7 Ways To Grow Your Email List Fast Without Spending Money

I talk to a lot of ecommerce business owners, and the number one question they ask is this -

“How can I grow my email list faster?”

They often tend to believe the only way is by spending more money on ads. Or else they think they need to do something that takes a lot of time and effort.? They’ve heard about things like running a giveaway, or launching a quiz funnel.

But the truth is for most stores, you can grow your email list way faster just by making a few simple changes that don’t cost anything.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Take away barriers to entry

This happens so often it’s shocking:

A store owner tells me their email list isn’t growing. I take a look and find out even though they’re collecting a lot of sign-ups, the majority of them aren’t actually making it onto the email list.

Usually this happens because of something called a “Double Opt-In”, and in most cases the store owner doesn’t even realize it’s happening.

By default, most email platforms have a setting that asks new sign-ups to confirm before they’re actually added to the email list.??

This confirmation usually comes in the form of an email that asks the person to click a button to confirm.? If they don’t see that email or they don’t confirm, they won’t be added to the list and they won’t receive your emails.

Unfortunately, the double opt-in can cut down your email list sign-ups significantly.? Usually, it cuts it in half.? I’ve even seen cases where it’s slashed 80% of leads.

This double opt-in setting is not required by law and in most cases it’s completely unnecessary.

(NOTE - This applies to consumers in the United States.? If you cater to consumers in other jurisdictions, there may be additional requirements for email marketing consent.? In that case, you’ll want to check to confirm whether or not a double opt-in is required)

If you’re using a popup to grow your email list, one opt-in is all you need for consent to send email.? There’s no need to ask again to confirm, and doing so can actually be annoying.

So bottom line, make sure you go into your list settings and TURN OFF the double opt-in.??

Don’t put extra barriers in place to getting people on your email list if you don’t have to.

2. Use behavior-timing for your popup

A lot of people say popups are annoying.? The truth is they’re only annoying when they show up immediately as soon as someone gets to your website.

“Entrance popups” that open the second your page loads tend to convert much lower than behavior-timed popups.

A good third-party popup software will allow you to set rules for when the popup will open.? Try setting your popup to trigger when someone has scrolled a little down the homepage, or when they’ve been idling for longer than 30 seconds.

At a minimum, set the popup to open after the person has been on your site for at least 20-30 seconds.? This will convert higher because it’s not as annoying, so less people will feel the need to close out of it.

3. Don’t ask for anything other than an email address at first

These days it’s common for ecom store popups to ask people to enter their email address and phone number to receive a discount.

While there’s nothing wrong with building your SMS list, you should always do so AFTER the person has already submitted their email.

A phone number is way more personal than an email address, and a majority of shoppers are still hesitant to give it out. Especially if they’re visiting your website for the first time.

Asking for both an email address and phone number on the same popup form will drastically cut down on the number of people who sign up.

In fact, I recommend you try asking for ONLY an email address on that first popup.?

Most brands ask for a Name and an email address.? You might feel getting a name is important for personalization.? The problem is that asking for a name up front can also cut down on the number of sign-ups.

My recommendation is to wait for other opportunities to gather additional info from your subscribers.? Once you have their email address, you can get their first name through other means.? For example, when they make a purchase, or even on the second-step of the popup.

The most important thing up front is to get them to give you just one thing - their email address.? Stay limited to that and you’ll get a lot more of them.

4. Offer something other than a % discount

Just about every ecommerce store asks you to enter your email address in exchange for a % off your first purchase.

In fact, people see it so often that they become desensitized.? Their brains automatically dismiss the offer, so they close the popup without even giving it a second thought.

If you show up differently by giving them another offer, it can make people pause and consider.

Here’s three great offers to test on your welcome popup:

1. $$ to spend on their first purchase

2. Free shipping

3. Bonus Gift with their order

Test these out and you’ll be surprised how many more people give you their email address, and how many more of them actually take you up on the deal.

5. Try gamification

A lot of brands are hesitant to do it, but using a “spin to win” popup or other welcome game tends to get twice the number of conversions than a straight-up offer.

You can program the wheel to land on one of a few simple prizes like free shipping, 10% off, 20% off, $25 off, etc.

This is also a great way to test different welcome offers to see which ones get used the most.

6. Show Up More Often

It’s never a good idea to hit someone with an entrance popup the second they get to your site for the first time. But that doesn’t mean you should only show your popup one time.

New website visitors will often close out of a popup the first time it’s shown, but still convert on a later attempt.

Too often brands are so afraid of annoying their website visitors that they will only show a popup once.

I’m not saying to keep hitting them with a popup after they just closed out of it, or to show it every time they go to a new page.? THAT is annoying and will hurt your conversions.

With that said, the popup should still appear on every subsequent visit if the person still hasn’t signed up.??

Another great way to capitalize on new visitors who previously closed out of your popup is to use a “teaser.”? A teaser is a small bubble icon that moves to the bottom of the page and hovers there, reminding them about the offer.? When they click on the teaser, it reopens the popup.

7. A/B Test your popup

Most brands never do this, even though it’s the most surefire way to improve your sign-up conversions and get more people on your email list.

You never want to only run one version of a popup at a time.? Instead, always be split-testing two versions so you can get more opt-ins.

You can use A/B testing to test different welcome offers, different layouts, copy, images, colors, font sizes, etc.

Make sure to only test one element at a time, so that you know exactly which things are making a difference in the amount of sign ups.

Once you have a winner, split test the next element.? Over time, this will help you optimize your popup to get as many conversions as possible.

These are all great ways you can grow your email list faster with just a simple popup.

Most store owners are surprised at how many sign-ups they’ve been missing out on by not doing these things.

You also want to make sure you have a good lead capture software that can do all of the things I just laid out and give you a lot of options for testing, while also being user friendly and easy to set up.

For the best third-party lead capture software, I highly recommend Optimonk.

As the owner of an email marketing agency I’ve worked with just about every third party popup and lead capture software out there.

Optimonk is the best for ecommerce websites in terms of the amount of features along with the ease of use.

Not only that, but they tend to have the highest-converting popups.? If you’d rather not build a new popup from scratch, you can choose from hundreds of templates that are already proven winners.? Optimonk even shows you the average conversion rate for each template so you can’t go wrong.

Finally, Optimonk’s A/B testing capabilities along with visual data reporting is the best of any popup software by far.? This is what allows you to optimize your popup and collect more sign-ups over time.

If you’ve never tried it before, click here to get a free trial of Optimonk.

There’s no risk in trying it, and there’s no time limit on the free trial.? I recommend testing it out and if it’s not a total game-changer for growing your email list, then no need to switch.

That said, my agency uses Optimonk for all our email marketing and SMS clients.? In most cases, we move them over from other popup solutions.? In four years we’ve never had anyone want to switch back.

At the end of the day, the best way to grow your list faster is to take action.? Implement at least one of the above practices today, and watch your sign-ups increase.

Go grow your email list!