Five Ways to Grow Your Email Subscriber List
Your email list is one of your most powerful marketing tools as a professional web designer. It gives you an avenue to directly communicate with a targeted audience who has expressed interest in your services. This direct line of communication empowers you to nurture relationships, showcase your expertise, and promote your services in a personalized way that can significantly boost client engagement and conversion rates.
If your list is lacking, there are steps you can take to grow your list consistently. With tools such as Squarespace Email Campaigns, you can streamline the process of launching a long-term, effective email marketing strategy with minimal effort. Ahead are five ways to grow a subscriber list that serves your business and audience.
1. Create compelling lead magnets
Lead magnets are crucial for building email subscriber lists. A lead magnet is a complimentary resource given in return for providing an email address. A few examples of these resources include templates, ebooks, case studies, reports, videos, guides, and checklists.
To expand your email subscriber list, develop a lead magnet that caters to your desired audience and aligns with your expertise. For instance, if your target audience is therapists, you could share a checklist that outlines website essentials that encourage visitors to book appointments. Perhaps your ideal clients are online business owners. In this case, you could create a video series on writing effective copy for ecommerce websites. Either approach should demonstrate your expertise and position you as a subject-matter authority.
Create your own compelling lead magnets based on your expertise. The most attractive offers fill gaps in specific niches, helping clients or fellow entrepreneurs overcome common pain points and challenges.
Streamline the process
To encourage email subscriber growth, it’s crucial to streamline lead magnet delivery. Doing so enhances the efficiency of capturing and nurturing potential clients. By automating this process, you can ensure a consistent flow of new leads while maintaining engagement with minimal manual effort. Additionally, a robust subscriber list makes it possible to continuously market your services and updates, increasing the likelihood of repeat business and referrals.
With Email Campaigns, you can create a newsletter and deliver the lead magnet directly to subscribers’ inboxes. Convenient automations mean you can set it and forget it, so you don’t have to worry about manually delivering lead magnets to each person who subscribes.
Learn more about launching an email marketing campaign.
2. Turn visitors into subscribers
Client loyalty and trust are built over time. To help develop trust with email marketing, every email submission form must include a clear value proposition to encourage action and help subscribers see worth in your content or services.
The value proposition formula
A clear value proposition succinctly communicates the benefits that subscribers will receive, setting expectations and enticing them to sign up for your email communications. The value proposition acts as the foundation of the subscription process, ensuring that potential subscribers understand exactly what they’ll gain by providing their email addresses. Every successful email subscription starts with a clear value proposition, which increases the likelihood of visitors taking action. The following formula can help you craft a compelling offer:
Identify the pain point: what problem or challenge does your target audience face?
Offer the solution: how does your lead magnet solve that problem?
Highlight the benefit: what specific outcome or transformation can subscribers expect?
Here’s an example of the value proposition formula in action:
Pain point: Struggling to create a website that truly represents your brand and engages your audience?
Solution: Sign up to receive our exclusive guide on the top five design principles that will transform your site from bland to brilliant.
Benefit: Expect clear, actionable steps that will elevate your online presence, attract more visitors, and increase engagement.
Crafting a compelling call to action
Every value proposition should include a clear call to action (CTA), guiding potential subscribers on exactly what steps to take next to access the promised benefits. A well-designed CTA can effectively guide visitors toward subscribing to your email communications, helping you build a dedicated audience and foster ongoing communication. By clearly demonstrating the value of your email communications and what subscribers can expect, a strong CTA can significantly boost sign-up rates and enhance the overall effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
Incorporating prominent email sign-up options through elements like form blocks and pop-ups can increase your subscription rates by capturing visitor attention at key interaction points. Strategically place subscription opportunities to optimize visibility and encourage more visitors to engage and sign up for your content.
Let’s put the CTA into practice using the value proposition example above:
Pain point: Struggling to create a website that truly represents your brand and engages your audience?
Solution: Sign up to receive our exclusive guide on the top five design principles that will transform your site from bland to brilliant.
Benefit: Expect clear, actionable steps that will elevate your online presence, attract more visitors, and increase engagement.
CTA: Subscribe today.
3. Offer new content
Sharing new content in exchange for email subscribers is a powerful strategy to add value and encourage more sign-ups. If you’ve ever received offers for email marketing services, you may have heard of content upgrades. Content upgrades, such as bonus materials related to blog posts or exclusive insights on portfolio pieces, provide a tangible incentive for visitors to share their email addresses.
Here’s how it works: publish a page or write a blog post about a specific topic that’s of interest to your target audience. To gain access to more in-depth, related material, the reader can subscribe.
How to create content upgrades
Include sufficient details on your webpage or blog article to address visitors’ inquiries and spark enthusiasm. Offer enticing complementary content to the audience.
Content upgrades can include:
Resources and references
Interview transcripts
A deeper dive into the topic
Artwork or design templates
How-to videos
Case studies
Detailed spreadsheets
A tipsheet, cheat sheet, or checklist,
Any bonus content that adds to what’s on your page, blog, or gallery
If you already receive decent traffic to your site, here’s how you can use content upgrades to encourage email submissions:
1. Identify high-performing content
Use Squarespace analytics to pinpoint your most popular blog posts.
2. Create valuable upgrades
Develop related content that expands on the topic (e.g., checklists, templates, in-depth guides, video tutorials).
3. Promote the upgrade
Add CTAs in each high-performing post that encourage readers to subscribe to your email list for related bonus content. Emphasize the details of the content upgrade and clarify its benefits for readers.
4. Gate the upgrade
Require an email address to access the bonus content. To create an even more exclusive experience for subscribers or monetize your content, consider adding a member site.
Pro tip: With Squarespace's customizable email templates, you can create and send on-brand and visually appealing content upgrades that enhance the user experience and reinforce your brand’s professional image. Learn more about Email Campaigns templates.
4. Engage on social media
Grow your email marketing efforts by sharing lead magnets and content upgrades on your social media profiles. Social media can help you reach a broader audience and establish your expertise in the field. By promoting lead magnets and content upgrades on platforms where your target audience is active, you can drive traffic to your subscription forms and increase sign-ups.
Social media also provides a space to interact directly with potential subscribers, building familiarity and encouraging more conversions. Engage in real-time conversations with your audience, cultivating relationships and understanding your connections’ current pain points. These could lead to new content ideas for lead magnets.
Additionally, tools like Email Campaigns can enhance this strategy by helping you share your email content directly on social media. With Email Campaigns, you can link your beautifully designed, branded emails to your Bio Site, further extending the reach of your content and maximizing the potential for new subscriber engagement.
Learn more about engaging with clients on social media.
5. Host webinars or workshops
The most thoughtful approach to content delivery is the one that offers your audience a personalized experience. Ebooks, checklists, and templates are a great start, but there are few things as powerful as genuine human connection. Inviting your audience to webinars and workshops provides a unique opportunity to share your expertise and build relationships that can eventually lead to new clients.
As you plan your more personalized experience, consider the following:
Target: who will benefit most from this experience?
Topic: what problem will you solve for them?
Content: what valuable information will you share?
Follow-up: how will you nurture new leads after the webinar?
An informative, personalized webinar gives you the chance to showcase your expertise. Plus, you can build your email list while establishing credibility in the web design community.
Pro tip: Offer on-demand webinars through Courses. The tool makes it possible to sell your expertise through multimedia online courses while delivering relevant content to your audience. Additionally, Courses integrates with your Squarespace site, so your email marketing, course creation, and website are all managed in one place. Learn more about using Squarespace to create and sell your online course.
Connecting with your audience
Effective email marketing is about building a meaningful connection with your audience. This involves offering valuable resources, fostering trust, and delivering content that truly resonates. By consistently implementing these tactics, you can cultivate lasting relationships, drive business growth, and watch your email subscriber base increase over time.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
