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It’s a new year, and you’re ready to take your online business to a whole new level. But where to start? A robust email marketing database may be the missing piece to your growth puzzle in 2018.

“But wait,” you may be thinking. “Isn’t email marketing dead?” Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is alive and well — it has simply evolved.

And if you’re not a part of this evolution, your online business may end up becoming extinct.

Here are some easy tips for building your email marketing database to reach more customers and grow your online business.

Let’s get started!

Why Use an Email Marketing Database?

Email is here to stay.

Sure, social media has taken over as a major communication medium for the masses. But it cannot replace email.

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What’s so great about having an email marketing database?

First off, email can be personalized. Meanwhile, traditional advertising takes on more of a one-size-fits-all approach.

Second, you can promote your company’s offerings in real time. That means no more waiting for a traditional ad campaign to be developed and then implemented before you can finally get the message out about a special offer you’ve been dying to promote.

Plus, with TV, print and radio ads, you face restrictions on the number of people you can target with your advertising.

But with email, you don’t have these same restrictions. Just hit “Send,” and you can find your message hitting the inboxes of seemingly countless people in record time.

Make People Want to Join Your List

So, how exactly can you make your email marketing database work better for you?

First, make people want to secure a spot on your email list. In other words, offer them something they’d find valuable. For instance, maybe you have a special ebook with your most recent blogs. Or maybe you have a basic guide, infographic or whitepaper they’d find useful. Perhaps you’d like to offer exclusive discounts or even a first-order discount instead.

Figure out what your customers want. How can you add value to their lives?

That’s exactly what you want to provide for them in exchange for their email addresses — essentially their payment for the unique content you’re offering.

Also, be sure to place a prominent call-to-action link near your special offer. You could even include an offer pop-up that appears when someone visits your website for the first time.

Either of these tactics will guarantee that your current or potential customer will see your special offer, which translates to a higher chance of making your list grow.

You may be thinking, “But I already have a newsletter sign-up form on my website.”

Having a sign-up form asking internet users to subscribe to the company newsletter is certainly a great starting point. But it’s not sufficient if you truly want to build your database in 2018.

Offer a Webinar

In today’s high-tech world, anybody who’s somebody is offering a webinar.

Why?

Because they are excellent marketing tools for growing your customer base and promoting your business’s brand awareness. They have a fairly brief lead time, as you can have one ready to go in just four to six weeks.

In addition, you can run your webinar with large numbers or small numbers. There’s no worrying about a minimum attendee number, catering, parking or a meeting venue.

On top of that, you can reach people all over the world through your webinar, not just those in your local geographic area.

Plus, you don’t necessarily have to speak as part of your webinar if you’re not a fan of public speaking. Simply have a guest expert share the spotlight with you, teaching your attendees something valuable.

Webinars are a simple and low-cost way to draw in new customers or even build your relationships with existing customers.

Just make it a requirement for attendees to provide their names and other relevant personal data as part of the webinar registration process.

You can even use a built-in recording function to turn your webinar into an online video, DVD or video podcast when it’s over. In this situation, you’ll want to require Web users to provide information to you on your website before they can download or view your recording.

Data Collection Offline

Moving offline to build your online business may seem counterintuitive, but trust us: It may be the best move you make this year.

So, what does offline data collection look like?

You could use good old-fashioned pen and paper for jotting down people’s names and emails.

Or, if you are visiting a trade show, festival or exhibition, have a bubble-gum-jar-like container for collecting other people’s business cards.

At the end of the day, you’ll feel like a kid in a candy store.

Start a Competition

Want a tried-and-true way to grow your email marketing database?

Host a competition.

Why does it work? Because people love to win prizes.

Depending on how valuable your prize is, you may end up with a large amount of extra data. For instance, with a prize that carries a high value, you might be able to ask consumers many more questions.

The more answers you collect, the better you can tailor your communication in the future to these potential customers.

You can even partner with a company that is targeting the same demographic. This can work wonders for extending your reach, thus developing an even bigger audience.

Competitions also work with current newsletter subscribers, as the additional information you gather from them can help you to give them communication that is more targeted in the future. This will ultimately increase your chances of converting them from subscribers to customers.

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