Yesterday we looked at how to add subscribers to your email lists. In this article, we are going to look at some additional interesting ways to get the attention of potential subscribers and extend your reach.
Try using a viral email campaign, that includes something funny or unexpected but has a positive slant. For example, as an April Fool's prank, ThinkGeek sent out an email with offers for phony products that were hilariously funny to capture the attention of their email subscribers. Doing this type of ting, creates a fun but memorable twist for customers to pass along to their friends and associates as well as share on social media platforms.
Another option is to create offers that are designed to be for friends and family as well. A case study for The Bay, a Canadian retail store, found them using coupons in emails that clearly asked the reader to send it along to friends and family. They nearly doubled their list from this exercise, so don't underestimate the power of asking for something to be shared. It highly increases the likelihood of someone signing up for your list, because it was referred from someone they trusted and not a "cold call" email from a company they did not know.
Social media also offers great opportunities to grow email lists. Social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter give your subscribers the opportunity to republish or share your content. This puts your company in front of new potential subscribers that you never had access to before. Also make sure to include a sign-up form on your your Facebook Fan/Company page that allows people to sign up from there as well. Twitter can be a great spot to. Use an incentive like "Sign up for our newsletter and receive FREE SHIPPING on your next order" or another incentive that fits your company's services.
One last note, DO NOT BUY email lists. These are people who don't know anything about your company and did not ask or "opt-in" to receive communications from you. The results of sending emails to a purchased list are poor response results and even worse, the recipient flags your email as junk or spam, which can result in your email platform provider cancelling your account or you are levied with thousands of dollars in fines for violating spam laws.
Email marketing can be a very successful platform for marketing your business if it is done properly. There are tons of options that can be coupled with it like surveys, auto-send emails (emails that are scheduled and go out say once a month that contain non time-sensitive information that your subscribers would find interesting) and much more. Happy marketing.
