How to grow your email list: 5 creative strategies for non-beginners
Email list growth strategies are more important now than they ever have been.
There are a few reasons for that:
- Over 76% of businesses of all sizes place email marketing in the top 3 ROI-generating marketing channels, according to Klaviyo’s marketing mix report.
- According to a 2023 GWI report representing more than 970K consumers, people are starting to use social media—particularly TikTok—in a more intentional way, as opposed to mindlessly scrolling. (Great for mental health; not so great for ads.)
- Apple’s iOS14 changes wiped out much of the audience-targeting parameters that made paid social a cost-effective option for small businesses. Cost per acquisition has since soared, and return on ad spend has plummeted.
- Besides TikTok (which is currently under threat in the US), average daily time spent on social media declined globally in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the 2023 GWI report.
It’s not so much that paid social is completely ineffective—it’s just that it’s no longer affordable for most small- to medium-sized businesses.
This is why more brands are experimenting with new ways to grow their lists as part of a sound customer acquisition strategy.
The data you own is the data you can learn from, slice up, and build on to craft the perfect message for every segment of your audience. Owned marketing puts you in the driver’s seat.
If you’re looking for ideas to grow your email list in new, creative ways, you’re in the right place. Here, we look at 4 ecommerce company use cases on personalized and creative list growth—with next steps on how you can achieve something similar.
1. Andie Swim personalizes the sign-up process with an interactive quiz
Interactive quizzes are a great way to accomplish 3 things:
- Collect zero-party customer data on product preferences.
- Build your email list.
- Develop a custom welcome series that can drive more sales.
Quizzes are especially powerful for helping consumers narrow down their options. Andie Swim leverages a personalized fit quiz powered by Digioh to help their shoppers find their perfect swimsuit fit and style. In just 8 months, the flow based on the quiz results drove more than $70K in revenue.
Quizzes: best practices
Think of a quiz as a concierge service. Yes, you want to collect an email address and find out about preferences—but the primary function of a quiz is to help people find the best products for their unique needs.
To make sure your quizzes are helpful, use the following 4 categories to guide your creation:
Help shoppers identify products through their own high-level preferences, whether aesthetic, lifestyle, etc.
Great for beauty brands, this type of quiz matches shoppers with products based on a personal routine.
Help consumers who can’t physically engage with a product find exactly what they need online.
Demonstrate the benefits of a product that requires more education before making a decision to buy.
This information helps your prospects and customers find the product that best fits their needs, and it gets you more zero-party data you can use to segment your lists and send even more personalized emails and text messages.
2. Sanzo grows their list size with partnerships and collabs
If you’re a small brand that’s just starting to build your email list, partnering with a large brand could be the kickstart you need to get a lot of subscribers, fast.
Look for brands that are more well-known than yours, but haven’t yet formed partnerships in your category. This cross-section will make for a great partnership, wherein both brands have something to gain.
Your brand partnership will likely be about much more than building an email list. But as you’re finalizing the details, here are some options you can include to make sure email list building is part of it:
Use your partner ’s email list to run a contest that requires an email subscription to enter.
Create posts for your partner to run on their accounts to encourage people to subscribe to your email list (with an incentive).
Develop a co-branded email subscription form for your partner’s website.
Develop limited-edition co-branded products with your partner, and encourage an email sign-up for VIP access.
A great example of a co-branded product is sparkling water brand Sanzo’s partnership with Disney-owned Marvel. To celebrate Asian culture in film, Sanzo created a co-branded, limited-edition lychee drink collection featuring characters from the film on the can.
Since 2018, sales had been growing for Sanzo by at least 400% each year. But the month of the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sparkling water launch, Sanzo saw 6x growth in ecommerce revenue.
Partnerships + collabs: best practices
A few words of caution about brand partnerships: Subscribers you gather from brand partnerships may have subscribed just because they wanted to win something—not because they’re actually interested in your brand.
With that in mind, make sure you:
- Properly vet brands your looking to partner with.
- Don’t overdo this tactic—once a year is plenty.
- Clean your lists frequently.
If you’re doing lots of giveaways and contests and realize they’re bringing in subscribers who don’t engage, try shifting to partnerships that feature bundles and co-branded products.
3. Never Fully Dressed earns referrals for list growth
Some of the best people to help grow your email list are your most loyal customers.
If you have a loyalty program, use a points system to incentivize an email sign-up, either from the customer or someone the customer knows.
When you use a points system, you’re attaching certain customer actions to benefits.
For example, UK fashion brand Never Fully Dressed values their email list so much that they offer 100 points for an email sign-up