Research suggests that on average your business’ email marketing database diminishes by about 25% every year. This is partially due to contact email addresses changing over time or moving from one company to another. Others may opt-out of your email communications or abandon an old email address they no longer use. How do you keep your numbers growing, and not lose those valued contacts you worked so hard to capture?
Here are our Top 10 ways to grow (and retain) your email exposure:
1) Be Interesting. Obviously if you want people to stay subscribed to your list, and forward your email to colleagues and friends, content needs to be original, engaging, and relevant. It also doesn’t hurt to add a little humor where appropriate!
2) Host an Online Webinar. Nothing says “thought leader” like positioning yourself as the expert on a particular topic or subject matter. Taking questions at the end is also a great idea. Use your email list to drive traffic to the Webinar Sign-up landing page.
3) Answer Questions. Turn your audience into a loyal following through two-way dialogue which addresses their key pain points. Inside the email communication you can ask for questions and then answer them the following month in a blog, podcast, webinar, or social media.
4) Give Them Something Free. Develop or share something of value that necessitates people providing an email address to ‘unlock’ it. This is a great opportunity to show you care about their success, offer a tool or resource with no strings attached, and express desire to stay in touch.
5) High-Resolution Images. Emphasis on the high-resolution! Highlighting key content through beautiful and engaging images will affect your click-through rates. People are also more likely to share content with photo or video included, which brings us to our next point:
6) Short Videos Under 2 Minutes. Keep it short and sweet! Embed videos into your email platform, or simply include an image of the video in the email (be sure to also include the play button so people can tell it’s a video not just an image) and link to a landing page where it can be played.
7) Have a Subject Heading that Warrants an Open. With many people receiving 50-100+ emails a day, your email could get overlooked if it isn’t urgent. Try using a question in the subject heading of the email, or a one-liner that is light-hearted or thought-provoking.
8) Avoid Spam Filters. The only thing worse than someone receiving your email and not opening it, is not receiving it at all. Review the best practices of your email provider (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc) to ensure you are staying out of filters and in the Inbox.
9) Include Social Sharing Options. Include Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ sharing options at the bottom of each email, along with a “forward to a friend” button that’s easily visible. If there is a “subscribe” button as well, friends can quickly add themselves to your list.
10) Share Stage-time. Guest bloggers and authors are a thoughtful way to increase the knowledge, and ultimately the value, offered to readers. If the guest is well-known in your industry or community, even better! Include their name in the subject heading to increase the open rate.
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