Social media is everywhere, and brands go viral overnight with the right content. But even with all that, people still rely on the most classic form of digital communication: emails. If you think emails are outdated, think again.
Why use emails now when we have moved forward in the technological race? And that’s because email is still one of the most widely used platforms of communication by people. The number of email users are likely to shoot up to 4.89 billion in 2027. With such a massive audience, email remains one of the most powerful tools for businesses to connect with customers and drive growth.
A strong email list helps businesses nurture leads, increase repeat purchases, and stay on top of their minds. Here’s how to build and grow your email list effectively in 2025.
The Importance of Emails for Your Business
For brands, email turns into a huge opportunity to reach out to people and stay connected. But it does more than that. Statistics say that emails beat every other platform in terms of the return on investment.
- Cost-Effective Marketing
Compared to traditional advertising methods, email marketing is highly cost-effective. With minimal investment, you can reach a large audience, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to maximise their marketing budget.
Email marketing delivers a high ROI, with over 50% of businesses seeing a return of upto USD 40 for every USD 1 spent. This suggests that email outperforms other channels in ROI for most industries and niches. Social media marketing paid search, search engine optimisation, referral marketing, mobile advertising, content marketing, etc., email wins the day every time and everywhere.
- Customer Retention
In today’s competitive market, keeping your customers coming back is crucial. For brands, it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep one. No matter how many new customers you get or the unique page views you receive on your website, it comes down to how many customers are returning to shop from you.
Customer retention is the long-term solution for any business. Customers often remain loyal not just because of the product but because they resonate with the brand’s message. By sharing your story and values, you can foster a deeper connection.
Email as a platform is best served for this task. It is a powerful tool to establish your brand’s identity and keep customers engaged. It is a channel where you can establish yourself as a brand in the eyes of the customers and keep them engaged as well. This promotes loyalty and gives you a voice to inspire your customers. Through promotional offers, discounts, and updates, you can maintain regular communication, encouraging repeat business.
- Direct Communication
Email allows you to reach your customers directly, delivering personalised messages straight to their inboxes. This direct line of communication ensures your audience receives your updates, promotions, and news without the noise of other channels.
If you haven’t already, begin collecting email addresses to keep your audience informed and engaged. Communicate regularly; share updates, promotions, and relevant content to keep your brand in their minds. Ensure that every communication offers something valuable, whether it’s information, a special offer, or a personal touch.
- Measurable Results
Email marketing offers clear metrics to assess your campaigns. You can monitor how many recipients open your emails and how many click on the links inside. This information shows what’s working and where you can improve, helping you fine-tune your approach.
For instance, in 2023, about 57.8% of marketers reported email open rates between 20-50%. This means a significant portion of your audience is engaging with your content, highlighting the effectiveness of email as a communication tool.
By analysing these metrics, you can better understand your audience’s preferences and optimise your emails to boost engagement and drive sales.
Building and Growing Your Email List
If you can’t figure out where to get started here are the best ways to build your email list. Let’s take a look:
- Understand Your Audience
The first step to building your email list is to understand your audience. You can’t just have a bunch of email IDs and start sending emails. This practice will probably do you more harm than good. It is better that you start building an email list by understanding the demands of each of your customers. This is where creating detailed profiles, known as customer personas come into the picture.
Every customer has a unique set of preferences, likes, dislikes, demographics, and history with your business, among several other things. Create different segments based on these personas and then move ahead to create a personalised email campaign for these segments. No one likes feeling like just another face in the crowd; they appreciate messages that speak to them individually. By understanding your audience, you can create personalised email campaigns. This approach makes your customers feel valued and enhances the effectiveness of your communication.
- Build a Website
Where will you gather your email list if you don’t have a potential place? This is where the need for a professional website kicks in! While selling on a marketplace does earn you sales, creating a website helps nurture something that entirely belongs to you. You can create your website using any of the platforms or tools available online without having to master tech expertise, among other things.
Your website must have a page with your email opt-in form. It helps people subscribe or opt into your email list. Make sure you give your visitors a reason to sign up for your email list.
- Opt for an Email Marketing Service
An email marketing service is fundamental to your marketing strategy. As you build and grow your list, you will need to send detailed campaigns for the targeted audience. Be it promotions or regular order updates, you can’t keep on relying on manual work in the long run.
Opting for an email marketing service can help you automate your emails, send personalised campaigns to customers, and send them regular order updates, among several other things.
- Add a CTA to Your Website or Blog
Your call to action button is what your customers will fall for. Make sure you put your best efforts into creating one. Statistics suggest that personalised call-to-action links have a 42 per cent view-to-submit rate compared to ordinary CTAs.
And if you look at it closely, it makes perfect sense. Your website visitors might not be looking for something specific. They might just land there for a purpose. Now that they’re on your platform, how do you catch their attention? The answer is a simple click! Make sure your CTA is compelling enough to provoke the customer to build their email list.
- Describe the Value in Your CTA
After adding value to your call-to-action link. Think of ways it will stand out. Many brands often use a long and positive CTA such as ‘Yes, I want to opt-in for your email list’ or ‘Count me in for your weekly newsletters’ Don’t shy away from experimenting with your CTAs but make sure you add some value.
For example, you could create something that says. ‘Yes, I want to learn how to grow my business. Not only is this an affirmative statement, but it makes the user feel that they’d miss out on something by not clicking on this button. Let your CTA speak for your brand.
- Promote Your Newsletter on Social Media
Remember we talked at the beginning of this article about how social media is one of the fastest platforms to spread the news? Leverage it to grow your email list. Ask people to sign up for your newsletters so that they can learn about some valuable information that you’re offering. You can share exclusive content on social media or offer a deal that requires signing up.
- Create a Pop-up for Your Website
Pop-ups and slide-ins are some of the best ways of growing your email list. Has your customer reached the end of the page? Why not remind them to subscribe to your email address with a pop-up? Similarly, someone might land on your website only to read a blog or find details about the price of a product. Your task is to capitalise on such users with prompt suggestions to subscribe to your email list. Make sure you don’t overdo it, as it may spoil their experience.
- Offer an Amazing Promotion
A great deal or discount encourages people to sign up for your email list. Win customers over with a discount! Many brands offer 10% or similar discounts off the first purchase to encourage sign-ups. You can try a similar strategy for your business or let a pop-up on your website say that you’re sending a one-time discount coupon over emails.
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Conclusion
Growing your email list isn’t always easy, but it’s definitely worth the efforts for your business. Once you build an email list, you can do a lot for your business, From promoting new products to clearing slow-moving stock and grabbing attention during sales, email marketing helps with it all. Emails can drive big profits, even with social media around. They help businesses connect directly with customers, promote products, and boost sales. The key is to start using email marketing today and make the most of its potential.
