Better Promote your Email List

Posted by Danny Wood

Interested in running a contest with your email list like we mention in this blog post? Take a look at SailMail, a new app built on the Strutta API that automates the process of running promotions with your MailChimp lists.

If you’re a Canadian marketer or market to people in Canada, you no-doubt have heard of the recent CASL legislation that has decimated Canadian email lists with its required opt-ins. As a result, this is a great time to think about (re-)building your e-mail list, whether CASL has affected you or not, so read-on!

Statistics show that not only is email marketing the most profitable channel for marketers to employ as part of their mix, it’s also the one that your target market prefers over all others to be communicated through.

As great as email marketing is, it’s impossible to capitalize upon if your list is empty. So what can you do?

Present an Easy-to-Understand Value Proposition

Your monthly email newsletter may provide fabulous fashion tips that will change your readers’ lives forever, but until a potential subscriber has read your newsletter or heard this from a friend, they most likely won’t believe you.

As a result, provide an Easy-to-Understand Value Proposition at the point of sign-up for potential subscribers. A perfect example is that, by signing-up, email list subscribers will be entered to win a reguarly-drawn prize.

Email Marketing Sign Up L&M

Although random draws are probably the most popular option, other Easy-to-Understand Value Propositions include promotion codes only available to email list members, special access to guides and resources, and early access to blog posts and other content.

Emphasize Exclusivity

When asking potential subscribers to sign-up for your email list, you must first answer their most important question: “what’s in it for me?” As marketers, it’s easy to understand what a new email list subscription means for us, but this mutual exchange of value is important for a healthy, growing email list that users will stay subscribed to.

As such, another great idea is to present offers to potential email list members that only they will have access to. Special sales that are only available to email list members, for example, will not only be an encouraging point to be mentioned at sign-up, but will also serve as great “word of mouth marketing”-fodder, as list members will certainly tell their friends about the deals they got as a result of being on the list.

Email Marketing Benefits

“Strike While the Iron is Hot”

There are certain moments of interaction with your customers where they are at a “high-point” in their trust and engagement with your brand. These include just after they’ve signed-up for an account, purchased a product, or entered a contest or sweepstakes. This is the perfect time to offer users the opportunity to sign-up for your email list, especially since they already had to enter their email address for another reason.

Keep (the form) Simple, Stupid!

It’s very easy for us as marketers to forget one of the oldest conversion optimization tricks in the book, “simplify the form”, as we can see from the many email list sign-ups that seem to ask users everything short of when they shower.

When asking a user to sign-up for your email list, you should really only need 2-things: their name, and their email address. If there are any additional questions you ask your users, such as regarding their location or their interests, explain to them why you’re asking, and consider making them optional. Explaining to a potential subscriber that telling you their interests will mean that email content is specifically tailored to them will greatly increase the chance that they will give you this information, and actually complete the form.


A successful combination of the tips above can more than double your average rate of email sign-ups. So what are you waiting for?

PS. Looking for more great inspiration for email marketing? Check out Mailchimp’s Inspiration Page here: inspiration.mailchimp.com

First Image Credit, Long & McQuade
Second Image Credit, Keurig