How to Build an Email List (All You Need to Know to Start From Scratch)

Email marketing is a powerful tool that helps business owners connect with their audience and boost results. If you’ve been holding back on email marketing because you don’t have an email list, or because past attempts haven’t done the job, worry not. 

In this article, we dive into the “why” and “how” of email list building, providing you with practical tips and strategies to maximize your marketing efforts.

What is an Email List?

The heart and soul of email marketing is your email list: it’s one of your most valuable marketing assets. At first glance, it’s just a list of emails of all the people who’ve opted in to receive more information from you – whether that includes news, promotions, product launches, or other updates.

But really it’s so much more than that. Ultimately, these are potential customers who are not only interested in what you have to say, but have agreed to hear more! And, as we will discuss further, this list can include just email addresses, or it can include more detailed information about each customer. As a result, you can segment your list based on a variety of criteria, and thus better target and test your messages – and improve sales conversions!

Why Is It Important to Build an Email List?

Before diving into practicalities and strategies, let’s understand why building an email list is important for your business growth, and why experts recommend it as one of the most crucial email marketing strategies.

1. Bring business opportunities with every subscriber

Email marketing fosters business growth at every turn, from engaging first-time visitors to nurturing long-standing customers. And each person on your email list is a gateway to new opportunities.

• Find new customers

Not all visitors to your website or offline store are ready to make a purchase or act on their first (even second) visit. By engaging them with email newsletters, educational content, and introductory offers, you have the opportunity to guide them from initial awareness to making their first purchase. Regular email communication keeps your brand top-of-mind, gradually creates a connection and familiarity, and eventually urges the subscriber to act when the right trigger is presented.

• Bring repeat business from current customers

Existing customers, having already experienced the quality of your products or services, are naturally more inclined to make repeat purchases, recommend your brand to others, and share their positive feedback. Their familiarity with your brand builds a foundation of trust on which you could easily capitalize. 

By sending regular newsletters, offers with exclusive discounts, asking them for feedback, or just keeping them up to date with your new product or service additions, you strengthen your connection with them. As a result, you can improve customer retention, and encourage them to come back for repeat business. 

2. Less expensive and more effective than other forms of advertising

Email marketing doesn’t require a significant investment to start. Also, it’s typically substantially less expensive compared to other advertising channels such as paid search or social media ads. Beyond that, the return on investment for email marketing is exceptionally high, with more than $36 generated for every $1 invested!

Also key: relying on third-party platforms for advertising can be risky due to changes in algorithms, policies, or costs. Email marketing reduces this dependency, giving you more control over how and when you reach your audience, thus allowing you to boost effectiveness.

3. Allows you to precisely segment and target your subscribers with relevant content

Email marketing is a powerful tool in digital marketing, particularly given its ability to segment and target audiences precisely. Unlike other marketing channels, email marketing lets you group your subscribers based on specific criteria, including their interests, past purchases, demographic data, and behavioral patterns. 

Segmentation means you can tailor your content to fit different groups’ unique preferences and needs. This custom approach is becoming increasingly vital, especially as search engines and digital platforms move away from cookie-based tracking. Indeed, the decline in cookie tracking decreases the efficacy of paid ads, which makes email marketing an even more attractive option.

What makes a high-quality email list?

Developing an email list isn’t just about gathering as many emails as possible. On the contrary: valuable email lists prioritize quality over quantity. It might seem tempting to send emails to anyone and everyone, but doing so might not only dilute your messaging for this less-targeted audience, but these less-interested subscribers are more likely to mark your emails as spam. The result? A bad sender reputation, and thus fewer of your emails reaching those people that really want to hear from you.

With that said, the important part is to make sure your list is full of engaged users – people that really want to hear from you. As such, here’s a list of ways to ensure your list is composed of high-quality subscribers.

Clear opt-in (double opt-in based)

What makes email marketing particularly effective is that its recipients have proactively expressed interest in hearing from you. That’s why it’s especially important to make sure your subscribers have knowingly signed up to hear from you. 

This is where a clear opt-in comes into play, and the best way to do this is with a double opt-in. That is, let’s say a subscriber first signs up for your list via an online form – this is the first opt-in. The second opt-in comes as a confirmation email through which they confirm that they are indeed interested.

This double opt-in affirms that subscribers really do want to hear from you, and it also helps eliminate possible spam sign-ups. This translates into a lower email bounce rate, fewer unsubscribes, and ultimately more sales! 

Fresh & Up to date 

Along similar lines, to be sure that your list is filled with legitimate, genuinely interested subscribers, it’s important to keep it fresh and up to date. To do this, it’s critical to use an email marketing platform that flags old and/or bounced email addresses, and allows you to easily remove them. It is also recommended to go through your list every three to six months to remove inactive contacts – this includes those that haven’t opened your last several emails. Additionally, as previously discussed, a double opt-in can help eliminate invalid email addresses from the start.

No purchased email lists

It can be tempting to buy email lists in order to increase your marketing reach. But purchased lists are often filled with spam traps and include invalid or unused emails. Whether you’re sending emails to users who haven’t opted in, or to a bunch of potentially invalid emails, this can lead to much higher bounce rates. This in turn can impact your sender reputation, increasing the likelihood of your future emails going to spam – for all recipients, even the ones who really want to hear from you. 

Remember: what makes your list especially successful is that it’s filled with subscribers who’ve actively opted in (even double opted in) to hear what you have to say.  

Easy-to-find unsubscribe option

It might seem counterintuitive to make it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe, but in actuality you want to make it easy for uninterested subscribers to remove themselves from your list. Not only does this keep your email content targeted toward those who are truly interested, but especially important: it reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam. This can impact your sender reputation and ultimately your ability to successfully reach those who do want to receive your emails. By allowing uninterested subscribers to opt out, you will promote list quality, email delivery, and conversions.

Compliant with regulatory standards

Email marketing compliance with regulatory standards is no laughing matter. At a minimum, noncompliance can harm your brand and business – but if you really get into hot water, you can face extremely costly fines. 

Across the board, regulations such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM boil down to permission-based marketing: that is, they require that your subscribers opt in, that they can easily unsubscribe, and that you’re transparent about how you manage their data. It’s important to familiarize yourself with these regulations to make sure you’re mindful of how they might impact your email marketing. 

Constant Growth

The simplest way to determine your list’s quality is if it’s constantly growing. Keeping an eye on email list growth can not only affirm your list’s success, but sudden growth, for example, could alert you to unexpected publicity (yay!). That said, not all list growth is great news: a bump in email growth could indicate spam emails being added to your list by nefarious actors. Another reason to keep that list fresh and up to date!

Promising Stats

Another way to determine list quality is to review your email stats, including open rate, bounce rate and unsubscribes. Open rates will tell you if your subject lines are resonating; rising bounce rates encourage you to clean up your list; and growing unsubscribes might indicate that you should revise your email content or sending frequency. 

Additionally, if you are tracking links, you can monitor how subscribers engage with your website after clicking and, importantly, if your emails are leading to sales. 

What you need to start building an email list 

Your business journey is unique, and you may find that its stages evolve as you explore email marketing. You might be starting with a small shop that’s just opened its doors, or as a booming business that’s seeing exponential growth.

Regardless of what stage your business is at, creating a strong subscriber list is both possible and essential — and we’ll give you the steps on how to build an email list effectively based on where your business is at.

Create an email sign-up form

Online sign-up forms are the best place to start building your email list from scratch. That’s because your site visitors are people who are already interested in your brand, product, or service, and that makes them good candidates for your email list. 

But first, imagine if you don’t offer them the opportunity to sign up for your list.  Consider their journey: they land on your website, where they might either make a purchase or leave undecided. In this period of deliberation, they could explore other providers or, more critically, they might completely forget about your brand altogether. 

This is where the real value of a sign-up form and email marketing comes into play. Encouraging visitors to subscribe to your emails creates an avenue to keep in touch with them. It’s an opportunity to nurture a relationship with them, providing valuable content, updates, and offers that may sway their decision in your favor.

To create a sign-up form that effectively gains subscribers, certain key elements are essential:

The fields in your form

The fewer fields in your form, the better. Every additional field can decrease the likelihood that visitors complete the sign-up process. To keep it straight forward and user-friendly, aim for the essentials, such as collecting email addresses, and names. This simplicity respects the user’s time and reduces the entry barrier, leading to more subscribers.

Incentives to subscribe

Offer a clear incentive for visitors to subscribe. This could include exclusive discounts, early access to new products, insightful newsletters, or delivery of free resources like e-books or guides. Clearly communicate what they gain by subscribing, making the value of joining your email list undeniable.

Call to action

The call-to-action button should be eye-catching and use direct, action-oriented language. Phrases like “Get Exclusive Offers,” “Join Now,” or “Download Free Guide” are effective. The design of the button should stand out, drawing attention and prompting action.

Sign-up form placement

Once you’ve determined the content of your form, you’ll need to determine where and how best to implement it on your site – after all, there’s a whole art to placing your form at just the right place and time to best capture leads. 

Where to place your forms

The positioning of a sign-up form on your website is crucial for maximizing visibility and encouraging sign-ups. Here are key places to consider:

• Homepage: This is often the first point of contact for visitors. Placing a sign-up form prominently on the homepage, such as in the header, as a popup, or in a dedicated section, ensures maximum exposure.
• Online store checkout: During checkout, customers are actively engaged with your brand, making it an opportune moment to encourage them to subscribe. They’ve already shown interest by making a purchase, indicating a higher likelihood of wanting to stay connected for future updates and offers. Adding a simple opt-in checkbox in the checkout process is a non-intrusive way to invite customers to subscribe. This can be positioned near the customer’s contact information or payment details. The key is to make it visible but not a barrier in the purchasing process. Use straightforward, inviting language for the opt-in. For instance, a phrase like “Would you like to receive updates and special offers via email?” followed by a checkbox with “Yes, please!” is direct, clear, and friendly.
• Blog Posts: Embedding the form within or at the end of blog posts can be very effective. Readers engaged with your content are more likely to be interested in subscribing for more. You can place it midway through the article or at the end, where readers who find value in the content are likely to sign up.
• Comments section: Adding an email subscription checkbox in a comment form is a seamless way to encourage sign-ups. Since the visitor is already entering their details to leave a comment, it’s a convenient and non-intrusive addition.
• Footer: Including a sign-up form in the website footer enables visibility on every page, providing a constant reminder to visitors to subscribe.

Remember, the goal is to make the form visible without being intrusive, balancing exposure with a positive user experience.

How to add a form to your website

Adding a sign-up form to your website can be approached in various ways – whether coding it from scratch or using third-party services that integrate with your website platform (like WordPress, etc.). 

The best method depends on your specific needs, technical expertise, and the platform your website is built on. If you’re not comfortable with coding, the best approach is to use an email marketing service provider that offers easy form creation with popular website platforms.

SiteGround’s Lead Generation plugin for WordPress

We’ve created a Lead Generation Plugin for WordPress tailored for our Email Marketing platform. It empowers you to easily create and add sign-up forms anywhere on your website. What’s more, it automates the process of adding new subscribers to your email list, allowing you to categorize them into specific groups for precise targeting.

Beyond that, our plugin goes the extra mile by integrating a user-friendly sign-up checkbox directly into your WooCommerce checkout, as well as standard WordPress forms like comments and registrations. This means that your website visitors have a variety of convenient options for joining your mailing list, ensuring you capture leads efficiently and effortlessly.

Follow through

Once you’ve got the form set up, and the number of subscribers is growing, you’ll want to follow through by nurturing that list. That requires sending regular emails that include information that is valuable to your readers. While designing and writing marketing emails can feel intimidating or tedious, you can make the process as easy (and even cost-free) as possible by using an email platform that has user-friendly features such as free email templates.

7 Strategies to grow your email list

Growing your email list effectively involves a blend of different strategies, both online and offline. Each of them focuses on effectively using different mediums or platforms to reach potential subscribers, and on giving people a strong incentive to join your email list. Here are some key strategies:

1. Incentives that motivate people to join your email list

It’s about creating a win-win situation where subscribers feel they are gaining something worthwhile in exchange for their email address. And you can start by answering this crucial question for potential subscribers: “What’s in it for me?”

• Exclusive Content: This could be in the form of informative articles, videos, e-books, or webinars that are only available to email subscribers. The key is that this content isn’t accessible elsewhere and provides significant value.
• Special Offers: Discounts, promotions, or early access to sales can be very enticing. For instance, you could offer a 10% discount code for their next purchase upon subscription.
• Insider Information: Some audiences appreciate being “in the know.” This could include early product announcements, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or industry insights.
• Valuable Resources: Free tools, templates, guides, or resources that help your audience solve a problem or improve their life in some way can be a good reason for them to give you their email.

2. Create a landing page 

A landing page can act as a sign-up form with no distractions – no website pages to get lost in, no other messages to pull away the reader’s attention. When it comes to gathering emails, landing pages can be used in a variety of ways, including prior to launching a business, to offer a specific promotion, or to sign up for news on a specific new product, among many other objectives. You might send potential subscribers to your landing page by promoting it via social media, QR code, ads, or paid or organic search. 

3. Timing and placement – when to show the form

The success of online sign-up forms greatly depends on their timing and placement. For instance, a pop-up form might appear after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on your site, or when they are about to leave. That way the visitor has had time to engage with your content, making them more likely to subscribe. 

A very popular strategy  is to have a sign-up form hijack certain pages, such as your homepage. This means the user can’t proceed to your other content and/or browse through your site without either closing the form or filling it in. This is the most aggressive strategy to push subscriptions, as it implies you prioritize sign-ups over direct purchases or other website objectives.

4. Use social media

Your social media platforms can serve as powerful tools to promote your email subscription. Here’s how to leverage them effectively:

• Share snippets: Use your social media accounts to share teasers of the content or offers that subscribers receive via email. Create compelling posts that encourage your followers to join your email list for access to exclusive content or deals.
• Direct Links: Include direct links to your email sign-up page in your social media profiles and posts.

5. Encourage offline sign-ups

While online methods are often the focus of email list building tactics, there are plenty of effective offline strategies that can also help you grow your subscriber base. This can not only include in-store sign-ups, as mentioned above, but also industry events, conferences, trade shows, local community pop-up shows, and more. 

6. Giveaways

Everyone loves a giveaway, so offering something for free is often a very successful way to grab people’s interest and get them to sign up. The key here is that your goal should still be to only acquire qualified subscribers: that is, people who are genuinely interested in what your business has to offer. So when doing giveaways, be sure that your giveaway item aligns with your brand and offering, and that users are signing up because their interests truly match with what you’ll provide them.

7. Host a webinar, workshop or masterclass

An extremely effective way to acquire qualified subscribers is by hosting an educational opportunity, such as a webinar, workshop or masterclass. Of course it’s critical that you not only be an expert on the subject matter but, of course, that it corresponds with what you intend to offer this set of future clients. By providing relevant expertise and value to these new subscribers, you will begin a relationship with them, building customer loyalty and positioning your business as credible and trustworthy. 

Building an email list is among the most valuable marketing assets for any business or organization. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you can effectively grow your number of subscribers, and establish a direct line of communication with your audience. Remember, consistency and providing value are key to developing a strong and engaged email list, and ultimately more sales. Start implementing these strategies today and watch your list grow.

Build your email list and boost sales

Take advantage of SiteGround’s easy-to-use email marketing platform