Email marketing can make or break a small business. Emails provide an invaluable resource for nurturing leads and moving customers through the sales funnel. Emails also give businesses a way to maintain relationships with existing clients. With email databases decaying by 22.5% every year, it’s important to have a strategy for generating new contacts.

This article will provide strategies for building email lists as a small business. 

Why Email Lists Are Important

An email list can be one of the most valuable marketing assets a firm has. While building an audience on social platforms like Facebook or Twitter can be useful, investing time and resources into an asset that you don’t control can be dangerous. These platforms have the prerogative to ban your account and limit how and what you can say. Thus, email lists give you a direct path to your qualified audience. You’re free to say what you want to who you want, as much as you want: a luxury that you won’t find on social media, or through SEO and PPC.

Start With Your Current and Past Customers


Take It Offline


In fact, Clarity estimates that about 70% of people respond positively when approached about being added to an email list during an offline conversation. Furthermore, Clarity says that emails acquired offline are reported to have much higher click-through rates, sometimes more than twice as much. Make asking for an email second nature, and you’ll quickly grow your email list.  

Optimize Your Website for Opt-Ins

Your website is an incredible resource for email list building. It is one of the only platforms that you have full control over, which gives you the opportunity to promote opt-ins without restrictions. Opt-in early and often! This can be something as easy as embedding opt-in forms on all of your pages. Simply embedding opt-in forms has reported to double the growth of opt-in rates.  


Quid Pro Quo


  1. Gate a valuable piece of content: One of the most common barters for emails is the exchange of valuable information through content. This could be an e-book, white paper, infographic, webinar, etc. You lock the content and only open it once the user gives you their email address.
  2. Offer a discount: Small businesses typically have less red-tape when making operational decisions like offering discounts. Thus, you can easily gain a competitive advantage and increase the likelihood of opt-ins by providing discounts to new registrants.  
  3. Answer the “Why?”: Compelling language will help convert signups at a higher rate. Write actionable copy that emphasizes benefits and perpetuates the user to give you their email.

About the Author(s)

Derek Miller


Content Marketing Consultant, CopyPress
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