Joy UgiThe ability to drive greater revenue through email marketing is always fundamentally dictated by the size of the email list you have on file. The math is simple – having more email addresses to mail to at the top of the funnel creates more opportunities to drive sales at the bottom.
With that said, email acquisition, (whether from new customers or existing ones), has long been a top challenge. While there are many tried and true organic means of getting more site visitors to opt-in to email programs, any marketer worth his or her salt knows real growth requires expanding acquisition efforts with paid advertising campaigns.
Below are four key recommendations for profitably acquiring new email customers through third party, paid advertising email acquisition tactics.
1. Buy email opt-in ads on a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) basis.
All ad buying comes down to how effective ads are at driving conversions at a profitable price point. Traditional display and search buys are purchased by marketers on a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis, with the hope that people will come to a landing page and buy something or fill out a registration form. CPA-based ads remove the uncertainty of CPM and CPC and cut to the chase—you only pay when consumers take a desired action such as opting into your newsletter. The CPA market has matured over the years and CPA advertising has become affordable and accessible to a wider variety of marketers than ever before.
2. Collect the right data for personalization.
Don’t collect too much in one bite, but do collect what you need to get your email campaigns off on the right foot – especially if you haven’t yet established your user’s profile based on page views, purchases, etc. Some data points beyond email address that you might want to collect upfront include date of birth (in order to send personalized birthday discounts), geo-location (for promoting local offline events and offers), and general interest categories that can aid in enhancing the relevancy of your emails from the get-go.
3. Say hi, immediately.
Always, always, always send a welcome email to new subscribers upon email acquisition. This gives you the platform to introduce your email persona, letting customers get familiar with the tone, style, and most importantly, offers that you’re going to provide them throughout your digital relationship.
4. Don’t forget about mobile and social.
Embrace other digital channels alongside your email acquisition efforts. Adding mobile services like text message alerts and utilizing Facebook ads, keeps your company and products front of mind. Many marketers are skeptical to share the same message across varying channels for fear that it will be overkill and cause unsubscribes. But never fear, studies show that this approach increases your chances for engagement and sales.
One Last Tip
Acquiring email addresses requires a lot of give and take. Consumers will only give up the goods for offers that provide them with high reward and low risk, so keep your intentions and your calls to action clear. For more unique ways to grow you list, check out these 57 Tips to Grow Your Email List.
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