“Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all,” says Paul Buchheit, a founder of FriendFeed

Here are some phrases I’ve gotten when telling clients/friends the benefits of creating a good email list.

• It’s too hard.
• It takes too long to build a large subscriber list.
• I don’t know where to start.
• Social Media is better for getting new clients.
• Email is old school, people don’t read newsletters.
• Nobody wants to sign up for my newsletter
• Newsletters are too hard to manage.

Now, let’s compare that with some real world statistics regarding email marketing (Source: http://www.emailisnotdead.com/)

• 91% of consumers check their email daily
• 66% of consumers have made a purchase online as the result of an email marketing message
• Email Marketing has a whopping ROI (return on investment) of 4,300%
• 80% of content marketersuse email marketing – CMI “B2B Content Marketing Research” (2014)
• Email is almost40x better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter – McKinsey & Company (2014)
• 42% of businesses say email is one of their most effective lead generation channels. And for B2B marketers, 88% say email is the most effective lead generation tactic – Circle Research (2012)

Do you feel differently about Email Marketing now?

Here are a couple of tips and some suggestions on how to get started building your own email subscriber list.

1. Ask – If you don’t ask, you’ll never know

The first step to getting more email subscribers is to ask people to sign-up. If site visitors don’t know about your newsletter program, then it will be difficult to obtain new leads. Most importantly, you want to make sure that signing up for you email list is super easy.

Email sign-up forms that ask for too many details are seen as cumbersome by most folks. You can do a survey later, not at the time of sign-up. Think of this like eating a 5-course meal — do you prefer eating the salad, dessert, and entre all at once? Or is it better to space them apart so you can enjoy each step of the dinner?

Keep your sign-up form as brief as possible. I recommend a name and an email. That’s it. If it takes someone more than a few seconds to sign up, they won’t.

Here are the steps a new subscriber should go through if they sign up for your list.

Step 1: Enter their email address.

Step 2: Confirm their email address

Step 3: Start receiving emails from you 🙂

OK, You Convinced me, but what’s the best place for my Email Signup Form on my website?

Letting people know about your mailing list should be done in a classy, not “bashing visitors over the head”, way. Keep in mind, that many visitors don’t always come to your website in the same way. For example, some may start on your homepage, while others start on your blog page.

This is why I recommend having the option to sign up for you email list in a few locations, not just in one spot. Some suggestions might be; in your sidebar, underneath you website banner, at the end of your blog posts, and an unobtrusive pop up or slide in. (With a pop up or slide in, I recommend having the pop up come in at least 30 seconds into the visitors visit. If someone comes to your site and starts reading, and a pop up covers the screen, they will close it immediately. It may annoy them to the point where they may leave your site all together.)

Additional Quick Tips: Show an example of the kinds of information, coupons, etc. that may be found in the email, so visitors know what to expect. Also, send out your emails on a consistent basis. If you don’t send anything for 1 year, and then start sending out emails regarding your product, people will leave your list because they don’t remember who you are or why they signed up for your list in the first place.

2. Offer an Incentive – “Use a Carrot”

Generally speaking, people will not sign up for your newsletter just because they like you or think you are cool. By Offering a simple, but valuable, incentive to entice people to sign up you will have much better results. This could be an e-book you’ve published, a one-time coupon for your products, a free sample, an entry to a giveaway raffle, or some other creative offering. The point is, once you get a lead to sign-up for your emails, no matter the initial reason, they are more likely to return to your site in the future.

I highly recommend that whatever item you offer as a “carrot” that it be professional quality. If it’s not good enough to sell, it might not be good enough. If people download your eBook, only to find it’s very poor quality, it will give them the idea any future products you offer, will also be poor quality.

3. How to Get Started – Tools I recommend

If you are going to start an email list I recommend either MailChimp or Constant Contact. (Here’s a review of 6 email marketing software tools) MailChimp is dead simple to set up and allows you to create multiple lists, as well as an automation system. An automation system, will allow you to send a series of welcome emails to the new subscribers of your list. This is a great way to build a relationship with your new subscribers.

Another tool I recommend is Optinmonster. It’s a great WordPress plugin that will help you convert your visitors into subscribers and customers. It will allow you to start collecting email addresses very quickly.

I hope you enjoyed this tips. Now, go forth and get more people on your email list! 🙂

Do you need some assistance getting your online marketing started or sustained? Checkout LuckyFish Media services to improve your site goals.