Experts say that “the money’s in the list,” and if you don’t have a solid email list that you use in your marketing strategy, you’re probably leaving money on the table. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to build up your list. It can take a lot of trial and error before you get things right, and even tried-and-true methods may not be the best ones for your company. Use some of these tricks and start watching the numbers on your email list climb.

Be Interesting

First and foremost, it’s important to have content on your blog and in your email list that people want to read. If your posts are full of grammatical errors or information that the readers already know, they have little incentive to sign up. Work on developing your unique voice. Even if you’re in an industry or niche that has a lot of competition, there’s room for you to be you. Developing this voice makes readers take notice and they’ll want to come back for more.

Freebies

Offer your readers some type of incentive for signing up. If you’re running an informational blog, for example, you might offer to send the readers a free short report or white paper full of useful information if they sign up for your email list. Those who sell physical products or services might offer to send those who sign up a special coupon that’s unique to email subscribers. Either way, these freebies give the readers a real reason to sign up aside from wanting to hear more from you.

Contests

Having a contest can make your website go viral. Choose a prize that’s attractive to your readers, such as a one-hour long consultation or a free product. In order to enter the contest, require people to enter their email address. You can encourage even more people to sign up by asking people to share. Some companies require those entering to share the contest on their blog or Facebook page. Others might offer additional contest entries for sending information about the contest to their friends.

Sign-Up Placement

You want it to be easy for readers to sign up for your email address, so give them several opportunities to do so. The most traditional place to have a sign-up box for email lists is in the upper right corner. Readers might naturally look there if they want to sign up. However, there are other places to put the sign-up box as well. For example, HelloBar puts a bar at the top of your blog, while Slideup has one come from below. You might also ask for sign-ups at the end of your blog post, after readers have already found you interesting enough to get to the bottom of the piece.

All Your Platforms

You don’t have to rely solely on your website or blog to get email addresses from readers or potential readers. Make sure that you’re also asking people to sign up for mailings through your Facebook page or Twitter pages, and any other sites you might use. it can also be effective to use your actual email broadcasts as a way to get more subscribers by asking regular readers to forward the email on to their friends and providing a place for the friends to sign up.

Guest Blogging

The more eyeballs on your content, the more potential subscribers you have. Even if you have a lot of web traffic already, it’s a good idea to get your content in front of people who are not already familiar with your work. Guest blogging — asking a fellow blogger to put your content on his or her blog — is an excellent way to do this. If you’re considering this method, make sure that the end of your guest post has a strong call to action, such as asking the reader to sign up for your list or visit your site for a freebie.

Split Testing

Ultimately, though, you’ll never be able to tell what’s really effective if you don’t “split test” your results. If you’re not familiar with the term, it means to test results with one method, then test the results with another method and see which method produces the better results. For example, you might experiment with the color or placement of your sign up boxes. You may find that techniques that are popular with other bloggers are not as popular with your readers. You won’t know this unless you try different methods.

Building up your email list is a process. It’s not something that happens overnight, and even when you do have a solid list, it’s important to continue building it up, as you’ll always be losing some subscribers due to unsubscribing or changing email addresses. Fortunately, there are several different techniques you can try to grow your list. See which methods work best for you.