21 ways to Grow Your Email List
Introduction
Do you want to build an email list of active, engaged subscribers who are interested in what you have to say and want to buy from you?
It’s not as easy as you might think. In 2025, we are bombarded with advertising and marketing messages. People are savvy and often reluctant to give out their email addresses unless they can see a tangible benefit and understand what they will gain from it.
In 2025, email marketing and list building are key because:
- The impact of AI means people want and need to see more personalised content. Email is a cost-effective way of doing this.
- Your potential customers want to get to know the people behind the brand and understand your business.
- You’re not subject to social media algorithms. This year alone, we’ve seen a severe decline in reach on LinkedIn, the (almost) disappearance of Twitter (X), A Tik Tok blackout and concerns about the shady morals of Meta.
- It’s still the most cost-effective form of digital marketing.
- You can actually see who is interested and engaging with your campaigns and particular posts – perfect for sales outreach.
Read on for 21 ways you can build your email list.
Getting Started
Add forms to your website to encourage sign ups.
If you don’t tell people they can sign up to receive marketing emails from you, they won’t know. Forms can be embedded into your website content and spread throughout the website, serving as a call to action to encourage people to sign up to receive news, offers and updates from you. You can also create a pop up form that shows up at certain intervals on your website.
Pop up forms can feel a bit intrusive, but if they are done well, they do work! Just make sure you get the timing and the positioning right for the pop ups, so it doesn’t disrupt the user experience too much. It’s worth testing both.
Once you’ve done this, you can use the link to the form to drive sign ups elsewhere.
Utilise the resources section on your website.
If you regularly write blogs or upload videos, there are a number of ways you can use this to grow your email list. The simplest is to include a call to action within that post to encourage people to sign up so they will be the first to receive that type of content.
Secondly, you can share a preview of that blog or video (the highlights). But hide the rest so it’s only available to people who opt into your email marketing. Clever, heh?
If you have an FAQ page, a sign up to email marketing button on that page will work well. As you are reaching people at a time they are actively looking for information about your products and services.. Doing this will capture them at a time they want to find out more.
Set up an RSS Feed.
Setting up an RSS feed from your email marketing software to your website will allow you to share an email’s content directly on your website. This may sound counterintuitive (after all, it’s for your email subscribers).
But if the content is valuable, they will want to see more. Sharing regular, valuable content on your website will also help you improve your search ranking.
Add a signup link to your email signature and any external or printed comms.
It might sound obvious, but it often gets overlooked: A simple footer and clickable link at the bottom of your company emails and any printed literature will encourage signups and clicks through to your website.
Make it easy for people to sign up from your social media profiles.
If you are using social media for your business, you can add the link from your form or landing page to your social media profiles to encourage people to sign up when they view your profile. Most social media platforms will have the option to do this in the profile section.
You can also strengthen the sign up option, by creating a post about your emails (sharing what people can expect from you) and adding this to the featured or pinned section at the top of your feed.
Repurpose your email content for social media.
If you are regularly sharing content on social media or other platforms. You can repurpose the content from your emails to appear on social media. You can do this in the form of videos, carousel posts or a simple teaser. People want to know what they will be getting, so do share, and remember to include a call to action so they can quickly and easily sign up.
Create a quick and easy to share QR code.
So many free online tools allow you to generate a QR code that links to a certain website or page. You can create these online and use them in a multitude of ways.
Including: Adding them to the slides at a presentation or talk you are running, adding the QR code to Zoom or another video platform, using them in printed materials so people don’t have to faff about with links and sharing them with interested parties at events.
Networking
The people you speak to at networking events and strike a good rapport with may well be interested in hearing from you via email – so they can get to know a bit more about you. You can include the links to sign up for any follow-up you do with them.
Just don’t assume or add them automatically – that can lead to low reach and engagement.
Collaboration
Guest Blogs, Video and Podcast Appearances
Collaboration is key to creating a list of engaged subscribers and finding new ones. Writing a blog for someone else’s website and appearing on their video and podcast will get your content in front of some new people, and you can include a call to action to encourage them to sign up to receive email communications from you.
Joint Giveaways
Some businesses and websites run short term campaigns to promote your products and services and help you build your email list. They may have a portal you can upload your information and links to. Alternatively, they may give you exposure for offering their audience something of value in return for this.
Lead Magnets
Put simply, a lead magnet is a free piece of valuable content that people receive from you in exchange for their email addresses.
You can run multiple lead magnets at a time to attract different customers at different stages of the buying journey. They can also be useful for upselling to existing customers or contacts.
There are several different types of lead magnets, and they will help you to build your email list, but make sure you understand what people want from you and what happens after they take that valuable step to give you their information. Here are some different types of lead magnets:
Giveaways and Discounts
If you are going to offer a discount, you will need to have a product or service with a fixed price attached to it. These are more commonly used in retail, but they do work well for conferences, events and training – particularly if it is a limited time offer.
You can also use a limited-time offer as a teaser to drive people to sign up to receive email communications from you—exclusivity works really well.
Giveaways work well for most businesses and are a good way to showcase your expertise and start a conversation. A giveaway could be a product you sell, or if you are a service-based business like me, you might want to consider creating a prize draw to give away something that your audience values.
Surveys and Interviews
Surveys are brilliant short term list builders (provided they aren’t too long). Most people are happy to share their thoughts and opinions in return for something.
A well-thought-out survey or even 2 or 3 questions can help you grow your email database. It will also give you good customer intelligence, which you can use to inform your marketing content and refine your products and services.
Quizzes
I love a good quiz, and they can be an informative and fun way to grow your audience. There are a lot of good online tools you can use to create your own quiz. If you are a wedding planner, you can use it to help people identify their wedding style. A coach could use one to help people understand their coaching style and if you work in finance, you could create one around people’s spending habits.
Like surveys, these also work well for gleaning intel for follow up content and sales outreach. So, make sure you think about that in advance of putting the quiz live.
Webinars, Training and Events.
Face to face interaction is one of the most helpful ways to get people to understand how you work and what is different about you. Free or bite sized webinars and training can give people a very clear idea of who you are and how you work and offer real value. In return, this will help you drive sign ups for marketing and build a more engaged audience. Events can also work well but may require more planning.
White Papers and Downloadable PDFs
These are the classic lead magnet, and lots of brands still utilise them well, particularly within the B2B sector. Downloadable PDFs can be as simple as a checklist or a handy guide. White papers tend to be longer and require more involvement from those who download them so they tend to work better for a more niche audience who will make a larger investment.
If you are planning on creating something like this, it needs to look professional, be easy to read and download and have a well thought out follow up via email and outreach.
Paid Advertising
Running paid ad campaigns to drive email sign-ups, can be a good way of building your email list. Particularly, if you have a compelling offer and the correct audience to market to. This can work well for free or low cost products and services. Getting a new audience on to your email list and then creating ways to convert them.
Make your content count and ask people to share your emails with people who will find it valuable.
If your emails add value and are of good quality, people will be more inclined to read them, stay engaged, and discuss them with a friend. Word of mouth goes a long way.
You can add a forward to a friend link or button so people can easily forward them to interested people. Make sure you add a clear call to action to that forwarded email, though, to encourage people to sign up.
Things to be aware of…
Segmenting your audience
There is no point in creating or having an email list unless you have thought about the actions you need people to take and understand what they are interested in from the outset. Segmentation can be as complicated or as simple as you like. If you are just getting started, it’s better to start with the basics and ensure you know what people signed up for and when. Over time, you’ll understand more about their behaviour and can segment, implement and market to them accordingly.
Nurture Sequences and Follow Ups
If you are going to spend time creating a form, setting up an email database, and offering something of value, you really need things to work for you.
You’ll need to create a nurture sequence to onboard people so they can learn more about you and your business once they sign up. If it’s an event or training that is happening in the future, you’ll also think about what they will want to see after the event and how you will capitalise on the pre-promotion to help your audience convert.
Testing and Measuring
You probably won’t succeed overnight, so do keep an eye on your data and analytics so you can tweak and change things accordingly.
If you would like to read more about making email marketing work for your business, click here.
Alternatively, if you are ready to get started with your email marketing strategy you can send me an email: melanie@thesussexsocial.co.uk