As a vegan business, your mailing list is one of your most important assets and an integral part to your digital marketing strategy. Email marketing is more effective than both social media and search engine marketing in terms of ROI and conversions. When looking at the numbers, email marketing is 40 times more effective than social media, so growing your email list is essential.
People on your email list have already shown interest in your product or service, meaning they are more likely to purchase from you. And while your social media followers have also shown interest, you have to compete with the platform’s algorithms. Plus, you can’t guarantee people will see your posts. With email, you’re communicating directly with your leads.
But how do you get people to join your email list? By implementing these simple tactics, you can grow your mailing list using just your website!
1. Exit pop-ups
We all have an opinion about pop-ups, but regardless of how you feel, they are proven to reduce bounce rates and are a great way to capture email addresses. Exit pop-ups work particularly well since people have already been browsing your site and looking at your products and services. The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.23%, and even if you don’t have an online store, this stat gives you an idea of how many people are leaving your website right before the point of purchase.
Before they exit, present your visitors with a last-minute discount, or offer, such as a 10% off coupon, to drive a conversion. In order to redeem the offer, they will need to enter their email address, thus generating a lead for you.
2. Other pop-ups
We aren’t suggesting that you go overboard here, but a few strategically placed pop-ups are extremely effective at generating quality leads for your mailing list. The last thing that you want is to disrupt your visitors’ user experience. It’s important to craft them specifically to provide value and include things your visitors are actually interested in.
You have lots of options for how your pop-ups are triggered, but some of the best triggers to use include scroll time and pages visited. When creating the pop-ups, pay attention to both the messaging and the design. It should look aesthetically pleasing, with bold brand colors and font.
You want the pop-up to be easy to read and understand both on desktop and mobile.
All pop-ups should contain a direct call to action, telling them what to do next. In this case, we want to encourage them to join your mailing list. Remember to provide visitors with an incentive to enter their email. This could be a discount, as we mentioned before, or you could simply provide a way for visitors to stay up to date on your business.
3. Blog articles
Creating a blog on your vegan business website is one of the best ways to establish authority in your niche and grow your mailing list. By creating quality content surrounding your product or service, you show your visitors that they can trust you, which will help you stand out against your competitors.
Creating blog articles that your visitors find valuable will incentivize them to sign up to your mailing list, so they are notified every time you post a new article. Make sure that you include a call to action in every blog post telling your visitors to sign-up for more great content.
4. Use your footer
Your footer will appear on the bottom of every page of your website, making it a critical piece of real estate that you can use to grow your mailing list. Your footer should always contain your business contact information, social media icons, a sitemap, and your logo. But, the most visible part of your footer should always be your email sign-up form. You want this to be simple, without lots of copy, since it will appear at the bottom of each page. Something like “Sign-up to our mailing list to receive exclusive offers and discounts” or “sign-up to our newsletter to stay updated with our brand” is perfectly enough here.
5. Free download offering
Visitors are not going to give you their email for no reason. No one wants spam filling up their email inbox, so you need to provide an incentive. We already touched on offering discounts, but another effective incentive is a free download. In return for visitors providing you with their email, they can download a valuable resource from your business. You could create a free guide about your niche, a webinar, an eBook, an exclusive podcast, etc, or offer a free trial. Not only will this enable you to capture your visitors’ email address, but it also provides them with genuine value and helps to establish your authority in your niche.
6. Strategically placed widgets
The widgets you use on your website are essential to the user experience. Without them, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your mailing list; plus, they make your website more dynamic and aesthetic. Check out some great examples from vegan brands here. You can use widgets for social media, booking appointments, online chat, and, most importantly, for lead generation.
Like pop-ups, you don’t want to overdo it, but including widgets on your home page, about page, and contact page can be very beneficial for collecting emails. Email sign-up forms using widgets will be more unique and engaging. For example, OptinMonster enables you to create a Spin the Wheel pop-up, where your visitor can win different discounts.
You can use lead generation widgets like MailChimp, Typeform, WPForms, Convertkit, and GetResponse to capture email addresses and continue to grow your email mailing list.
Growing your mailing list using your website
If you want your vegan business to succeed, you need to have a strong and thriving email mailing list. Not only will your email list help you to convert potential leads, but it will also allow you to continue to engage with customers and boost customer retention. By using your website effectively and implementing these tactics, you will begin to see your mailing list grow exponentially.
