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Can you imagine pouring all your efforts into marketing channels that can be stripped away from you at any moment and neglecting the one channel you control? 

That sounds crazy, right? 

Well, that’s exactly what you’re doing by neglecting email marketing in favor of other marketing channels like social media and influencer marketing. 

If you want to make your small business successful, you need to work smarter, not harder. It’s really hard to compete for attention in the business world, but what if you could create your own little world where you have direct access to your audience? 

You could promote and talk about your business to an already engaged audience that you know is interested in what you offer and might even be ready to buy.

This is what email marketing can do for your small business. If you’re completely new to email marketing and have no idea what it is or where to start, don’t worry—I can help you. 

In this blog post, I will explain how to start building your first email list for your small business. I will also discuss some strategies you should use to grow your email list and some useful dos and don’ts you’ll want to remember. 

So, let’s get into it!

What is Email Marketing, and What is an Email List? 

Let’s start by breaking down some definitions. 

Email marketing is a form of marketing where a business uses email messages to communicate with its audience. You can use email marketing to promote your products or services, make announcements to your audience, or send long-form or short-form content to them. 

You know those emails you receive from your favourite clothing brand, or any of your service providers, or even the ones you get from that one site you forgot you subscribed to? Those are part of email marketing. 

I won’t spend too much time on email marketing in general cause it’s such a broad topic; for this post, I’ll talk specifically about how to start building your first email list. (but be sure to subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss my upcoming posts on email marketing 🙂) 

Okay, so what is an email list? 

An email list ‘is a collection of email addresses used by businesses and individuals to send email messages, newsletters, updates, and promotional material to a specific group of people.’

Your email list contains all the individuals who have willingly decided to receive emails from you. They found your business, liked what you have to offer, and decided they wanted to know more. 

They’ve quite literally given you direct access to them; this is such a huge deal and not something you want to take for granted because, the same way they gave you access, they can also revoke that access if they decide they don’t like your business anymore.  

Some other reasons why having an email list for your business is so important are that it: 

• Increases your customer engagement through personalization and segmentation
• Helps build customer loyalty 
• Helps drive sales 
• Offers you more control than other marketing platforms
• Is cost-effective while also offering high ROI (return on investment)

Are you sold on having an email list yet? I sure hope so. 

Okay, so you know what an email list is, but having one is not enough. To reap any of the benefits I just mentioned, you need to have a GOOD email list. 

Believe it or not, there is a good and a bad email list. A bad email list can be summed up as one you purchased or got for free from another business. Any email list you didn’t get through your audience willingly signing up for is a bad email list. 

They are bad because these lists often have outdated, irrelevant, or unengaged contacts. Because these contacts have not opted in to receive your emails, you get high bounce rates, low open rates, and low engagements, which is bad. 

Bounce rate: is the percentage of emails sent that could not be delivered to the recipient’s inbox ( your goal should be to have a low bounce rate)

Open rate: the percentage of recipients who opened an email out of your total number of subscribers. ( your goal should be to have a high open-rate)

Buying an email list is the same as buying followers on social media. 

DON’T DO IT!

What Makes a Good Email List? 

Let’s look at what a good email list is. 

Opted-in subscribers:

The first and most obvious point is that the contacts on your email list should have explicitly and willingly signed up to receive your emails. In fact, it’s highly recommended that people double-opt into your emails these days. 

Double opt-in: this is when a user signs up for your emails and then has to confirm their subscription on a separate page or email.

Current and correct:

All email addresses on your list should be current and correct. You must clean up your list regularly by removing old and invalid addresses. Having an email list with accurate addresses helps prevent high bounce rates. 

Engaged subscribers:

Of course, subscribers on a good email list should engage with your emails regularly. This means they should open, click, and, when relevant, respond to your emails. This shows that your audience cares about your business and content and will most likely perform your desired action. 

Continuous growth

 Lastly, a good email list is constantly growing. This means new people are finding and liking your business. You should make it a habit to consistently try out new email marketing strategies that can increase your list. 

Step-by-Step Process to Building Your Email List 

Okay, let’s get into the part you really want to know: the step-by-step process for building an email list for your small business. 

Step 1- Get an email service provider (ESP)

So, you’ve decided to get into email marketing. Where do you start? The first thing you need to do is get an email service provider (ESP). An ESP is a software service that will manage all your email marketing needs. 

A good ESP can help you create forms, pop-ups, newsletters, broadcasts, and other types of emails. It can also help you manage, tag, and segment your email list. It can track your email marketing analytics, such as your open rate, CTR, bounce rate, etc. It can also help with A/B testing and creating and sending automated email sequences. 

A/B testing compares the performance of two versions of content to see which one appeals more to visitors/viewers. 

There’s so much a good ESP can help you do; you really can’t have an effective email marketing list without using an ESP, and trying to do everything on your own is not advisable. 

Here are some amazing email marketing platforms you can use for your small business: 

1. Mailchimp
2.  MailerLite
3. Klaviyo
4. Constant Contact
5. Brevo
6. Omnisend
7. HubSpot
8. GetResponse
9. Moosend
10. ActiveCampaign 

And my personal favourite ConvertKit. (affiliate link)

Your chosen platform should depend on your business needs and what you can afford. Personally, I like and use ConvertKit. It’s very beginner-friendly while also having many features and being cost-friendly. 

Step 2- Create Lead Magnets or Freebies 

People love it when a business provides them with value, and they love it more when it is free. When you’re just starting out as a business, offering something of value for free is a great way to attract people to you. 

This is what’s called a lead magnet or freebie. It’s your way of enticing people to sign up for your email list. You’re saying, ‘Hey, I’ll give you this thing for free, and all you have to do is sign up for my email list.’ 

Examples of things you can offer for free would depend on your type of business, but here are some popular options most businesses use: 

• Coupons
• Discounts
• Ebooks
• Templates 
• Consultations 
• Guides
• Presets
• Mini-trainings 
• Webinars
• Fun quizzes 
• Free shipping 

Whatever you choose, just ensure it’s enticing enough for your audience. You don’t want to choose an incentive they don’t care about. 

Step 3- Create your opt-in form 

After choosing your email marketing platform and lead magnet, it’s time to create and design your opt-in form. An opt-in form is also known as a subscriber box or an email signup form. This is where your audience can input their information and subscribe to your emails.

You want to keep your opt-in form simple. These are the things you should include in your opt-in form;

• Content providing value and telling your audience why they should subscribe or offering a freebie for a subscription 
• 1-2 information fields: you can require them to provide only their email; for personalization, you can request their first name and email addresses. I like to do the latter. 
• A call-to-action

That’s it; keep your forms simple and easy to follow so as not to discourage signups.

Step 4- Create pop-up forms 

Pop-up forms and opt-in forms are similar but also different. They are similar in the sense that their purpose is the same (to get people to sign up for your emails), but they differ in their look and design. 

A pop-up form does what the name suggests: It pops up on your screen. While pop-ups have a reputation for being annoying to customers, I think when used strategically, they could be very beneficial. 

With pop-ups, you can decide when customers see them. It could be after they’ve been on your page for a certain amount of time or when they are about to exit. How you design your pop-up should depend on your audience. 

The information you add on your pop-up form can be targeted and more specific to the page it appears on. 

For example, let’s say a customer is reading a blog post on how to create a meal plan for weight loss. You can create a meal-planning template freebie and use a pop-up designed for that page specifically, offering your freebie in exchange for a sign-up. 

Step 5- Place forms strategically on your site 

After creating your opt-in and pop-up forms, you need to decide where to put them. This is incredibly important because where you put your forms can be the difference between a customer finding your forms annoying and leaving and signing up. 

You should put your opt-in forms on every page of your website. This might seem a bit much, but it isn’t. Putting them in areas like your footer, margins, or navigation bar makes them visible to your audience but not so much that they become a nuisance. 

As mentioned, you can design pop-up forms to appear at different times and at different events. You can have several that speak specifically to the page they are on. 

Finding the optimal locations for your forms might take some time and experimentation. When placing your forms, just make sure you consider your audience’s experience and journey. 

Step 6 – Create landing page(s)

A landing page is where a customer lands from a link. It’s different from an opt-in or pop-up form in the sense that it’s a standalone page with only one motive. It is separate from your main page on your website, and its one motive is to generate leads. 

But it’s similar to opt-in\pop-up forms in that it also asks for customer information and has a call-to-action.

As a business, you can have multiple landing pages. In fact, research shows that companies saw a 55% increase in leads when they increased their landing pages from 10 to 15. So, the number of landing pages you create just depends on your business. 

Step 7- Create a welcome series 

The goal of creating all these forms and landing pages is for people to actually click on them and subscribe, but the work is not done once they do that. 

To ensure a person stays on your email list, you need to nurture and provide value to them continuously. A great way to do this is through a welcome series. 

A welcome series is a sequence of emails sent to a new subscriber after they have signed up to introduce them to your brand and business. This series is important in setting the tone of the relationship between your business and them. 

Your welcome series should include emails that introduce your brand and its values, history, mission, and what customers can expect from it. It should also encourage further engagement on other platforms like social media, community groups, etc. It should provide educational content, mention a sale or promo, and have a call to action. 

By following the seven steps mentioned, you’ll be in a great position to start building your email list. However, there’s a lot more you can do to grow your email list. 

Tactics and Strategies to Grow Your Email List

• Try a scroll box 

A scroll box is similar to a pop-up in terms of function; the only difference between the two is timing. With a scroll box, you can trigger your form to show only when your user has scrolled past a certain point. 

A scroll box is more intuitive than a traditional pop-up box in the sense that it can appear based on user interaction. It capitalizes on user engagement by only showing up when your user is engaged and interested in your content and, therefore, more likely to take action. 

• Use a referral program.

Word of mouth will always be a powerful form of marketing. People trust other people more than they trust businesses. Think about it, you’re more likely to take a recommendation from your friend than anyone else. As a business owner, you need to capitalize on this. 

Use your small but growing email list to draw in more subscribers. Then, create a referral program that rewards your customers when they refer someone to your business. The reward could be a discount code, a free item, or an exclusive offer. 

Give your subscribers a reason to spread positive messages about your business. 

• Use checkout opt-ins

I’m sure you’ve seen one when shopping online. When you get to the checkout page, there’s usually a box you can check or fill out to sign up for emails. This is a checkout opt-in. 

It’s a really clever way to target people who are already buying from you. Odds are if they’ve purchased from you once, they are likely to do so again, which makes them great targets to add to your email list. 

• Gamify your opt-in forms.

This is a great tactic often used by retailers but can be applied to most business types. Gamifying your opt-in forms simply means incorporating a game into them. I know this might sound silly, but it really is effective. 

The game used doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as a ‘spin the wheel’ with different offers. Whichever game you choose should be attention-grabbing, simple, offer something of value, and easy to enter. As always, don’t ask for too much information.

• Make a free interactive tool.

A great way to draw people in is through fun interactive tools such as quizzes, calculators, generators, etc. For example, this Hubspot buyer persona generator is a great way to offer something useful to your audience that will make them sign up for your email list.  

The same rules apply in the Gamify point: Whatever interactive tool you offer should be simple, attention-grabbing, and easy to use. 

• Host a free giveaway. 

Who doesn’t love a giveaway? They will always be one of my favourite go-tos for lead generation. If you’re looking to increase your subscribers quickly, try hosting a giveaway. 

Use a social media channel to host one. Offer up valuable and relevant prizes in exchange for sign-ups. 

• Use social media channels. 

Social media marketing and email marketing can go hand-in-hand to produce amazing results for you. If you have a following on any social media accounts, leverage them to grow your email list. 

Facebook—You can add a sign-up button or opt-in form to your Facebook page, create a banner promoting your newsletter and use it as your Facebook cover photo, or add a CTA at the top of your Facebook business page. 

LinkedIn: share links to your opt-in forms, talk about the value in your newsletters, and have a CTA in your Bio. 

Instagram: Include a CTA in your bio, add a link to an opt-in form or landing page, create a campaign around a freebie like an ebook, have people sign up for your email to receive it, and boost posts that lead people to your website. 

With social media, the possibilities are endless. 

• Share previews of your newsletter

Give people a taste of what you offer by posting previews or excerpts from your newsletter. This is a great way to hook and reel people in. But of course the previews you offer have to be extremely valuable for it to grab attention. 

• Collaborate with other businesses.

Collaborating with other complementary businesses is always a great way to expand your business reach. Emphasis on ‘complementary’: You don’t want to partner with a direct competitor because, one, I doubt they would agree to partner with you, and two, you could risk losing your audience to them. 

You want to partner with a business that can add to your reach, not subtract from it. For example, let’s say you own a fitness clothing company. A great business to collaborate with could be a healthy food company; they both offer different services but can still benefit from each other. 

Say both businesses do a joint email campaign. The campaign will go out to your email list and the other business’s list as well. This doubles your reach, exposing your business to a different audience that can benefit from what you have to offer. 

• Use offline tactics

Growing your email list doesn’t have to be a strictly online endeavor, especially if you have a physical location. 

Traditional marketing strategies aren’t dead. Use print materials like business cards, posters, and signs to promote your business. Print QR codes on signs that take people to a landing page and have them subscribe. 

Offer discounts and promos in your physical stores, asking your customers to provide their email addresses to receive the discounts. Participate in community events and conferences to network and promote your business. 

In all your efforts, make sure you’re requesting permission. Your audience should always know what they are signing up for. 

Keep it legal and honest. 

To wrap things up, let’s discuss some do’s and don’ts to remember as you grow your email list.

 It’s always better to do things the right way, even though the results might take some time to show. 

Dos and Don’ts of Email List Building 

1. Do make filling out your form as simple as possible 
2. Do regularly clean your email list 
3. Don’t EVER buy an email list 
4. Do conduct A/B testing on your emails
5. Do make it easy for your subscribers to share and forward your emails
6. Do segment your email list 
7. Do continuously get more visitors to your website 
8. Do focus on the quality of your email list rather than quantity 
9. Don’t send emails without permission 
10. Do make unsubscribing easy 
11. Don’t discourage replies 
12. Don’t send too many emails 
13. Do maintain compliance with legal rules and regulations 

Okay, that’s it for me. I hope you’ve been able to take something from this blog post. Trying to build your first email list for your business as a beginner can be a very daunting experience. I know it certainly was for me, but don’t let that fear hold you back. 

Start off easy with the seven steps I mentioned. Know that growing your email list is not a race to finish fast but rather a continuous process where you’re constantly learning new things. 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns. I love hearing from you!