One of your most important assets as a company is your email list. No matter where they are at in your prospect funnel, it’s important to keep them up to date on everything you have to offer. It’s also a great opportunity to generate referrals from past clients, and cross-promote products they may not know you offer.

It may be tempting to take the easy way out and purchase a pre-made list, but spending the time to generate a quality list will pay off in the end. You will start the relationship off the right way and ensure they will actually read your content instead of marking you as spam. You will also have a targeted list that will find your emails useful, providing the perfect opportunity to turn them into a customer.

Here are just a few tips to help you generate a quality list that will provide a captive audience.

Offer a Reward Upon Sign Up

Let’s face it, people are selfish. They are more likely to sign up for your email list if they know there is something in it for them, especially if they aren’t familiar with your company. Whether it’s an entry into your monthly raffle or a handy guide that will help them with the decision process, as long as there is something coming to them they will be more likely to hand over their contact info. The reward can even be a coupon good towards something like the loan application fee to give them extra incentive to use your services.

Creating a handy guide on what factors send your auto insurance premium through the roof may take you 10 minutes to put together, but it can establish you as the go-to person for insurance tips for years to come.

The more relevant and useful the offer is to using your services, the better it will be. Remember, the ultimate goal is to create a solid email list that will find your emails useful. It’s not to sign up 300 people who will unsubscribe after they didn’t win the IPad you were giving away.

Make Signing Up Dummy Proof

It may be difficult to design a way make it easy for anyone to sign up for your newsletter, but this is a crucial step. It’s important to think about your target audience and how tech-savvy they will be. It’s also important that you ask for information that will be relevant for what you are offering. For example, if you are trying to get subscribers for your fun monthly newsletter, it will only be necessary to get their first name, last name, and email address. On the other hand, if you are growing a targeted email list that will receive a personalized campaign with tips to maximize your insurance discounts, it will be important to know if that person is a home owner and their profession.

The key to making your sign up list easy is to offer a variety of content they can sign up for. If you offer everything from helpful white pages to a fun monthly newsletter, you will be sure to attract the correct database to meet your goals.

Encourage Referrals

Most companies have those loyal clients who will happily sing their praises to anyone who will listen. While it’s a good idea to nurture all of your email relationships, there is nothing wrong with providing a little extra TLC to those who will be happy to help you grow your list. This is the best group to reach out to in order to help get new subscribers.

How do you maximize their loyalty? How about offering a personalized “referral code” to a small group of subscribers. Their friends and family can enter this referral code to give them credit, and in return you can offer exclusive content or giveaways to reward them. How about a monthly drawing for those with the most referrals, or recognition in your next newsletter?

If people feel valued and rewarded, they will be even more willing to continue to spread the word, and you will reap all the benefits.

Go Social With Your Content

People share content on social media sites to make themselves look knowledgeable and up to date on current events. With social media providing a good chunk of all traffic to websites, making it easy to share your content socially can work to your advantage and boost your website traffic.

Providing relevant and timely content as well as providing social “share” buttons on the pages on your website and/or emails will make it easy for them to spread the word. It’s important to provide clear calls to action that lead them to relevant sign up pages on your website to ensure you are making the most out of the traffic you are getting.

Although growing your email list the right way may seem like a daunting task you don’t want to take on, it will provide the best return in the long run. We hope that these steps can help you break down what is needed in an easy to understand check list.

Still feel like you need help with your game plan? 220 Marketing specializes in providing one on one consultations with a marketing consultant to help you with all of your email marketing needs.

To get a free consultation, contact us today at 1-877-220-6584 or click here.

Follow 220 Marketing for Daily Marketing Tips and Updates