In 2010, the term “growth hacking” was coined by Sean Ellis, founder and CEO of GrowthHackers. Growth hacking is a broad term that refers to practices that solely focus on growing. When people first started using it, it related to businesses, specifically early-stage startups.
As time went on, people began to use growth hacking regarding anything that you can grow in a short amount of time. This meant people could growth hack just about anything, including social media, email marketing, and even sales.
In this vein, you can growth hack your newsletter’s email list, as well.
What is an email list?
An email list is a collection of email addresses from customers, prospects, or website visitors.
Like a mailing list, you need to collect potential customers’ or subscribers (in this case) information to send newsletters, updates, promotions, and other types of content directly to subscribers’ inboxes.
In this vein, you can growth hack your newsletter’s email list:
- Share With Your Network
- Provide a Contact Form on Your Website
- How to Make a Connection Between Email and Your Social Media Channels
- Share Within Industry Groups, Associations, and Memberships
- Include Testimonials and Customer Reviews
- Add an Opt-in Link In Your Sign Up Form In Your Email Signature
- Content Upgrade or Gated Content For High Traffic Blog Posts
- Keep Your List Happy
1. Share With Your Network
Your personal social media platform is buzzing with individuals who want to hear from you and learn about what you are up to. This is a perfect opportunity to share a newsletter they may learn a great deal from.
Think about your LinkedIn network, for example. There are hundreds of professionals who are trying to be the best that they can be. This would be an excellent place to invite others to sign up for your newsletter as well as an optimal place for those individuals to then reshare it in the future.
2. Provide a Contact Form on Your Website
One of the easiest ways to passively grow your email list is to have an option on your website for people to sign up on their own. If your website is getting routine traffic, it is a good tactic to capture your website visitors’ attention by offering an opportunity for them to enlist in your newsletter with a sign-up form.
There are three easy ways to do this.
- Create landing pages with an email sign-up form. Be sure, that the landing page provides exclusive content, such as a lead magnet or a content pillar.
- Add a link to the page footer. This ensures that no matter where your users go on your website, they can easily sign up for your newsletter.
- Include a pop-up. You can configure your popup to trigger whenever a website visitor gets to a certain page or spends a certain amount of time on another page. Giving your potential subscriber the option to sign up is a technical strategy that has proven results. you will find that people are more likely to put their email addresses for your newsletter.
3. How to Make a Connection Between Email and Your Social Media Channels
Connecting two marketing channels, social media and email, is a great way to leverage your content. That way, you can ensure that your audience bounces between your various channel sources.
Bouncing your contacts is a strategy in which you move people from one place to another. In this case, you move people from your social media account to your email signups. You also can move people from your emails to your social media accounts and vice-versa.
Including a link in your Instagram bio is a great way to start bouncing users from your account to your newsletter signup. This is one of the only places on Instagram where you can include a clickable link. You can boost click rates of this link just by driving people to it from your posts.
On a Facebook business page, you have the option to include a call to action(CTA) that will lead people to your newsletter signup URL on your website. Follow these steps to add this CTA:
- Click Add Button located under the cover photo of your business page.
- From here you will have the option to select your button of choice; in this case, it should be the Sign-Up button.
- You will be asked to paste your signup form URL. Once you add it, click finish. Now whenever users click your Sign-Up call to action, they will bounce to your newsletter signup.
- On another hand, if you have the budget, you can use a Facebook Ad to drive visitors to your signup form.
4. Share Within Industry Groups, Associations, and Memberships
As a professional, you might be in various professional groups or associations, or even have a membership with a national or regional collective. Individuals in these groups are interested in advancing their careers and helping themselves and/or their companies grow. But most importantly, they are interested in bettering themselves.
This setting is the perfect place to share your company newsletter. These individuals are already prepped to understand what you are offering. Therefore, they will be more likely to be interested in learning more about your shared field.
6. Add an Opt-in Link In Your Sign Up Form In Your Email Signature
By 2026, the average number of emails sent is projected to reach 392.5 billion. That’s a lot of opportunities to generate awareness and potential leads! But, many individuals are missing out on a free opportunity that can be found at the bottom of every email: the email signature.
By including a link to your email list signup form in your signature, you can direct potential customers or subscribers to easily sign up for your marketing emails. This simple opt-in line can make a big impact on your email marketing strategy.
7. Content Upgrade or Gated Content For High Traffic Blog Posts
One effective strategy for gathering email addresses for your email list is through gated content, also known as a content upgrade. To entice potential subscribers, it’s important to provide them with a taste of what they can expect before asking for their contact information.
For instance, you might consider using a high-traffic blog post or creating an introductory blog post. Let’s say that the blog post covers the fundamentals of email deliverability. Then, you can offer more in-depth insights and techniques on this topic as gated content, available to those who opt-in to your email list.
8. Keep Your List Happy
These email list building methods are effective yet easy ways to grow your email subscriber list. But nothing can grow your subscriber list like simply sending content that your audience wants to see.
At rasa.io, we believe in “the segment of 1.” We turn your newsletter into a customizable content stream that gives each individual person in your list the exact content they want to read about. Each person is their own audience; therefore, the segment of 1.
The proof is in the newsletter pudding. Soon, people will be talking about what a wonderful newsletter your brand has, and your audience will grow and grow. These new subscribers will stay longer and increase the lifetime value of your audience overall. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
Sign up for rasa.io for free and start growing your newsletter today. With rasa.io here for you, your email lists will never be the same. Start getting excited about newsletters again below.
5. Include Testimonials and Customer Reviews
Let your customers do the talking instead of talking about the benefits yourself. Leveraging social proof helps build trust and convey value. Social proof consists of customer reviews, testimonials, recommendations, and even the number of clients.
In a marketing campaign, it’s common to use positive experiences and actions of others to build trust and increase conversions. As humans, we tend to follow the crowd. When we see a large number of people interested in an AI tool, we’re more likely to give it a try ourselves because we want to experience the benefits too.