Build your store's mailing list before the holidays

There’s going to come a time, oh, about six weeks from now, when you find the words “MORE EMAIL ADDRESSES” in block letters at the top of your wishlist. That’s because with Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping in full swing, buying ads and acquiring new customers will be as expensive as it gets all year.

If there’s one thing you should be doing right now to prepare your store for the holidays, it’s building up your mailing list. Collecting email addresses will give you a chance to engage customers with special offers, product recommendations, and any other promotions you use to drive sales during the busy holiday season. Email addresses also come in handy when it comes to running Facebook ad campaigns, helping you target people most likely to buy.

In this post, we’ll share a few tips for getting more email subscribers for your store. Even if you aren’t an email marketing aficionado, following these simple steps can really pay off when it matters most.

Add an email signup popup to your site.

This is as simple as it gets. Use Pixelpop to create a simple popup that prompts customers to give you their email when they visit your store. Popups have been shown to capture 10-15 times more email signups than sidebar forms. Pixelpop also integrates with MailChimp, so your mailing list populates automatically.

There are a few best practices to follow when adding an email popup. First, you can forget about email capture bars. Stick with modals and cards instead—they do much better when it comes to collecting signups. If you’re offering something really good in exchange for signups (we'll get to that in a bit), consider a full-screen takeover. These have the highest capture rate, but they can also disrupt a visitor’s experience.

Next, you should avoid showing the popup to visitors as soon as they reach your site. Let them look around first and see what kind of products you’re offering. Use Pixelpop’s “page delay” setting so that the popup only appears after a customer has visited 2-5 pages.

Finally, pay attention to the copy and aesthetic of your popup. Keep the language clear, concise, interesting, and even funny. Customers will be more likely to subscribe if they can expect high-quality content in their inbox. Pixelpop offers a selection of professionally designed popup themes and the ability to customize colours to match the look and feel of your store. We’ll also be adding some holiday themes soon, so watch out for that.

For a quick tutorial on how to add an email signup popup to your store, check out our video webinar.

Offer something in exchange for email signups.

Did you know that 38% of people say receiving special offers is the number-one reason they sign up for a mailing list? And that return on investment from email is approximately 3,800%? That equates to an incredible $38 in revenue for every $1 spent.

If we haven’t made it clear by now: email addresses are valuable. So valuable, in fact, that it’s worth rewarding new email signups with a 10% discount or $10 off their next purchase.

You can incentivize email subscriptions by mentioning this offer in the content of your popup. Then, whichever email service you’re using, set it to automatically email new subscribers with a “thank you” note including the discount code and instructions on how to use it.

Consider running a sale or promotion aimed at collecting email signups.

As we said in the opening, it will be a lot cheaper to acquire new customers now than it will be to advertise during Black Friday weekend and the highly competitive weeks leading up to Christmas. For that reason, don’t be afraid to offer a deep discount on a product or run some type of “must-have” promotion that will increase conversions and help you acquire new customers—and their email addresses.

We’ve discussed loss-leader pricing on the blog before, so consider this suggestion part of that pricing strategy: attracting customers with one low-priced product and profiting from all the other products they discover and purchase while visiting your store.

When it comes to preparing for the all-important holiday season, taking a slight loss now can benefit your business in the long run.