The 3 Most Effective Ways to Grow Your Email List. As a content strategist, I ask people about their content marketing goals every day. It’s hard to know where to invest your limited resources. Right now, there’s no easier way to target buyer groups than through Facebook and LinkedIn. But social targeting alone won’t help you. Drive users to a newsletter subscription page with a strong CTA Ads that compel people to directly subscribe to a company newsletter convert surprisingly well, as long as they’re specific (“get the newsletter that’s the secret weapon of the world’s top content marketers”) and don’t threaten to flood the inbox too much (“get the weekly newsletter that’s the secret weapon of the world’s top content marketers”). Content marketing What’s going to get someone to sign up for your email list? People who come from search are usually looking to solve a problem, and they’re happy to sign up for a free resource that provides them with a solution. If there’s one common thread that makes all of them easier, it’s strong content relevant to your target audience. Once you start building a strong email list, an engaged newsletter audience creates a waterfall of engagement across all other channels.
As a content strategist, I ask people about their content marketing goals every day. Sometimes I almost feel like a fast food worker. “Would you like some lead gen with that?”
These goals vary greatly since content can impact everything from sales to customer experience, but there’s one goal that’s pretty universal: growing your email list.
The email newsletter remains the most impactful channel for reaching your audience—a direct line of communication unobstructed by fickle algorithms. But growing that list can be a daunting task. It’s hard to know where to invest your limited resources.
Ascend2 recently tackled this question in its annual email list growth survey. Below is a look at the most most effective tactics, as chosen by 255 marketing influencers.
Let’s dive into the top three, keeping in mind that there’s overlap between each of them.
Social media advertising
I was surprised to see social media advertising at the top of this list, but it’s certainly a tactic we’ve been using to help Contently clients grow their email lists. Right now, there’s no easier way to target buyer groups than through Facebook and LinkedIn. You can drill down to location, job title, income level, interests, and company.
But social targeting alone won’t help you. There are a few strategic moves you can make if you want customers to let you into their inboxes.
1. Drive users to a newsletter subscription page with a strong CTA
Ads that compel people to directly subscribe to a company newsletter convert surprisingly well, as long as they’re specific (“get the newsletter that’s the secret weapon of the world’s top content marketers”) and don’t threaten to flood the inbox too much (“get the weekly newsletter that’s the secret weapon of the world’s top content marketers”).
2. Drive users to the landing page of a premium gated piece of content
I have mixed feelings about gated content—a topic I’ll cover in my next Ask a Content Strategist column—but ads that send people to a great piece of premium content will have a low CPC and, ultimately, a low cost-per-acquisition for your email list, since at least 20 percent of those who get to…
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