It’s no secret that email is a big part of our lives. The projected number of email users in 2026 is estimated at 4.73 billion. With 99% of email users checking their inbox daily, it’s no surprise that email marketing is so popular.

This guest blog post was written by Jessica Heines.

I was surprised by these stats too. But I bet you have an inbox of emails from businesses you love (and a few you don’t!)

At some point, I bet you’ve even purchased from one of those emails. About 60% of us have, which shows that email marketing works. That’s because your subscribers WANT to hear from you and you can build a connection with them.

But how do you get those people who want to hear from you onto your email list? 

There are a whole lot of ways, but hey, I’m a website designer. I’ll dive into my zone of excellence to share ways you can grow your email list through your website.

The Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing studies show that for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can expect about $40 return on investment. That’s a better ROI than most other types of marketing, so it’s no surprise that email marketing is so popular. 

Let’s look at some of the other benefits of email marketing since some aren’t so obvious:

• It helps you stay in touch with your audience long after they’ve left your website or social media profiles
• You can educate your subscribers over time so they understand all the ways you can help them
• You can showcase your expertise by educating your subscribers and sharing student wins
• You build trust with your audience by showing up consistently and sharing value with them
• It keeps you on top of your mind when your subscriber is ready to work with a language teacher

It can take anywhere up to 50 touchpoints for a subscriber to become your client. Showing up regularly in someone’s inbox helps you work towards that.

5 Easy Website Updates to Grow Your Email List

Think about why someone would join your email list

With crowded inboxes and more awareness of privacy issues, we don’t hand out our email addresses as easily anymore. This means we need to give our visitors a reason to sign up to our email list.

There are plenty of ways you can share value with a potential subscriber. You could give a discount, special bonus or subscriber-only offers. Or you could use a lead magnet, which is something valuable you give to subscribers for free.

Some examples of freebies you could use include:

• Free guides such as a checklist, template, or workbook that give a quick win related to what you teach.
• A quiz that helps your subscriber understand something better, such as their learning style. This can also be great for giving you marketing insights about your audience!
• A webinar or video series on your area of expertise.
• A resource list or library of tools that will benefit potential students.
• An email mini-course that gives a win over a short period.

The ideas are endless!

A note on Lead Magnets…

When creating your lead magnet, it should be relevant to what you do and lead subscribers to work with you. An example could be that it covers the first step of working with you.

If you have multiple ideas, you can create them over time, which can be great to segment your list. This allows you to send emails based on your subscribers’ interests. Segmenting your list has been shown to increase open and click-through rates for your emails, so you get better results.

Once you know what you want to give to subscribers, it’s time to create it. Canva is a great tool for creating free guides and templates. Interact can help you get started with a quiz and Loom can be a good way to record videos.

Where to have sign-up forms on your website

The short answer: Everywhere you can think of! 

Most people will miss your lead magnet if you only promote it in one or two places on your website. For maximum visibility, you want to promote your freebie in as many places as you can.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Towards the top of your home page.
• In your website footer so it shows on every page of your website.
• In all of your blog posts, podcast episodes, or YouTube videos. 
• In your blog post sidebar if you have one.
• On its own landing page that you can share on social media. 
• Using tools like a marketing bar across the top of your website.
• Using a pop-up once someone has been on your website for a while.

If you have multiple lead magnets, you can promote each one where it makes sense and switch them up occasionally. This is also an opportunity to see which lead magnets resonate best with your website visitors. 

How to make the sign-up sections stand out

Now you’ve created your lead magnet and decided where to add it to your website. It’s time to think about how to showcase the opt-in to maximise sign-ups. You want your sign-up sections to stand out so people SEE them and add their email addresses.

Here are a few tricks of the trade to design your sign-up section so it stands out:

• Add an image of what they get in exchange for their email address. This also subconsciously shows they get something in exchange for signing up.
• Use a catchy heading and short intro that shows the benefit of signing up and the value they’ll get.
• Make your button pop on the page with a contrasting button colour.
• Add emphasis to the section by adding lines above and below or using a coloured background to catch your eye.

Here are some examples to give you some ideas:

If you want to link these images to the opt-in pages, the links are:

Get Found In Google guide

Website Audit Checklist

Make it easy for someone to sign up

Complex sign up forms reduce the amount of sign-ups you will get. People can be lazy when it comes to typing their details, especially on mobile phones. Plus, we don’t want to give out more details than we need to.

This means we should stick with only essential questions – the person’s first name and email address. 

Adding the name field allows you to personalise the emails you send to better connect with your subscribers. This can lead to better email marketing results.

It’s best to skip asking questions like last name, birthday, hobbies, etc unless it’s directly related to what you’re sending. You can ask for these details in future emails.

Create content to promote your lead magnets

Once everything is set up, it’s time to get eyes on your website so people can see your lead magnet. A great way to do this is by creating high-quality content such as blogging, podcasting, or YouTube videos on your website.

Having this content on your website establishes you as a thought leader. Plus it gives visitors a taste of what it would be like to work with you.

If you optimise this content with keywords, you can also boost your SEO (search engine optimisation). This helps you get found on Google so new people find your website, see your opt-ins and sign up.

You can also create social media content directing people to your blog and lead magnet landing pages. This gives more visibility to these opt-ins and helps nurture your followers.

A few other ways to send more visitors to your website include:

• Adding the link in your email signature so everyone you email can see it.
• Sharing your blog posts and opt-in pages on Pinterest.
• Running ads directly to your sign-up pages.
• Sharing your content in Facebook groups and forums to answer questions that come up in the groups.
• Collaborating with others, such as guest blog posts, podcast guesting, PR  opportunities, online summits, etc.

Final Thoughts

Growing an email list is a fantastic way to nurture your audience and naturally promote your business. Remember, these people are joining your list because they want to hear from you.

Setting up your email marketing platform and updating your website can take some time. Spending an afternoon making these updates can help you grow your list for years, so it’s worth it. There are not many marketing efforts that have such a long-lasting effect on your email list growth.

Just don’t forget to email your list once you have people on it!

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