What exactly is email list growth?
Email list growth is the process through which companies increase the number of email subscribers on their mailing lists. Email lists are significant since they allow for consistent communication between a company and its customers.

And, since email marketing has greater conversion rates than any other sort of marketing communication, email list expansion should be at the top of every marketer’s priority list.

However, an email list isn’t only for contacting a large number of people. It’s also about avoiding churn and keeping your current audience.

What is churn and how can you avoid it?
Marketers use the word “churn” when subscribers cease interacting with emails in one of two ways: opting out or becoming inactive. While it is usual for customers to churn (25% each year), reducing churn is an important priority for businesses and marketers. Quality user interaction is the most effective approach to reduce churn. And the greatest method to engage people is to provide them with relevant material.

In summary, you must target people who like your brand and want continuous, dependable updates on your services.

Instead of purchasing a list or merely appealing to a large audience, concentrate on developing your list with the appropriate individuals. By concentrating your efforts, you will reduce the likelihood of losing subscribers and, more significantly, promote email list growth for your company.

What are some strategies for growing an email list?
Allow users several opportunity to opt in.
Encourage registrations across all platforms.
Improve your signup forms
Give folks a reason to join up.
Set content and frequency expectations.

1. Allow users several opportunity to opt in.
   Have you ever read a blog article, liked what you read, and wanted to sign up for the newsletter?

But there’s a problem: you already closed that annoying subscription pop-up. What happens next? Hopefully, the site will be understanding and you will be able to simply find another means to subscribe to the newsletter. A website that provides several options for people to opt in is more likely to generate subscribers.

Provide numerous signup choices.

In the same manner that you want sites to make registration easier for you, you should provide your users a variety of alternatives. If you want a nice and uncomplicated user experience, make the registration process easy to identify and complete out, and provide users with many signup options.

The photographs above, obtained from Ali Edwards, provide one illustration of this. A newsletter signup pop-up appears when you visit the site. If you exit the pop-up without registering, you may still sign up in the bold footer.

Opt-in twice
With that stated, it’s also critical to ensure that your subscribers actually desire to be included to your list. While it may seem that requiring customers to confirm their opt-in is pointless, you may really obtain a more committed set of subscribers via confirmation.

These subscribers are more likely to stay on your list, which will aid you in combating high churn rates. Furthermore, this confirmation reduces the likelihood of people flagging your emails as spam.

Above, you can see a basic double opt-in email from Halo Top Creamery. The text is straightforward, yet it fits the brand’s character. Users may skim this email fast and click the CTA.

2. Promote sign-ups across all platforms.
   While pop-ups and buttons are necessary, they will not appeal to the whole audience. Some users will need a stronger incentive to join up. To put it another way, how can you mix advantages with convenience? The solution is simple: by producing high-quality material.

Your website
Assume you have a blog article that ranks first on Google for its intended term. (Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back.) Let’s imagine someone searches for that term and ends up on your blog article. If they’re only seeking for a solution to a query, they’re unlikely to sign up for your newsletter.

That is, until you make it worthwhile for them. You may do this by providing content upgrades and other valuable downloads such as PDFs, ebooks, and courses. The user must submit an email address in order to obtain whatever amazing material you’re presenting. A printable meal planner might be your content update if you’re a food blogger. If you’re a writer, it may be an ebook or a course.

The offer in the Duct Tape Marketing example below is a free SEO playbook. Users merely submit their email address and are promptly sent a free ebook, making the process of joining up that much easier, advantageous, and handy.

Using social media
But what if your users are significantly more socially active? There’s no reason you can’t integrate the email registration procedure to your social networks, whether you have a large following or a few committed followers.

Cristina Trinidad demonstrates how to simply incorporate a newsletter link on practically any social media site in the example above. In her Twitter example, she adds the registration link and a giveaway chance in a pinned tweet.

However, Twitter isn’t the only option to reach out to social media users. You may also add a newsletter link in your Facebook banner picture, send registration information out on a monthly basis, and make Pinterest pins that link back to your newsletter.

Instagram is one of the finest social media platforms for growing your email list since you can include links in your profile and stories.

Catskill Animal Sanctuary offers a newsletter link in their profile quickly after a brief introduction to their brand and purpose. While this business has chosen a more serious tone in its marketing, you may adopt a lighter tone in your own.

In fact, Instagram stories are ideal for fun promotions that, ideally, appear organic rather than salesy to viewers. Take a look at how Trello utilizes the “swipe-up” function in a hilarious tale to attract users to visit their website.

Text-to-join
You may also allow people to type their names into your list. This is another another method of attracting clients via ease. These text-to-join updates may be posted online, in physical venues, and on social media.

Take a look at the above text-to-join tweet from Women Like Us. They not only provide the ease of a text-to-join newsletter campaign in this tweet, but they also explicitly define expectations for the material members would get.

3. Improve your registration forms
   Signing up people is nothing new, but the text and imagery you employ should confound assumptions. Is your registration form only a graphic? How can you improve the image of your users, particularly those who are continuously bombarded with images and photos?

The same is true for the copy you’re using. Everyone wants readers to sign up for their newsletter, so how can copy differentiate your message? Put yourself in the shoes of the reader and ponder what would pique your attention. Are there any instances that have previously piqued your interest? If so, how can you incorporate their designs into your own website?

Take note of how the strong colors and negative space in this Studio DIY email pop-up quickly grab visitors’ attention. The pop-up is straightforward rather than bombarding users with information. The text is also new since it is written from the newsletter’s viewpoint rather than the blogger’s.

Change things up
How many forms are presently available in your registration form? If you’re not receiving the signups you desire, it might be because your barrier to entry is too high.

Signups drop for every additional form users must complete out, therefore get rid of any unnecessary forms you can. Don’t ask for your user’s surname or location throughout the registration process if you don’t need them straight away. Do you intend to provide a birthday discount to your user? If not, you do not need the birthdate form.

Try out several forms to find which ones perform the best. If more people sign up using a simpler form, explore another method of gathering information from your users, such as include a “get-to-know-you” or quiz CTA in a welcome email, like Peloton does below:

On Peloton 4, you now have a new follower. Give folks a reason to join up.
We all like receiving free gifts. As a result, rewarding signups is a very successful method of attracting members. Signups may be incentivized through conventional methods such as a prize or a contest. This will motivate individuals to join up and spread the word about your offer.

Giveaways allow you to attract consumers across many platforms. Create a scheme in which referrals and signups are exchanged for entries to encourage individuals to spread the word.

An example from JewelScent is seen above, where signups were rewarded with jewelry candle contest entries. Entrants that followed JewelScent on social media earned additional entries, which increased JewelScent’s social media presence. JewelScent got 15,675 submissions in total, with somewhat more than 20% of those contestants being new members to their list.

Affiliate marketing
Hosting an ambassador program is another approach to encourage people to join up. Existing members in this sort of service may recommend others on an ongoing basis for rewards and bonuses. This is very beneficial since consumers who get benefits are less likely to drop out of the email list later, minimizing churn.

The affiliate program at Society6 is designed to reward current customers by enabling them to earn a percentage on referrals.

Cart is reserved (with the best offer available)

5. Establish content and frequency expectations.
   It is critical that you create expectations for your users about the material you want to provide and when you intend to send it. Users will subscribe to your newsletter if they believe it is relevant. They will either opt out or stop opening your emails if the topic becomes irrelevant.

So, how can you ensure relevance? Be upfront about your objectives from the outset. If you publish a weekly email describing blog items, let readers know they can anticipate weekly updates.

Blogger Becca urges readers to subscribe to her email in the following example from Easy Cheesy Vegetarian. She says they’ll get two recipe emails every week and nothing spammy. Users know how many emails they will get and what sort of material they will receive, making registration seem safer. This also reduces the probability of people opting out due to irrelevant information.

Finish up
Increasing the size of your email list may seem to be an insurmountable undertaking, but there are methods to engage your users and persuade them to subscribe to your newsletter. In the case of email list expansion, quality trumps quantity.

You want people to understand precisely what they’re receiving when they sign up, and they should be aware (and confirm) that they’ve agreed to receive your newsletter. This shows that they are interested in your material and want to be kept up to date.

Go outside your site to discover these users. To generate interest, use social media, SMS messages, and incentive-based programs. Then, keep engaging subscribers with relevant information and benefits. If you follow these suggestions, you’ll soon have a large list of engaged subscribers.