17 Tested and Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List Faster

Are you looking for proven ways to grow your email list subscribers?

Often beginners simply install a sidebar optin form on their website and wait for users to subscribe. This results in slow subscriber growth.

For faster growth, you need to clearly communicate the value and offer your users multiple opportunities to join your email newsletter before they leave your site.

In this article, we will share our tested and proven ways to grow your email list that are easy to implement and drives huge results, fast.

Getting Started

First, you need is to make sure that you are using a professional email marketing service.

Using the best email marketing company ensures that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder. It also provides you with the right set of tools to build and grow your email list.

We recommend using Constant Contact. It is one of the largest and most popular email marketing service provider in the world.

For complete step by step instructions, see our guide on how to start an email newsletter the right way.

Next, you will need OptinMonster. It is the best lead generation software in the world. It helps you convert abandoning website visitors into email subscribers.

Now that you have the best tools, let’s take a look at some of the most effective ways to grow your email list.

1. Use Multiple Sign up Forms

As we mentioned earlier that many beginners start with a simple newsletter signup form in their sidebar.

If you want to get more email subscribers, then you need multiple signup forms. This gives your users more opportunities to join your email list.

We recommend combining your sidebar sign up form with a sticky floating bar or a lightbox popup. These highly effective campaign types make your signup forms more noticeable.

Using OptinMonster’s Display Rules, you can set time and action based triggers, so your users don’t see all the optins at once.

For example, you can set a display rule to only show floating footer bar optin when the user has scrolled past the sidebar optin, and show a lightbox popup only when they’re about to leave.

2. Use an Exit-Intent Popup

Exit-Intent® is an advanced technology built by OptinMonster that tracks your user’s mouse behavior and show them a targeted email signup form at the precise moment they are about to leave your website.

Think of it as On-site Retargeting.

You can use this technology in combination with full-screen welcome gates, lightbox popups, or other optin types to convert abandoning visitors into subscribers.

We use an exit-intent popup on WHOOPS.ONLINE, and it has helped increase our subscribers by 600%.

Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner used it to add over 250,000 new email subscribers.

3. Offer Content Upgrades

Content Upgrade is a marketing technique where you offer users a chance to get exclusive bonus content by signing up to your email list.

For example:

• If you run a podcast, then you can offer show notes + transcription as a content upgrade.
• If you have a long form blog post, then you can offer a PDF downloadable version as a content upgrade
• You can turn your blog posts into a checklist or cheat sheet and offer it as a content upgrade

Here are 30 other content upgrade ideas that you can use.

Human psychology plays an important role in the effectiveness of content upgrades. The psychology principle known as Zeigarnik Effect states that people are most likely to complete a task if they initiate it themselves.

Because when the user initiates (click to download the content upgrade), they are more likely to complete the task (subscribe to your list).

See our step by step guide on how to add content upgrades in WordPress to grow your email list.

4. Add Full or Partially Gated Content in WordPress

Gated Content is the content on your website that can’t be accessed until the visitor enters their email address. You can use plugins to hide some of your content or hide the entire blog post until the user enters their email address.

In the old days, this used to have a negative impact on your SEO rankings. However with modern JavaScript based technology, this does not impact your SEO rankings.

Here’s a step by step guide on how to add content locking in WordPress.

5. Run Giveaway and Contests

An easy way to quickly get a lot of new followers and subscribers is by running viral giveaway or contest. You don’t need an expensive prize to launch a successful giveaway campaign.

Users can join your contest by providing their email address, social sharing, or following you on social media. This creates a snowball effect and helps you reach many new users.

We recommend using RafflePress, which is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It comes with a drag and drop giveaway builder with tons of social actions to make your campaign a success.

For details, see our guide on how to run a successful giveaway / contest in WordPress.

6. Create Multiple Lead Magnet Pages

Lead magnet (also known as opt-in bribe) is an incentive you offer to potential buyers in exchange for their contact information such as name, email, phone number, etc.

Your blog posts with locked content, content upgrades, and premium content all fall into the lead magnet category.

Lead magnets must offer additional value to your users. This could be an ebook, a resources newsletter, checklists, workbooks, etc. See these 69 highly effective lead magnet ideas for inspiration.

7. Use Discounts and Deals

Sometimes a discount or exclusive coupon is what encourages a customer to finally make a decision. However, why not use this opportunity to nudge them into joining your email list?

If you are using WooCommerce, then you can simply go to WooCommerce » Coupons page to create a coupon. After that, you can use OptinMonster’s ‘Success’ view to reveal the code after users enter their email address.

8. Use Contact Form to Grow Your Email List

Contact forms offer another great opportunity to ask for a user’s email address. Users already enter their email address and a tiny checkbox can allow them to subscribe without entering it again.

We recommend using WPForms, which is the best WordPress form builder on the market. It allows you to connect your forms with top email marketing services and helps you easily build forms with simple drag and drop tool.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to use the contact form to grow your email list in WordPress.

9. Add Sign up Call to Action on Your Facebook Page

Facebook has introduced call to action buttons for business pages. These buttons are prominently displayed on top of your cover image and are visible without scrolling.

Here is how to add a signup button as a call to action on your Facebook page.

You need to visit your Facebook page, and you will notice a blue ‘Add a button’ button.

This will bring up a popup with multiple choices. You need to click on ‘Get in touch with us’ tab and then select ‘Sign up’.

Next, you need to provide a link to your website where users will be taken when they click signup.

Don’t forget to click on add button to save your changes.

10. Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards

Twitter Ads offers another social platform that you can use to boost your lead generation efforts.

In fact, Twitter even allows you to run lead generation directly from Twitter. This way users can sign up for your email list without leaving Twitter.

You can also drive traffic to your website and use the email signup forms as a conversion. You can create special offers for Twitter users and tweet the links to your followers.

11. Use YouTube Call to Action Cards

YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms and the second most popular search engine in the world. If you are using YouTube videos as part of your marketing strategy, then you can utilize your YouTube channel to grow your email list.

YouTube action cards allow you to add interactive information cards to your videos. You can use them to add call to actions and link them to lead magnets on your website.

Here is how to add YouTube action cards to your videos.

YouTube gives you plenty of opportunities to promote your email list. For more ideas see this guide on how to build your email list using YouTube videos.

Bonus: Check out WHOOPS.ONLINE’s YouTube channel to see how we use Cards.

12. Use After Post and In-Line Optin Forms

After post optin forms appear when a user has already scrolled down an entire article. This means that they are already interested in your content and are much more likely to sign up.

You can also use in-line optin forms within your blog posts. The middle of a long read is the point where users are most engaged with the content. Reminding them to sign up at that point, works like a charm.

13. Add Polite Slide-in Scroll Box Forms

As we mentioned earlier that users simply ignore most static signup forms. The goal is to divert the user’s attention to your offer and sign up form.

Slide-in scroll box forms do that beautifully. They stay out of the way so that users can look at the content while diverting user attention to the sign up form with slide in animation.

14. Prominent Headers with Call to Action

Header area of your website is most prominently visible to visitors when they first arrive. This makes it the most effective spot to place your call to action.

You will need a WordPress theme that comes with large or full screen header. You can also use a page builder plugin like Beaver Builder to create custom pages with your own layout.

15. Use Social Proof to Encourage More Sign ups

Social Proof is a psychological effect used to describe a social behavior where people feel more comfortable following other people. Marketers use social proof as a tactic for easing the minds of worried customers and increasing conversions.

There are many ways you can use social proof to get more subscribers. You can use testimonials on your landing pages, add reviews, show number of registered users, etc.

You can also use bubble notifications like TrustPulse to increase newsletter signups and eCommerce conversions.

16. Use Gamified Campaigns

Experts agree that gamification helps boost user engagement. Did you know that you can use gamified campaigns to boost newsletter conversions as well?

We use Spin a Wheel gamified campaign on our MonsterInsights blog to grow our email list as well as boost eCommerce conversions.

To create a similar campaign, simply follow the coupon wheel guide on OptinMonster website.

17. A/B Test Your Optin Forms

Many beginners continue to rely on guesswork to understand what works on their website. You need to understand how your audience react to different call to actions, optin placements, colors, design, and copy.

With A/B testing, you can find out which optins work better on your website. You can use these A/B testing tips to continuously test and improve your optins.