How to build an email list for a startup

Email marketing can be a very effective method when used correctly. And for small or new businesses, it’s crucial to build an engaged audience that could turn into customers to create a consistent sales flow. Email marketing can do this for you, but first, you have to build a list of people to communicate with. 

This article will be a guide on how to build an email list for a startup, and we will dive into the following areas:

• Create a pop-up on your website
• Share on social media
• Always include the benefits in your CTA’s
• Create separate subscriptions

First of all, make sure anyone who visits your website has the opportunity to sign up for your emails. You can do this by creating a pop-up. 

Pop-ups don’t have to be invasive or annoying; you can create quite simple notifications that appear on a users screen. These ‘to the side’ pop-ups will not impact the user’s ability to read the content or keep scrolling. 

You can create pop-ups for your website via your CMS (content management system). WordPress and Squarespace have add-ons or settings to make a pop-up yourself without consulting a designer or developer. 

You can base a pop-up on a variety of factors. Many businesses might find success with creating a pop-up that appears after a user has been on a page for a certain amount of time. Doing this gives the user a set amount of seconds to scan the page and see if your business or the content you’ve written is relevant before showing them the option to sign up for emails from you. 

You can do the same thing, but instead of time, the pop-up appears based on how far a user has scrolled down a page. If they have scrolled a high percentage of the page, this indicates that they are very engaged with content, so a pop-up for emails acts as a prompt for further engagement.

Depending on the type of business you run, you might also create pop-ups that showcase any offers or discounts for subscribing to your emails. This could be impactful for retail or ecommerce businesses but might be more difficult for B2B companies. If you cannot offer a discount, perhaps content such as a free eBook or something that could be valuable to a potential customer, like a ‘hints and tips guide, might prompt them to give their email address.

Social media is a cheap and straightforward way to start engaging various audiences if you’re a startup. The audiences who follow you on social media might not necessarily have been on your website before, though — so don’t forget to share your email content and the signup link on your social media pages too. 

You can share the email content by creating posts that include a description of where the content came from, such as: “if you missed our newsletter this month, then check out …” or similar. This allows you to capture those who haven’t seen your emails before with valuable and compelling content and show them where they can sign up if they want to continue to see this type of content.

Your Call To Action (CTA) buttons are essential in convincing your audiences to subscribe to emails. CTA’s indicate to your customer that you want them to take action, such as filling in a form or clicking another page. CTA’s can take the form of buttons, part of the text, a hyperlinked phrase, or the final line of a social media post that prompts a user to take another step. 

Don’t just write ‘sign up here on buttons or your website; make the CTA something that compels a user to click by leading with the benefits that subscribing can give them.

For example, you might use a button on your email sign up form, which says “Access all our exclusive offers”. If you are promoting B2B content, you might say, “Get monthly SEO hacks here!” for example. Instead of just using the user to sign up, including details about what they will get in return for their email could be more persuasive.

This point depends on the type of content you create, but it can be a good idea to create different emails for different purposes. For example, if you are a landscape gardener, you might have a monthly newsletter, a transformations feature, and an email promoting discounts in the Spring. 

Doing this allows you to target different people with your emails and build a more extensive list. For example, some individuals might only be interested in the transformations email, as they might be looking for inspiration. Others might only be interested in the discounts you offer and not your regular newsletter.

Allowing potential customers to choose which email they subscribe to means that they are picking the most valuable email for them. Therefore, they will be more likely to remain engaged for longer. 

Now that you have some steps to follow to build an email list, you can free up some time for your marketing by using a financial app. Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.