you have to offer.
Whether your email program is instructional, informational, motivational, inspirational, or all of the above, be sure that your signup forms and scripts put “What’s in it for the customer” front and center.
Are your subscribers better informed on a specific topic than anybody else? Goshdarnit, be proud of that fact and invite new folks to join the inner circle.
Are your subscribers given exclusive access to products or services not available to the general public? You had better say so (and then make sure that your programming delivers).
Do members of your email list get special pricing on your products or services from time to time? Money talks, and saving money has been scientifically proven to motivate every reasonable person on earth**.
Not sure what your email program value is or should be?
Let’s look at this from another angle – the fish’s perspective.
What kind of fish, er, customer, do you actually WANT? Position your email program value to appeal to that desire, and then consistently deliver value that speaks to that desire with your content.
A great (and commonly used) way to convert a new subscriber to a purchaser is through offering them a coupon for their first purchase. But guess what? You may have just caught yourself a Neverpayfullprice fish when you really wanted to catch a Buyitbecauseiloveit fish. And if you don’t regularly offer price incentives on your service or product, that Neverpayfullprice fish is going to wiggle away in the form of an unsubscribe. Ouch.
You might catch a Statusfish with priority access to product releases. You could snag a Knowitall fish through insider tips, tricks, and how-to tutorials.
Sorry, apparently I can’t stop with the fish analogies and imaginary fish names.
But I think you see what I’m dangling on the line here. Take a look at the email acquisition form on your website. Is it under a “Newsletter Sign-Up” headline? Nobody needs another newsletter, but they might just be interested in knowing about your awesome parties before anybody else. Nobody needs another newsletter, but your perfect customer might love learning three unexpected uses for That Thing You Made to Make Their Lives Better.
Summin’ it up
To experience email list growth, start by identifying what primary value your email program offers. Make sure that your email sign-up forms and staff scripts all position that primary value effectively in order to attract your perfect prospect or stay in touch with your perfect new customer. If you aren’t sure what your email program value is, think about what is attractive to your perfect customer and reverse engineer from there.
Remember that you fish with the bait you cast!