6 tips for accelerating your email list growth

Everyone’s email subscriber count starts from the same number: a big, fat, zero. But the rate of their email list growth—namely, how quickly they’re able to build their email list—after that depends on the email marketing strategies they use to attract sign-ups. 

So if you’re new to email marketing and aren’t sure how to get more email subscribers, you’re in the right place!

Here, we’ll share six tips for accelerating your email list growth. We’ll also provide examples of each tip in action to get your creative juices flowing!

1. Design stunning email forms

If your email form looks plain and blends into your website’s background, you can bet that most customers won’t spot it—let alone fill it out. Not the best way of getting them to sign up for your email list.

So as you’re building your email form, give your form an attractive design that catches your customers’ eye and prompts them to check it out.

For example, take a look at the email form for Theo Chocolate:

Theo Chocolate has incorporated its bright orange brand palette into the email form. There’s no way you’ll miss it. The image of the stack of chocolate bars also tempts you into signing up.

Creating a signup form is easy! Just head over to the PosterMyWall signup form maker to design your signup form and start growing your mailing list.

2. Offer a lead magnet

A lead magnet is a freebie that you use to “bribe” users into signing up for your emails. Lead magnets come in many forms, such as:

• Discount codes (especially for e-commerce websites)
• Ebooks
• Checklists
• Short videos
• Printables

(Find loads more lead magnet suggestions in our guide to lead magnet examples!)

Pop quiz time. Can you guess the lead magnets being offered in Alyce Alexandra’s email form here?

If your guess was a 10% discount code and four digital cookbooks, you’re right! (Alyce is clearly very generous with her lead magnets.)

Once you have your lead magnet prepared, promote it in your email form. Tease the amazing resource(s) you’ve created, and say that users can easily get a copy by subscribing to your emails!

3. Keep the number of form fields to a minimum

Have you ever had to fill out a form that seemed never-ending?

That’s how your users may feel if your email forms have many fields that ask for a lot of information. They might then get frustrated, give up, and not submit the email form. As a result, you’ll have lost a subscriber.

To prevent such a scenario from happening, minimize the number of form fields you have on your email forms. This way, you make your form easier to complete—which in turn makes users more likely to do so.

We like Vionic’s email form:

Vionic asks users to provide just one thing—namely, their email address—to join its email list. (It doesn’t even ask for their name!)

And once they’ve filled that out and submitted the form, they’ll be immediately added to Vionic’s email list. Easy-peasy.

4. Let users share their email preferences with you

This email form by Minus is More is interesting. What do you notice about it?

Unlike most email forms, it has a “Preferred language” form field asking users to select the language they’d like to receive the brand’s newsletter in, such as English, French, or Spanish.

This is a smart way of boosting email marketing growth because users get to tailor the emails they receive to their specific preferences (being their preferred language, in this case).

Compare this to the situation where a user may have wanted to receive newsletters in French but the newsletter was available only in English—if so, the user may ultimately decide not to sign up.

Apart from the user’s preferred language, you can also offer to send users different versions of your emails based on:

• Their interests (such as knitting or crocheting)
• The type of content they’re interested in receiving (such as written recipes or cooking videos)

Just be prepared to produce such different versions of your emails accordingly!

5. Use compelling call-to-action text for your Subscribe button

The default call-to-action text for an email form’s Subscribe button is, well, “Subscribe.” While it works fine for most cases, it can frankly be a little boring and uninspiring. So why not go for more interesting call-to-action text that could better entice users to sign up?

On their blog, The Clean Eating Couple has an email form offering new subscribers a free 30-minute dinner cookbook. Since their lead magnet is a cookbook containing recipes, it makes sense for their subscribe button to say: “Send me the recipes!”

(That’s what you might say if you had been keen on receiving the cookbook too!)

Depending on the lead magnet you’re offering, here are some sample call-to-action text you can experiment with for your own email form:

• “Claim your 20% discount” if your lead magnet is a discount code
• “Download the free checklist” if your lead magnet is a checklist
• “I want the template!” if your lead magnet is a printable template

6. Gamify your email subscription process

The subscription process for most email forms is quite straightforward: fill out your email address, click the Subscribe button, then get the promised lead magnet in your inbox.

But instead of following this standard formula, why not spice things up by turning the subscription process into a game?

That’s what Diamond Core Tools has done with its homepage’s email form:

When you subscribe to its email list, you’ll get a spin of a prize wheel to claim a free prize. In other words, the exact lead magnet you’ll receive isn’t decided until you’ve spun the wheel. And that’s the exciting part…

Because for sure, you might win nothing. But on the other hand, Lady Luck might be on your side and you’ll snag a sweet 10% discount. Or maybe even free shipping!

There’s only one way to find out—which is to join Diamond Core Tools’ email list to claim your free spin of the wheel.

Ready, get set, grow!

There’s nothing more exciting than watching your subscriber numbers go up due to the email marketing strategies you’ve implemented to increase email subscribers. But don’t let your email list growth go to waste—follow up by sending emails so valuable that your subscribers won’t want to unsubscribe!

To do so, browse PosterMyWall’s wide range of email templates to find the most suitable template for the occasion. Load your chosen template into the user-friendly Email Maker to customize it with the right text and images.

Finally, use PosterMyWall’s content planner to plan when to send your emails for the highest open and click rates.

For more tips on effective email marketing, check out these articles:

• B2B email marketing best practices to try in 2023
• 5 creative email marketing ideas that will skyrocket your small business
• Welcome email guide: How to write winning welcome emails

Then when you’re ready, click the button below to start designing your next email in PosterMyWall!