How to Build an Email List in a Smart Way: Beginner’s Guide [2024]

Building an email list from scratch can be quite a challenge. Especially when you’re a beginner and looking for effective and straightforward ways.

Also, it’s tough to find a beginner’s guide online for building an email list. Cause the maximum blog is written specifically for advanced-level users. There is NO care for beginners.

That’s where this guide comes in. We’ve explored and found nine smart beginner-friendly solutions on how to build an email list.

These techniques are not only recommended by experts but also guaranteed to help you create a high-quality email list. Plus, we have added some extra techniques to help you ride better. 

Let’s get started!

What is an Email List?

An email list is a collection of email addresses collected from people who signed up to get emails from a business or creator. These people usually sign up through a form (opt-in) on the business or creator’s website.

The aim of making this list is to reach out to a targeted audience with emails, newsletters, promotions, updates, and other messages.

Why Need to Build an Email List?

A simple answer to this question is – Revenue!

While many marketing and advertising platforms are available, such as social media platforms, content marketing, PPC, and others, Email marketing is still a rock star when it comes to making money.

However, here are the major benefits of building an email list:

Direct Communication: Email gives you a direct line to your audience. No algorithms decide who sees your message – it’s straight to their inbox.

Engagement: People on your email list are interested in what you offer. This means they’re more likely to engage with your content and offers.

Personalization: You can tailor your emails to specific list segments, making them more relevant and impactful.

Ownership: Unlike social media followers, your email list is your own. You’re not dependent on platform whims.

Relationship Building: Regular emails let you nurture relationships with your audience. Over time, this can lead to stronger connections and loyalty.

How to Build an Email List

1. Build Personalized Landing Pages

There is a proverb saying, ‘First impression is the best impression’. So, if one comes to your website first, attract them with your eye-soothing landing page. 

Make them feel that your product or service is exactly what they were looking for!

Here are some tips to make a lucrative landing page for list-building:

• Clear and Compelling Headline: Create a headline that instantly communicates the value of your offer and captures the reader’s attention.

• Persuasive Copy: Craft persuasive copy that addresses your audience’s pain points, desires, and aspirations, encouraging them to subscribe.

• Strong Call-to-Action (CTA): Place a clear, prominent CTA that outlines the benefits of subscribing and guides visitors to take action.

• Design Simplicity: Ensure the landing page layout is clean and easy to navigate, avoiding information overload for visitors.

Check out DiviFlash to get an example of a great landing page.

2. Make an Opt-in Form

After the landing page, the initial step to make an email list is Opt-in form. As a beginner, you may know of it.

This is a traditional way but strategically, it can serve you a lot. Just put an extra effort into making an engaging CTA and add them on.

Additionally, opt-in forms come in many different forms. You can put your opt-ins inside models, pop-ups, and chatbot conversations as well. Lastly, consider exploring DMARC reports for an extra layer of email security.

3. Create a Popup

The Popup is an altered version of the Opt-in form. This means you can push the same content into the pop-up also. But if you use both of them, make sure they look different from one another.

However, you can show website popups in different ways. Here are five ways to increase conversions.

• Multi-step pop-up: A pop-up form that guides users through steps to gather better-qualified leads.

• Timed Pop-up: A window that automatically appears after a specific time spent on a webpage.

• Exit Pop-up: An exit popup (or exit intent popup) is shown to visitors when they are about to leave your site.

• Click popup: A pop-up triggered by a button click, offering immediate content or options.

• Scroll Popup: A scroll popup emerges when a person scrolls to a specific point on your website.

Remember, if you ever feel a pause on a pop-up form, this may affect your potential conversion rate. Put the best CTA in your solution.

Check out our Divi popup for more pop-up design ideas!

4. Offer Compelling Incentives

People are likely to be attracted to discounts, promotions, and free things. These words are not mine. Let’s have a proof.

In 1887, Coca-Cola distributed the first coupon. Then between 1894 and 1913, Coca-Cola served 8,500,000 free drinks to Americans.

Since then, things have drastically changed in the marketing world. And you know, Coca-Cola now ranks fourth in the world in food and beverage sales.

So, the point is – offer incentives. Just do simple sign-up offerings. It can be –

• A free eBook
• A PDF version of a blog post or case study
• Discount code
• A coupon
• Free shipping
• A webinar registration
• OTT subscriptions

5. Use Social Media

It’s true that most celebrities earn a significant amount from social media usage. That’s not my word. Search Google and you will find the answer.

This means you can also build your email list through social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help you reach a wider audience. 

Craft engaging content, employ clear CTAs, and run contests to encourage subscriptions. You can also offer something valuable to attract new subscribers. Partnering with popular social media personalities can also help you get more followers.

Nowadays, people spend more time on social media. To attract customers, use social media’s trendy video slider and story feature.

To further enhance your outreach, consider using tools like VEED.IO. It offers a simple add subtitles to video feature that’s automatic and 98.5% accurate. After you upload your video and click ‘Subtitles’, VEED will auto-generate the subs for you, increasing the accessibility of your video content. You can also manually upload subtitle files if preferred. The platform also has an auto subtitle generator and a video caption generator. These features allow you to create inclusive content that caters to a diverse audience, including those with hearing impairments, or non-native language speakers.

Make your content short and simple. You can also create social media groups for your business to reach your customers.

Utilize social media features like “Link in bio,” “Lead ads,” and “Sign-ups” for targeted advertising. Alternatively, consistently reminding subscribers of their benefits will increase engagement.

6. Create a Referral Program

Referral programs are another fantastic way to build your email list.

Look at Starbucks, Dropbox, or McDonald’s – they became industry leaders due to referral programs. Take this example, Dropbox grew 3900% with a simple referral program.

And this referral program is not just for eCommerce brands anymore! Even fintech and SaaS companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

So why don’t we?

To complete this process, encourage your current subscribers to share your offers with their family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.

Now, some might argue that referral programs are just bribes, but we see them differently. It’s more than just loyalty programs, it’s a word-of-mouth marketing.

However, you can try this step with these tools too. Such as ReferralCandy, Refersion, Referral Rock, Ambassador, and more to make your referral process easier.

7. Use Gamification

What about thinking outside the box?

If you’re in eCommerce, food, education, health, retail, or anything else exciting, try Gamify interaction once. 

Based on recent statistics, experts predict that the worldwide gamification industry will reach $30.7 billion by 2025.

So let your customers spin the wheel, play games, solve puzzles, earn points and more. But to participate, visitors must sign up on your website first.

You can also extend your offerings to percentage-based discounts (10%/20%/50% off), free shipping, rewards, and secret gifts.

8. Use Chatbot to Make Signups

Have you ever thought that websites with live chats can help you to build your subscriber list? 

Let’s break it down for you! …

When someone visits your website and starts chatting with the chatbot, it’s a clear sign of their interest in your products or services. 

However, starting conversation with a visitor, the chatbot will open up a form to fill up along with name, email and problem messages. To make a fast and simple approach, visitors are allowed to send their message in different departments like sales and support.

After filling out the form, the bot will try to sort out the problem and finally request for the rating and feedback. Afterward, the conversation history can be mailed to the visitor instantly to make sure they get the best customer service.

Then since you have their email addresses, you can send them updates about the latest products or special offers that interest them. It also creates a better connection between you and your customers. 

9. Build an Email List with a Tool

Now, you may wonder why we should use a tool whenever we have done all the necessary steps.

The answer is – this will allow you to quickly create an email list. All the above steps are possible with just a tool. Once you find a price-worthy tool, your work will be buttery smooth.

Email marketing tools are designed to assist businesses in creating, sending, and tracking email marketing campaigns to engage their audience effectively.

However, it’s important to find a trustworthy email marketing tool that offers features to create engaging emails and supports growth.

So, we’ve put together a list of the finest affordable services. Take a look!

Additional Email List Building Tactics

How about a list with more email-building tactics?

• Contests and Giveaways – Host contests or giveaways that require participants to enter using their email addresses.

• Webinars and Events – Conduct online seminars or events that demand registration, appealing to those intrigued by your field.

• Segmentation Options – Allow subscribers to choose their preferred content types, ensuring relevance and increasing engagement.

• Guest Blogging – Integrate a call-to-action to join your email list when creating guest articles or partnering with influencers.

• Irresistible Lead Magnets – Create valuable resources like cheat sheets or templates that offer immediate benefits to subscribers.

• Personalized CTAs – Customize call-to-action buttons based on the content being viewed to improve conversion rates.

• Drip Campaigns – Design automated drip email campaigns that nurture new subscribers with valuable content over time.

• Limited-time Offers – Create urgency by presenting limited-time offers that require an email subscription to access special deals.

• Guest Expert Collaborations – Host guest expert webinars or Q&A sessions, attracting subscribers interested in learning from industry leaders.

Additional Tips to Create a High-Quality Email List

We have done our best to create an email list, right? 

But there are still some things to check for a top-notch email list. Plus, we need to keep in mind what not to do as well.

Things to Consider

• Make your list permission-based. So that you only have to serve genuine audiences.
• Always update your list by removing invalid or bounced email addresses.
• Only email targeted audiences who have a genuine interest in your products, services, or content.
• Use demographics, prior purchases, interests, interaction, or other variables to segment your audience.
• Keep your unsubscribe button transparent and easy to locate.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t keep an outdated email list.
• Don’t ever buy an email list.
• Excludes fake email addresses.
• Receives minimal complaints about spam mail.
• Does not comply with anti-spam laws.

So, what’s next?

With the steps we’ve shared, you will be on track to build an email list without cutting corners. 

And remember, it’s the blend of these methods that yields the most efficient outcome for your business.

So, embrace the journey, fuse strategy with patience, and let us know which techniques of this blog help you out.

If you want to know more about interesting things, look at our Blog page.