Congratulations! Now that you’ve spent some time focusing on goal setting and designing the perfect email, it’s time to move on to a very important piece: who’s your audience? I’m Melanie Diehl of Melanie & co Marketing Collective and this week we’re focusing on building your audience! Over the past 15 years, I’ve helped thousands of small businesses leverage online marketing tools through webinars and seminars, one-on-one coaching, and done-for-you services.
Your email list is a valuable asset for your business. Unlike social media followers, which can be influenced by platform changes, your email list is entirely yours to control. That’s why it’s so important to keep growing it. It can boost your bottom line by providing a specific audience for your marketing efforts that social media can’t. And the more engaged and relevant your subscribers are, the better equipped you’ll be to achieve your goals, whether it’s generating more sales, finding more volunteers, or building more brand awareness
So, let's start growing your contact list, and setting your business up for success, by looking at strategies that utilize landing pages, QR codes, freebies, and events or webinars.
Make Sure You Stick the Landing (Page)
While website pop-ups can effectively convert visitors into subscribers, a straightforward starting point, especially if you have more social media followers than website visitors, is to create a dedicated sign-up landing page. Landing pages are separate web pages that can be tailored to support a campaign and capture specific subscribers.
For instance, if you’re running a pet sitting business, you might have one landing page that focuses exclusively on feline followers, and one for devoted dog parents. Messages on those pages would be specific to that audience to increase their chances of subscribing. And, because you’ve set up separate landing pages, you can better track who would rather receive your cat updates, and who would rather receive updates about those doggos by either putting them in separate lists, or tagging them.
Once you create a landing page, you need to promote it. You can add it to your social media profiles, such as adding a button to your Facebook Page or LinkedIn Organization Page, or adding a link to your Instagram Bio. Remember to post about it, too! Posting about your newsletter and linking to the sign up landing page is one of the easiest ways to turn those followers into subscribers. Be sure you post about your newsletter on a regular basis – at least once a month to keep growing (need a refresher on social media? Check out the Social Media Marketing hub).
The Magic of QR Codes
QR codes are a highly effective method for capturing sign-ups at in-person events or brick-and-mortar businesses. When prospective customers scan a QR code, they are directed to a sign-up landing page to fill in their information and join your email list. It's a quick and easy process that streamlines the sign-up experience.
It’s important to consider where you place QR codes. For optimal results, you want them to “be in the way” so they’re easy to spot. For example, restaurants place QR codes on the tables, whereas retail stores place QR codes at the register so customers see it when they check out. You can also include them on business cards and flyers!
Attracting More Opt-Ins with Offers
At times, simply having a landing page or opt-in form is not enough. If you want to encourage people to share their email or phone number, you might need to provide an enticing offer to loosen their grip. While we all love free things, gifts or swag giveaways can get costly, especially for a small business. And it isn’t always realistic either. So you need to ask yourself: what is it that you already have that shows value to your subscribers?
If you’re selling a product, maybe that offer is a coupon code or discount. If you’re promoting your services, it could be a downloadable PDF filled with unique tips, insightful advice, or sneak peeks of your latest work. If you have a regular newsletter you’re sending out, maybe it’s as simple as promising subscribers they will receive the information first by email before you release it to social media.
Whatever you decide to offer, it’s important that you follow through by sending that offer to them through an automated campaign that will send an email with that promo code or that downloadable PDF upon being added to a list. Besides, having that type of automated Welcome goes a long way to getting engagement – Welcomes get 6x more engagement than any other email! Plus, they train your subscribers to look for your brand in their inbox. You can find out more on how to set up automations here.
Use Webinars and Events to Get More Sign-ups
A really simple way to showcase both your value and get email addresses is to host an event. Registrants will give you their address to attend and they can opt in to receive more information from you at the same time.
If you’re using the Constant Contact Event tool, you can customize the event registration form to encourage registrants to join your list. Remember to promote your webinar everywhere – in your current emails, on social media, and on your website, to get those registrations and new email opt-ins.
Your Assignment:
- Choose your own adventure! Select one (or all) of the tasks below to complete:
- Share your methods on how to get new members or customers to sign up to receive emails. Do you have a sign-up form online? A paper sign-up sheet at your physical location? There are lots of options out there but what works best for you?
- Ready to get hands-on? Let’s put your newfound knowledge to work. Create a sign-up form. Constant Contact provides a basic template but you can make it your own by adding your logo and brand colors . Select the form fields (i.e. First Name, Last Name, Email Address, etc.) that is most valuable to you.. Show off your new form by sharing the URL in your reply.
- Create a QR code that directs potential new contacts to a landing page, website, blog, or social media account. Share this QR code via email, on a landing page, or in a physical location where customers can easily scan it. Share a screenshot or picture in a reply below.
How you’ll earn your badge
Resources:
- Handout: Ways to Grow Your List in Person
- Blog: How to Build an Effective Email List: Best Practices and Strategies
- Community: 10 Strategies to Get Your First (or Next) 100 Subscribers
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. |  |
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This is our most frequently used product detail/price sheet. It includes a QR code that takes a user to our website home page.
@RitaP thanks for posting this. Super that you have the QR code. Next to it add "Scan for info" so people know that it's for.
Consider these changes to the sheet:
- Replace "Features" with "Why MAC bins are better"
- Make "High" not capitalized and consider changing to "Stack up to 3 units to save space" (always give the benefit of a feature).
- Move "Order Online!" and Buy More and SAVE at the bottom - a call to action should always be at the end of the presentation of information.
- Remove the cents such as ".70" or ".00" as it clutters the space and makes the prices look bigger.
- Put "LBS." in the column title so you don't have to repeat it on each row.
- Remove the "www." from the url as it's unnecessary.
- Match the blue to the same blue as your website
This is an example of how marketing appears easy to do, but it's hard to do well!
This article from our blog may be of interest Good Design is Good Business
If we can be of help, please reach out.
David Fischer Solutions For Growth Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Great job adding a QR code to your flyer!
Is there a way for one to subscribe from your website? I didn't notice a pop up or embedded form to encourage subscribers. It's super easy to do with Constant Contact's Audience Growth Toolkit. My client grew her email list by 10% simply by adding a popup form to her website, so there's real evidence of their effectiveness.
Have you considered using a QR code that links to a landing page or your signup form?
Keep up the good work!
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Our url to our main landing page is what's most used across all marketing channels: https://www.kcsl.org/
When you go to the landing page for the first time, you'll receive a pop-up to sign up for our newsletters. (see attached)
@KCSL that's great!
One thing I've learned over the years is that the fewer questions asked, the higher the conversion, which in this case is capturing contact info. I'm curious: how important is it to KCSL to know the subscribers' last name and city? Have you considered making the Last Name and City fields optional? Of course if it's critical information for you to know as soon as they subscribe, you'd obviously keep it required. If not that important, maybe consider editing the form and testing your results over a 3-6 month period.
Also, have you considered embedding a "sign up form" on your most visited web pages in addition to the pop up form on the home page?
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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I love the colors and look of your website @KCSL 😍
Elevate your marketing with Constant Contact's Professional Design Services! From eye-catching email templates to custom branding and social media graphics, our professional design services are tailored to boost your business's impact and engagement. |  |
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All the people in my lists are already on our master list (they are on my specific lists by having a child or being a volunteer).
For that reason, the only people I am really missing are the youth themselves.
I created a QR code that brings youth to a form to be added to the eblast specifically for youth group activities. Once they fill out the form, I manually add them to CC.
@YouthMinistry222 I love that you're embracing a QR code for the younger audience! They don't need to be told what to do or how to do it. I'm curious: where are you sharing the QR code? To streamline your efforts, have you considered creating a landing page in Constant Contact and directing the QR code to it, which will automate the addition of email subscribers to your desired list?
Another idea to consider is to incorporate SMS (aka text message marketing) into your marketing efforts, especially with the younger audience. Data suggests that they're far more likely to check text messages than email inboxes for info. PS. Landing Pages can also be used to collect cell numbers for your SMS marketing!
Keep up the great work!!
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Hey there @JudithJ0.
Creating a dedicated Join Our List Page for your website is a such unique idea. When exploring your website, I don't see an easy way to find it. How are you promoting that page?
It took me a couple of visits to your website to notice the Join Our List form embedded in your page footers. Glad to see you have that! The form would probably grab more attention if it were in contrast to the other elements in the footer, if that's a possibility.
Have you thought about using a popup on the homepage or another frequently visited webpage? That could certainly encourage more sign-ups.
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Beautiful website @RachaelK54!
Is the "Need Training?" form in the footer your sign-up form? Are you getting a lot of people to opt in? Have you considered creating a lead magnet to encourage more sign-ups?
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Your landing page looks great!
Melanie Diehl Melanie & co Marketing Collective Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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On our home page (promotionalmatches.com), there is a popup to join our mailing list and receive 5% off your order. The code for the 5% discount pops right up on the screen and their email is saved to Constant Contant's database. Here is a pic of the popup:
We also have a "Contact Us" page where users can ask questions and there is a button (defaulted to ON) where they can sign up for the mailing list.
Your pop-up for joining the mailing list is a great start, especially with the incentive of a 5% discount! Offering an immediate discount is a smart way to encourage sign-ups.
You mentioned having the pop-up on your homepage, that's awesome! Just make sure also to share the sign-up link on your social media and email footers, and anywhere else you can. Your current followers can help get the word out and build your list.
Just a friendly reminder, you should also send a follow-up email to keep the conversation going. Those automated welcome emails are super helpful in showing off your stuff and getting people interested. Plus, they usually get more people to join in!
Elevate your marketing with Constant Contact's Professional Design Services! From eye-catching email templates to custom branding and social media graphics, our professional design services are tailored to boost your business's impact and engagement. | |
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There is a link to subscribe to all of our mailing lists on our website. I am going to add this QR code to the informational handouts we give at the beginning of our trainings to encourage attendees to stay in touch.
Wow, putting a QR code on your handouts at trainings is such a great idea! It's super easy for people to stay in touch after the event.
Have you thought about giving people a little something (like cool stuff or a deal) if they sign up with the QR code? It's an easy way to get more folks to join in. Once people sign up, send them an email saying thanks for coming to the training and reminding them of all the good things that come from staying in touch.
Elevate your marketing with Constant Contact's Professional Design Services! From eye-catching email templates to custom branding and social media graphics, our professional design services are tailored to boost your business's impact and engagement. | |
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