Last week, I kicked off a three-part email list growth guide. We started with a lot of fish references, because the value your email program offers (your bait) will attract a certain kind of potential customer (fish). Now that you’ve identified the primary value your email programming offers, we’re ready to go a little deeper into specific tactics with part two our email list growth guide. Let’s talk about easy access.
Obviously, I’m not talking about the kind that comes to mind first when you read the words “easy access”. What are you, still in highschool? Mind out of the gutter, I’m a business professional!
A key element to email list growth success is making sure you never miss an opportunity to stay in touch. You work hard to get people into your store, to earn attention on social media, to generate organic traffic to your website. If you don’t convert that traffic into a sale, the next best thing is to earn the opportunity to stay in touch through your high-value email programming.
Let’s dive into “easy access” as part two of our email list growth guide, shall we?
To start, audit your access points
Where do you interact with your potential customers? Make a list of all of these places, whether it be online, in person, a mix of both. These are your access points, and you should have at least a handful of them. No email list growth guide would be complete without a comprehensive list of where it is you can connect with customers, right?
Next, ask of each access point, “Am I presenting a compelling case for the people I meet to share their email address with my business?” In other words, every time you interact with a customer, do you give them an easy way to keep the conversation going through your email programming?
Finally, as a part of your auditing process, you want to see if it is actually EASY for your customer to opt in. In addition to your customer wanting to hear from you again, they shouldn’t have to jump through a thousand hoops, scroll needlessly, or sign away their firstborn in order to opt in to your email programs.
After the Audit, Create Your Plan
You probably don’t present your email program value at every customer touchpoint. And it might not be super simple for your customers to opt-in from each access point, either. Find the friction in your access point audit and create a strategy to smooth it out.
You might start by having a super consistent email acquisition script. A good formula to use in creating this is below:
Would you like [present the primary value of your email program as identified in the part one of our email list growth guide]? I’d love to add you to our [insert frequency, e.g. monthly, weekly] [insert program name]. I just need [email address] and [other key data point you wish to capture for segmentation and personalization].
Next, you want to make is SO simple for a customer to opt-in. For point of sale, in person opt-in it can be as simple as coaching your team on consistently leveraging the script above. Or maybe you would want to incentivize email capture with a little bonus, pizza party for [insert lofty goal] new email subscribers in a month, etc. You might also create giveaways to encourage your visitors to opt-in for a chance to win [insert super cool thing your customer might want here] (plus, hear from us about [primary email program value]). Consider using an iPad kiosk so people can plug their contact info and opt in while they’re standing in line or checking out your merchandise!
It gets a little more complicated in the online environment, so here are a few great resources to consider.
On your business Facebook page, consider using the “Add a Button” option to link to your email opt-in landing page. Here’s a quick visual tutorial on how-to!
For Instagram, it’s a little more complicated. Instagram wants to keep the engagement happening within their application. You can use tools like Linktr.ee to enhance the “link in your bio” to link to multiple locations, such as your online shop, main website, and email opt-in page (ding ding ding!).
On your website, in addition to having email opt-in incorporated to your template and prominent on every page, you can create a dedicated landing page for email opt-in. You can also use tools like OptIn Monster to create targeted pop-ups as visitors are getting ready to leave. Word to the wise though: popups can be annoying. Be sure you are positioning your email program value when leveraging a pop-up, if you don’t do it anywhere else…
Finally, review your list growth tactics and tools on the regular
We respect what we inspect. You can spend a lot of time following the steps in this email list growth guide, but if you aren’t monitoring and tracking results, you probably won’t get the traction you are looking for.
Create a regular cadence of accountability to ensure your email list growth is happening. Use the Email List Growth Tracker worksheet I’ve created here. Spot-check your team with secret shoppers from time to time. Ask a friend to visit your website and see how quickly and easily they can signup to hear from your business. And set a reminder every quarter to test the functionality of your sign up forms and other acquisition tools.
Summin’ it up
There you have it: part two our email list growth guide. Easy access to your email program is vital to your email list growth! Audit your access points. Create and implement a strategy to ask at every touch point and make it as easy as possible for your customer to subscribe. Then, check your results on a regular basis to ensure you’re on track.
Next week we’ll wrap up with the final lesson in our email list growth guide. Don’t miss this jam-packed blog post on email list growth tracking and goal-setting.
If you haven’t already, download the list growth tracker to help you monitor your progress towards being an email list growth hero!