Email marketing – how to build a subscriber base
Email mailing is a marketing tool that allows you to promote and promote an Internet resource and a business as a whole. However, for the success of this industry, it is important to have a list of subscriptions from interested, active and loyal users. The success of an advertising campaign depends on the quality and volume of the list.
The increase, relevance and stable operation of this technology is one of the top priorities for marketers. Therefore, the question of how to build a subscriber base is a top goal for advertisers.
This material will consider recommendations for solving the problem through various approaches. However, regardless of which methods will be included in the work, it is necessary to make sure that they are focused on a potential audience and the legality of the action. With regard to the last point, it is implied that the client approves the receipt of letters and the use of his personal information. There is also a double opt-in confirmation.
What not to do with emails
The purpose of creating this campaign is to positively interact with the site, company or platform from the moment of authorization to receiving SMS. Consider methods that do not fall under the category of legal and effective methods. And therefore undesirable in application due to their negative consequences for business:
- Purchasing a list of subscriptions. You can often find offers to sell a valid list according to the subject of the resource. But his purchase, as a rule, does not live up to expectations.
- Accumulate a list from open sources, that is, social pages, forums or announcements.
- Include in the list of persons from incoming correspondence. Sometimes the list includes people who once wrote to the company's mailbox or applied through corporate contacts.
- Use software to find data. Such programs determine unencrypted addresses on Internet pages and enter them into the database. But who owns them is not known.
- Find customers using automatic generation through software that independently generates random boxes and lists them. The likelihood that the results will contain valid contacts of suitable persons is practically zero.
These methods do not achieve the goal for a number of reasons: people did not give consent to receive SMS, the quality of the summary is low (non-target audience, invalid data, etc.), there is no focus on interested users.
In addition, according to the law, without the approval of messages by the owner of the mailbox, mailing is considered illegal. And punished with a fine. The effectiveness of these methods is also low, because most often such SMS end up in the spam folder or are blocked by the client.
To get into the inbox tab, all notifications go through three stages of verification. In the email service, in the postal service and at the user himself. They can be blocked at any stage without consent. Therefore, sending them through such methods was inappropriate.
Email Mailing – Preparatory Stage
How to attract subscribers to an email newsletter – carefully prepare the basis for the search and apply the best ways, taking into account the characteristics of the resource, the company's activities and marketing trends.
First of all, you need to understand what goals are set for the list, that is, what exactly you want to achieve with this advertising move. So it is necessary to make an approximate portrait of the target user. It is important to know: who is interested in the activities of the company, its products or services, who is interested in it, in what situations it most often happens. Modeling the image of the target audience helps to better understand their needs and requirements, and therefore provide what they require. The main characteristics are usually distinguished:
- floor;
- age category;
- geographical position;
- marital status;
- the presence of children;
- specialty or type of activity;
- position;
- interests, hobbies, etc.
The list of these factors may grow depending on the audience itself and the direction of the business platform.
A review of this focus also addresses the issue of geotargeting. Geographical restrictions can more accurately disseminate information, that is, if the organization's activities cover only one city, it makes no sense to attract people from abroad or remote regions, etc.
Having drawn conclusions on the main points, it will be far-sighted to conclude the results in a table, where later it will be easier to add subscribers for email newsletters, correct their personal data, delete unnecessary contacts (for example, who have not stopped reading messages).
After this preparatory stage, you can begin to apply the methods of attracting the audience themselves. Consider the TOP of the most effective, affordable and legal ways to develop the marketing business.
Offer to agree to a subscription in the site's shopping cart
One of the most important moments in organizing the activity of a web resource is getting approval to receive messages from users. Therefore, it is better to get it during the first cooperation with a person, namely, to offer it to him at the time of making an application for a product, service or product.
To do this, you can make a corresponding button or leave a link. The same tools will also be effective when adding items to the site basket by the guest. In this case, even if he does not complete the registration, the company will have permission to use his mail address to send information.
To stimulate consent from persons (they must mark “I agree" on their own according to the law), it is available to offer email newsletters, and, for example: useful collections, alerts about profitable sales, promotions, interesting materials on the topic, and the like.
Using the subscription form
This tool must be placed in a conspicuous place or in several locations at once. Designing them well and making them unobtrusive are the main goals. The window should attract attention, but not interfere with viewing content.
As a way to make pop-up banners, however, sometimes they annoy the guests of the resource, but also quite often become a source of subscriptions. To understand the feasibility of their use, you should conduct testing and analysis of behavior. Suitable for this:
- Google "Optimization";
- Optimizely;
- Visual Website Optimizer;
If this method gives a positive result, then it is suitable for this site, if people close the dialog box more often or leave the page, then this option only worsens the overall performance of the site.
In this block, the main thing is to provide a mandatory column for filling – an e- mail address. Additional fields can be "Name", "City" and the like. It is better not to put many points, as users do not like to enter a lot of information to get what they want.
Also at this stage, it is important to tell why this manipulation is necessary, what the client receives as a result, how often messages will come and specify the content (that is, what the SMS will be about).
Use a discount or a profitable reward
Stimulating the target action is quite simple if you use the right levers of influence. They can be a discount, free shipping, bonus. Also, a personal offer in the loyalty program, an exclusive price, an invitation to a sale, any event for confirming consent to receive messages from the company will give a result.
These offers should be clearly articulated, beneficial to the user and attractive. In this case, he will approve the subscription and join the list of available mailing addresses.
However, it must be remembered that promising benefits is only half the battle; you also need to keep your word. Otherwise, otherwise the person will unsubscribe from emails and block the sender.
Prize draw
Once in a certain period (once a year, month, week), you can hold this event on a page on the Internet or social networks. Such advertising will not only increase the traffic of the resource, but also bring new recipients to the list. However, this will be effective only if the stipulated mandatory condition is consent to receive SMS. That is, only those who put a mark in front of this item and left their contact details of the mail will be allowed to participate in the competition.
You also need to remember the rules for organizing such events: the rules should be simple, understandable, easy to implement, and the rewards should be useful for participants. You should not forget about the time limit, because when you are reminded that the draw is ending, the incentive to participate increases (in order not to miss the profit due to delay, many more willingly agree to subscribe).
Free webinar, lesson, master class
Email subscribers will be added to the list if they are interested in the company itself. It is possible to get the attention of the guests of the resource if you provide them with useful information about your activities, share experience, talk about production, etc.
For example, if a company has its own workshop or produces any products, people will always be interested in getting to know the process closer and seeing everything with their own eyes. And for the sake of this, the majority, without hesitation, will leave the mail address and agree to receive letters.
It will be useful to demonstrate the quality of the work of the organization. For example: to test a new product with the participation of a popular person or an expert, to conduct comparative and demonstrative experiments, during which it will be seen how the novelty is better and what are its differences.
Such a direct channel of communication with the audience through email newsletters is a popular information exchange format, and therefore it will appeal to potential users. It will be good to use all the possibilities of interactive interaction during the campaign and actively answer customer questions. So, it will be profitable to hold a marathon on pages in social networks, however, with one condition for participants – to be subscribed to the newsletter. Limiting the number of places for viewing will have a positive effect, as this will create a sense of the uniqueness of the offer.
"Viral" content
Marketing is often based on the chain reaction phenomenon. That is, when information is transmitted from one person to another, and from him to a third, and so on. This allows you to reach a large audience and gain user loyalty through reputation. After all, if the company is advised by the customers themselves, it means that they are satisfied with the quality.
To use this channel to attract subscribers for email newsletters, you need to create interesting and useful messages. Which recipients want to share with others, post on their pages.
Entertaining texts on the subject, research and testing will help in this. Of course, such messages are difficult to create. But due to them, you can get the most loyal customers, who themselves will become an advertising tool.
It is possible to stimulate the number of recipients in the database by attracting them with the help of an attractive reward. So for a subscription, you can give free courses, lessons, books, products, etc. The limited number of places to participate, the benefits and no need to pay will do the trick. And the company will receive consent to send messages, and the client will benefit.
It is worth making such proposals creatively and unobtrusively, focusing on the uniqueness of what is happening. In addition, it will help to attract the audience to the products. After all, if the user got it almost just like that and he liked it, he will probably want to receive not only SMS. But also to use the goods in the future.
simple requests
Asking to subscribe to the newsletter from the service is not difficult. However, as well as offer to share this message with other interested people. If there are already several stable addresses available, then in the next piece of information for them, you can gently ask them to perform a targeted action.
This will allow you to find even more loyal users, increase conversion and get recommendations for reputation. To emphasize the importance of this process, it is good to write words of gratitude to the client and remind you of upcoming profitable offers.
Leave a direct link to the subscription form
Email marketing services often create special pages through which you can quickly subscribe to receive emails. These sources are easy to share on social networks and partner resources.
For example, when a person leaves a review about a product on the site, you can thank him for the comment and leave a link, offering to subscribe and not miss the assortment update or sale.
Share the source is available in the format of a promise of benefits for everyone who leaves an email address. For example: the first 10 subscribed customers will receive a discount or a bonus upon purchase, order.
It is also convenient to place useful messages on third-party resources that are similar in subject matter. So, in blogs, groups and online communities, you can publish an article and leave a link to subscribe. It is advisable to choose popular sites with a large audience coverage and write ads not only as advertising, but also as informative texts.
It is necessary to choose partners not from competitors, but among similar sites with similar topics. For example, a sporting goods store might advertise an athletic apparel platform, a veterinary clinic with a pet supplies resource, and so on. Such cooperation will be beneficial for both business owners, increase the number of recipients and increase conversions.
It is possible to carry out such work with departments of stores and centers that will give leaflets at the checkout, where the terms of subscription and the benefits from it will be indicated.
Social media
The mailing list can be replenished through a marketing campaign on pages in social networks. On such sites it is easy to reach a large number of potential customers. And advertise a new product to them in exchange for permission to send emails.
At the same time, such platforms are good because they allow guests to subscribe without entering data in the fields. Because they will be filled in automatically using information from accounts.
Such sites allow you to interact directly with users and use the above mentioned company promotion techniques. For example, hold drawings, webinars, marathons. An embedded link can be contained in an ad, photo, video, due to which it can be made noticeable, but at the same time unobtrusive and not annoying.
Blog Advertising
A blog is a platform that allows you to attract traffic to the site from search engines. And also to attract visitors, to promote the services, goods of the organization. Therefore, its conduct has a positive effect on the state of the business and marketing strategy.
As long as you maintain a useful source, people will want to watch it on a regular basis. Therefore, placing links and messages for a subscription by mail in it will be a far-sighted decision. In messages, it will be possible to notify about updates, warn about changes and the release of new blog materials. Therefore, those who are regular customers will certainly want to use the service.
If the company does not yet have such a section, it is worth considering creating it. Because subscribers for email newsletters are actively coming from YouTube. This resource is popular and has many users. Therefore, promoting your page on it will raise the ratings of the overall site. And will certainly help in doing business. In addition, with such a tool, it will be possible to use most of the methods described above. For example, hold webinars, upload useful videos with master classes and informative articles.
Hello bar
Newsletter subscriptions can be placed in a variety of formats. One of the results is a narrow bar with an alert on the site, which follows the scrolling of the page. That is, the form is in the field of view throughout the entire time of viewing the content. And also does not interfere with the viewing of content and contains a concise and useful message to the audience.
A mass message to the audience in the form of understandable phrases helps to find new recipients without effort. Because everyone who views these sites is already, as a rule, interested in the activities of the organization.
findings
These techniques are common tricks on how to build a subscriber base without a lot of investment. However, their application in the work is not enough to achieve results. After selecting methods, testing them and developing a suitable strategy, you need to send messages that will be read. And weed out those that stopped doing it.
In the process of work, losses in the form of unsubscribes cannot be avoided even when writing useful texts. This is due to the fact that the recipients may change interests, hobbies, needs. And they no longer need to use such a tool. Often people sign up for a discount or a lucrative reward. And in the future, their products or services are not interested, and this is the norm.
In such situations, it is important not to stop and constantly develop the marketing campaign. Collecting more and more contacts to send messages and removing those who do not send letters at all (it makes no sense to work for those who do not need it). But in the latter case, it would be far-sighted to send a warning SMS. Which will contain a link to renew the subscription.