Email marketing is used far and wide, but that isn’t to say that everyone does it right. As is the case with all marketing efforts and even regular Gmail workflows, in order to be successful, you need to have a good strategy, be adaptable, and keep using insights. In addition, automation of some processes and procedures can benefit your campaigns greatly.

When done right, email marketing renders an average ROI of $42 per dollar spent, so it is in your best interest to take your time brainstorming your email marketing strategy.

However, even the finest of emails won’t achieve ideal results if you’re sending them to the wrong people. Hence, capturing targeted email addresses (not just any!) is a crucial step.

Here are some ideas on how to efficiently capture emails.

1. Set Some Goals (OKRs)

First of all, you need to know exactly what you are doing. It is crucial that all people working on the strategy are aligned, working in unison to achieve the set objectives.

There is a good strategy that can help you in this sense, namely the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) methodology that defines key results to be obtained.

A good OKR strategy takes adjustments into account and must be tracked in real-time for best results. Here are some OKR templates

Also, make sure that everyone is up-to-date on the latest tools and employee apps.

2. Attracting Sign-Ups and Subscribers

The first obvious way to obtain email addresses is – a subscription. If you offer signup services, this can help greatly, too.

To do either of these two things, you’ll need to offer quality content that matches visitors’ search intent. For the majority of websites, the trigger is some kind of free offer in exchange for the email address. It can be really anything — from e-books to courses, to tutorials, to whitepapers, and so on.

However, make sure you’re offering quality content, not just any contraption aimed at luring visitors at unawares. This is where setting up an evergreen funnel can come in handy.

Note that simply attracting subscribers doesn’t guarantee they’ll stay for the long haul. To retain your clients, you should keep your offer evergreen and provide regular content upgrades.

The latter are specific in that they are linked to specific content (usually a blog post), meaning that they require a context in order to be useful.

Typical examples of content upgrades include video materials detailing the chosen topic, checklists, and templates. Because they are highly defined, content upgrades are aimed at luring visitors interested in the topic they deal with specifically.

3. Create Quizzes

Quizzes are fun and informative and, as a rule, unanimously liked by the general public. As such, they are a great addition to your email list strategy.

Quizzes are, on top of being entertaining, shareable. That means that the number of people seeing them grows exponentially.

Finally, quizzes are engaging. When devised the right way, they will provide just the right amount of information about your brand and get people interested to learn more.

4. Create Surveys

Another great way to capture emails is to create surveys. Opinions are divided on this matter and vary greatly from one person to another. Yet, on the whole, people interested in surveys will contribute to a fair amount of new email addresses is collected.

eCommerce email marketing can, in particular, benefit from surveys, as they provide invaluable insights that can turn into revenue if used the right way.

For a survey to be effective, it should either end in some sort of compensation or result sharing with the participant. As for the first strategy, the usual rewards include discount codes, a one-month free subscription, a gift on the next purchase, and similar.

As for the second, it is usually efficient when targeting business people, as they can benefit from sharing the survey results with their peers.

5. Create Stellar Signup Forms

Signup forms are the most common practice when it comes to capturing email addresses. Nearly all brands use them in one way or another.

However, you should keep in mind that people also unsubscribe, so not just any content offer will do the trick.

As ever, the content you provide and offer has to be high-quality and unique. The virtual arena is highly competitive, so while it is a good idea to refine ideas by following successful competitors’ strategies, you should also offer content that is exclusive to your brand useful to your target audience.

It is recommended to not ask too many personal questions, as the practice is highly likely to scare visitors off. Just put yourself in their shoes: would you just carelessly share your personal information left and right?

Some of the most efficient signup forms ask only for the first name and email address. The name is used for email personalization and for starters, that is all you need to know.

You can (and should) build relations with your target group and over time, ask for their feedback. In this way, you will be able to get to know each and every subscriber over time, which will allow you to customize your campaigns.

That is, in truth, the only way for your marketing strategy to keep going forward and remain successful in the long run, which also means that it should be bendable and easy to customize.

Also, remember that audiences change over time. That is nothing to worry about, but you should keep an eye on the developments so as to be able to fine-tune your strategy to appeal to new people.

6. Gated Content Can Help with Market Segmentation

Lastly, the greatest reward you can offer to your subscribers is gated content.

Let’s explain the concept briefly if you’re unfamiliar with it. Gated content can really be any kind of content that is accessible only to people who have provided their information (usually email address).

Gated content is rather effective at boosting lead generation, as it is usually being accessed from a blog post. You should make it your priority to post quality content capable of convincing visitors that your website is the ideal source of information they need.

However, keep in mind that paid access doesn’t count as gated content. Access is exchanged for an email address — nothing more and nothing less. It is a way for a brand to target customers using email marketing.

Conclusion

As you can see, capturing emails doesn’t have to be a crazy process. There are many ways to obtain email addresses without breaking the bank. The trick is in brainstorming your strategy, so be sure to take your time assessing your options and devising the best approaches. The ideas presented here should be used as guidelines to be expanded on, in accordance with your brand’s specific goals and targets.