Vmdoh Blog Increase E-Commerce Sales With These Email List Building Strategies

The importance of content marketing is widely understood by most businesses. It is a way of acquiring and retaining customers by creating media they want to consume. Content marketing gets around the resistance most consumers have to being "sold to" because they are coming to you for your content. Through it they learn and appreciate what your business has to offer.However, the problem with relying exclusively on your blog or social media sites for getting your content in front of consumers is the difficulty of keeping them. Many people are free ranging in their browsing habits. They take advantage of the abundant content available on the Internet. This means it will be a long wait before they revisit your content if ever. Your content pages as well as your e-commerce site are like leaking sieves. A large percentage of visitors who could have become buying customers are lost because of their browsing habits.This is why it is important to build a list by collecting the email addresses of your visitors. List building can be thought of as a way of "capturing" traffic so that you get repeated exposure through your follow-up emails. This increased exposure gives your list members more time to get to know you and understand the value of your products. It allows you to turn one time buyers into repeat customers simply because the exposure biases them toward your brand. Unlike public platforms, email is a private and personal medium which works well for gaining the trust and confidence of your readers.Email List Building StrategiesEnjoying the advantages of a large email list requires that you build one first. Yes, that is an obvious statement but list creation is no mean feat. Fortunately, there are many list building strategies:Place sign-up forms on your e-commerce site. The sign-up form should have a brief description of what the person gets for joining your list. Minimize the information input fields to increase your sign-up rate. If you require more information, have the visitor provide it on the email confirmation page. Make sure to place the sign-up forms in locations where they will be seen. The top right side of the page is a good location because this is where most people expect to find it. Placing an additional one near the bottom of the page will catch the attention of people highly engaged with the content. Engaged people often become buyers.Create landing pages for the sole purpose of getting sign ups. Take advantage of the "what's in it for me" question that drives human behavior by dedicating a page to getting the visitor's email address. Use tactics similar to landing pages that sell products. Include images as well as compelling reasons for signing up. These may include the promise of tips and articles, product lists and reviews, and a discount coupon code. Drive external traffic to this page from your social media marketing efforts.Include an opt-in checkbox in e-commerce transactions. Always include a checkbox option for people creating accounts or making purchases to join your email newsletter list. Because these people have already purchased or created an account with you, they will be highly responsive to your email marketing efforts.Run contests. Allow visitors to enter a contest to win one of your products for free in exchange for their email address. Email list subscribers have an average lifetime value. This is the total amount of money spent by the average list member. When the total value of contest entries exceed the product's value, the contest makes money. Additional sales can be made after the contest by sending a consolation email to the entrants that did not win the prize. Give them a discount on purchasing the product they wanted to win. This tactic will drive sales because the contest entrants clearly desire the product.Create product reviews on YouTube. Consumers love product review videos. People naturally want to see what a product is like, and video is the perfect medium for this. The most effective reviews involve unboxing a product and showing what it does while discussing its pros and cons. Include a link back to an email sign-up landing page on your e-commerce site (as previously described).For more information on increasing your e-commerce sales or on creating an e-commerce site of your own, contact us.