As a B2B marketer, one of the most valuable assets that you have is your email marketing list. Your email list is the key to new leads and potential sales. But you can’t be content with the current size of your email marketing list – due to churn and the inevitable unsubscribes, you always need to be looking for ways to grow that list. The more you grow your email list, the greater is the potential for new sales!
Here are 5 quick ways to build your email list:
#1: Give away free content
In exchange for a free whitepaper or e-book, simply ask for an email address in return. As long as the perceived value of that whitepaper or e-book is high, this is a remarkably low barrier to overcome. But don’t get greedy – just because a potential prospect is willing to give away his or her email address, that doesn’t mean that you can ask for a lot of other information as well.
#2: Create a compelling email newsletter
Ok, you have a list of hundreds, maybe thousands, of email addresses. So what do you do with them all? The easiest solution is to develop a weekly email newsletter full of helpful hints, tips, tricks and news items that you can send out to those email addresses. The goal of the email newsletter should not be to sell a particular item – it should be to keep your company top-of-mind for key B2B decision-makers.
#3: Take advantage of social sharing buttons
Don’t underestimate the power of social sharing buttons. On your website, on your social networking sites, and in your email newsletters, you absolutely have to be taking advantage of these social sharing buttons. It’s a completely free way for people to share your content with their friends and followers – and a free way for you to expand the reach of your B2B marketing message.
#4: Create a compelling CTA
If you want people to opt-in to your email newsletter or share their email, you have to make a call-to-action (CTA) that immediately grabs their attention. It has to be more than just the generic “Sign up for our email newsletter” – it has to denote the value that they are going to receive. Even something as simple as “Get access to industry best practices, delivered right to your email” could be effective as a way to convince people to share their emails.
#5: Run a limited-time contest
Depending on the overall value of the prize, a limited-time contest can be a great way to obtain new email addresses. After all, who doesn’t love the chance of winning a contest? Obviously, you are going to have more entrants who are willing to give you their email address if your contest has a compelling prize – say, an all-expenses-paid trip to the Mediterranean. But even something as simple as giving away a bestselling book or a $50 gift card can be effective.
With these five basic steps, you will be well on your way to building your B2B email marketing list!
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.