An email list is an extremely valuable asset for any marketer.
Since users have agreed to sign up for your mailing list, they are more likely to open and engage with your campaigns compared with other types of advertising or cold selling.
Plus, you’ll be sending those campaigns directly to their inbox!
With the average professional checking their email 15 times per day, or every 37 minutes according to Harvard Business Review—there’s also an extremely high chance your emails will be seen.
Your potential subscribers aren't in short supply either as there are over 4.5 billion users of email.
But, if you need a little know-how to grow your list, all you have to do is follow these tips.
Embed A Signup Form On Your Website
The more subscribers you have (especially if they are fresh and engaged leads) the more likely you are to get sales.
But where do your leads head to first? Your website!
Squeeze the maximum amount of juice from every website visit by embedding a signup form somewhere on your site. 🍋 💪
Some companies opt for a dedicated page where you can sign up, with the EcoSend Weekly page being an example you can check out.
However, you could also embed a form on your contact page, about us page, blog page or anywhere else that feels logical.
Be sure to give people a reason to want to sign up, such as telling them about the type of content you’ll be sending them for free if they do so.
Don’t forget to include a double opt-in form to filter out spam and leave only genuine leads behind!
Discover: EcoSend Forms to grow your email list 📈
Pop-Up Website Form
Another way to get email signups through your website is to have a form that pops up when users land on or try to exit the page.
In ecommerce, it’s typical to offer an incentive in exchange for entering an email into the box, such as a 10% discount code on the first purchase.
Psychologically, your customers like getting something for free or at least a discount.
What’s clever about this technique is it can not only build your email list but also encourage a potential sale through the use of customer engagement.
So you can score two goals in one here! ⚽
Website Footer Form
Don’t neglect your website footer, which is the very last chance to interact with customers before they click on another page or exit your site, if they’ve scrolled all the way to the end of the page.
Email forms in website footers can be sleek and slimline, meaning they can neatly fit in just about anywhere. If you don’t want a bulky form elsewhere on your site, placing the form in the footer is just the ticket.
Also, by placing a signup form in the footer, it will also appear on every single page of your site!
💡Did you know?: According to Smart Insights, a well designed website footer can increase conversions by more than 23% and revenue by more than 15%.
Lead Magnets
We could have created a lead magnet called ‘How To Grow Your Email List’. Instead, we have given this information to you for free on this post.
But say we opted for the lead magnet, and you would have needed to give us your email in exchange for the download.
Just because we didn’t choose the lead magnet route this time, that’s no reason you can’t do it, especially if you are wanting to build your list with a relevant user base.
Ideas for lead magnets can include:
Cheatsheets
Checklists
Discounts and promo codes
Early access perks
Ebooks
Free quote or consultation
Free trial
Guides
Free tools
Templates
Webinars
To help you decide what will be worth your time, energy and money to build, consider what your customers want the most.
Once your lead magnet asset is ready, you simply need to offer it in exchange for signing up for your list.
You may also like: 25 Ways To Make Money Online In 2025 💻 💰
Giveaways In Exchange For Signups
In a similar vein to using lead magnets to grow your email list, you can also offer your subscribers a chance of winning a prize in exchange for an email list signup.
The above tool is by Gleam. However, you don't need a fancy tool as you can also post your giveaway on social media or even on your podcast if you have one.
Some stats about giveaways that will turn your head 👀:
Giveaways made up 91% of posts with more than 1000 comments - Forms.app
Landing pages running a contest giveaway increased email leads by 700% - Business Dasher
An average of over 34% of new customers are acquired through contests - HubSpot
There are also no limits as to what you choose as a prize. A classic option is an Amazon voucher, but you can also offer your products or services for free too.
Just be sure to have a secure way of collecting email subscribers. You may need to link users to a website form or build a competition entry form for this one.
But as you can see from the above stats it’s well worth the effort!
Social Media
When was the last time you told your social media followers about your mailing list?
It couldn’t be easier to link to your mailing list in a social media post, or include a link to your list on your pages. Likewise, Linktree is another fantastic tool to try to drum up more interest in your email list.
Be sure to also advertise your mailing list through video platforms. For instance, put a link to your mailing list in the description of your post and let users know to click on it to sign up.
This idea is simple, cost-effective and it works!
QR Codes - For Physical Media Or Events
Do you meet your customers in person? Or, do you have any printed merch?
From business cards to t-shirts, event stands or window stickers—any kind of promotional material can house a QR code that takes users straight to your mailing list.
Sure, you could use a QR code to advertise your actual website. But, you can also promote your mailing list and offer incentives to join it too.
After all, you don't just want customers to visit your site and then leave. If you direct them to your mailing list instead, you can capture their data to keep in touch.
Registration Forms
Depending on how you sell your products or services, you might not be able to capture user’s email addresses during the purchase stage.
The above example from Dyson shows how to collect email addresses from your customers when they haven’t purchased from you directly.
However, another way you could use a registration form is to allow users to register their interest in something.
For instance, registering for an upcoming event, or being added to a waitlist.
If you are going to use a registration form, just be sure to make it clear that users are consenting to hearing from you via email. Ideally, this should be in the form of a tick box or double opt-in.
Elephant In The Room Time - The One Thing You Should Never Do To Grow Your Email List 🙅♀️😬
Above we’ve shared the best ways to grow your mailing list in terms of getting genuine and engaged leads onto your list.
Some of you might be wondering if you can skip all of that and just buy a list instead.
However, this is why buying email lists is always a bad idea:
Purchasing data without user consent is illegal and can lead to hefty financial penalties
Email domains associated with spam can be blacklisted meaning your message will go straight to spam
If you send spam your email provider may also ban you if it's in violation of their terms
Contacting users without their permission means there is no established relationship, making it difficult to create trust let alone encourage sales
Sure, growing your email list the right way takes time and effort. But isn’t it better to build a list of qualified leads that know about and more importantly love your brand, rather than targeting everyone and hoping for the best?
If you want to achieve a high ROI from email marketing, using professional techniques to build and engage your list is always a winning strategy!
EcoSend - Begin Your Free Trial Of Our Email Marketing Software
Hi, are you new here? 👋
We’re EcoSend—and we’d like to welcome you with a free trial of our email marketing platform!
EcoSend gives you all the features you need to grow and engage your email subscribers. However, our systems run on renewable energy sources to reduce the carbon footprint of your campaigns.
Discover our email platform today, and please get in touch if you'd like to discuss your email marketing needs with our team personally.
