5 Tips for Building a Strong Email Marketing List

Image of a piece of mail being sent and recieved.

CopyPress

August 30, 2021 (Updated: December 20, 2022)

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to tell people about your business. From newsletters and blogs to promotional materials, you have the power to send content directly to customers’ inboxes. But in order to do that, you need to get their email addresses first. In an article from Entrepreneur, Liviu Tanase discusses three tips for building a healthy and thriving email marketing list. It’s a great place to start, but we think there are two more important tips to mention.

5 Tips To Build Your Email Marketing List

Use these tips to help you get more subscribers and learn how to target the right ones with your campaigns:

1. Create a Confirmation System

Sometimes, people who sign up for an email list don’t actually care that much about what you’re sending them. This can be especially true when you have content on your site that people can only access by filling out an email sign-up form. If that’s the case, some people might type in a fake email address, or they might type in their actual email address, but then forget about your business the minute they leave your site.

This is just one of the many battles that companies face with email marketing. However, using a confirmation system can give you a more accurate understanding of who is reading your emails. A confirmation system immediately asks for people to confirm their email when they sign up for your marketing list. This ensures that they not only receive your emails but can also tell you who’s actually serious about receiving them.

2. Use Tools Like reCAPTCHA

Sometimes bots can swarm your website and email list. When this happens, it’s tough to figure out who on your email list is an actual person. If the bots unsubscribe from your email list or mark you as spam, it can also lower your sender reputation. When that happens, email servers might put your content into people’s spam boxes right away, and you’ll start losing readership. Google’s reCAPTCHA tool is a program that runs a test on whoever signs up for your email list. The test checks to make sure they’re actually human and not a robot.

Image via YARN from Star Wars

It’s very possible you’ve encountered reCAPTCHA yourself. You know those tests that ask you to click on all the pictures with stoplights. Well, apparently robots can’t do that. Who knew? Tools like reCAPTCHA can help your website catch bots in the act and prevent them from joining your email list and lowering your sender reputation score.

3. Get a Validation API

API stands for application programming interface. But those are just fancy words for a program that lets your products and services communicate with one another. Though adding a reCAPTCHA and a confirmation system are helpful, the validation API is the last wall of defense against bad emails or bots. If someone accidentally types in their email incorrectly, the API can notify them that something is wrong and ask them to try again.

Image via Giphy by @snl

Some email marketing companies offer APIs that can connect to your website’s sign-up forms. There are other API systems you can download and connect with your website through plug-ins and third-party software.

4. Engage Through Social Media

It’s great to have people sign up for your email list when they visit your site. It’s even better to have someone actively seek out your site intending to sign up for your email list. Engaging with customers through social media is a great way to make that happen. When you post content, promotions, or blogs on your social media that attract people, they might want to receive similar content straight to their inbox.

Whenever you share a post, mention your email list and that people can sign up on your website. If they seek your website and email list because they’re already interested in the content you’re sharing, they have a higher chance of becoming a loyal follower. This can help you create a thriving email list with a group of people that are excited to see what you send them. It can also help attract people to your site, in general, to see what products or services you can offer them.

5. Develop Engaging Content

One of the best things you can do to ensure your email list stays healthy and thriving is to develop engaging content that entices people to keep reading. This can include powerful newsletters, blogs, articles, and promotional materials. Though the information in your email content is important, a great way to make sure it’s engaging is to use well-written copy. This can grab the attention of your readers while simultaneously providing them with helpful and useful information.

Image via Giphy by @Identity

Whether you’re informing people about industry topics or you’re telling them about a new, exciting product release, you need excellent copy to energize your content. Companies like CopyPress can help you create engaging newsletters, blogs, and other content to generate readership and bring new customers to your company and the products or services it offers.

Ed Pronley

CopyPress writer