15 Ways to Build a Quality Email List

What is an email list?

An email list – also called a “mailing list” or “subscribers list” – is a collection of email addresses a business has gathered from visitors and customers. With opt-in email marketing, individuals willingly choose to receive communications from the business, including updates, announcements and discounts. 

Email list-building is the process of getting more people to subscribe to your emails. An effective way to entice people to join your list is having a call to action (CTA) on your website’s homepage. 

15 ways to build a quality email list

Because email lists are critical marketing elements, it’s essential to devote significant time and effort to ensuring they benefit the business. Keep three major priorities in mind when building your email list.

1. Quality: Quality is your top priority. You must ensure your list consists of real people who actively check their email.
2. Relevance: The people on your list should be interested in your business, industry or both.
3. Volume: Once you are satisfied with the quality and relevance of your list, focus on increasing the number of people on it.

With these priorities in mind, you can begin building your email list. Here are 15 great ways to grow your list with quality email addresses from your target audience – the people who genuinely want to receive your content.

1. Add CTA buttons to your website’s landing pages.

CTAs allow organic website visitors to sign up for your emails. Including CTAs on every landing page throughout your website (e.g., “Sign up for our mailing list to receive special offers”) increases the likelihood of consumers signing up as they navigate your site.

2. Include a link to sign up for emails on your social media posts and accounts.

While email is a popular communication method, many consumers find businesses through social media. Including an email sign-up form on social media posts is a surefire method to add interested consumers to your list.

3. Devote social media posts to email sign-ups.

In addition to including email list sign-up links in your regular posts, consider creating social media posts – on your Facebook page or Instagram account, for example – specifically to tell customers about your email list and the content they’ll receive if they sign up.

Consider partnering with other websites by contributing articles or blog guest posts that include a sign-up CTA. Expanding your online presence opens your business to a new audience and helps you access new email addresses and prospects. 

Optionally, invite others to write guest posts for your blog or website. These contributors will bring some of their audience to your site and improve your outreach.

4. Make email capture part of your intake process.

Incorporate email list-building into your everyday tasks. For example, when a new customer calls for a quote or when you’re providing information about your business, ask if they

5. Use exit-intent pop-ups.

An exit-intent pop-up appears when a visitor is about to leave a website. You can customize these email pop-ups with specific messages. For example, you could invite visitors to sign up for emails to receive more information about your business.

Opt-ins are one of the most reliable ways to build quality email lists; however, visitors need clear incentives to sign up, and the process of providing their contact info must be fast and easy.

6. Offer discount codes or freebies.

If you find that your content isn’t enticing enough people to sign up for your emails, consider providing an incentive. Offer a discount code, free download or complimentary item to encourage people to sign up. A popular incentive is actionable information, such as a checklist or webinar related to your industry.

Email-only specials are also an excellent way to drive list participation. Whether you’re using a buy-one-get-one sale, limited-edition items or another specialized offer, offering email-only specials will add an element of enthusiasm to growing your email list.

7. Create a challenge or giveaway.

Challenges and giveaways work much like incentives. You can create a challenge, like running a 5K, donating food, or hosting a giveaway or social media contest where customers provide their email addresses to participate.

8. Provide gated content.

Give your customers and prospects premium content in exchange for their email addresses. This content can include catalogs, guides, white papers, webinars, online courses and annual reports. This practice is known as putting up a “paywall” or creating “gated content” exclusively curated for those on your email list.

9. Offer free loyalty programs.

Ask your customers to give you their email addresses so they can earn perks, rewards or discounts by joining a free customer loyalty program. Ensure your enrollment process is straightforward, and be transparent about your offerings – the more specific, the better.

10. Share with or piggyback off partner businesses.

Try sharing your email lists with another business in your industry. You likely share a similar target audience, so you both can benefit. Propose a swap or offer another business an ad in your next email campaign in exchange for their email list. [Read related article: 5 Reasons Your Business Should Have Strategic Partnerships]

11. Enable shares and opt-ins in emails.

Encourage your audience to share your opt-in link on social media and other forms of digital communication. You can also add your opt-in link to the bottom of your email signature and encourage your employees to do the same.

12. Challenge employees to gather email addresses.

Recruit your employees to get emails from friends, family members and other potential customers interested in your product or service. Hold a friendly workplace competition to see which employee can gain the most subscribers.

13. Offer email sign-ups at checkout.

When customers get to your checkout page after shopping, give them the option to subscribe to your email list. Keep in mind that, under the General Data Protection Regulation, you cannot check the box for your customers; they must opt in themselves.

14. Try direct mail.

Most people today prefer electronic forms of communication over traditional mail. However, snail mail can help your digital campaigns too. If your business still uses the postal service for direct mail marketing, consider providing customers with a QR code that will send them directly to your opt-in page or allow them to switch to electronic communications, providing their email address in the process. 

15. Join your local chamber of commerce.

Your local chamber of commerce has access to an extensive network of business owners and a list of community events where you can find potential customers. Once you join, you can send people on the chamber’s mailing list an email with an opt-in link and information about your offerings.

Why are email lists important?

A quality email list can be extremely valuable to your business because email marketing has a high digital marketing ROI. 

Email marketing is a powerful communication tool that is:

• Personal
• Targeted
• Purposeful
• Exclusive to you and your business
• Private and direct
• Highly customizable

Without an email list, your business could miss out on thousands of potential customers. Since most consumers have an email address, building a quality email list should be your top priority in your digital marketing strategy.

Email lists by the numbers

Some telling statistics show that robust email marketing is a powerful tool for your business’s success and growth.

• Email marketing boosts your ROI. With email marketing, you’re bound to see a return on investment. According to Litmus, the average ROI is $36 for every dollar you spend. This is a very high return compared to other digital marketing efforts and paid ads.
• Most marketers use email marketing. With billions of emails sent daily, companies worldwide are taking notice of its benefits. According to the MarketingProfs benchmark report, nearly 3 in 4 marketers use email newsletters or other email content as their primary way to distribute content and generate leads.
• The market is growing. While many businesses have taken to newer forms of marketing, such as live videos and social media campaigns, they haven’t forgotten the original content that offers a significant ROI. In 2023, global email marketing revenue was $15.8 billion and is projected to grow to $35.17 billion by 2028.

Should you buy an email list?

Because building an email list the old-fashioned way can take time, many businesses have considered purchasing premade email lists or an email database that promises hundreds or thousands of email addresses instantly. However, you rarely get what you pay for with these purchased-list schemes, and they’re often more trouble than they’re worth.

“Buying email lists can not only hurt your brand’s reputation, but your domain’s reputation as well,” warned Jeff Moriarty, marketing manager at Tanzanite Jewelry Designs. “It might get you a few quick sales, but it is not worth the harm it can cause by giving your business and domain a bad name. Focus on the long game.”

When you buy an email list, many “subscribers” could have old, fake or invalid email addresses, and the legitimate ones probably don’t have an active interest in your business or industry. Furthermore, you risk being flagged as a spammer, which could result in your actual customers never seeing your emails.

“When you purchase an email list, even if it’s from a reputable source, you could be putting your email and ad accounts at risk,” cautioned Danielle Miller, social media marketer at Miller Media Management. “If too many people flag the email as spam – because they’ve never heard of you – all your future emails to them and others could end up in the spam folder.”

The best email marketing software

Once you’ve built your email list, there’s still plenty to do to get your marketing campaign up and running, and each campaign will need significant maintenance. 

The best email marketing software and services can make your campaigns easier to manage and more professional. Most services include email list management to verify that your hard-earned email list is working well for you. 

Here are some of our picks for email marketing software that can improve your list-building and campaigns:

• Benchmark: Benchmark is an easy-to-use email marketing service with plentiful features at a low cost. Its free plan allows you to send up to 250 emails per month, making it a great option for small businesses that don’t send a high volume of emails. Our in-depth review of Benchmark details features like A/B testing, campaign analytics, an email designer and list-building tools.
• Campaigner: Campaigner allows you to build email automation workflows to nurture leads, drive sales and get referrals. It supports easy personalization for highly effective campaigns and allows you to create suppression lists, do A/B testing, integrate your social media and much more. Our Campaigner review explains how this platform’s customizable features can help businesses with large email lists.
• Constant Contact: Constant Contact has a user-friendly interface and multiple price points to fit any budget. It makes it easy to create professional-looking campaigns and provides detailed analytics to keep you updated on campaign performance. Read our Constant Contact review to learn more about its email templates and list management features.
• monday.com: monday.com differs from other email marketing providers because it’s a CRM with built-in email functionality. You can easily personalize your emails and segment your lists based on customer journey and behavior. Read our review of monday.com to learn more.

Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.