Email List Growth: Acquisition Tactics You Can Use

Your email list is one of the most powerful things your brand owns. It’s a list of customers or potential customers who are interested in what you have to say and care about your brand. And your email list growth is obviously an important part of that.

But for many brands, growing their email list is a challenge. Gaining quality subscribers can be difficult, but there are many acquisition tactics you can use to grow your email list!

The Importance of Email List Growth

Growing your email list is paramount to scaling your business.

Many brands choose to focus on social media rather than their email list, but as we saw with the day-long Instagram outage in 2021, no social platform is guaranteed.

Your email list, however, is something you own. This is a list of people you can market to and interact with — so email list growth is of the utmost importance.

Low Effort Ways to Grow Your Email List

Include a Link in Your About Section

If someone cares enough about your brand to learn more in your About section, they might be interested in signing up for your email marketing list. Take advantage of that intent and add a link to sign up for your email list.

Share Your Newsletters

Some people might not be aware of the value your newsletters provide. Consider sharing a screenshot or portion of your newsletter on your social channels to show what they’re missing out on.

Put it on Facebook

Incorporating your brand’s email newsletter into your Facebook page can be a lowkey way to advertise it. Place it next to your social icons in your cover photo, if you include it, or use the Facebook CTA button on your profile to encourage email list sign-ups. In your Facebook bio, include updates about your email newsletter including special offers and more.

Medium Effort Ways to Grow Your Email List

Add a Form on Your Website

Adding a form to your website is one of the easiest ways to grow your email list. Whatever CMS system you use to collect and organize contacts, you can embed a form on your website, either in a section on each page or as a pop-up form. The form can be as simple as just collecting their email address — making it simple is key! No need to ask for tons of information at this stage. If they purchase, you’ll get their name then.

Host a Contest on Social

You’ve likely seen brands all over Instagram host contests to increase their following. You can do the same thing but for your email list! This is a great way to get your Instagram followers to become email subscribers. Offer an incentive for followers that subscribe to your email list — it could be a free set of products, a discount, or exclusive access.

Offer an Incentive

Offering an incentive to encourage people to sign up for your email list is one of the most popular and successful acquisition tactics you can use. Most brands will offer a percentage off your first or next order (usually between 10–15% off). Not only does this encourage people to sign up for your email list, but it also encourages them to purchase sooner.

Additionally, you could offer an incentive in the form of an ebook, downloadable PDF, or another offering specific to your business.

High Effort Ways to Grow Your Email List

Host an In-Person (Or Virtual) Event

Events are such a fun and engaging way to collect email addresses — however, they require a lot of effort. First, you need to plan and then host the actual event, which can be expensive and time-consuming, even if it’s a simple and virtual event. Additionally, unless the event is virtual, you’ll only be able to invite people who live within a specific radius of your event. Considering all these factors is important; however, it can earn you lifelong email subscribers if done right.

Run Facebook Ads

Looking to take a more proactive approach to increase your email subscriber list? Look no further than Facebook ads. This does require the up-front monetary investment and obviously works best if you can offer an incentive alongside the sign-up — like a percentage off or gift with purchase.

Run a Promotion with Another Brand

Co-branded promotions are a great way to expand your email list with new subscribers. Partnering with the right brand is key — you want to partner with someone who is not a direct competitor but whose primary audience aligns with yours. So, for example, a zero-waste beauty brand might partner with a sustainable jewelry brand to offer a bundle of each of its products.

Looking to work with a world-class email marketing agency? Reach out to the team at Blue Wheel.