Last week’s email marketing update talked about establishing a relationship with your email subscribers from the moment they give you their email address.  Today, we will talk about all the different ways to collect email addresses to build your email marketing list.

As a Digital Marketing Manager, one of your email marketing objectives is to increase your email marketing list with email addresses from your target audience.  There are many different tactics to obtain email addresses, and you want to use tactics that will attract your target audience.  Of the different methods that are available to obtain new email addresses, pick the ones that are relevant for your brand and your target audience.

77% of marketers ask for email addresses on their website according to Marketing Sherpa’s 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.

Extremely Effective Method to Collect Email Addresses on your Website

My favorite way to collect email addresses on a website is to use a floater.  The image below is an example.

• Looks like a pop-up. However, the floater does not function like a pop-up.
• Floaters have seen a 20-50% lift in website conversions according to Mequoda
• Floaters briefly interrupt the user experience, and the user can easily close out of the floater without affecting their experience on your website.
• Benefit of a floater is that it can appear on any web page where a user enters your website
• Finally, you can configure the floater to only appear on the user’s first visit to your site.
• For more information about the floater please refer to Mequoda’s Use Website Floaters to Increase Email Conversion Rates.

Since the user can easily click out of the floater without providing their email address, you should provide additional methods on your website to collect email addresses. Depending on the layout of your website, find the best place where you can obtain the highest number of email addresses.

Different areas on a webpage to collect email addresses:

• Sidebar
• Header
• Footer
• Middle of Page
• Bottom of Content
• Welcome Gate – Instead of a floater, a welcome gate redirects visitors to a landing page before visitors enter your website.

Before moving on to other email address collection methods, one tip:

Find the best balance in placing the right number email address collection options on your website that will not hinder your target audience’s experience on your website.

As a Digital Marketing Manager or an Email Marketing Manager, you should go through all the different options of collecting email addresses and evaluate which options work best for you. It is important to maximize the number of ways to collect email addresses to help you reach your email marketing objectives.

29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses to Build Your Email Marketing List

1. Website registration page
2. Social Media sharing buttons in email
3. Registration during purchase
4. Online events (webinars, podcasts, webcasts, virtual tradeshows)
5. Facebook registration page
6. Email to a friend for content on your website
7. Paid search
8. Blog registration pages
9. Co-Registration programs
10. When someone comments on your content
11. When someone downloads content from your website
12. When someone sends you a message on your contact us page
13. Ask your current customers
14. Via QR codes
15. Using Twitter’s lead gen cards
16. Place a link to your website registration page in your Social Media updates
17. Forward to a friend link in your promotional emails
18. When someone makes a purchase in your brick and motor store
19. At the end of an online survey
20. During tradeshows
21. During presentations
22. During offline events
23. Put an offer on the back of your business cards
24. Put a link to your website registration page in the signature of your emails
25. Giveaways (See infographic under the additional resources for ideas)
26. Incentivize your employees to collect email addresses during sales calls
27. Ask Trade Associations or local Chamber of Commerce for space on their websites to promote your website registration
28. Send a post card to your mailing list with a link to your website registration page
29. Leave postage paid email sign-up cards behind when you visit clients

As you can see, there a lot of ways to collect email addresses to build your email marketing list. Not all of these options will be applicable to your brand, but it is worth taking the time to investigate these different options. Use email address collection methods that make sense for you, your brand, and your target audience.

Happy Email Address Collecting

Sources

• Marketo‘s The Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing
• Marketing Sherpa Article – Marketing Research Chart: 63% Say Registration during Purchase Effective for List Building
• Constant Contact’s A Step-by-Step Guide to Collecting Customer and Member Email Addresses

Additional Resources

• 12 Fantastic Facebook Contest Ideas To Grow Your Email List [Infographic] from Jeff Bullas
• Marketing Sherpa Case Study – Copyblogger’s Email List Grows by 400% Using Free Paywall to Access “MyCopyblogger” Content

Next weeks Email Update: Maintaining a High Quality Email List

Learn More about Digital Marketing Manager, Cindy Plough