Why Every UK Small Business & Charity Needs an Email List (And How to Build One!)

In today's digital age, email marketing remains a powerful tool for businesses and charities of all sizes. Building a strong email list is more crucial than ever. This blog post will explore the multitude of benefits that email marketing can bring to your organisation and provide you with nine practical strategies to build an email list that will help bring you closer to your goals.

Benefits of email marketing for small businesses and charities

Before diving into the "how," let's understand the "why." Here's why email marketing should be a cornerstone of your digital strategy:

Targeted communication

Email marketing allows you to speak directly to specific segments of your audience based on their interests, demographics, or past interactions. By ensuring your content is relevant, you're able to build stronger connections.

Increased brand awareness

Keep your organisation top-of-mind by delivering valuable content, sharing updates, and promoting upcoming events or campaigns. Every time an email lands in someone's inbox, you're in front of them even of they don't open it. And if they do, you expose them to your brand in a more meaningful way.

Cost-effectiveness

Compared to other marketing methods, email marketing offers an incredibly affordable way to reach your audience.

Improved conversion rate

By nurturing leads through the sales funnel or donation process with targeted email campaigns that guide them towards conversion, you can drive more action.

Measurable results

Track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven adjustments.  

Build relationships

Regular communication helps you establish trust and build long-term relationships with your audience. You can also make it two-way by inviting your audience to ask questions or even answer yours.

Drive traffic

Use email to drive traffic to your website, blog, or landing pages, increasing visibility and engagement. This also allows you to build a better picture of their interests, allowing you to improve your segmentation over time.

Beat the algorithm and reduce ad spend

Social media and search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so what works today won't necessarily work tomorrow. And if your only channel to attract potential clients and donors is paid ads, you're going to have to commit budget to it long term. Build an email list, on the other hand, and apart from the cost of your time and an email marketing software platform, keeping in touch with your audiences costs a lot less.

9 Effective Strategies to Build Your Email List

Now that you understand the compelling benefits, let's explore nine practical strategies to build your email list:

1. Create compelling opt-in offers

2. Optimise your website for email sign ups

3. Leverage organic social media

4. Run Facebook and Instagram ads

5. Collaborate with other businesses and charities

6. Utilise offline opportunities

7. Offer content upgrades

8. Run surveys and quizzes

9. Make it mobile friendly

1. Create compelling opt-in offers

Don't just ask people to "join your email list." Offer something valuable in exchange for their email address. This could be:

• Free downloads: Ebooks, guides, checklists, reports, or templates

• Exclusive discounts: Offer special promotions or coupons to subscribers.

• Contests and giveaways: Run contests with enticing prizes to incentivize sign-ups.

• Early access: Provide subscribers with early access to new products, services, or content.

• Free webinars or workshops: Host online events that provide valuable information or training.

2. Optimise your website for email sign ups

Make it easy for visitors to join your email list by strategically placing sign-up forms throughout your website:

• Pop-up forms: Use pop-up forms that appear when visitors arrive on your site or when they're about to leave ⚠️ Not recommended on mobile devices

• Embedded forms: Include sign-up forms in your website's sidebar, footer, or within blog posts.

• Landing pages: Create dedicated landing pages specifically designed to capture email addresses.

3. Leverage organic social media

Promote your email list and opt-in offers across your social media channels:

• Run contests: Encourage followers to sign up for your email list to enter contests.

• Add a sign-up button: Include a call-to-action button on your Facebook page that links to your sign-up form.

• Promote lead magnets: Share visually appealing graphics and links to your opt-in offers on Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms.

4. Run Facebook and Instagram Ads

Utilise targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram to reach a wider audience and drive sign-ups.

• Create compelling ad copy: Highlight the benefits of joining your email list and the value of your opt-in offer.

• Target your ideal audience: Use Facebook's detailed targeting options to reach people who are most likely to be interested in your organisation.

• A/B test your ads: Experiment with different ad creatives and targeting options to optimise your campaigns.

5. Collaborate with other businesses and charities

Partner with complementary businesses or charities to cross-promote your email lists and reach a new audience.

• Guest blogging: Write guest blog posts for other websites and include a call-to-action to join your email list.

• Joint webinars: Co-host webinars with other organisations and promote your email lists to attendees.

• Newsletter swaps: Promote each other's newsletters to your respective audiences.

6. Utilise offline opportunities

Don't overlook offline opportunities to promote your email list:

• Include sign-up forms at events: If you attend or host events, provide attendees with the opportunity to sign up for your email list.

• Add a QR code to printed materials: Include a QR code that links to your sign-up form on brochures, flyers, and business cards.

• Collect email addresses at your physical location: If you have a brick-and-mortar store or office, provide a way for visitors to sign up in person 💡Offer a free wifi connection to visitors in exchange for their email contact details

7. Offer content upgrades

Provide exclusive bonus content to readers who sign up for your email list. This could be:

• Checklists or worksheets: Offer downloadable resources that complement your blog posts.

• Extended versions of articles: Provide subscribers with access to longer or more detailed versions of your content.

• Case studies or examples: Share exclusive case studies or real-world examples with your email subscribers.

8. Run surveys and quizzes

Engage your audience and collect valuable data by creating interactive surveys or quizzes.

• Offer personalized results: Provide participants with customised feedback based on their answers.

• Require an email address to view results: Collect email addresses in exchange for access to the quiz results.

9. Make it mobile-friendly

Ensure that your website and sign-up forms are optimised for mobile devices.

• Responsive design: Use a responsive website design that adapts to different screen sizes.

• Mobile-friendly forms: Make sure your sign-up forms are easy to fill out on mobile devices.

Email marketing best practices for UK businesses and charities

• Comply with GDPR Ensure you comply with the UK's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when collecting and using email addresses. Obtain explicit consent, provide clear privacy policies, and offer easy opt-out options.

• Segment your audience Divide your email list into segments based on interests, demographics, or engagement levels. This allows you to send more targeted and relevant emails.

• Provide valuable content Deliver high-quality content that your audience will find informative, engaging, and useful.

• Test and optimise Regularly test different elements of your email campaigns, such as subject lines, content, and calls-to-action, to optimise performance.  

• Monitor your results Track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.

• Don't share your newsletter on social media Lot's of businesses and charities publish a link to their email newsletters on their social channels, but it's a mistake - if they access the same content freely from your organic social media posts, what's the incentive for people to hand over their contact details to join your list? Exactly, there isn't one, so don't do it!