Up for the Challenge? Try This Unusual Method to Help Achieve Your Business Goals

Jadah Sellner and Jen Hansard, two moms who co-founded a business called Simple Green Smoothies, added 28,000 people to their email list in 2013. These days, they have an active, engaged list of more than 385,000 people.

My first reaction when I heard those numbers was, “WOW.”

Want to know what propelled their accelerated list growth?

Four times a year, Jadah and Jen host 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenges. People who are interested sign up for the challenge and pledge to drink one green smoothie every day for 30 days. During the challenge, Jadah and Jen send weekly emails that include inspiration, shopping lists, recipes, and smoothie tips.

Challenges are a popular way to attract email subscribers and get people to spread the word about your business. They’re also a lot of fun for your community members.

Let’s take a look at how challenges work and how to design a challenge that will help you reach your business goals.

What is a challenge, and how will it help your business?

When you host a challenge for your audience, you select and promote an action you’d like your community members to take. It’s usually a short-term commitment.

To join your challenge and play along, your community members register for it either by signing up for your email list or joining a group on a social media site. Then you give the participants support, encouragement, and tips during the challenge itself.

Copyblogger hosted a content challenge in January 2016 that helped people build their cornerstone content.

Challenges are often free, but you can potentially charge for them as part of a larger program or online course.

Throughout the challenge, participants focus on one goal — whether that goal is eating healthier food, daily meditation, or writing a novel.

Challenges draw attention to your business. People get excited about challenges and share them on social media, so their friends and family can see what they’re up to (and play along). Dedicated community members will come back to participate in every challenge.

Let’s take a look at three successful free challenges.

Example #1: National Novel Writing Month

One of the very first virtual challenges that came on my radar was National Novel Writing Month. The annual NaNoWriMo challenge encourages participants to write an entire novel (50,000 words) during the month of November.

Writers sign up to receive inspiring and instructional emails during the challenge and get access to the community forums, where they can buddy up to get additional writing support.

The program started in 1999 and today NaNoWriMo is an official 501(c)(3) organization. More than 400,000 people participated in the fiction-writing challenge in 2015.

Example #2: The EFT Tapping challenge

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a form of acupressure — similar to acupuncture — during which you tap on energy meridians with your fingertips to treat emotional or physical issues.

Claire P. Hayes is an EFT practitioner and author, and she regularly hosts seven-day tapping challenges where people can join live daily calls with Claire and other participants.

Claire uses regular challenges to build her email list, explain what she does in an interactive way, and create trust with her audience members.

Example #3: List-building challenge

For my business (BethHayden.com), I’ve invited my community members to play along with me as I attempt to grow my list to 16,000 subscribers by the end of 2016.

Email subscribers who sign up for the challenge get special updates from me about my progress, including tips on what list-building tactics are working and which ones are flopping.

So far, more than 500 people have signed up, so I know it’s a hot topic for my community members. You can sign up here.

How to design and host your own challenge

You don’t need to already have a huge email list to run a challenge, but you do need to have some type of community already established.

If your list is small and you’re not connected with any influencers who can help you promote your challenge, it might not produce the results you want.

So, first decide whether or not you have a large enough audience for your challenge to be effective. If you do and want to host a challenge, follow the five steps below.

1. Identify your business goals

Before you begin brainstorming challenge ideas, think about what you’re trying to accomplish — and how a challenge might help you achieve your goals.

Are you trying to build your email list? Get media attention? Pre-sell a course you’re building?
Write down your primary goal, plus any secondary goals you might have.

2. Brainstorm challenge ideas and select the best fit for your business goals

Take 15 minutes and write down as many challenge possibilities as you can. Then take a five-minute break and walk around the room or get a cup of coffee. To generate even more ideas, try another 15-minute brainstorming session.

Assess each of your ideas based on whether it will help you meet your business goal, how difficult it will be to implement, and whether it’s likely to be something that catches on with your audience.

Remember to think in terms of benefits to your audience, not features of the challenge.

3. Design your challenge

To create your challenge, outline:

• Complete instructions for your audience, including when it will start and end
• How you’ll entice people to join
• How you’ll promote it to your email list, existing social media audiences, and influencers in your network

4. Host the challenge

Once you’ve set your details and announced the challenge start date, focus your content marketing efforts on promoting it.

Publish content related to the topic of your challenge, host webinars, and talk it up on social media. Encourage your participants to share their challenge results and get other people involved.

5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the challenge

After you wrap up your challenge, write down what went right, what went wrong, and how you can improve your plan next time.

Did you meet your business goals?

If you’d like to do another challenge (or run the same one again), set your next start date.

Engage and entertain your audience while growing your business

Challenges can be a fun and exciting way to generate buzz for your business, engage existing subscribers, and build your email list.

As we’ve seen from the examples above, challenges can work for all different types of businesses — so pick a smart challenge idea and run with it!

Have you hosted (or participated in) a challenge you particularly enjoyed? Tell us about it in the comments below.


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4 Ways to Build Facebook Lookalike Audiences to Expand Your Targeting

 Do you want to reach more consumers with your Facebook ads?

Looking for creative ways to reach more people like your ideal customers?

Lookalike audiences allow you to build new audiences using an established source audience such as people who have viewed your video or previously purchased from you.

In this article, you’ll discover how to use Facebook lookalike audiences to successfully scale your ad targeting.

What Are Facebook Lookalike Audiences?

Facebook lookalike audiences are an advanced targeting option that goes beyond the basic interest and demographic targeting functionality. They’re currently the most effective Facebook targeting tool to find your ideal customer.

At the core of all lookalike audiences is a source audience upon which you build a lookalike audience. Facebook takes all of the data points of your source audience and finds new, similar people using a set percentage sample (which you specify) of the population in your chosen country.

Unlike interest-based targeting, lookalike audiences allow you to create the source audience, giving you more control. As a result, you end up with better-quality audiences because you can find new audiences that are almost identical to your existing ones.

Lookalike audiences are best used to target new cold audiences at the top of your sales funnel. For example, you could run top-of-funnel content campaigns to all of the lookalike audiences you build. This would start to warm them up as you take them from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

Now let’s look at how to create four types of lookalike audiences.

#1: Create a Video Lookalike Audience

Facebook users watch 100 million hours of video on the platform every day, so it should come as no surprise that video is Facebook’s best-performing content.

Video allows you to build brand recognition and trust with your target audience quickly. If you’re running a video-based content strategy and want to scale your campaigns to reach more people, lookalike audiences let you find new people based on those who’ve already watched your videos.

Before you can create a video lookalike audience, you first need to create a custom video audience, which will be the source audience for the lookalike.

Create a Custom Video Audience

Custom video audiences allow you to segment your viewers based on what videos they’ve watched and their level of engagement.

To create a custom video audience, open your Facebook Ads Manager and navigate to the Audiences dashboard. To do that, click the menu button and click All Tools.

Under Assets, click Audiences.

Next click Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the pop-up box that appears, you’ll see four custom audience options. Select Engagement on Facebook.

Next select Video.

You’ll see the box where you create your custom video audience. Select your engagement criteria from the Engagement drop-down list and choose the videos from which you want to build your audience.

Define the time period, give your audience a name, and click Create Audience.

You can create an audience for all video views at every engagement level: 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 95%. To create each one, repeat the process outlined above for the different engagement options.

Build a Video Lookalike Audience

Now you’re ready to create your video lookalike audience. Navigate to the Audiences dashboard in your Ads Manager just like you did when you created the custom video audience. Then click Create Audience and select Lookalike Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, you’ll see three fields: Source, Country, and Audience Size. For the source, select the custom video audience you created in the previous step.

Next choose your country. This is typically the country in which the majority of your source audience is located. For example, if you work predominantly with UK-based businesses, any lookalike audience you create will be in the UK.

Finally, select your audience size. Audience sizes range from 1% to 10% of the total population in the country you choose, with 1% being those who most closely match your source. You may want to start at 1% and increase the audience size when you want to scale campaigns to reach more people.

When you’re finished, click Create Audience. You’ll receive a notification when your lookalike audience is ready to use, which could take up to 30 minutes.

#2: Set Up Email List Lookalike Audiences

Email-based lookalike audiences often deliver the best results. Why? Because you can take your existing customer list and use that as the source for your lookalike audience, essentially cloning your customer base.

As with video lookalike audiences, first you’ll need a custom email audience of your subscribers/customers before you can create an email-based lookalike audience.

Create a Custom Email Audience

Navigate to the Audiences dashboard, click Create Audience, and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu. In the first pop-up box, select Customer File.

You have two options for adding your email data: upload your data as a file/copy and paste the data, or import it from MailChimp. If you’re uploading your email list, click Choose a File or Copy and Paste the Data.

Next upload the email list (which is a CSV file in the example).

Then map your identifiers. The more identifiers you use the better match rate you’ll see. In the example, we’ll use First Name, Last Name, and of course, Email Address.

After you click Upload & Create, you’ll see a progress bar and how many rows of data were successfully uploaded.

Now under Next Steps, click Create a Lookalike Audience.

Build an Email Lookalike Audience

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box that opens, you’ll see your custom email audience in the Source field.

Select your target country (from which the majority of your email list comes) and choose the audience size. Consider starting with a 1% lookalike audience and scaling from there. Then click Create Audience.

#3: Create Conversion Lookalike Audiences

Conversion lookalike audiences let you find new target audiences using a website custom audience of people who have completed a specific conversion event.

For example, if you’re an ecommerce business running a discount code lead magnet, create a website custom audience of people who have triggered a lead event action by opting in for the discount code. Then use that audience as the source for your lookalike audience.

Before you can create the source audience for your conversion lookalike audience, make sure that you’ve set up and installed conversion tracking.

As with video and email lookalike audiences, you need to create the source audience first. It will be a website custom audience of people who have completed a specific event action.

Create a Website Custom Audience for Conversions

In the Audiences dashboard in your Facebook Ads Manager, click Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu. In the pop-up box, select Website Traffic.

From the Website Traffic drop-down menu, select Custom Combination.

Click the URL drop-down menu and select Event.

Choose the event you want to create the audience from (Lead, for example). You’ll see a list of event actions you’re currently tracking using the Facebook pixel.

In the field called In the Last, enter the time parameter for how long people will stay in your audience once they’ve completed the specific action. For example, you might choose 120-180 days to have the maximum number of people in your audience.

Finally, make sure the Include Past Website Traffic box is selected, give your audience a name, and click Create Audience.

Build a Conversion Lookalike Audience

Now navigate to the Audiences dashboard, click Create Audience, and select Lookalike Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, choose your website custom audience from the Source drop-down list.

Then select your country and choose the audience size (1% is a good place to start).

Finally, click Create Audience and wait for Facebook to build your lookalike audience. Once it’s ready to use, you’ll receive a notification and it will appear in your Audiences dashboard.

#4: Construct Page Likes Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences for page likes are the easiest to set up because you build them from the fans of your Facebook page. If you have a large number of Facebook fans who actively engage with your organic posts, a page likes lookalike audience is a great way to find new similar target audiences.

Differing from the three lookalike audiences above, you don’t need to create a custom audience for your source audience.

In the Audiences dashboard in Facebook Ads Manager, click Create Audience and select Lookalike Audience. In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, select your page name from the Source drop-down list.

Then choose your target country and select your audience size.

Tip: With all lookalike audiences, the larger the source audience, the better quality the lookalike audience will be (since there are more data points to use). A general guideline for building lookalike audiences is that the source audience must have at least 1,000 people in it.

Conclusion

One of the advantages of using lookalike audiences is the ability to scale your campaigns quickly and easily. Because you create lookalike audiences based on a percentage sample of people in your target country (from 1% to 10%), you can start with a closely defined 1%, and as you reach higher ad frequency, introduce the 2% audience, and so on.

Compare this approach with interest-based targeting, which is more hit and miss when you have to create new audiences from different related interests.

What do you think? Do you use Facebook lookalike audiences for your Facebook ads? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Newsletter

 Looking for ways to grow your list of newsletter subscribers? There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your weekly or monthly email marketing campaigns. I’ve put together a list for you to read, so you have heaps of options for growing your list.

1. Include a link to your newsletter sign up form in the main navigation bar of your website and/or blog. (Or better yet, include a sign up form in the main navigation bar).
2. Create a “sign up” call to action on your Facebook business page.
3. Create enticing visuals encouraging people to sign up for your list, and post them on social media channels (especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn).
4. Attend or exhibit at a trade show or networking event and bring a newsletter email sign up clipboard or book. If you’re tech savvy, bring an iPad or mobile device with you. Ask each person you talk with to sign up. Do the same for any business cards you receive.
5. Include a link to your newsletter sign up form in your personal email signature.
6. Place a newsletter sign up clipboard next to every register if you have a retail store. Have your employees mention the newsletter and emphasize the benefits (exclusive discounts, events, educational info, reminders, etc.)
7. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services, and include a link to sign up for your newsletter.
8. Host your own event. Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to join your newsletter.
9. Offer a birthday club, and give something special to those who sign up.
10. Incentivize your employees. Give them financial rewards for adding new subscribers to the newsletter.
11. Give something away like samples, a tour, a consultation, a free how-to guide, infographic, how-to video, etc. Have people sign up for your newsletter to qualify.
12. Get referrals. Ask your customers to encourage friends to sign up. In exchange, give them a discount.
13. Use Pinterest! Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your email list with Pinterest.
14. Make and upload videos to YouTube, then include a link at the end of every video directing people to your newsletter sign up form.
15. Post your sign up form page on LinkedIn and sponsor it.
16. Send a postcard. Have a list of postal addresses without emails? Send a direct mail offer that can be redeemed when the recipient signs up for your newsletter.
17. Include a link to the email sign up form in your Twitter business profile description. Here’s how to edit your Twitter profile.
18. Use a Lightbox. When someone attempts to leave your site, display a lightbox and ask them to sign up.
19. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in all your emails.
20. Use a hosted sign up form landing page.
21. Create a tab on your business Facebook page and include an email sign up form.
22. Offer “Newsletter only” discounts and mention them on your sign up form page and on social. Don’t use those offers anywhere but in your newsletter.
23. Ask people over the phone. If people call your business for whatever reason, don’t hang up until you’ve asked if you can add them to your newsletter.
24. Put a fishbowl on your counter, ask for business cards and permission to sign up for your newsletter, then do a weekly prize giveaway of your product and announce it in your next edition.
25. Post a photo of an item or an offer to giveaway on Instagram. Then, include a link in your Instagram bio asking people to sign up to participate in the giveaway.
26. Include a call to action, a link and/or a sign up form at the end of every blog post you write.
27. Add a link or sign up form in the footer, and/or side bar of your website.
28. Create a Twitter lead generation card to advertise and gain sign ups for your email newsletter.
29. Include a link or sign up form on your company’s “about us” page.

Bonus: Optimize your site for appropriate SEO keywords, and ensure your business is on appropriate online listings. You want to appear at the top of organic search results when people are looking for your products or services. This will help get your business and your newsletter sign up form found.
Have any additional ideas?  Share with us on social!

Need more ideas for your next email? Check out our list of 50 email ideas.


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Email Marketing: 5 Tips for Writing an Effective Email Newsletter

Newsletters offer a simple and affordable way to communicate with your network and strengthen your brand.

In order to write great newsletters, you need to start with the end in mind. That means, you need to know what it is you want your readers to DO when they read your newsletter. 

This is your call to action and every newsletter needs one.

Examples of a call to action can be to:
· Use a coupon code
· RSVP to an upcoming event
· visit your website to read about new products

Once you’ve established your call for action, try to think about how you can lead readers to it without sounding too pushy.

Next step - The Subject Line
Like you, your subscribers likely scan their email inbox looking to clean it out and delete unwanted mails. Don’t give them an excuse to delete your newsletter! When writing your subject line, use these rules of thumb:
· People are more likely to open emails with a timely or enticing premise in the title.
· Good subject lines are attention-grabbing and thought-provoking. “Our August Newsletter” won’t do the trick.
· Your subject line should be between 5 and 7 words long
· Don’t use all capital letters and be wary of using exclamation points. They can make your email look like spam and many email services will block it.

What’s the best practice? 

Before you hit send, read the subject line to yourself and decide - would I open this email?
Next, choose great images for your newsletter. They should be relevant to your business, interesting or beautiful to look at. (Or you can just use kittens or babies.) Pictures are a great way to catch your readers’ attention and encourage them to keep reading. When coupled with a catchy title, they can go a long way in increasing open rates.

What’s the best practice?

Use compelling, original images in high resolution. Or kittens.
Content is key to achieving your goal! Not sure how to produce good content? Here are a few tips:
· Make sure your newsletters share either timely, educational or valuable content. Don’t write fluff just to fill the page.
· Break your newsletter up into short paragraphs with headers. Long paragraphs can cause readers’ eyes to quickly glaze over. Get to the point. Write only as much as you need to get the message across.
· Keep jargon out. Don’t try to show off; it’s not a term paper. Use a casual, but professional tone. Be friendly and informative.

What’s the best practice?
Fill your emails with interesting and relevant articles, tips, links to great websites or inspirational ideas. Vary the content in each of your newsletters to keep them fresh. Write content worth reading.
Finally, when sending out your newsletter, remember to think about timing and frequency.
Don’t exhaust your subscribers with constant emails. They’ll unsubscribe. On the other hand, if you promised a monthly newsletter chock full of tips or coupons, keep your promise and stick to a regular schedule.
Send out newsletters in the morning, ideally on a work day. That way, they have the best chance of being read. Emails sent on Friday afternoon can easily get buried in your subscribers’ inboxes over the weekend.

What’s the best practice?
Send out your newsletter once a month or once a season on a Monday or Tuesday morning.

7 Ways to Use Marketing Automation to Grow Your Business [GUIDE]

We know that small business owners have no shortage of tasks on their daily to-do lists, and we’re here to help you shorten it even more.

Implementing automated features make attracting and maintaining customers a snap. In this guide, we’ll cover the specific automated steps you can implement for email and social media marketing. Before we start, let’s talk about the top four benefits of automation so you understand why it’s so valuable:

1. Save time
One of the biggest benefits of automation is that it allows you to save lots of time. By setting a few marketing emails on auto-delivery, you won’t have to create and send individual emails every time you need to communicate with your list. If you use an automated platform for social media updates, you can schedule a series of posts at one time.

2. Reach customers in a timely manner
By using automated features, you’ll reach your customers quickly. For example, you can automate a welcome email that is sent 24 hours after a new contact is added to your list. This guarantees that new contacts get valuable information about your business in a timely fashion, even while you sleep.

3. Ability to work ahead
As a small business owner, it’s vital to ‘work ahead’ as much as possible. With automation, you can set up emails and social media posts in advance.

4. Turn prospective customers into paying customers
Automating some of your marketing tasks can help you convert interested customers into paying customers. In fact, a report published by Regalix showed that nearly 86 percent of businesses believe marketing automation is one of the most efficient ways to nurture and manage new leads.

Are you convinced yet? Excellent! Now let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of it all. Here are seven ways you can properly utilize marketing automation:

1. Capture emails through sign up forms
Before setting up automation, we suggest setting up an email sign up form on your business’s website. These simple forms help you collect names and email addresses from interested customers or clients.

The steady stream of new contacts that comes in through this form will give you an authentic list of email addresses to draw from to send emails to. Your efforts to build your email list should be ongoing, and a sign up form is a hassle-free way to keep names coming in with little effort on your part.

VerticalResponse has an email sign up form that you can use. It’s simple to set up and activate, and all of your new contacts go right into your VR account. From there you can automate emails to send out to your new and existing contacts.

If you prefer, you could also use a third-party service to create sign up forms that work as pop ups, sidebars, or sliders on your site.

Consider trying OptinMonster. If you’re using WordPress, ThriveThemes has a plugin you can use to collect customer information. Both of these sites make it easy for small business owners to establish “information collection points” on their websites. There is a cost to use these services, but you don’t need any website or coding experience to get started. 

2. Automate welcome emails
With a sign up form in place, one of the first marketing items you’ll want to automate is your welcome email. Since every new contact receives a welcome email, it makes sense to automate it.

If you decide to use the VerticalResponse sign up form to collect email address, the new contacts are automatically added to your list. You can go into your account, create a welcome email and set it up to deliver the warm greeting within 48 hours. You want to make sure that new contacts receive a welcome email shortly after they sign up for your email list, while their interest is still peaked.

The welcome email should outline the perks of receiving messages from your company and include links that direct customers back to your website.

If you need help creating a welcome email, we have several resources to check out:

10 Examples of Highly Effective Emails
7 Tips to a Stellar Welcome Email
7 Reasons Your Business Needs a Welcome Email 

3. Send a series of event reminders
Let’s say you have an event coming up or a big promotion. You can use automation to set up a series of emails that reminds your audience about it.

For example, when an insurance broker is hosting a day of free consultations, the owner should set up three emails to automatically send to customers. The first email describes the event in full; the second email is a reminder to sign up for a specific time slot before the consultation day is booked. A day before the event, a third email encourages people to take advantage of the few openings left and adds an incentive of free coffee and donuts.

All three of these emails can be created ahead of time and sent over the course of two weeks. All of the emails should include links back to your website where customers can find out more information.
You can apply this same concept to an upcoming sale, a charity event, a customer appreciation event or an appearance at a local trade show. The idea is to set up a series of emails that reminds your audience about a particular event.

4. Treat your loyal customers
Segment your list by pulling out the names of your most loyal customers and develop an automated email campaign that focuses on rewarding them. Consider writing an email that ‘Gives Thanks’ to your repeat customers for their loyalty and offers something in return. Maybe it’s a 10% off coupon, a voucher for a free service, the chance to be the first to try a new product, discounted shipping or some other kind of gift. You can set this email up to go out every other month for six months to encourage your loyal customers to keep buying.

For inspiration, take a look at this email from Ghurka, a leather accessory store, which honors loyal customers.

5. Encourage active customers to buy again
You can also automate a series of emails to entice recent buyers to buy again. If a customer has made a purchase or signed up for a service within the last 2-3 weeks, put them in their own group and prepare to create an automated email series specifically for them.

For example, in the first email you can thank them for the purchase and showcase additional merchandise you have in stock. Here’s an example from Crate&Barrel:



The second email could offer a discount on a similar product or announce the arrival of a new accessory. The second email could also be a gift guide that highlights several of your hottest items.

6. Bring old customers back
Similar to encouraging recent customers to buy again, you should also think about ways to re-engage inactive customers too.

Take a look at your email list and pull out the names of customers who haven’t purchased anything from your business in the past 6-8 months. Create a series of emails that are designed to get them back on your bandwagon.

The first email can simply say, “We miss you” and include a special offer. The second email, which you should send a week later, could contain a survey asking why the customer has strayed. The survey results can also offer valuable insight that you can use to maintain customers in the future.

7. Automate your social posts
With your email automation underway, you can now switch gears to social media automation. If your business uses more than one social site, you can use a social media management tool to automate the process.

Management tools let you schedule posts ahead of time, which drastically reduces the number of times you have to log in, create messages, and post them. With automated tools, you can set aside an hour per week and schedule posts for the entire forthcoming week.

For time-strapped business owners, automation prevents social neglect. After all, you don’t want your customers to get used to a minimally updated Facebook page or sparsely posted tweets.

So, which social media automation tools are the best? There are several options. It’s important to note that all of these apps offer a free plan, so definitely take them for a test drive and see which one fits your business before committing long-term.

HootSuite. This app syncs with several social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. You can access all of your social accounts from one dashboard.
TweetDeck. If you’re an avid Twitter user, TweetDeck can help you schedule posts and monitor feeds.
IFTTT (If This Then That). For the more advanced social media user, IFTTT is a great option simply because there are more automation features to choose from with this one. As an example, you can easily link it to your business blog, and when a new post is added, a tweet will automatically go out to advertise the new content. You can also turn to content curating platforms. These tools give you a list of content that is relevant to your readers and enables you to share it with little fuss. This way you don’t have to scour your feeds looking for valuable content to share; the search is already done for you.

Swayy and Pocket are good content curation apps to start with. All you need to do is enter a list of general topics that you’d like to see in your feed and you’ll immediately get dozens of content options in your search findings. As you share this content, each platform hones in on your preferences and gives you more specific content that’s tailored to your needs over time. A word of caution
Automated marketing is a fantastic tool for small business owners, but you’ll want to use it in moderation. Not everything can, or should be scheduled in advance. For example, when breaking news happens that’s relevant to your industry, you’ll want to create day-of social media posts and emails. When a new employee comes on board, or you’ve decided to run a last-minute sale, you won’t be able to rely on automation either. Just remember, like any other resource, automation is another tool you can keep on your pegboard and use it as needed.

Share with us on social which parts of marketing you currently automate and how it works for you.


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40 Brilliant-but-Easy Ways to Build Your Email List

 

Email marketing is a high-impact, low-cost way of delivering your marketing message to current customers and prospects — if, that is, you have a great email list. If you don’t, this article is for you. Read on for the most effective and creative ways to build your email list.

If your email list is short, scant on information, full or errors and redundancies, or just not on-track with your targeting, that poor-quality data can be worse than having no data at all! Without a good email list, all your other digital marketing efforts are little more than wheel spinning.

There’s a lot to be said for the human touch, and these ideas rely on good old-fashioned human interaction to help you build your email list.

Build your email list the right way

1. Put out the sign-up sheet

Whether you’re at a trade show, community event or in your own storefront, collecting email addresses in person can be as easy as putting out a signup sheet and encouraging people to write down their details.

2. Leverage business cards

When you meet people face to face for any reason, ask for their business card. Offer yours. Set a glass bowl on the counter in your store or the reception desk in your office, and ask visitors to drop their cards in it. Offer some incentive to do so — a free product or service, gift card, etc. Use your own business cards to further drum up emails; add an offer on the back of your card that encourages people to sign up to receive your emails.

3. Host an event

Stage an event — lunch gathering, topic talk, book club or whatever works to get people in the door. Drop invitations at nearby businesses, post the notice on your front door, and advertise in local media. Ask people to RSVP with their email addresses.

4. Invite people to ‘join the club’

Offer a birthday or anniversary club that allows people to “enroll” by providing their email address and relevant date. Reward them with a special offer for signing up, and follow up with something else special, such as a discount coupon, on their birthday or anniversary date.

5. Organize a giveaway

Using snail mail and/or your existing email list, send people a postcard asking for email information and offer them a reward for providing it.

6. Drum up emails with direct mail

Sometimes you have a physical address but no email address. Send a direct-mail offer they can only get by going to your website and joining your email list.

7. Try some telemarketing

Throughout the day, you and your employees probably interact with many customers and prospects on the phone. Before you hang up, always ask if they would like to join your email list. Give them a brief statement of the benefits of enrolling — for example, exclusive offers and discounts only available to email subscribers.

8. Optimize your website for opt-ins

If a customer or prospect visits your website, they’re already at least somewhat interested. Don’t miss the opportunity to add them to your email list. Include email registration forms on every main page of your site, as well as on the pages for popular products and services.

9. Build with your blog

Your blog provides a great way to build a personal relationship with customers and prospects — and to gather their email addresses. Consistently end blogs with a call to action that encourages readers to sign up for your email messages. Require blog visitors to provide an email list in order to leave comments, and set it up so that they have to actively opt out if they don’t want their email address included on your mailing list.

10. Engage through social media

Social media participation can allow you to reach new audiences and make new connections. Stay abreast of trending topics that are of interest to your customers and prospects. Use social media to encourage people to visit one of the channels where they can sign up for your email list.

11. Don’t give up on bounce backs

Everyone hates to see the dreaded bounce-back alert in their inbox. If you have snail-mail information to match an email address, send a postcard asking the contact to provide you with an updated email address so you can stay in touch. Consider rewarding them with a discount or freebie for taking the time to respond.

12. Piggyback on a colleague’s efforts

Consider sharing email lists with neighboring businesses. Offer them space in your newsletter in exchange for including a link with your opt-in form in their newsletter.

13. Don’t let website visitors get away

If a visitor gets through your entire website without opting in, grab them one last time before they go. Set a lightbox to appear asking for an email address whenever someone is about to navigate away from your website or blog.

14. Create an online community

Platforms like BuddyPress for WordPress make it easy to set up a community and foster interaction between your brand and your customers. Include a sign-up form for your newsletter on every page of the community.

15. Leverage ‘email only’ specials

Reward your loyal email followers with specials that are only available to subscribers. Encourage them to forward the link to your sign-up page to friends and family.

16. Don’t forget your own email

Be sure every email you send has an opt-in form so that anyone who receives one of your emails via forward from someone else, can sign up directly to be on your list.

17. Use Foursquare

Offer a reward for customers who buy something from you and show that they checked in at your business on Foursquare using their mobile device. When they do this, they’re telling everyone in their network that they’ve done business with you. Each month, reward the person who gave you the greatest exposure by offering a discount, and asking for their email address.

18. Be active on blogs and forums

Frequent the blogs and forums your customers do and offer insightful comments. Include a link to your website where visitors will find your opt-in form.

19. Get employees involved

Reward employees for collecting valid, testable email addresses. Remember to have them obtain the person’s consent before giving you the email address for your list.

20. Encourage customers with a daily deal

Daily deal sites can be useful for retail or local service businesses. Offer your discount (daily deal) through the site for a limited time and ask anyone who wants to grab the deal to provide their email address in exchange.

21. Word of mouth still rocks

Ask current and new customers to refer new subscribers to your list. Sweeten the deal by offering them a discount as a reward for valid, confirmed and consent-backed email addresses.

22. Encourage forwarding

When you send an email, include a forward-to-a-friend link in case recipients want to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting. Make sure the link directs newcomers to a page with your opt-in form.

23. Serve up a sandwich board

Sandwich boards are nothing new, but what about using one in a new way? Place one on the sidewalk in front of your storefront or office to advertise your newsletter and offer a reward to anyone who signs up. Invite customers into the store to enroll, or give them the web address where they’ll find your opt-in form.

24. Use receipts

Customize your credit card receipt with a field/line where customers can jot down their email address while they’re signing. Or, simply ask them to write their address on the back of the receipt. At the end of the day, enter the addresses into your database and send out a welcoming email.

25. Take it to the street fair

Spring, summer, winter, and fall — your community probably has at least one street fair or similar event throughout the year. Participate in the event and collect email addresses right at the fair. Sweeten the deal by offering new subscribers a discount on their first (or next) purchase in exchange for sharing the email with you.

26. Encourage competition

Sponsor a video contest in which customers create a one-minute video about why they like your business, products or services. Ask them to send the videos to you and post them to your Facebook page. Invite visitors to vote on which video should win a cash or merchandise prize. Include an email opt-in on your Facebook page. Be sure to follow Facebook’s rules regarding contests.

27. Go mobile

When you’re out in the world at a tradeshow, business meeting or other public forum, use your smartphone to collect email addresses. And be sure to include an email opt-in with your business’ mobile app. If you offer the app for free download through your website, “charge” users the “price” of their email address in order to download the app.

28. Inside-the-box ideas

If you ship products, it’s a perfect opportunity to expand your email list at no cost! Include an inbox request on a card inside every package you ship. Be sure to tout your “email only” offers and direct recipients to your website’s opt-in form. After they join, redirect them to a page where they’ll receive their first promotional offer.

29. Make it more than just a bill

When you send out an invoice, include an option to sign up for email communications with you. Again, sweeten the deal by offering an incentive such as a discount or free shipping on the next order as a reward for providing email addresses.

30. Signs of the times

Include a link to your opt-in page in the signature of all your emails, personal and professional.

31. Network for emails

Join your local Chamber of Commerce or another business networking group. Email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services and include a link to sign up for your emails and newsletter.

32. Download freebies

That e-book or buying guide you created to establish thought leadership in your industry can also help build your email list. When visitors to your website request a free download, ask them to complete your opt-in form in order to download.

33. Speak up for yourself

Speaking engagements are a great way to establish your company as active in the community, but you can also weave into your talk the idea that more information can be found on your website. Offer free consultations in exchange for signing up for your newsletter and emails.

34. Giving it all away

Every month, offer a giveaway of a valuable or fun item to anyone who signs up for your email list.

35. Subscriber-only access

Everyone likes the feeling of being in on something exclusive. Offer your email subscribers something only they can get. It might be a special discount. It could be access to a video, e-book or another piece of useful content. Promote the availability of this exclusive access in order to encourage more email enrollments.

36. Give them subscription options

People like more choices, so consider creating subscription levels that let people sign up to receive content that’s relevant to them. For example, if you sell widgets and tax advice, provide three options on your opt-in form that allow users to sign up to receive info about widgets, info about tax advice or both. Further customize by allowing them to designate how frequently they’d like to hear from you — weekly, monthly or only when something really special is going on. People may be more likely to sign up for your email list if they have some control over the content they’ll receive.

37. Don’t forget the power of print

Add a QR code (a bar code that people can scan with a smartphone app) to print ads, direct-mail post cards and other printed marketing materials. Use the code to allow people to opt-in to your email list simply by scanning the code.

38. Leverage testimonials

Make your opt-in form extra convincing by including testimonials from current email subscribers touting the quality of your content.

39. Create a teachable moment

Are you an expert in something people want to know about, like weight loss, home improvement, cooking, etc.? Promote an exclusive online email course available only to subscribers.

40. Reel them in with a scroll box

Visitors to your website might overlook the call to sign up that you have at the top of every page, but it’s harder to ignore a lightbox or pop-up. Scroll boxes pop up on visitors’ screens after they’ve scrolled down a certain length of the page. The box encourages them to sign up for your email list. They can be effective for encouraging a user who’s already shown interest in your content (by staying on the page long enough to scroll) to sign up for your email list.

Building an email list takes time and is critical to marketing success in the digital age. What tactics do you use to collect more emails?

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