Livestreams and Stories on social media are the trendy tools for driving engagement with your audience, but they canāt completely replace a good piece of content on your own website. Content posted on social media in this way only lasts a short period of time. This can put up many barriers when you want to grow your email list.
From the image, you can see that content on
- Instagram lasts only 21 hours
- YouTube lasts only 20 days
- Twitter content is only lasting a shocking 18 minutes
If you are using Twitter or any of these other social media platforms, you will have to generate more content to grow your email list.
If you do not have the time to keep on churning out new content to grow your email list, then you can use blogging to share your content. Using blogging will keep your content alive for 2 years and helps you to rank higher on Google. But of course, with having a blog, you have much more opportunity to grow your email list.
Using blogging to grow your email list
As a business, you can start creating blogs that can increase traffic and drive results. But how often should you blog to get more traffic? Publishing 2 – 4 times per week provides the highest results in terms of both traffic and conversions.
As you can see from the image above, the more that you post you get better results from your content. HubSpot has found that companies who blogged 11 times per month got 3 times more traffic than those blogging once a month or less. More traffic to your website equates to an email list that grows on wildfire.
With that being said, blogging is not that easy, especially when using this strategy to grow your email list. As businesses have shown many times that mistakes can easily be made. Here are the top 9 mistakes that can be made and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1 Placement of opt-in forms
People put opt-ins in the sidebar which have a low conversion rate. Therefore, if you are not savvy in people’s behavior when visiting a website, you will be missing out on grabbing those email addresses.
As you can see from the above graph, out of 100,000 views in a month. A blog using a sidebar only had a conversion rate of up to 0.6%. For any marketer, this is a very poor result indeed. So how can you improve on these results? There are 2 other spots that you can place an opt-in form that can get you higher conversion rates.
Solution #1 Header
Your header gets a lot of eyeballs on it. It is the first thing your reader will see when clicking onto your website so you have the optimum opportunity to get their email address. This example from Stripe, shows that a simply designed header can attract more leads to grow your email list.
Solution #2 At the end of your blog
If you have got your reader right down to the bottom of a blog, they are really going to be interested in learning from you. Therefore it makes sense that you ask them for their email address there and then. All you need to do is have a compelling call-to-action to give them a reason as to why they would want to hand over their email address.
Mistake #2 Not offering a bribe
As just stated, you need to offer your blog reader something in return for them giving you their email address. Bribes are often referred to as lead magnets and are seen as a powerful tool when you want to grow your email list.
In 2020, you can no longer collect your reader’s email addresses effectively without giving them something spicy in return. This pie chart shows how effective lead magnets are.
Only 2% of marketers offering a lead magnet found it not at all successful. In stark contrast, 20% of marketers using lead magnets found the practice of offering lead magnets very successful.
Lead magnets are typically content that is related to the whole business or to that specific blog where blog readers are offered extra content (commonly referred to as content upgrades) that helps them further in solving the problem they are currently having.
Mistake #3 Being too nosy
Being too nosy in asking for lots of personal information can drive potential leads away. There is really no need for you to ask for your visitors’ first name, last name, address, phone number, and email address.
Do you see all of the questions being asked on this opt-in form? It is overwhelming and intrusive into a companies details, especially as it is first contact being made.
All you really need to ask for in return for your lead magnet is their email address on the first contact.
Only ask for more personal information when you are offering a business service that requires the reader to fill out these personal details.
Mistake #4 Using default settings on your opt-in
Just like the sidebar exists on nearly every single blog that is keen on growing an email list, the default call to actions on your opt-in form service is also everywhere. Never, use the default call-to-actions. Examples of these are
- Submit
- Subscribe
- Join The Newsletter
- Join
- Sign Up
- Buy Now
- Click Hereā¦
Two significant problems arise when you use the call to actions like those default ones
Significant Problem #1 Reader blindness
These call to actions are so rampant on the blogging sphere that your blog and most importantly, your lead magnet, will seem like every other blogās same generic offer.
Significant Problem #2 Vagueness
See the image above? Does it excite you and tell you what you are going to get for free? No, it does not and the only thing that is great about that call to action is the contrasting colors.
An example of a great call to action comes from Buffer.
In a real contrast, it is telling you what you are signing up for, how and what you are getting in return. Whilst still using those eye-catching contrasting colors.
Now you can understand why you should stay away from being vague in your call to action. Your Call to Actions should always blatantly explain to the reader what he is getting in return for giving their email address.
For example, when you use āSubscribeā, the reader will be confronted with some basic but important questions;
What exactly am I subscribing to?
Will this solve my problem?
Am I really getting what I am signing up for?
Your call to action has to address these questions emphatically. When you use āSubscribeā, it really does not communicate to your reader what they are getting from being in your email list.
Instead, you should use a more unique and to-the-point call to action. For example, if you are offering a lead magnet that helps your reader solve their really big pain, your call to action should not be one of the default setting call to actions such as āsubscribeā.
Instead, it should have a compelling call to action with what result they will get when receiving your lead magnet.
Mistake #5 Disregarding pop-ups
Pop-ups can be intrusive and even might get on your readerās nerves. Though there is a reason as to why you should not get rid of them so hastily. A case study on the Aweber blog, where a particular blogger got 1375% more subscribers from her pop up than her sidebar.
By using pop-ups, you can aggressively get an opt-in form right in front of your reader’s faces. But are you going to lose out on getting leads due to being polite and not telling your readers about your lead magnet which helps them further?
Ultimately, pop-ups are effective at getting subscribers. Especially when your pop-up is optimized and targeted.
Another pop-up you can do, which you may feel more comfortable with, are exit pop-ups. These pop-ups appear after your reader has read your blog and is then offered the lead magnet.
Mistake #6 No landing pages
Adding landing pages to your blog regulates your content and help you grow your email list. Landing pages completely remove all obstacles and unnecessary distractions from the eyes of your readers.
Mistake #7 No Content Upgrades
If you want your email marketing campaign to be a major success, you absolutely need to offer content upgrades for the readers at your blog.
It is not enough to just direct readers from the blog towards your homepage or in fact, your original landing page.
You want the readers of that blog to be directed to a landing page that builds upon what they have read. By offering a lead magnet that is related to the post you wrote, you will significantly increase your subscription rate.
