Collecting leads is vital for any business to succeed but it is often difficult to acquire leads that are qualified and engaged at the same time.
However, if you can use the right email acquisition strategies, getting quality leads on a large scale is possible without excessive efforts or additional costs.
As 52% of consumers made a purchase directly from an email.
Today, you will learn about 12 proven email acquisition strategies to help you acquire more potential leads and help you grow your business significantly.
So let’s begin,
What is Email Acquisition?
Email acquisition refers to the process of collecting email addresses from potential customers and website visitors.
It involves encouraging people to subscribe or opt-in to receive emails from your business. Having a proper email acquisition strategy allows you to build an email list that you can market directly.
Email marketing has one of the highest ROI compared to other channels, so focusing on email acquisition is essential.
Benefits of Proper Email Acquisition Strategies
Implementing thoughtful email acquisition strategies allows you to enjoy exclusive benefits such as
- Build relationships and engage with leads directly via email.
- Enables more targeted marketing campaigns based on subscriber data.
- Drives repeat business and referrals through ongoing communication.
- Improves brand awareness as more people join your list.
- Provides an alternate revenue stream through email promotions.
In short, proper email acquisition can help you get high results from your email marketing efforts.
12 Effective Email Acquisition Strategies to Get High-Quality Leads
Following are 12 proven strategies to acquire leads that are optimized for engagement and conversions.
1. Use Compelling Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are one of the most common elements used to collect leads. These are free, valuable content such as ebooks, cheatsheets, guides, etc., that you offer in exchange for a prospect’s email address or phone number.
For example, as an accounting firm, you can offer a downloadable tax preparation checklist as a lead magnet, and people have to opt-in to your email list to gain access to it.
This practical resource is likely to appeal to those who are interested in your main services. So the leads collected have more potential, and you can run tailored email campaigns to convert them later.
A lead magnet has to be something valuable that is relevant or useful to your target audience. So when planning one, you have to research your target audience and identify their pain points, needs, and interests.
And then you can create a resource that is related to these data to ensure you get to collect potential leads.
Lead Magnet Ideas to Collect Emails Easily
If you can create a lead magnet it will help you to get email from your prospects easily. The most compelling offer demonstrates expertise while solving initial pain points.
Consider these concepts:
- Templates: Pre-designed formats or layouts that serve as a starting point for creating documents, presentations, or other materials.
- Ebooks: Comprehensive digital books providing in-depth information or guides on a specific topic of interest.
- Whitepapers: Authoritative reports or guides that present research, solutions, or insights on a particular industry issue or problem.
- Cheatsheets: Condensed, easy-to-follow guides or summaries offering quick reference to essential information.
- Free trial access: Offering limited-time access to a product or service to allow potential customers to experience its features and benefits.
- Discount coupons: Providing special offers or reduced prices as an incentive for future purchases or sign-ups.
- Checklists: Simplified lists outlining steps or tasks to accomplish a goal or solve a problem efficiently.
- Toolkit/Resource kits: Bundles of valuable tools, resources, or materials that assist in achieving specific objectives or tasks.
- Free consultation: Providing expert advice or guidance in a personalized session to address individual needs or concerns.
- Interactive quizzes: Engaging assessments or quizzes that offer insights, knowledge, or personalized recommendations based on user responses.
2. Implement Pop-Up and Fly-In Opt-Ins
You can initiate pop-ups or fly-ins to grab the attention of visitors and convince them to opt in by making contextual offers.
For example, when a person visits a blog on your website, you can trigger an opt-in and promise him to get valuable content sent out to subscribers similar to that one. People who will find it useful may opt in.
Again, when someone visits one of your landing pages, you can set up a fly-in to allow a demo request opting in with email, name, and phone number.
The idea is to place such forms with relevant CTAs in various potential content on the website to get interested leads.
3. Leverage Gateed-Content For Email Sign-Ups
You can prepare high-quality content and offer a partial part of it for free viewers. And then, to view the full content, urge the readers to subscribe to your email list.
Content such as statistical reports, survey results, case studies, technical guides, etc., can be used in this strategy.
People who come to read this content are in dire need of help and certain interested in relevant topics. So chances are, they will not hesitate to subscribe.
This is a great email collection strategy when you have the option to prepare such high-value content.
4. Host Webinars and Exclusive Events
A great email acquisition strategy that is highly effective is hosting webinars or virtual events.
Basically, you can consider hosting free webinars or interactive virtual events to discuss topics that will address the pain points, needs, or goals of your target audience.
However, make people register for such events using their names and emails and only send links to join the events via email.
People who will join are potential leads because they have certain requirements that you can help with.
5. Use Social Media for Email Collection
Social media enables you to forge connections with existing and potential customers on highly popular, accessible platforms. This exposure can then be leveraged to grow your email lists.
One prime tactic is running contests and giveaways on social channels. You can announce a giveaway contest and ask people to enter the contest by registering with a name and email.
Some social platforms allow offer lead ads to collect leads via paid promotion.
For example, Facebook’s lead ads allow you to reach a wide range of targeted audiences to make them request communication by providing their names and emails.
This may involve some additional money, but if done right, it can boost your lead generation by a huge margin.
You can also create a social community such as a Facebook Group or a Quora Space with people interested in a common topic related to what you offer.
Make it mandatory for people to submit their email addresses to join. Use an automation tool that integrates with Facebook group questions to collect these emails actively.
Overall, social media has tons of ways to help you with email acquisition.
6. Use paid advertising for list-building
Using paid advertising is an effective email acquisition strategy to grow your mailing list.
By targeting the right people through platforms like Google or social media, you can attract prospective customers who are a good fit for your product or service.
This approach helps you reach a new audience and build a healthy list of leads for future acquisition email marketing campaigns.
Make sure to create ads with dynamic content and a clear call to action. It guides potential leads to sign up for your list.
Paid ads can be a valuable tool in your overall customer acquisition strategy and boost your business growth by bringing in the right audience.
7. Use Exit-Intent Pop-Ups and Offers
An unpopular tactic to collect leads is by using exit-intent pop-ups.
It involves strategically displaying compelling offers or incentives to visitors who are about to leave your website. It also encourages them to subscribe via email.
These pop-ups trigger when a user shows signs of exiting the site, providing a last-minute opportunity to capture their attention and convert them into potential leads or subscribers by offering value in exchange for their email address.
Exit intents are often frowned upon by many as it can be annoying for some people. However, if used smartly, certain niches can get lots of leads using this tactic.
8. Conducting Contests and Giveaways
One way to create an online buzz and acquire leads is to run a contest or giveaway event.
Basically, you can host an exciting contest, such as creating a creative video on a topic related to your target audience, and offer an attractive incentive in return. Make it so that the person has to register via an opt-in form to enter the contest.
Similarly, you can host a giveaway event where people have to join a raffle draw by using their emails.
This is a great way to get the more relevant audience excited about your brand and help you reach more prospects, helping with lead acquisition.
For example, in 2006, Coca-Cola launched a unique and successful contest called “My Coke Rewards.” Customers were encouraged to collect codes from Coca-Cola products and enter them online for a chance to win various prizes, from merchandise to special experiences.
This contest not only engaged customers in collecting points but also created a community around the brand.
Of course, these leads can not be highly engaging on the whole. You have to use a nurturing email series to identify the active ones and exclude the inactive ones from your regular email campaigns.
9. Conduct Online Surveys
You can host surveys on public groups or via Ads to get industry data, while also acquiring leads.
For example, as a travel agency, you can create a survey asking about travel preferences and dream destinations.
Upon completion, you can offer participants to subscribe to your newsletter for exclusive travel deals and destination guides.
This approach will allow you to collect valuable data about customer preferences while organically growing your email list by engaging participants with relevant content and incentives tailored to their interests.
10. Use Interactive Quizzes or Assessments
Interactive quizzes or assessments can be a great lead acquisition strategy.
You can create engaging quizzes or assessments that captivate users’ interest and provide valuable insights, often collecting leads through email opt-ins.
For instance, suppose you are part of a financial consulting firm. You can design a “Financial Health Quiz”. It allows participants to assess their financial wellness.
At the end of the quiz, you can offer participants a personalized financial tip or report in exchange for their email addresses.
This method not only engages the audience but also captures leads by offering tailored insights and nurturing potential clients through targeted follow-up emails and services.
11. Leverage affiliates, referrals, or influencers
You can boost your email acquisition strategy by leveraging affiliates, referrals, or influencers. When you partner with trusted current customers, influencers, or affiliates, they can introduce your brand to new audiences.
It helps you gather new email addresses and build the biggest email list possible. This approach works well for acquisition email marketing because people trust recommendations from those they follow.
Whether through online groups, forums, or social media, affiliates and influencers can provide vital information to their audience about your brand, leading to higher-quality leads.
It’s a smart way to diversify your lead acquisition strategies while building loyal customers through a partnership.
12. Exclusive Email-Only Discounts or Offers
A unique way to collect leads is to offer special deals or promotions exclusively to individuals who sign up for your email list.
For example, suppose you own an online clothing retail business. You can offer a limited-time “VIP Access Sale” with a 20% discount code sent only to people who register.
Display this offer prominently on your website and social media channels to entice visitors and convince them to join your email list to access the exclusive sale.
Hence, you can capture leads who are interested in discounts by fostering a sense of exclusivity among subscribers.
This strategy encourages immediate sign-ups and also establishes a direct channel to engage and convert leads through tailored promotional content.
Best Practices to Collect Leads Efficiently
While you dive into lead acquisition, you should try to optimize the overall process by following some best practices as follows:
- Only request essential contact details like name and email address
- Use pop-up and embedded forms sparingly to avoid annoying visitors
- Offer valuable lead magnets that provide solutions to your audience’s needs
- Ensure your sign-up forms are easy to find and fill out
- Have a compelling value proposition and headlines for opt-in forms
- Send welcome and confirmation emails when someone joins your list
- Make it easy to unsubscribe and manage preferences
- Ensure data security and privacy policies
Reliable Tools to Collect Leads Efficiently
Now, one of the crucial parts of the whole email acquisition process is to have the right tool to be able to carry out your overall email collection strategies.
Following are a few reliable tools that can help you effectively acquire leads with high quality.
1. Mail Mint
Mail Mint is a reliable email marketing automation platform in WordPress that comes with exclusive lead capture forms to collect leads.
Effective email list management features such as custom segmentation, visual email automation workflows, drag-and-drop email builder, automated recurring campaigns, list engagement automation, and many more.
The plugin will make it super easy for you to acquire leads and run email campaigns without any complications while giving you full control.
2. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a powerful lead generation tool that enables website owners to create and display engaging opt-in forms, pop-ups, and other lead capture forms.
It offers various targeting options and integrates with popular email marketing services to help grow email lists effectively.
3. Sumo
Sumo provides a suite of tools designed to help websites increase traffic, grow email lists, and convert visitors into subscribers or customers.
It includes features like pop-ups, social share buttons, email capture forms, and analytics to optimize conversion rates and email acquisition strategies.
4. OptiMonk
Optimonk is a conversion optimization tool that specializes in creating targeted pop-ups, exit-intent pop-ups, and other forms to capture emails and reduce website abandonment.
It allows customization and targeting based on user behavior to increase email sign-ups and conversions.
5. Leadfeeder
Leadfeeder is a lead generation tool that helps identify website visitors and provides insights into their behavior, even if they haven’t filled out any forms.
It integrates with Google Analytics to track and analyze website traffic, revealing which companies visited the site, their interests, and contact information when available.
This data aids in lead generation and email list building by allowing businesses to target potential leads who have shown interest in their products or services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a strong email acquisition strategy is essential for growing your business. By using proven lead generation techniques, you can attract the right leads, increase engagement, and improve your email campaigns.
Whether through partnerships, search engine optimization, or offering valuable content, your focus should be on targeting and retaining the right audience.
Keep your list clean, focus on quality, and avoid generic email lists to reduce bounce rate. Implement these strategies to build a list that drives long-term success.
Segmenting your audience, nurturing leads, and using tools like Mail Mint will help simplify your process.
** FAQs **
What are the three acquisition strategies?
- The three key strategies are search engine optimization (to attract organic traffic), paid advertising (to quickly reach your target audience), and referral marketing (leveraging customer referrals or influencers). These approaches help you build a well-rounded plan for acquiring valuable clients.
What is an EDM strategy?
- An EDM strategy (Electronic Direct Mail) involves sending targeted emails to specific customer segments. Personalizing content and using data like customer tags helps improve engagement and drives prospective email marketing efforts for greater impact.
How to plan an email sequence?
- To plan an email sequence, first set your goal (e.g., nurturing leads or welcoming users). Create a game plan that includes content flow, scheduling, and segmentation. Each email should guide your audience toward taking action while keeping the design clean and focused.
What are the 4 C’s of email?
- The 4 C’s of email are Clear, Concise, Compelling, and Consistent. These principles ensure that your emails engage the right customers. It also maintains strong connections with your audience over time.
How do I reduce email list churn?
- To reduce email list churn, focus on sending valuable, personalized content that resonates with your audience. Segment your list based on customer tags and preferences to ensure your emails are relevant. Regularly clean up generic email lists and use tools like Mail Mint can help with it.
Comments are closed.
Comments (1)
I like it whenever people get together and share thoughts. Great site, keep it up!