How Shopify Merchants Can Build a Superpowered List Growth Engine

As a small business owner, you’re busy attracting new customers, growing sales, and doing the day-to-day operations to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine. Much like you're the power behind your business, a list growth engine is what powers your email marketing efforts to help drive your business forward. When you build a super-powered list growth engine, you’ll be collecting email addresses left and right, gaining new subscribers and customers who can help grow your business. 
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Want to know how to build one? We thought so! Let’s explore how you can get your list growth engine up and running so you can start converting subscribers and growing your business (and revenue).

‍What Does it Take to Build my List Growth Engine?

There’s a bit of initial work to do before you can start building your email list with the growth engine, but the good news is that it’s likely similar to the things you’re already doing to drive traffic to your website. We’ve put together a comprehensive list to help you get started on powering an unstoppable list growth engine. Check it out!

Create as many optimized intake channels as you can.

Intake channels put simply are the channels that feed into your growth engine. Typical intake channels include:

• Social media/social ads
• Website placements and pop-ups
• In-store sign-ups and live events
• Partnerships with other brands

Right now you may not have very many intake channels so focus on what you can control right away and grow over time. 

Show visitors the value of subscribing.

Simply having these intake channels isn’t enough. People won’t give you their email simply because you ask—you need to be offering something of value. Offer both short and long-term value for them. For example, with a pop-up, you can ask for their email by offering a short-term value of 10% off their first purchase. You can also highlight long-term value by sharing that when they sign up, they’ll get member exclusives, personalized style picks, and more.

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Give subscribers what you promised.

Have you ever signed up for emails expecting to get great deals or a monthly newsletter and instead you’re bombarded every day with borderline spam from that company? We’ve all been there, but we certainly don’t want you to be one of those companies! Subscriber experience is important, which is why it’s important to give your subscribers what you promised initially when they signed up.

Did you promise them discount codes? Then email them those. Did you promise weekly style tips? Them email them that. Deliver what you promised.

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When thinking about places to grow your list, you can break it down into two areas: on your site, where you control everything on your domain, and off-site, which is not your domain. Off-site would be like Facebook or Instagram.

• On-site: This includes things like putting pop-ups on your site that advertise discounts, free shipping, and of course, the short and long-term value they’ll get for subscribing. Another opportunity is by highlighting interactive content they can gain access to by subscribing. You can offer recipes, horoscopes, style tips, and more!
  

• Off-site: To attract people to your website and to subscribe, you can use off-site tactics like social media ads, cross-promotion through partnerships, organic social, tablets in your brick and mortar, and live and virtual event registrations.
  
  Don't forget your physical store or pop-up market! You can also set up a tablet or QR code at the checkout. When someone signs up, you can offer a discount or more longer-term value like personalized store picks, birthday coupons, and more.

Remember, you’re doing all of this to build a list growth engine so powerful that it will help grow both your business and your sales. You will always have people unsubscribing from your emails. So a strong email list growth engine helps you keep your email marketing list strong.