First off, depending on when you last communicated with everyone on your database, this will decide what you should do with it. If your list has been sitting dormant for a couple of years and you’ve not communicated with people, it’s worth thinking about starting from scratch.

You always need to be mindful of GDPR and whether people subscribed to your list, or you just added them in the past. If you added them, it is probably best to scrap that list and start afresh where you can be confident they actually want to be subscribed and you can document when they signed up. You can watch my GDPR session here.
Now, if you are starting your list from scratch, or you want to build your list even further, here are some ways you can do it…

1 – Freebie

A report from the Data and Marketing Association shows that 60% of users sign up for an email newsletter to receive offers and sales. So, if you have something to push or to sell then don’t be scared to be seen as pushy…people will sign up.
One great way of doing this is to create a ‘Freebie’, also known as a lead magnet. This is where you offer them a free PDF, workbook or such like as an incentive and in return they need to sign up to your email database to receive it. Think of it as an exchange.
This is great if you are like me – a consultant, or a coach, or are an expert in your field – health and beauty, childcare, food or aromatherapy. Whatever it is, you can create something to give them value that they are going to get something out of and then you can communicate with them and sell to them in the future.
The second way is to ‘hook’ people in with an incentive, such as money off, discount coupons to redeem on your website or exclusive deals etc.

2 – Make It Visible 

The next thing to do to, is to make sure your e-newsletter is visible. There is no point just having it sat there where no one can see it. Think about how people are going to find it and sign up – how are you going to tell them about it?
• Add a sign-up button to your Facebook page
• Add the sign-up option in the banner of your website, or maybe add a pop-up on the site. Somewhere where it is going to be easily seen.
• Add your sign-up option to the end of your blogs if you have them on your website
• Send traffic to your website from social media
• Tell people about it on social media and tell them what they’ll get by signing up.
Make sure you are telling people about it all the time – you can’t expect people to sign up, if you don’t tell them to.

3 – Facebook Adverts

The other thing you can do to get people to sign up to your e-newsletter is to run some Facebook adverts to encourage people to do this. You could use your freebie as an incentive to this. Really go to town promoting your freebie via a Facebook advert, increase your audience reach in the process and see people signing up.

4 – Breadcrumbing

The next tactic is known as breadcrumbing. This means being part of lots of groups on Facebook and telling them about your pages/groups/freebies and e-newsletter. You often have to be careful about what is allowed in groups and being too salesy, but if you are subtle you can get known and people will follow the links (or the breadcrumb trail) you leave behind and voila, more sign-ups

5 – Nurture Your Audience

Finally, according to the survey I mentioned earlier, 40% of respondents sign up for your newsletter because they like you or your brand. I say all the time that people buy people – they are there for a reason. Your email database has signed up because they want to know more about you, hear what you have to say, find out how they can get involved or buy your products.
But once you’ve hooked them in, you have to nurture them. Don’t just leave them hanging. If you are serious about using email as part of your marketing strategy, then use it. Put time and effort into it. Send weekly, bi-weekly emails or monthly emails (depending on your business). Do what feels right for you and your brand. I send weekly emails, where I tell people stories, tell them about me, get them to know, like and trust me. Perhaps this feels too much for you and you might try bi-monthly. Don’t leave it longer than a month to communicate with your audience as they will lose interest and unsubscribe.

I just want to add here, that the open rate of emails is usually between 20-30%, so don’t worry if people don’t read all of your emails. Try different things to see what works. The good thing about emails is that we can see what does and doesn’t work.

Also, don’t worry if people unsubscribe – it’s nothing personal. They were never going to buy from your in the first place, so it’s good to have them off your list to keep it nice and clean!

So, there you have a few marketing tips to get your email list up and running or to give it a bit of a refresh. If you want to sign up to my email list you can do here.

If you would like to know more about my forthcoming courses on various areas of marketing – or have missed a previous one, simply click here.