A Step-by-Step Plan to Grow Your Email List When You're Starting from Zero

Email lists are often one of the most underutilized assets by Ag businesses. I frequently speak to Ag Business owners and the majority have an email list they don’t use or have never started an email list.

Now, why is an email list so important? Not only is it a direct way to contact your audience it also is a security net. If for some reason a social media platform shuts down, blocks your account, or even disables your ad account you still have a way to get in touch with your audience when you have their email address.

The way I like to look at it is social media is a rented space, we don’t own our followers and at any time we can lose access to our accounts. But an email list is something we own. An email list goes with you no matter what email provider you choose to use.

Now I’m not saying social media is not necessary, it is. However, many people just grow a social media following and stop there. When the goal should be to get those social media followers to subscribe to your list so you can stay in touch with them.

So how do we grow an email list from ground zero? Here is a step-by-step guide to grow your email list from zero…

Step 1: Choose an Email Marketing Provider

When choosing an email provider there are a couple of key factors to consider.

Price, also do they have a free trial or free plan.

Automation/Segmentation. You know your business best, how much automation and segmentation are you going to use? Choose a provider that offers those features.

Design Features. Are you an e-commerce business needing to do heavily designed emails? Or are you more info based and planning to send more text-based emails? Choose a provider that has the design features you need.

There are several well know providers. My favorite is Active Campaign, MailChimp is another good alternative option.

Step 2: Add Contacts

Now that you have a provider it’s time to upload any existing contacts you currently have. You will want to upload these in a CSV file or individually depending on how many you have. A great source for this is anyone who has purchased from you or contacts you’ve collected from people reaching out to you via your website or social media that have give you permission to email them.

Step 3: Website Integration

Now it’s time to integrate your email marketing provider with your website. Each site is different but usually, it will be under your website marketing settings. A great way to find out is to do a Google search for “[INSERT Your Website] [INSERT Your Email Provider] Integration”.

Once you have this set up you can move on to the next step!

Step 4: Sign Up Form

Now that you have your email marketing provider and your website integrated you can set up an email sign up form on your website. If you are a product-based business setting up a simple “10% off your first order” popup is a great way to get email subscribers.

For service-based businesses, offer customers the opportunity to sign up to stay in the loop with the latest from your business. This is often well placed as a popup or in the footer of your site.

Step 5: Welcome Email Sequence

Now that you have the signup form set up, it’s time to get your welcome sequence set up. When creating your welcome sequence make sure the first email contains a welcome message and if you promised a discount or freebie that it is included in this email.

Set this email to be triggered to send whenever anyone subscribes to your email list. That way it will send to each new subscriber.

Once you have the first welcome email created, create 3-4 more that send one day apart. These next emails are a great place to provide information about your company, tell your story, give more info about your products/services, share a customer testimonial, and then end with a strong call to action that invites them to purchase from you.

Step 6: Email Template

Now that you have your welcome email sequence set up, it’s time to create your email template. This is a great way to speed up the process of sending emails by having a ready to go template you can use.

Make sure when creating the email template you add your logo at the top, all your information and footer information, brand colors, and the sections you’d like to use to layout each email.

This is a great way to save time and have a consistent and professional look to your emails.

Step 7: Email Frequency

The next step is to choose how often you want to email your list. Whether it’s once a day, once a week, or even once a month. It’s important to choose a frequency you can commit to, and that your subscribers can become accustomed to.

Step 8: Send Your First Email

Once you’ve gathered some subscribers it’s time to send your first email! There are a couple things you want to make sure you do before you hit send the first time…

1. Send yourself a test email, and test every single link to make sure it works!

2. Write an attention-grabbing subject line (avoid too many emojis or exclamation marks).

3. Provide a way for subscribers to unsubscribe at the bottom of your email.

4. View your test email on both desktop and mobile to make sure all the images show up ok.

5. Choose an optimal sending time. (Across most industries midweek 10 am or 2 pm can be good times to send).

Now you’re ready to send!

Step 9: Review Reports

Once you’ve sent your first email it’s time to review the reports. Look at your open rate, your click-through rate, and if it was a sales email your conversion rate.

These numbers are a good baseline to work to improve from.

Step 10: Get People to Subscribe

The final step is getting more email subscribers. There are 3 ways I like to encourage social followers to join my email list.

- Promote Gated Content.

Do you have a free download? Mini training? Free trial? Product samples?

These are all great forms of gated content. Ask someone to fill out a form with their name and email address in exchange for one fo these free items I listed above. Then deliver the free resource or confirmation of the free resource via email.

- Giveaway

Host a giveaway and allow people to enter through signing up by subscribing to your email list. This is a great way to grow your list and increase your engagement on social media at the same time!

- Signup Form

The last way is to include a subscription form on your Facebook page, in your link in bio, etc. This way anyone who comes across your brand on social media that wants to stay connected with your business has a place to subscribe.

So there you have it the 10 steps to getting started with email marketing for Ag Business!

If you are looking for support with your email marketing schedule a complimentary discovery call with me!