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Growing a business

Use incentives to encourage customers to sign up for email marketing

By QuickBooks Australia

Published on June 6, 2024

Reach your customers more effectively by enticing them to sign up for your company’s email list. Email marketing can be an incredibly powerful tool for today’s businesses, as the people who receive your newsletter are already familiar with and possibly even interested in your products or services.

At the same time, convincing people to sign-up for your email list can be a challenge. After all, most people are wary of receiving unsolicited emails. Use these ideas to incentivise people to subscribe, so you can grow your email list naturally and legitimately.

Provide a one-time discount

Money talks. If someone is visiting your website, there’s a strong chance they’re interested in spending money there. Offering a discount for signing up for the email list may cost you some profit up front, but a repeat customer can really improve your company’s bottom line in the long run. Even if the customer never returns, that purchase usually means more exposure for your brand, so it’s a small amount of money well spent.

Establish your brand as an authority

It may take some time and effort, but the best way to gain email list subscribers is to ensure they don’t want to miss out on what your brand has to offer. Continually put out exceptional content to establish your brand as the go-to resource in your field.

From there, people can naturally gravitate to your content and promotions. Market your email list as an exclusive group with special limited time offers that people won’t find anywhere else, and make your audience feel like it’s a privilege to join.

Offer exclusive content

You don’t always have to sacrifice your profits to get people to sign up for your email marketing list. Instead of offering a tangible item or discount, provide content that’s only accessible to email list members. Tease them with an interesting blog post or video related to your niche, and then require an email sign-up to view the rest. You could also consider creating holiday email marketing content, like seasonal guides or festive tips, exclusively for subscribers to engage them during peak times of the year. If you continue to provide valuable content on a consistent basis, your subscribers won’t feel the urge to click that unsubscribe button.

Host a contest

One of the easiest ways to build up your email list fast is to host a giveaway. If you’re going to go this route, do it right. The winner should receive something completely free and ideally something of significant value. While you may lose money initially, there’s a strong chance that you can make a lot more if you build up an extensive email list. After the first contest, gauge the response and determine if it’s worth it to make the event a regular occurrence.

Add a sign-up option to the checkout

One of the easiest ways to boost your email list is to include a sign-up form in the checkout process. Many customers will simply sign up without thinking twice. Just make sure that you clearly state that they’re signing up for your email list, and always include an option to opt out if they don’t want to sign up. It’s important to learn how email marketing works and remain under the Spam Act 2003 at all times. You may be surprised how many organic signups you can get simply by making the option readily available.

Other email sign-up incentives

Offer a free or discount coupon or admission on an event or webinar that relates to your business.
Offer a multi-email educational course.
Give first-time subscribers an instant offer for signing up.
Offer exclusive templates or downloadable content.

Email marketing will help you gain leads

Using incentives is one of the best ways to gain an email marketing following. While you use incentives to gain a following, QuickBooks Online will help you manage your new clientele with features like tracking income, accepting payments, running reports, and more.

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