Are you doing enough to grow and nurture your email list? Email is one of the most successful forms of online marketing so find out how to grow and automate your list the easy way.
Key takeaways
- Build an email list: Get strategic with the right strategies like opt-in forms and incentives.
- Nurture leads with content: Make sure you nurture leads with a content-driven approach so they feel heard and trust you at each stage of their journey.
- Automate: Embrace automation to save time and resources while staying top of mind for your leads.
- Bring all these elements together: Integrate these three key strategies to establish a holistic email and content marketing approach to sustain and grow your business
You know as well as anyone how important leads are when you’re trying to grow your business. And, building your email list is one of the most effective avenues for lead generation!
Email marketing continues to be at the top of the list for attracting and inspiring audiences since people check their email inboxes every day, often many times a day. It’s a very personal way to reach and inspire people.
Beyond attracting leads, you must nurture them through their journeys so they not only convert but keep converting and promoting your brand to other people. The good news – you can do it by focusing more on relevant content and automation techniques.
This comprehensive guide gives you all the info you need to build, nurture, and automate your email list to give your business the boost it needs!
How to build an email list for business success: The basics
The less-than-ideal news is that an email list isn’t built overnight. It takes time and practice, just like anything worth doing. It’s an intentional process that requires understanding what your precise goals are for email marketing.
But, with the right strategies, you can start building that email list right now in a way that leads to business success. Try these simple tips to get started:
- Opt-in forms: You may already have people visiting your website, whether from Google, social media, or links on other websites. Why not get these visitors on your email list? Include simple opt-in forms so people can sign up with just one click.
- Incentives: A desirable exchange is what leads want. Give them something valuable – like an eBook download or access to a gated section of your website – if they sign up for your newsletter. They’ll probably be intrigued by that free content or access.
- Social media integration: Make it fast and easy for people to sign up on social, too. Once you’ve caught their attention with a post or follow, take it a step further with a sign-up option to learn more.
- Use a CRM: Empower your list-building strategy by incorporating a CRM platform (that is, customer relationship management). You can stay organized and start segmenting so you understand where people came from and what their pain points are.
Here’s an example of simple email list-building in action:
A lead visits your website because they’re looking for your specific type of service. They see a pop-up to sign up for your newsletter, which you say provides industry stats and news, alongside helpful bits of info each week related to the lead’s industry.
They sign up in less than a minute, even if they’re not ready to buy your services just yet. They want that valuable information coming to their inbox for free. And just like that, you have their name and email address. You are asking for that bit of personal info in exchange for the lead receiving information they’re looking for from a trusted source.
These strategies are simple. But they set you up to build your email list and get valuable lead info you need to grow and understand your audience. Then comes the nurturing.
Next: Nurture leads with great content
Once you have a lead, the work’s not done. You have to nurture them so they continue to stay interested and eventually convert. It’s the same story for your email list. You need to keep inspiring and exciting leads on your list with exceptional content – and that means well-written, well-designed, and extremely relevant information.
Great content builds trust with your email list. You want them to see you as their go-to source for info authoritative info in the field.
You need to first understand the buyer’s journey and what that looks like for your target audience, and then create content for each stage of that journey. Here’s a glimpse at those three stages:
- Awareness: This is when people are simply looking for information to learn something. Your content should be centered around building knowledge, not selling.
- Consideration: Stage two is when you need to show people that you understand their unique problems so they start to trust that you can help solve them.
- Decision: Here is where you can begin encouraging leads to convert since you’ve already shown that you know your stuff and that you understand where they’re coming from.
Think of how to create an out-of-this-world customer experience for leads, no matter the stage they’re in. Because, as a PwC study found, 73% of customers say the customer experience is an important factor when they make purchasing decisions, and they’re willing to pay more for it.
With the right content, your leads will feel nurtured and trusting. And those are ingredients for long-lasting customer relationships.
Now, it’s time to find out how automation helps you do it a whole lot quicker.
Leveraging automation for your email list
Any marketing strategy requires the best tools and tricks to be as efficient and effective as possible. The process of building your email list is monumentally improved when you leverage automation – a saving grace for your time and bottom line.
Marketers spend way too much time on manual tasks, whether it’s handling data, updating databases, crafting emails, or managing lists each time.
Instead of doing more of the same old, it’s time to embrace automation in lead nurturing. It offers benefits like these:
- Using automated tools helps you craft and schedule email campaigns so you don’t have to send them out manually.
- Automation features help you check for errors before sending or viewing what an email will look like on a mobile device or desktop.
- Creating drip campaigns using automation allows for consistent, timely content.
- You spend less time figuring out when it’s time to send an email or who you’re going to send it to.
- Automation makes segmenting your audiences into relevant groups extremely easy.
- There are automation tools available for businesses of all different sizes.
Automation is key in helping you nurture leads. You can craft simple reminders that go out at the right intervals to certain segmented audiences. This helps you stay top of mind for them, and you don’t have to lift a finger in the moment to ensure they get the message.
Start saving your time and resources by embracing automation so you build your email list the right way. The best part is that these three key steps – building, nurturing, and automating – fit together perfectly in your strategy.
Integrating these email strategies for maximum impact
You won’t be able to succeed with lead generation unless you focus on these three components: building your email list, nurturing leads with content, and embracing automation.
These three components work together synergistically to create one exceptional experience and journey for leads. You want to create a holistic email marketing strategy that combines these elements.
For example, for each of your email campaigns, you need content that will first get people to sign up for your updates and then nurture them along the way to conversion. This content is all related, and you put it to work through automation tools. Building, nurturing, and automating thus ensure that people are getting your messages at the exact right moment and that those messages are hyper-relevant to what they’re experiencing.
Embracing automation and technology also helps you measure the success of your email list efforts with data tracking and analysis capabilities. With that kind of knowledge and power under your belt, you’re well on your way to long-term business success.
Get the content you need for more effective lead generation
Crafting your plan to boost lead generation starts with the right approach to email marketing. Your email list is one of the most valuable tools your business can have, and you have the control to build the list you want.
By then leveraging content and automation to nurture that list, you set up your business to increase conversions. And, you connect more meaningfully with your target audience in the process.
Need tasty, custom content to make all of this happen? When you don’t have the time or expertise to create sizzling content, you need the experts at ContentBacon. Our team delivers a marketing strategy that is driven by a deep understanding of your audience and the best ways to excite them.
Get enhanced lead generation from ContentBacon. Contact us now to get started with amazing, customized content for email marketing and more.
