Klaviyo Email Marketing: How to Create Great Email Lists

Do you know that 55% of people look at their email before going to work and 17% before getting off the bed? Imagine getting in front of your customers or subscribers first thing in the morning, keeping your business top of mind.

But do you have enough email subscribers and segments in your database to generate sales and empower your brand? If not, you will discover how to build and grow your email list from scratch in this article.

Why an Email List Is Crucial to Your Business

A quality email list is the foundation of any email marketing campaign. Subscribers provide their information because they want to receive your offers and are more likely to become paying customers.

An email list is a fuel that launches every expert email marketing campaign. Once you build a mailing list, it gives you limitless possibilities for communicating with your subscribers. From welcoming new shoppers to nurturing potential customers with product information, customers will become increasingly familiar with your brand. Recover lost revenue by sending abandoned cart emails to those who failed to finish their transaction.

Having your customers’ email means you can retain them with new offers and re-engagement messages.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Before we get into list building, let’s review a few reasons why email is a critical marketing tool for online businesses.

• The Direct Marketing Association reports that email offers an average ROI between 3,800% to 4,300% ROI. That’s $38 to $43 returned for every dollar spent.

• Email is a highly personal form of advertising between the business and the shopper.

• Unlike cold calling, you work with a warm market. People expect to hear from you.

• You can segment the list to target individuals with relevant offers at the right time.

Before you can take advantage of email marketing, you need to build a list.

The best reason to build an email list is that you own it. Your marketing is not dependent upon the whims of Facebook or Google.

How To Create an Email List

The number one rule when asking people for their email addresses is to add value. Give them a good reason to join your list, like a downloadable eBook, PDF article, or access to more information. It must be something of value, so they look forward to hearing from you again. You have to give something to get something.

The next step is to create the offer using tools and forms to capture subscribers’ information. Here are the most effective methods:

1. Pop-ups

Love them or hate them, pop-ups work for capturing email addresses at an average conversion rate between 3% to over 9%. Instead of jumping straight in the middle of the screen, consider using a fly-out. They slide in from the top, bottom, or side after a specified amount of time.

One variation is the pop-up survey. It contains a yes or no question regarding a topic relevant to what the visitors were reading. The University of Alberta grew its mailing list by 500% in one year using this strategy.

Pop-ups are disruptive to readers and don’t always align with every brand because they distract and annoy visitors. They can chase away more people than they bring in. You need to test various offers and pop-ups to see what works best for your business.

2. Sticky Banners

A more visitor-friendly opt-in option that doesn’t interrupt is a permanent banner in your website’s header asking for the visitor’s email address in exchange for something. The sign-up form is discreet and always visible.

3. Discount Offers at the Footer

If your visitor has made it to the bottom of the page, they have some level of buying intent. Have an offer ready for them to click to leave their email.

4. Lead Magnets and Giveaways

It’s human nature to reciprocate. When someone gives you a gift, you feel like you should pay them back. That’s the idea behind lead magnets and giveaways. You offer an item of value in exchange for an email address and other customer information. Lead magnets can be video, a written report, access to information, or something of monetary value such as a coupon or discount.

Lead magnets work for B2B and B2C customers looking for product information. Free reports and white papers are two lead magnets that work well. A recent B2B survey reported that 46% of marketers use embedded forms offering lead magnets on their websites.

5. Sweepstakes or Promotions

Depending on the audience, a chance to win something big gets them excited. Sweepstakes or valuable offers create excitement and a reason to opt-in. Be sure to provide full disclosure and use a double opt-in.

6. Trade Shows & Networking Events

Although face-to-face trade shows and networking have gone virtual, they are still excellent opportunities to collect emails from viable B2B customers. For in-person meetings, business card scanning is a great way to collect customer information. There are also several other advantages to event marketing that can ignite your brand lead collection process.

7. Refer-A-Friend Programs

Referring a friend or loyalty programs are two ways to build a mailing list. Referral marketing campaigns stimulate word of mouth and incentivize people to opt-in. It works by giving both parties something of value. For example, customer A gets new customer B to opt-in. Both get a $50 voucher for your store.

8. Paid Facebook Ads

Paying for ads on Facebook is a fast and effective way to add more subscribers. To build an email list using ads, you’ll need a landing page that offers something of value and a good CTA. Monetary incentives, how-to videos, and quality eBooks are effective lead magnets.

Once you have begun collecting addresses, the next step is following up by email.

Email Segmentation Best Practices

Segmentation and timing are two critical factors in email marketing. Klaviyo’s email marketing platform makes it easy to segment your list and create a variety of email sequences. Some of the sequences include:

• Welcome series

• Post-Purchase Upsells

• Abandoned cart

• Holiday and Special Promos

Klaviyo also has a unique feature called predictive analytics. They predict when a customer will make the next purchase and how much they will spend. It’s amazingly accurate, and one of the many triggers email marketers can use to send relevant messages at the right time.

Get To Know Your Audience

Whether you are setting up your store and emails for the first time or you need to improve conversions we highly recommend that you test drive Klaviyo - and if you get stuck at any point, need some friendly advice, or just a helping hand to get you set up, let us know.