7 Email Acquisition Best Practices for Email Marketing

Email lists comprised of highly targeted prospects and customers deliver higher open and click-through rates and, ultimately, revenue. Therefore, acquiring email addresses for new prospects likely to respond to your email marketing campaigns should be top priority for all email marketers.

Easier said than done, right? Wrong! Building your list is as easy as following established email marketing best practices like those below.

Multiple Touch points

Take every opportunity to request email addresses at various touch points, both on and offline. Online, this includes social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+; website landing pages; and e-commerce checkout pages. Offline, this includes customer service windows and phone calls, point-of-sale stations and direct mail. Be wary of possible data entry issues, both from your employees and new prospects, when collecting data.

Subscribe Buttons

Make subscribing to your email communications easy by including a subscribe button just about everywhere: website pages (like the homepage, About Us page and Contact Us page), blog, newsletter, social media pages and print collateral. Consider including a subscribe button in your actual email communications, too, for when current subscribers forward your messages onto colleagues.

Email Append

A simple way to acquire new email addresses (and reach your current customers) is by attaching email addresses to your postal records via email append. Acquiring email addresses this way allows you to reach a group of buyers that already has a vested interest in your offerings.

Quality Content

Free eBooks, whitepapers and other educational or entertaining web content can be highly appealing for potential prospects, especially if you’re in a high-tech industry. Require those interested in the download to fill out a form with a mandatory email address field in order to receive the download. Make your content so intriguing prospects will want to forward it to colleagues.

Incentives

Email-only specials and promotions, including discounts, exclusive sales and free merchandise or samples, are compelling ways to persuade new prospects to hand over their email addresses. Just be careful to segment your new subscribers into appropriate lists and personalize messages. Otherwise, you run the risk of subscribers tuning you out or openly complaining about your communications.

Webinars, Tradeshows & Networking Events

Webinars, tradeshows and networking events are all excellent venues to connect with prospects face-to-face. Don’t miss these golden opportunities to capture contact information and further the relationships you build online.

Second-Chance Offers

So you captured a prospect’s info after he filled out a web form and sent him a follow-up incentive, but he didn’t bite? Try, try again! Send the prospect a second-chance offer urging him to sign up to receive your emails. In the offer, answer why the prospect would want to sign up for your emails. (Example: “We provide the latest breaking, in-depth XYZ industry content on the web.”)

Want even more best practices for acquiring email addresses? Download “20 Great Ways to Grow Your Email List” today!

photo credit: Leo Reynolds