According to an industry census, email marketing was ranked the number one best digital channel for return on investment (ROI). Why? Because it is so cost-effective that any business or brand can take advantage of its benefits. It is also highly effective at nurturing customers and keeping them engaged. Read on to find out how you can build a quality email marketing database to boost your ROI.
Collect email addresses
The first step is capturing your audience’s email addresses. You can do this at your web checkout when orders are made. Another way is to get subscribers to your newsletter, or use lead generation offerings such as product guides or ebooks. You could also capture email addresses via a contact form on your website. Be sure to offer some value in return for their email addresses, otherwise, you won’t get any signups.
Choose a tool
You’ve got a basic list of addresses that will serve as your starting email marketing database. Now it’s time to choose a tool for managing and nurturing this list. Some popular tools include Hubspot and Mailchimp, which offer ready-to-use templates. Active Campaign is one of the best tools available because it provides many of the same features as other tools, at a fraction of the price. Active Campaign also allows you to design your own emails and customise to your brand.
Grow your database
There are many ways you can grow your existing list—this is your chance to get creative. You could encourage subscribers to share or forward your emails by including a share link within the email. If your email content is useful and informative, their friends will sign up too. You could also use social media to collect email addresses, by promoting your lead generation campaigns, or simply by adding a signup button to your social pages.
Manage your list
Your email marketing tool should allow you to segment your email addresses. What this does is it allows you to group your signups into different categories, based on what actions they performed or what products/services they’re interested in. For example, you could have a list that belongs to one demographic and another list who opted into a special offer. These audience segments will come in handy when you’re nurturing your list.
Nurture your audiences
Use your email marketing channel to grow your audience and keep them engaged. Email them regularly with news, product updates, or special offers. Include links to your social media channels in your signature to ensure they connect with you via those channels as well. Finally, make sure your emails offer value and never spam your audiences—this is a sure way to get unsubscribers.