Now is the Perfect Time to Start Email Marketing

You’ve heard that email marketing is a great tool to drive awareness, sales and repeat business.

So, you’re ready to give email marketing a try and see what all the fuss is about.

Then, it hits you: Why bother with email marketing if you don’t even have a list to send to?

How to Get Your First 100 Email Subscribers

When you’re brand new to email marketing, building an email list seems like a huge obstacle.

But, in reality, there are plenty of people out there ready to join your email list in a moment’s notice. You just need to entice them with a visible, convenient and compelling sign-up experience.

Let’s look at four places you can get your first 100 email subscribers.

Your Website

If you’re getting website traffic but neglecting to collect contact information, there’s a good chance most of your visitors will leave your site and never come back. That’s why you need a website sign-up form.

If you have a WordPress site, create a professional, mobile optimized sign-up form with our new Constant Contact Forms for WordPress plugin.

Not a WordPress user? Your Constant Contact account automatically has a web sign-up form ready for you. Check the “List Growth Tools” tab in your account, where you can easily customize the form and edit its title, contact fields and appearance.

Tip: Make it enticing for people to join your email list by offering an incentive. For example, By Paige offers new email subscribers 10 percent off their next order.

Your Personal Email Account

Think about the emails you’re already sending on a day-to-day basis. Chances are that the contacts from your personal email account will be interested in your email marketing messages as well.

Create a quick message to send to the contacts you interact with regularly. Something like:

Hi ____________,

I’m starting a new email list for ______________ (business or audience). Would you like to receive emails with ______________________ (what’s in it for them)?

I’m planning to send emails out on a ____________  (frequency) basis, and you can easily unsubscribe anytime if the information isn’t right for you.

You can sign up directly here______________ (link to your sign-up form).

In addition to proactively reaching out to your contacts, update the email signature in your personal email account to include a link to your sign-up form.

Your Social Media Following

Promote your email list to your social media following, starting with a few social media posts.

To increase the visibility of a similar tweet or post, you can pin your tweet or Facebook post to the top of your feed. This ensures it’s one of the first things people see when they visit your social pages.

You can also collect contacts on an ongoing basis from Facebook by adding Constant Contact’s Join My Mailing List App to your Facebook Business Page.

Here’s an example from Treat Cupcake Bar’s page:

Don’t overlook Facebook’s Call to Action button at the top of the page.

We use the Call to Action button on the Constant Contact Facebook page to encourage visitors to sign-up for our Hints & Tips newsletter, so that they can get our best email marketing and social media resources delivered twice each month.

Your Storefront

If you have a brick and mortar location, every customer that visits is a potential email subscriber.

Set up a pen and paper sign-up sheet in your store and regularly encourage people to sign up. Or, make it easy for people to join your list using their own smartphones and our Text-to-Join tool. Choose a keyword for people to text to a designated number, and they will be automatically added to your email list.

You can even create a promotional sign in your Constant Contact account. Here’s an example from Lewisburg Downtown Partnership:

Don’t Be Afraid to Start Small.

If you start implementing these tools and tips, you’ll get 100 email contacts in no time.

With Constant Contact , you’ll also get personal coaching and educational resources so that you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. Whether you’re just getting started, or have questions later down the road, we’re here to help you.

Not a Constant Contact customer? Sign up for your 60-day free trial today!

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Constant Contact Blog.