"[C]ontinual email list growth is the Achilles heel of email marketing," says Karen Talavera in a Pro article at MarketingProfs. She says marketers face some tall challenges when they strive to maintain healthy list growth. For instance: 

They must constantly replenish the subscriber pipeline. "For every sign-up you get there's a potential unsubscribe," Talavera says. "Most email lists are in constant motion—people coming and going all the time. You can't assume that every subscriber is going to stick around indefinitely, or that every prospect will become a customer."

Some of their customers—even diehard fans—will resist email marketing. "Unless you're a pure-play online business that requires an email address on every sale," she notes, "some customers are just never going to hand over their closely guarded email address (or the specific address you want)." Others might prefer old-school channels like phone calls or printed catalogs.

To help you attract new prospects, Talavera recommends several effective strategies. Among them:

• Creating valuable, subscriber-only content. "Share insight, knowledge, news, or exclusive information in exchange for the email address; and the more exclusive, the better."
• Establishing a social-media presence. "[G]et your social-media site pages and accounts set up, then start inviting and enticing friends, followers, and connections to the wonderful content you've developed (or are launching)."

→ end article preview
Read the Full Article