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Top 6 Ways to Build a High-Converting Email List for Your E-Commerce Business
Data-driven email marketing strategy? Check. Gorgeous, mobile-friendly design? Check. Irresistible content? Check.
Ready to hit “Send”?
Not until you have a killer email list! And not just any list of email addresses will do. Beating the average e-commerce email marketing conversion rate of around 2–5% is where the money’s at. (An impressive $42 for every $1 you spend, to be exact.)
Roll up your sleeves, it’s time to get to work.
Getting Started on Your Email List
You can’t improve your email conversion rates if you don’t have anyone to send emails to. Here are the basics of building a list for your business.
- Define Your Goals: Identify what you want to achieve with your email list, be it increased sales, improved customer loyalty, or something else entirely.
- Create a Value Proposition: Clearly communicate what value subscribers will receive, whether it's exclusive discounts, first access to sales, or insightful content.
- Sell the Value in Your Purchase Flow: The easiest email addresses to get are the ones you already have — people who purchase from your site (or app). Make sure you deliver your value prop to purchasers to encourage them to opt in.
- Comply with Regulations: Your email collection practices must adhere to regulations such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM to build trust with your audience.
Now that you have a solid foundation, let’s look at six important strategies for making sure your list converts at the highest possible rate.
1. Understand Your Audience and Their Needs
To create an email list that truly converts, understanding your audience is crucial. After all, if you’re offering something your audience doesn’t want or care about, your chances of converting them are pretty low. So how do you understand your audience? By analyzing their behavior, of course!
Example: Quince uses customer purchase data to segment their audience, enabling them to send personalized style recommendations. This tailored approach improves engagement and encourages more purchases from their email campaigns. The email below was sent to subscribers who previously purchased related products and are more likely to want what they’re promoting.
2. Craft Compelling Offers and Lead Magnets
Effective lead magnets are critical for acquiring subscribers. They should be directly relevant to your audience’s needs, and most brands don’t have to get too creative to figure it out. Who doesn’t want a good discount code? And once they’ve got the code, how are they going to resist converting on the confirmation email?
Example: Allbirds, a footwear brand, uses thoughtfully designed pop-ups to offer visitors a deal in exchange for an email address.
3. Make It Fun, Personal, and Interactive
Interactive strategies such as quizzes, games, and personalized shopping experiences engage users in exciting ways, organically boosting subscriber lists. And, because you’re giving customers what they want — whether that’s a prize, a product recommendation, or something else of value — they’re more likely to become high-converting additions to your list.
Example: Massage Chair Store integrates a fun “spin to win” pop-up to collect user contact information, including email addresses.
Example: Nordstrom offers a style quiz to get personalized style recommendations. They send their recs to your email inbox, where you’re more likely to convert because, after all, they know your style.
Example: If you can’t make it into a Lululemon branch store, you can shop online with a virtual shopping product expert. Triple bonus! They sell more online, they learn about you and your preferences, and they add you to their email list.
4. Use Referral Programs
Referral programs can be powerful motivators for new sign-ups. People trust recommendations from existing customers — which means these new subscribers are more likely to click on your emails and give your products a try.
Example: Fatty15, a nutritional supplement brand, offers a referral program that collects email addresses from people doing the referring and offers 20% off to new referrals.
Example: ASOS has a similar referral program, with rewards for people on both ends.
5. Optimize Touchpoints for Subscription
Enhancing every opportunity for capturing emails can boost subscription rates across your website. And don’t just use the standard “Subscribe to our newsletter” sign-up form. Give new subscribers a reason to convert!
Example: Farm Rio uses a classic exit-intent overlay to offer a discount in exchange for your email address. And unlike a lot of e-commerce brands that do the same thing, they also have an announcement bar at the top of their homepage and a prominent sign-up call-to-action above the footer, in case you close the overlay and decide you’d like that deal, after all.
6. Monitor and Improve Conversion Rates
Continuously optimizing your email strategy through data-driven methods can dramatically enhance conversion rates.
Example: A higher education digital marketing agency uses exit overlays with premium content offers to build their email marketing list. In addition to the basics of running A/B tests on a variety of factors like subject lines and send times, they periodically weed out subscribers with low engagement rates to keep their conversion rates high and maximize their return on investment (ROI).
Keep It Going!
Remember, the customer experience doesn't end with a transaction — it starts there. Use your email strategy to extend customer journeys beyond the initial purchase. Treat your email touchpoints as opportunities to educate your audience, present your brand ethos, and evoke emotion. Brands that succeed in email marketing do so because they treat their subscribers as members of a community, offering them continuous value, building trust, and inspiring loyalty.
As you grow your email list, also invest in strategies that gather feedback and learn from subscriber behavior. Adapting to your audience’s changing needs and preferences ensures your communications remain relevant and engaging.
Finally, your commitment to maintaining an ethical and respectful email protocol — by obtaining clear consent and respecting privacy — will foster a community of subscribers who are not only receptive to your messages but also advocate for your brand.
By shifting your perspective from merely collecting emails to genuinely connecting with subscribers, your e-commerce email campaigns will not only convert once, but inspire the loyalty, word-of-mouth, and social media mentions that dreams are made of.
Author
Max DesMarais, Director of Strategy
Max runs the digital marketing strategy and paid advertising departments at Vital Design, managing online marketing activity and processes for a wide variety of clients — including Vital’s own marketing department. He has a nearly 10-year track record of success growing organic traffic through SEO, driving high-quality traffic and leads through paid digital advertising (PPC), and leading content marketing initiatives with consistent, demonstrable return on investment (ROI) for dozens of clients.
