Marketing has changed a lot in recent years.

We’ve transitioned with remarkable speed from TV, radio, direct mail and billboards into a digital era of chatbots, social media, and PPC. Why?

Because successful strategies of old are becoming increasingly ineffective.

Except, that is, from email marketing!

This is one old dog that continues to deliver results. Indeed, you can expect email to deliver an impressive median ROI of 122%. That, according to the same source, is four times greater than social media or paid search.

There’s no time like the present to start growing your email subscriber list- especially if you run an eCommerce store. A successful campaign on your part translates straight into sales.

Looking to boost your eCommerce store email signups to leverage its potential? We can help.

Keep reading for 7 tips on growing your eCommerce email subscription list.

1. Make It Worth Their While

When was the last time you did something for nothing?

In business and life, most things are transactional in nature. You do something for us, and we’ll do something in return. That’s the way of the world.

The same goes for building your email list. Nobody’s going to hand over their details without good reason.

It has to be worth their while.

Your rate of subscriptions is directly proportional to the value on offer. The more compelling the reward, the more sign-ups you’ll get.

Focus hard on offering incredible value. Provide unmissable opportunities that solve your audience’s problems and compel them to hand over their email. Think discount codes, free content, expert insights, and so on.

The bigger the prize, the better your ROI.

2. Simplify Everything

Laziness is literally built into our DNA.

In an evolutionary context, the ‘easy route’ meant expending less energy. That, in turn, facilitated survival in trying times. Now combine that natural need for ease with our modern desire for instant gratification.

The end result?

Making users jump through hoops to access an offer will backfire.

Remember: the harder something is to do, the less likely anybody is to do it. This has important ramifications for growing an email list. Strip back the opt-in process as much as possible.

Remove all unnecessary form fields or links to landing pages. The easier it is to sign up, the higher your conversion rate will be.

3. Leverage the Ubiquitous Opt-In Box

Where’s the opt-in box on your website?

If you’re like more webmasters/business, you’ve almost certainly got one on their homepage. That’s good. Keep it there! But where else is it?

Recall from our previous point that making opt-ins easy is key.

Very few people are going to navigate to your homepage from a blog post, for example, to input their email address. The incentive (aka the offer) to do so is unlikely to justify the effort involved.

Do yourself a favor by making the signup form ubiquitous. Have it site-wide and in view at all times (preferably above the fold). Include it on blog posts, ‘about’ pages, and so on.

You never know where someone’s going to land on your site. It pays to have an opt-in box there for the best chance of capturing their details.

4. Encourage Referrals

Marketers love nothing more than a good referral.

It’s free advertising. Your current audience is promoting your business for you! Organic referrals of that nature showcase the power of having a quality brand.

However, you can, of course, incentivize referrals too.

It’s about getting the best bang for your buck. Think about it. You’ve worked hard to create a compelling offer that’s led someone to subscribe.

Now make the most of it.

You could send them through to a ‘thank you’ page after they subscribe. On it, they find another offer (such as further discounts) to claim if they refer somebody else who signs up.

This makes a subscriber far more valuable to your store (aka, they become an instant customer too). Do it well, though, and a snowball effect takes place. One subscriber turns into many.

5. Don’t Forget Retention Rates  

Growing your email list is all well and good.

However, it means very little if people are unsubscribing at the same rate.

You’ll never build a bustling subscriber list if you focus on growth over retention. Businesses must work hard on both simultaneously.

Thankfully, there are many ways to persuade subs to stick around. One of the best is to give them back some control.

Rest assured, your subscribers don’t all want the same things. Person A might wait in eager anticipation of every email you send. Person B may prefer the occasional email with a brief summary of everything instead. And so on.

Try to give people different options when they sign up. You’ll avoid sending too many, or too few, emails to the wrong people.

Here’s more about growing your eCommerce business.

6. Utilize Pop-Ups

Pop-ups can be another useful source of email subscribers.

After all, most pop-ups are attention-grabbing by design.

Combine that with a compelling incentive, such as a discount code ("Sign up and get 20% off your first order") and you're onto a winner.

But only when you use them correctly. The timing and design of your pop-ups are key to generating eCommerce subscribers.

For example, a pop-up that appears halfway through an article disrupts the reading experience. Expect people to hit the 'X' instantly to click away from it. The only exception to that might be if the pop-up box is visually attractive and has an unmissable offer that's enough to make the annoyance worth their while.

Think hard about when it makes the most sense for a pop-up to appear. From there, focus on aesthetic appeal and offer something that compels visitors to provide their email address!

Finally, make the process as easy as possible. Have them enter their details and receive their reward in the thank you note to follow. Anything harder and you'll lose out on potential subscribers.

7. Focus on the Subject Line

A quick one to finish:

The subject line of your emails is all-important to success.

This is how you grab attention and compel them to open the message. At the end of the day, an enormous list of subscribers is of zero value if they never read your emails.

Nail the subject line, increase your open-rates, and the sales will follow.

Time to Grow your Subscriber List

Email marketing continues to be an effective tool for generating business.

Especially if you run an eCommerce store. Hopefully, the tips in this post will help you grow your subscriber list with greater ease.

Looking for support with your endeavors? Contact us today.

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