5 Steps to Build a Targeted Email Marketing List

By Ankit Main

Benefits of Building a Targeted Email List

Email traffic converts well, and it performs even better when you have a targeted email marketing list.

If done correctly, email marketing has massive returns on investment of more than 4400%. (Source: Campaign Monitor)

That’s why building a targeted email marketing list is necessary.

You may ask, “Why build a targeted email marketing list when I can buy an email list for mass mailing?”

It’s possible, but it can hurt your business in the long term.

(I have one that contains around 56,000 leads but never use it for obvious reasons).

Mass Mailing List
Mailing List

You should build your targeted email list for a sustainable business model.

Building a targeted email list is also known as permission marketing.

It’s like someone has said: I want to receive your email communication, and you can send it to me whenever scheduled.

Do you know, a majority of the internet user (your potential customer) checks their mailbox 1-3 times a day on average. (Source: Statista)

Moreover, unlike most of the other marketing channels, email is personal similar to SMS/calls.

It does not get lost because you are offline for a while and goes directly to the inbox.

This makes the process of attracting visitors to become your leads and converting them into customers ridiculously easy.

Plus, by investing a tiny budget, you can automate the entire process.

Now, the important question:

How to build a targeted email list to improve your website traffic and make more money?

You don’t just need email subscribers to inflate your metrics/numbers/count.

Do you?

You need loyal followers who will buy from you and refer more people to your product/services by spreading word of mouth.

Am I right?

You can do that all in just five simple steps?

In this article, I have shared a complete step-by-step guide for action-takers who want to see good results by taking small efforts in the right direction.

Are you an action-taker?

Please go and read this post and get to know how to build a targeted email list and monetize it to create a substantial income stream.

How to Build a Targeted Email Marketing List

If you want to build a list for email marketing that converts, you should know how it works, which tools and services you should consider buying, how to create opt-in forms to capture leads and how to automate the entire process to save yourself from manually checking your admin dashboard every time.

Although many people claim that building a targeted email list is easy, it isn’t.

For beginners, the learning phase is an integral part of their email marketing business.

So, here I will share a step-by-step tutorial to get a ton of visitors through email marketing who trust you and buy your recommended products or services.

The entire process is divided into five steps for a better understanding of the email marketing process.

Step 1: Get to Know about Email Marketing Basics

Almost everyone has used Gmail/Yahoo/Rediffmail at least once in their life to send and receive an email.

It’s similar to sending an SMS from your phone using the internet.

But email marketing has evolved tremendously, and you can see different advanced technologies and techniques that are being used nowadays.

Right from picking a reliable and affordable email marketing service to advanced automation and segmentation needs an in-depth study of various factors.

For Example,

If you are a nutrition consultant and have a blog related to health and nutrition, you can develop a targeted email list.

But first of all, you need to pick an excellent opt-in form and an email marketing service and integrate it with your website.

Plus, you need to set up various targeting options to create different lists/segments according to the visitors’ behavior.

The next part is automation for lead nurturing and improving engagement.

Here, you’ll need to know how to write email subject, copy, and overall optimization, including different tags and workflow.

Lastly, when people impress with your emails and decide to return to your website or purchase from you/your affiliate link, how you make them comfortable and easy to navigate is also an essential thing in your campaign.

Finally, analyzing the campaign and measure ROI make this process complete.

However, you should not stop there.

Email marketing is a continuous process.

If you are offering value to your customers, it will definitely bring you a long-term and stable business even you have a small targeted list compare to the large mass-mailing database primarily used for email blasts/spams.

I know it’s not easy to digest for the very first time.

So, you can get a completely free email marketing course to learn the basics of email marketing.

Or, you can go with Advanced Email Marketing Course build for intermediates and pro-level marketers to improve their metrics and ROI.

Step 2: Pick a Reliable Email Marketing Service

You’ll need a good email marketing solution to build your list faster.

Currently, hundreds of major companies provide email marketing and automation services.

MailChimp, GetResponse, AWeber, and ConvertKit are a few of them.

You can pick any email marketing service based on your requirements and budget.

Today, almost every company offers a free trial for its services, and you can test a few of them to know the best fit.

MailChimp, Mad Mimi, SendinBlue, and MailerLite are excellent options to start for free.

Otherwise, you can choose any premium email service to get advanced features like automation, workflows, segmentation, and personalization.

If you need advanced email marketing features, I would recommend buying ConvertKit.

It is easy to use and affordable than many other email marketing services.

Below I have listed a few more email marketing software solutions.

Free Email Marketing Services

1. MailChimp

It’s hard to believe that you haven’t heard of MailChimp if you are a blogger or email marketer.

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing services in the world.

It offers you a free platform to save your email contacts and send emails to up to 2000 subscribers and 12000 emails per month.

It also offers API support to automate your list building.

However, you must upgrade to one of its premium plans for advanced automation and remove sending limits.

2. MadMimi

When I started blogging six years back, MadMimi is the first email marketing service I tried.

It’s a super user-friendly and reliable email marketing solution with some useful features.

However, it allows saving only 100 contacts for free. After the limit is reached, you need to upgrade to premium plans.

3. SendinBlue

SendinBlue is another good company offering a free platform for email marketers.

You can save up unlimited email subscribers and send up to 9000 emails per month with their free plan.

Now, two other companies offer free email solutions with automation.

Really?

Yes, MailerLite And AWeber are two well-known email services that currently offer a free plan with automation features.

4. MailerLite

The first best thing about MailerLite is that you can unlimited emails per month to 1000 subscribers, and you won’t be charged a single dime.

It’s insanely easy to integrate and offers an advanced autoresponder with its free plan, so you can save yourself from getting trapped in some expensive service with their free trial bait.

MailerLite’s advanced automation and segmentation help build a targeted email list quickly. If you start getting a ton of subscribers, the upgrades are also really affordable than competitive services in the market.

I use it and don’t see any problem recommending it. However, you can choose any that suits your business needs.

Premium Email Marketing Services

1. GetResponse

It’s an outstanding and VFM service to every dollar you spend.

GetResponse offers different plans according to the clients’ needs starting from $15/1K subscribers to $165/50K subscribers.

You can also request custom pricing for enterprise-level plans.

I love GetResponse because the features they provide at the price point are often not available in other services.

These features include a time-based autoresponder (visual and easy to use), Landing pages, webinar hosting, etc.

Plus, it offers a free course to build a targeted email list in just three months.

It’s worth trying, and I would definitely recommend GetResponse to all bloggers and email marketers who need an easy-to-use and affordable email list-building service.

2. ConvertKit

Once you get familiar with email marketing basics and want a more sophisticated alternative to GetResponse, you can opt for ConvertKit.

ConvertKit is a reliable email marketing software for bloggers and content creators.

It is designed for bloggers and web marketers selling online courses and digital products and includes some advanced features.

It may be a little expensive when you’re starting, but you can choose any plan depending on your requirements.

It’s a perfect solution for targeted list building where you want to sell your products or promote affiliate products.

However, it is not ideal for promoting simple campaigns like weekly newsletters or blog post updates.

My Recommendation

You should choose an email service best-suited for your needs, and if you haven’t picked one, it’s time to roll on.

Go with MailChimp to learn the basics or try MailerLite’s free plan.

Both options are fantastic for those who are beginners in email marketing.

In case you want to create a targeted list in a short time, please try GetResponse once.

Seasoned email marketers who want to achieve significant improvement in their ROI can choose ConvertKit.

Step 3: Get Targeted Email Subscribers

In 2019, I received more than 5000 email signups on one of my free membership sites. Most of them showed interest in my premium membership plans too.

Yes, it all happened in auto mode.

Suppose I would have charged only $2 per month to each member; I could easily earn approx. $10K per month.

It’s simple math.

However, I know CVR would affect my earnings, but even I get a 10% conversion from that targeted list, $1K per month of passive income isn’t so bad.

Plus, these results are just organic without investing a single dollar in paid ads.

Let me pause my story here.

Think about how you can build a targeted email list that gives you at least $500 per month in passive income.

Getting targeted email subscribers is more important than building a mass mailing list that converts very little.

You need to capture the email addresses of those people who want to buy from you or are interested in your offers.

The email marketing service mentioned in step 2 gives you the forms to collect lead information and sync it with your list.

You can put these forms on your homepage, blog page, or specially created landing page to get the email addresses of interested people.

If you are using WordPress, then it’s easier than ever before.

You can use any good lead generation plugin and integrate it with an email marketing service.

Test with different types and locations for your opt-in forms and do an A/B split test to check what version works the best for you.

If you need a lead generation plugin that integrates with your email service and works perfectly for any niche site, Thrive Leads is the best option available.

It offers various unique features and helps to create beautiful yet conversion-focused opt-in forms, including scroll mat, lightbox popups, info bars/notification bars, inline and sidebar widgets and SmartLinks, etc.

It also offers different triggers, including exit intent, behavioral personalization, page scroll, and inactivity trigger.

Plus, you can ask people to opt-in for the content upgrade or receive valuable information through the email channel.

On the other hand, Thrive Leads lets you create a conversion-focused landing page where you can ask your potential customer to put their contact information by offering any value prop or goodies.

Usually, people stumble upon your webpage and never come back.

It does not mean they have disliked your content. However, there might be a chance that they have forgotten you.

So always ask people to join your list by offering some freebies like a crash course, content upgrade, cheatsheet, checklist, ebook, or video series.

You can use Thrive Leads to build an email list and send emails to your subscribers to drive traffic and conversions on-demand.

Thrive Leads have a few good alternatives, including OptinMonster and ConvertPlus, but Thrive Lead remains my #1 recommended lead generation tool for any self-hosted WordPress site.

Step 4: Engage with Your Subscribers (Lead Nurturing)

Usually, when a visitor subscribes or enters their contact information in the opt-in form and clicks submit option, they get added to your email list.

Now, your work starts.

If you have promised to give some freebie, you must instruct people on confirming their subscription and getting their gift.

Remember, the person is on your list, and you can send him an email at any time, but that doesn’t work unless you are nurturing them.

It would be best if you offered some value before pitching him a sales offer.

Because the key to the effectiveness of email marketing is trust and, you can build it from the engagement.

When I started blogging, I got 15 email subscribers in an initial month, using MailMunch and MailChimp.

However, I was not serious about email marketing then, so I sent them a random mail once a month.

What happened?

Only a few of them were knowing me because they are my close friends. But the rest 8-10 people might have forgotten me and my blog.

Similarly, if people don’t receive your emails for a while, they may forget they subscribed.

That’s the reason you should engage your subscribers regularly to keep them updated and connected.

There is another scenario where people sign up for your list to download the freebie and unsubscribe.

In such cases, you must thank yourself because it’s better not to have them on your list. Such people may pollute your campaign’s performance.

In most cases, these people are either spammed by so-called internet marketers, or some of them may be non-action-takers who sign up for your list for the sake of freebies.

However, it’s an opportunity for you to convert them by telling them how valuable your blog/content is.

Here’s a simple process you can follow to build your targeted list.

First, you need all things in place to attract the visitor to become your lead. Then, give him a reason to be a part of your list by offering a special gift.

Sometimes, you should ask people to click on your CTAs.

As soon as the visitor fills your form and click on the submit button, direct him to a thank you page.

You can say it a common in the industry, what’s a special hack.

Am I right?

Many bloggers instruct new subscribers to visit their email inbox and confirm their subscription. It’s necessary to drive that lead to double opt-in before getting the goodies you have offered to avoid fraudulent activities.

At the same time, you can propose him an irresistible offer because that particular person is most likely to be targeted and have strong buying intent.

If that is not possible, bring him back to your blog or any other page to keep him engaged for the maximum duration before leaving your site.

It’s a part of a strategy and proper execution of your plan to drive that healthy sequence.

The next part is a welcome email.

You need to send a solid value-packed email without any sales offer. It shows that you are not a salesman but a person who cares about him.

In welcome email should contain a friendly greeting followed by the freebie you have promised.

Besides that, recall them why they have received that email and the benefits of being on your mailing list. i.e., the daily/weekly newsletter, your high-performing posts & curated contents across the web, freebies for active subscribers, etc.

Now, you can have a proper email nurturing sequence to provide value and sales offers alternatively.

Email Nurturing Sequence
Email Nurturing Sequence

Email automation services like GetResponse’s time-based autoresponders are beneficial to save your time and effort in manual activities.

Almost every marketer would agree with that.

However, this step requires A/B testing and in-depth analysis of different metrics like delivery rate, open rate, CTR, and CVR to see good ROI from your email campaign and automation.

Remember, you should offer 3X value for every sales offering. It’ll help you to gain trust and thus more revenue.

The last thing,

Keep your list active and engaged.

— Because I found that more than 10% of people out of my list of 15K haven’t engaged more than three times in the entire year.

That’s why try to use proper segmentation and don’t mind removing the inactive people from your list who haven’t responded to you for the last three months.

It’s a necessary step because your email list is one of the most valuable assets for your online business.

Even your site goes offline for a while; you can quickly retrieve it back using the mailing list: a loyal community you build.

Step 5: Monetize Your Email List

Building a targeted list is not sufficient to earn money.

You need proper strategies for monetization where you are selling your fitness products or doing affiliate promotions for Amazon or ClickBank.

It’s just an example; you have a hundred ways to monetize your list.

You are the first person they want to buy from because you have gained their trust and continuously providing them value.

Most of your email marketing revenue comes from selling your product or service.

Therefore, decide how you are going to monetize your list before you build one.

If you are a business or an e-commerce company, you will have a proper goal.

But for bloggers, affiliate marketers, it’s necessary to find the products or services that convert well.

Depending on the audience demographics, you can either choose the high volume or high-ticket sales to earn maximum revenue in return.

Summary

This article covered everything you need to build a targeted email list and grow it to drive more traffic to your blog/website and make more revenue.

You have heard thousands of times that the money is on the list.

Now, it’s your time to take action.

Get proper tools, build a high converting funnel using an email autoresponder to make a massive list of the targeted email subscribers.

Drive them to your blog, improve your metrics, and start earning more money from your efforts.

I’m sure that you’ve enjoyed the post. So, spare a couple of minutes to share it with your peers on some of your favorite social accounts.

More Resources

4 thoughts on “5 Steps to Build a Targeted Email Marketing List”

  1. Hey, I am for the second time here. I found this post on Pinterest board and it’s really useful. I have generated 233 subscribers in 13 days using the techniques mentioned in this article.
    I hope to give something back to the community and help others as you helped me.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Don`t copy text!