Syama Meagher, CEO Scaling Retail, is the retail consultant for fashion brands and retailers. Check out their giveaway for Launch My Brand, a course to help you in sales and marketing. 

Email is one of the most important channels to develop and grow your sales. Think of your email list as groups of people who have said, “yes, market to me!” You can email them as often as you like and create products and offers specifically to entice them to buy. Have an event coming up? New product release? Notify your brand loyalists, a.k.a. your email list.  Not only will they be excited to receive the information, but they will also be more likely to share it with others. It is easy to see why email is gold.  

Now, why is email acquisition so tough? It can be especially challenging on a new e-commerce site. Today, every website has a newsletter pop up or sends out coupon codes to friends and family, but where should you start? There are a few tricks that really work, so read on and implement them for best results of a growing email list. 

1. Create compelling content and syndicate it. If your content is good then customers will want to subscribe to get more. Good content means information that will inspire readers or help them understand their desires and needs.  If you have built up your brands’ YouTube channel ask customers directly to come to your site and subscribe. Ask your Instagram following to sign up for your “new” newsletter. Hey, no one knows that it’s not new ;)
2. Create a product giveaway. Everyone loves something free, and contests are great for cross marketing. Free cross marketing contests can be very rewarding. Especially when you are offering a product that can be of specific use to your partners niche market. Before looking for partners you should ask yourself, “Is this a natural fit? Do I have to hard pitch this?” If it’s not a natural fit then continue to look for a better partner. Good fits can be brands that offer different products to your niche market, service providers that are in the business making recommendations, and content providers/influencers who are recognized as trusted sources.  
3. Leverage paid marketing. Drive traffic to your new email acquisition landing page or pop up with paid advertising on Google, Bing, Facebook, or Instagram. Before launching paid marketing ensure that you have done the research on keywords and have developed enough assets for A/B testing.
4.  Try staging the release of your content when you do your ask. If you create a post on Instagram and it automatically links to all your platforms reconsider a more strategic approach. This way your brand loyalists won’t get social media fatigue. For example, if you create a piece of content to go out try releasing it like this: Monday- IG, Tuesday- Facebook, Wednesday- Twitter. You don’t want to bombard all the channels with the same message in the same day. It’s the equivalent of an email in ALL CAPS. Scary.
5. Create fun and catchy opt-ins. I love what Pura Vida does for their brand. “Hey, do you want to save money or not?” This type of attitude is funny and refreshing. If your brand isn’t taking a casual attitude, find a style that does the same trick. 
6. Referral marketing. Sign up for a platform like Referral Candy, there are lots like them, and start implementing referral marketing with the people who are already customers. They refer a friend to the site, and they get 20% off their next purchase. Clean and easy. Let your customers do the work for you.
7. Personal Interactions. We talk a lot about driving traffic through digital means, but what about in person. Your customers deserve a 360° brand experience. If you host a pop-up shop, sell at a flea market, or do any type of live-selling, bring your iPad and incentivize your captivated audience to sign up for your email list. 
8. Be consistent with your newsletter. Send your newsletter out once a month and ask your customers to forward it on to a friend. Keep the messaging consistent and just suggest it, don’t scream it. Make sure you create a custom header for your newsletter and decide on a format. I like Canva for easy editing and designing. To really nail your newsletter make sure its part product pitching and part behind the scenes or a note from you. If it’s all about products, that can be boring for readers.

Good luck on your journey of growing your email list! It’s not easy, takes time, but it is well worth it. Email is golden. As soon as you have one email address that isn’t a friend or family member it’s time to start marketing. Don’t lag on this. No one knows that there is only one person on your list! Once you have a robust list going you will have lots of other juicy things to work on like getting them to convert.

Use these other tips for a strong online presence:

• » 6 Strategies to Improve Your Ecommerce Sales Today (also from Syama!)
• » Why Your Brand Needs a Great Website
• » 3 Strategies to Create a Successful Online Store

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