Email newsletters are a valuable marketing channel for cross promoting other marketing content and growing your brand’s total audience. With people’s attention shifting online in greater increments, email marketing success rates have seen a significant uptick. To take advantage of email’s ROI, implement these strategies to build your own email subscriber list: 

1. Use an Email Automation Platform

Email marketing platforms like MailChimp, HubSpot, and Constant Constant will streamline your email marketing and promote contact list growth. They have features like contact list hosting so all of your email subscriber contact info is stored in one place, scheduling tools, newsletter signup capture tools like contact forms, and social media integrations to promote your newsletter.

2. Add Signup Forms to Website Landing Pages

Embedding contact forms in landing pages on your website will help to generate sign up leads. Most of the email marketing platforms mentioned above feature contact forms that you can embed on your website to capture sign ups for your email list. Increase the likelihood someone completes one of these forms by embedding them on popular web pages on your website, and use segmented email lists and forms that allow people to sign up for a newsletter on a specific topic. 

3. Promote Your Newsletters on Social Media

Social media channels can be used to share web-based versions of your newsletter. These are basically a URL for the newsletter once it’s published, which is a feature MailChimp offers. You can also promote links to your newsletter signup form across your brand’s social media channels to reach potential subscribers.

4. Link a Signup Landing Page in Your Social Media Profiles

Most social media platforms have a feature where you can add a featured URL to your profile. This is a great place to link to a sign up form for your newsletter. Use a bitly or other link tracking tool to measure how much traffic this ends up driving to your newsletter form. 

5. Have a Consistent Publishing Strategy

Setting a consistent publishing schedule will both help to promote newsletter signups, and to maintain subscribers once you have them as people will know what to expect from you. Publishing too frequently, infrequently, or erratically are all mistakes that will lead to unsubscribes. Use the email automation tools mentioned above to schedule newsletters in advance for whatever cadence you decide upon (ex. Weekly on Wednesdays, monthly, etc.).

6. Add Engaging Content to Your Newsletter

Newsletters filled with engaging content are more likely to be shared and forwarded. Include images, embedded videos or links to videos, infographics, and links to website content to fill your newsletters with content that provides readers with value.

7. Cross Promote Other Marketing Content

Newsletters present an opportunity to cross promote other marketing content like blog posts, white papers, and the visually engaging content mentioned above like images, video and infographics. This strategy has multiple benefits, as it can serve as a traffic driver for your other marketing content and lead toward conversions, and it will also elevate the value of your newsletter, and in turn, increase the likelihood that your newsletter is shared and receives new organic subscriptions.

8. Incentivize Newsletter Signups

Incentive programs for email newsletters can spark an uptick in subscribers. Examples of this technique include promotional codes, discounts and free giveaways in exchange for a signup.

9. Include a Signup CTA at the Point of Sale or Conversion

Adding a call to action to sign up for your newsletter within contact forms, or during the checkout process in an online ecommerce store are great ways to collect newsletter signups seamlessly within the flow of another process. Tools like HubSpot have a feature where you can add a simple checkbox to contact forms for people to opt into receiving marketing emails (aka your newsletter).

10. Make Your Newsletters Easy to Share and Forward

Enabling existing subscribers to share your newsletter is a powerful strategy that can create a network effect around your newsletter. Add social sharing buttons and forwarding buttons within your newsletters to increase the likelihood that readers pass your newsletter along to their contacts.

11. Add a Signup Form Link to Your Email Signature

Similar to adding an email signup landing page URL in your social media profile bios, adding this URL in your email signature will get your newsletter signup form a bunch of free impressions. This is a simple step that can lead to new subscribers, and the link will look natural next to other information that is commonly included in an email signature like a website link and social media icons.

12. Create Valuable Gated Content to Encourage Email Signups

Gated content is a content marketing strategy common in B2B marketing that can be applied broadly. Putting assets like a PDF whitepaper or video content behind a contact form will capture new subscribers to add to your email newsletter contact list. For this strategy to work and not be gimmicky, ensure the content you offer is valuable. Examples include how-to content, guides, and insights that will be educational and helpful for your audience.

13. Run an Online Event

Adding an email opt-in to the signup process for an online event is another seamless way to collect email subscribers. Most event hosting platforms like Eventbrite and Hopin require event participants to sign up with their email address and feature GDPR and marketing email opt-ins within their signup forms, meaning there are no additional steps to make this technique work.

14. Add a Signup Button to Your Brand’s Facebook Business Page 

Facebook business pages have an optional field where you can add an email signup button to the page. This is a low lift, and represents another opportunity to leverage social media to drive newsletter subscriptions.

15. Collect Emails at in-Person Events or in Your Store

This guerilla marketing technique is an age old classic that still delivers. Popular business newsletter Morning Brew got its start using the simple technique of collecting email signups in person. Examples of setting up your own version of this include collecting email newsletter signups during the check in or checkout process at your restaurant or brick and mortar store location, or during in person events by encouraging attendees to leave their business cards or requiring email addresses during the signup process.

16. Include Sign Up CTAs in Blog Posts

Including a CTA at the bottom of a blog post is a standard technique that can be leveraged for newsletter signups. Simply add the URL of your contact form landing page with some copy encouraging people to signup for your newsletter for more information, or include an embedded contact form in your blog posts.

17. Use Social Media Ads

If you have some budget and are willing to invest in your newsletter as a marketing channel, social media ad campaigns can be designed to drive email subscriptions as their conversion metric. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LInkedIn are all channels where you can create ad campaigns focused on email signups. 

18. Promote Your Newsletter in YouTube Videos

If you create video content and have a YouTube channel, YouTube has built in features that enable creators to include CTAs with links that pop up throughout video playback. These popup CTAs are easy to create, and 

19. Add a Popup to Your Website

Speaking of popups, website popups that link to newsletter forms, or include the form right in the popup can be used to target email subscribers. Try adding popups to popular landing pages on your website, and even better, add them to pages about a specific topic and have the popup gather sign ups for a newsletter about that same topic to make it seem less salesy, and more valuable for potential subscribers.

20. Leverage Your Existing Email Contact List

Another grassroots marketing technique not to be overlooked, emailing existing colleagues and contacts to let them know about your newsletter can bolster an existing email list, or gain traction for a new list. This is particularly worthwhile because any conversions that you do receive will be high quality since they will be coming from existing contacts who are already familiar with your and your brand.

Building an engaged contact list is the first step to getting an email marketing strategy off the ground that delivers ROI for your brand. Applying these techniques will enable you to get creative and leverage existing channels to start your own list and add email to your marketing mix.

For more marketing strategies, visit the Brand Credential blog, or check out Brand Credential’s Marketing Resources.