“The money is in the list”. A saying which is often heard when it comes to e-mail marketing. Expanding their list is an ongoing priority for e-mail marketers.

The most important element here is making sure that your emails offer relevant content.
Furthermore, you should also add the possibility to invite friends or colleagues. Plus, with the rise of social media, you must add sharing tools as well.

Below you’ll find some more tips which will help you grow your e-mail list.
 

• Don’t just use one form to enable people to subscribe to your e-mails. Use all forms on your website to attract new subscribers, with the opt-in rules kept in mind. You can, for instance, add the option to subscribe to your e-mails on forms for downloading white papers, registering for events, feedback, support tickets, e-commerce, etc.
   
• Try placing a mini-form on every page of your website, on top of a more “general” subscribing page. On such a mini-form, you place a link to an example of your e-mails and the privacy policy, without asking for too much information.
   
• Never ask for too much information all at once, by the way. When someone subscribes himself to your e-mails, it marks the beginning of a relationship. In a relation, you don’t ask about everything at once. Limit yourself to elementary information, including of course the… e-mail address, and acquire more data through interactions later on.
   
• Create trust, choice, and clarity. People don’t just give away their e-mail address, so you must “sell” your e-mail to them. Create the right expectations by saying what kind of content your e-mails contain, offer different options (for example, in the field of frequency, timing, and content), place links to your archives, your privacy policy, a page where one can unsubscribe, etc.
   
• Offer an incentive for subscribing to your e-mail list. This could be, next to relevant content, a white paper, or another benefit for the subscriber. Don’t only do this for new subscribers, but also pamper your existing subscribers every now and then to keep them from unsubscribing.
   
• Transform the subscribing process into a positive experience. Once you have the Internet user’s permission to send your e-mails, you’re not quite done. Provide a professional confirmation mail, create a thank you page, and make sure that the whole process is worthy and user-friendly.
   
• Learn from unsubscribes. It has no use to attract new subscribers for your e-mail when you’re losing them just as fast. Ask people who unsubscribe about their reasons for doing so. See if you can perhaps offer them another channel, other content, or another delivery frequency. The feedback will teach you a lot, and will result in fewer unsubscribes as well.
  
  The author is an interactive marketing consultant and experienced blogger. You can connect with him via Twitter or visit his blog.