Building an email list is one of the most effective ways of online marketing. It is estimated that spending $1 for an email subscriber has an ROI of $44.25. Email also allows you to create a direct communication channel between you and your subscribers.
It is true that most of your subscribers are interested in what you are saying, that’s why they subscribed to your email list the first place. In today’s tutorial, I will show you how to build your own email list in WordPress.
Choosing an Email Service
To build an email list, the first thing you need is an email service provider. These specialized service providers make sure that your emails are delivered correctly and are not ending up in the spam folder.
There are lots of email marketing companies for you to choose from. Being a very competitive industry, the companies always try to keep their offers attractive. Among all the companies, MailChimp and Aweber are arguably the two most popular choices.
As MailChimp could be used for free for up to 2000 subscribers, most beginners prefer this service. On the other hand, Aweber comes with a 30-day free trial. Both services let you customize the emails and keep track of your performance.
Growing your Email List
Once you have chosen an email service, now you need to build your email list. This is the most important and most challenging part of email marketing. The success of your online marketing depends on how successful you are in gathering new subscribers for your email list.
To maximize your email subscription rate, you need to find out the perfect spot(s) where you can display the subscription form. There are some conventional methods that work best with all websites. Let’s see what these are.
Popup Optin Forms
Popup forms or lightbox popups are the most efficient method for increasing your email subscribers. However, this method is the most used method too. Therefore, you need to provide attention to your copy and try your best to convince the visitor to subscribe to your newsletter.
There are some additional methods to enhance the effectiveness of popup forms. For example, you can use the exit-intent technology to display the form when the user is about to leave. Alternatively, you can show the form when the user has scrolled to a particular part of the page. You can also create multiple variations of the form and find out which style works best.
Floating Bars
Floating bars could be added to the top or bottom of your website. Being fixed in their position, these bars remain constant when the visitor scrolls down the page. It is possible to add sign up forms or display a link to the subscription form in the floating bars.
While it is possible to create floating bars manually, you will need a solid understanding of HTML and CSS to do that. Alternatively, you can use the dedicated optin plugins. By using a reliable optin plugin, you can create and customize each aspect of your floating bar.
Fly-in or Slide-in Forms
These types of subscription forms slide from any corner of the web page containing a registration form. Unlike the traditional popups, these forms are considered less distracting. If optimized properly, they could also yield a higher conversion rate for you.
It is possible to trigger these forms in various events like scrolling to a specific part of the page, after a specific period of time, after a period of inactivity, etc. Most optin plugins will let you create fly-in or slide-in subscription forms for your website.
Other Locations
Besides the locations discussed above, there are some other locations that are also used to display the subscription forms. For instance, displaying the form inside the content is a widely used approach. It is also possible to place the subscription form after the content or in the sidebar.
Content locking is a new way of getting more email subscribers, which is getting more popular day by day. In this method, you display only a portion of your content and force the user to subscribe to get the rest of the content. To succeed in this process, make sure that you are providing valuable content.
Final Thoughts
Modern online marketing depends a lot on email marketing. If you want to succeed with your website, you need to build up a solid email list of your own. After reading the above discussion, you should have a clear discussion about how to do that.
So, do you use email marketing? If yes, what’s your experience with it so far? Let me know in the comments. And naturally, if you have any questions about the things discussed above, shoot them now. I will try my best to help you.
