Building your business on social media today has many benefits. Anyone can start a business, reach diverse audiences, build brand awareness, engage current and future customers, and generate leads and sales using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

However, there’s a flaw. 

You can't control it.

Whether you’re a pro or a newbie, you can wake up one beautiful morning to find your social media accounts banned or hacked for little or no reason. 

Building an email list helps you build a personal and genuine relationship with your customers. Most importantly, you have absolute control over your list.

Still in doubt? Here are a few statistics to clear them away:

• There are at least 3.9 billion daily email users.
• More than 59% of marketers say email marketing is their biggest source of ROI.
• More than half of customers (59%) claimed that marketing emails influence their buying decisions.
• Email users are further estimated to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025.

So, if you’ve just started your email list or looking for ways to grow your existing email list, here are 4 things to implement in 2023.

1. Offer incentives.
2. Convert important content to gated content 
3. Use social media 
4. Run ads
5. Launch a referral program

1. Offer Incentives

When you create an email list, it simply means you want to know your customers better. Think of it like dating; it’s a two-way street and you’re trying to build a relationship. So, for your customers to trust you with their email addresses, you need to offer them value in return. This is where incentives come in.

Incentives, also known as lead magnets, refer to products or services given away for free to a customer for the purpose of getting their contact details (preferably email addresses). 

Some incentive ideas include:

• An eBook
• A case study 
• Templates/Swipe files
• An invite to be part of an exclusive Facebook group
• An email series that educates you  over the course of a few days
• A discount on a product or service you provide. 

Most of the aforementioned ideas are budget-friendly. However, you need to ask yourself these questions before you proceed:

• What do you sell?
• What does your target audience need to understand, and be aware of in order to want or need your product, program, or service?
• What type of incentive could you create that will complement or align with the product, or service you currently sell or plan to sell?

A practical example is CareerBuddy offering a Salary Negotiation guide in exchange for emails. Also, Content and Planning providing a free worksheet in exchange for your email address.

2. Gate important content

If you have an existing email list, then you already have a wealth of available content. This method is a faster way for you to grow your email list. You can easily convert your most important content into gated content.

Gated content is any content that can only be accessed by audiences that have filled out your signup form and provided an email address.

You can try this method with ebooks, case studies, or even blog posts. Just make sure your gated content is well-written and offers a preview to pique their interest. If they find it interesting, they’ll submit their email address to view the complete version.

A practical example of gated content is this article on Benjamindada.com.

3. Use Social Media

When creating your email list, don’t forget your existing customer base is still largely based on social media. So, you need to continually promote your email opt-in form across your different socials (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) to get them subscribed to your list.

Depending on the social media platforms, you can share snippets of your newsletter with a link inviting your audience to subscribe and read the whole version. For this to work, ensure that each of the social media platforms you’re on has an email opt-in form.

Other ways you can leverage social media to grow your email list include:

• Running social media contests and giveaways
• Reviews/Testimonials
• Social Media Communities
• Online webinar 

A practical example of a brand that has leveraged social media to grow its email list is CMQ Media

4. Run Ads

Running ads can be costly but it is the surest way to grow your email list. There are three ways to run ads in an email list. 

First of all, you can promote your newsletter across your social media platforms by running ads on them. Zikoko is a great example of a brand that does this.

Secondly, you can strike sponsorships or partnerships with another brand to advertise your products or services in their newsletter. Examples include Flutterwave and Fincra who run sponsored ads on TechCabal and Techpoint’s newsletters respectively.

Alternatively, you can run ads within the body of other multiple newsletters with a single campaign.

5. Launch a Referral Program

If all you do with your newsletter reviews, testimonials, and feedback is just to post on socials, then you don’t understand the power behind word-of-mouth marketing.

More than 75% of people are more likely to try a new product or service they heard about from friends and family. 

By launching a referral program, you turn your subscribers into brand ambassadors. All they have to do is share links to your newsletter, get rewarded with an incentive, and you get a brand new subscriber. It’s a win-win!

Examples of brands that have leveraged referral programs are Techcabal and Breach.

CONCLUSION

Having an email list in 2023 allows you to have control and an opportunity to build personal relationships with your customers. By offering incentives, gating important content, using social media, running ads, and launching a referral program, your email list has the capacity to grow beyond your expectations. However, none of the strategies is one size fits all. So, you have to keep tweaking and experimenting until you find which works best for your customers.

I hope you found this post helpful. You can leave a comment below and share this with others.