Strategies to Grow Your Email List and Boost Business

✍️ Author: Sinead O'Connor

As a wellness business owner, you know how important it is to build strong connections with your clients. You probably already engage in email marketing but may wonder how to make the most of it. One of the most effective ways to do so is to grow your email list.

An expansive email list lets you reach your audience directly, offering personalized content, exclusive offers, and updates about your services. Whether you own a yoga studio, a life coaching business, or a holistic health practice, cultivating a robust email list can significantly enhance your marketing efforts and customer engagement.

In this blog, we’ll explore actionable strategies to help you grow your email list and leverage it to foster a thriving wellness community.

• Business Benefits to Growing Your Email List
• How to Build an Email List: Where to Begin?
• Tactics to Increase Subscribers and Drive Email Success
• How to Create Effective Email Content
• Leveraging Tech for Advanced Growth Strategies

Business Benefits to Growing Your Email List

Growing a carefully organized email list will transform how you engage with your wellness business clients. Add tags to client profiles to help segment your list into targeted groups. Then, you can deliver more targeted and relevant content.

Expanding your email list can foster deeper client relationships, increase retention, and generate new business. Here are a few other benefits:

• Direct Communication: Businesses invest in email marketing because they know it’s one of the best ways to reach their target audiences directly.
• Targeted: If prospects sign up for your email list, they genuinely want to hear from you.
• Gain New Clients: Once someone joins your email marketing list, you can send them targeted messages to encourage a class sign-up.
• Increase Client Retention: By sending clients valuable content, their trust and appreciation for you grows.

How to Build an Email List: Where to Begin? 

Building an email list might seem daunting, but really, it’s just a slow process. Don’t expect your list to triple overnight.

When growing your list, keep your audience in mind. Consider their hopes, fears, motivations, hesitations, etc. We’ll share more info on building on this in the following sections.

Align Business Strategy and Audience Segments 

Before starting your email marketing journey, understand how your business goals align with your audience segments.

Audience segments refer to specific subgroups of your broader audience that share common characteristics, behaviors, or needs. By dividing your audience into segments, you can tailor your marketing efforts to address each group’s unique preferences and requirements, resulting in more personalized and effective communication.

Segmentation allows for more targeted marketing strategies, leading to higher engagement rates and improved customer satisfaction. For example, if you offer a monthly membership, you could create a membership holder segment.

Below are business goals and how segmentation can help you meet them while also growing your email list:

• Increase Overall Clients: Leverage your email list by creating a nurture campaign to convert warm subscribers.
• Add New Offerings: If one of your goals is to add new classes or workshops, poll your community with a few options and see what they like best.
• Increase Monthly Memberships: If you offer memberships, you could send a targeted message to non-members to be sure they’re aware of the benefits. Or, reward current clients who refer new members by emailing them information on discounts or other perks meant to recognize their referrals.

Tactics to Increase Subscribers and Drive Email Success 

Growing your email list is a crucial step for any wellness business, but knowing the right tactics to increase subscribers is what truly drives success. Implementing effective strategies can significantly boost your subscriber count and ensure your audience remains engaged and interested in your offerings.

Offer Exclusive Member Content

Offering exclusive content to your email subscribers is a fantastic way to incentivize sign-ups and retain loyal clients. Here are some ideas for member-only content that can add value to your wellness business and keep your audience engaged:

• Exclusive Wellness Tips and Guides: Provide in-depth articles, eBooks, or how-to guides on various wellness topics, from nutrition and fitness to mindfulness and mental health.
• Special Discounts and Promotions: Offer your subscribers early access to sales, special discounts, or exclusive promotions on your products and services.
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share behind-the-scenes looks at your business, including sneak peeks of upcoming products, interviews with your team, and insights into your wellness philosophy.
• Exclusive Community Access: Create a members-only online community where subscribers can connect, share experiences, and support each other on their wellness journeys.

Develop a Challenge 

People love a challenge, especially when it comes to their wellness goals. Programs like this can build engagement and loyalty with your members. Start a challenge that requires participants to subscribe to your email marketing list to receive related content, whether daily or weekly. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Mindfulness Challenge: Sure, it’s easy to be mindful during a yoga class, but how about a challenge that will help others practice mindfulness all day? Your email campaign could include daily reminders or mindfulness exercises to try.
• 30-Day Yoga Challenge: Yoga challenges remain very popular, and you could let your existing clients know about them by encouraging them to refer their friends and family via email.
• Healthy Eating Challenge: Wellness businesses and healthy eating seem to go hand in hand. Offering this type of challenge can help you build engagement with both new and long-time clients. If you have a brick-and-mortar studio where healthy foods and beverages are served, you could even celebrate at the end.

Consider Gated Content

Gated content, which requires users to provide their email addresses to access, can be a powerful tool for growing your email list. You can attract more subscribers and build a robust email database by offering valuable resources in exchange for contact information. Here are some practical ideas for gated content:

• EBooks and Guides: Create comprehensive eBooks or guides on popular wellness topics that your audience will find valuable and insightful.
• Webinars and Workshops: Host live or recorded webinars and workshops that offer expert advice, interactive sessions, and practical tips on wellness-related subjects.
• Exclusive Video Content: Provide access to exclusive video tutorials, workout routines, meditation sessions, or cooking classes unavailable to the public.
• Printable Resources: Offer downloadable printables such as meal planners, fitness trackers, habit trackers, and wellness journals that help your audience stay organized and motivated.
• Mini-Courses: Develop short online courses that cover specific aspects of wellness, complete with lessons, quizzes, and actionable steps.

Strategic Partnerships with Adjacent Brands

Building strategic partnerships with another business that shares the same target clients is a fun, collaborative way to build your email marketing list while also expanding your network. Here are some of our favorite ideas:

• Guest Blog Posts: Writing blog posts for other businesses can be a lot of fun while helping you grow your email marketing list. Do a blog post swap with an adjacent brand and watch your list grow. Think yoga and gardening or Pilates and smoothies.
• Workshops & Events: How about combining restorative yoga and acupuncture? Or Pilates and painting? After the event, both businesses could follow up with a thank-you email and ask participants to sign up for emails so they don’t miss future events.
• Discounts: Have you ever visited a store and noticed a flyer from a nearby business offering a discount? Leave your own flyer or brochure sharing more about your business. Add a QR code to link them to more info and ask for their email address.

Create a Referral Rewards Program 

Implementing a referral program can be a highly effective way to grow your wellness business by leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Here are some referral program suggestions to help you expand your client base and reward your loyal customers:

• Discounts on Services: Offer discounts on future services or memberships for both the referrer and the new client when a successful referral is made.
• Free Classes or Sessions: Provide a free class or wellness session to clients who refer new customers to your business.
• Referral Competitions: Run referral competitions where clients compete to refer the most new customers within a specific period, with a grand prize for the top referrer.
• Charity Donations: For each successful referral, make a donation to a charity of the referrer’s choice, appealing to clients who value social responsibility.

Gather and Leverage Social Proof

Social proof can be a powerful tool to encourage potential subscribers to join your email list. I don’t know about you, but I’m more inclined to try a restaurant my friend recommends (or steer clear of one they say is terrible).

You can build trust and credibility by showcasing positive experiences and endorsements from your existing clients. Here are some useful ways to utilize social proof to grow your email list:

• Customer Testimonials: Feature testimonials from satisfied clients on your website and landing pages to highlight the benefits of your services and encourage sign-ups.
• Case Studies: Share detailed case studies that showcase success stories and your wellness business’s positive impact on clients.
• Client Reviews: To build trust and credibility, display client reviews and ratings on your website, especially near your email sign-up forms.
• User-Generated Content: Encourage your clients to share their own stories, photos, and videos related to your services and feature this content on your website and social media.
• Awards and Recognitions: Display any awards, recognitions, or certifications your wellness business has received to establish authority and trustworthiness.

Create an Email Series Around Your Events

A series of emails can not only help you grow your email list, but they can also build energy and excitement about any vents you have coming up. Try one or two of these tactics and measure your success:

• Customer Appreciation or Open House Event: Create an email series to promote, hype, and countdown to the big day. You could also give subscribers sneak peeks of the event as an extra incentive to share their email addresses.
• Mental Health Awareness Month: Incent your audience to join your email list by providing tips and resources around this month or any other monthly awareness campaigns relevant to your business.
• Guest Instructor: Inviting guest instructors or other wellness experts can spice up your offerings. Entice your target audience to join your email list by inviting them to receive updates on these events.

How to Create Effective Email Marketing Content

Whether you’re just starting with email marketing or looking to refine your current strategy, it’s crucial to focus on crafting emails that resonate with your audience and inspire action. Effective email content is essential for engaging your audience and driving conversions.

Here are some recommendations and tips to help you craft compelling and impactful emails:

• Craft Compelling Subject Lines: Write attention-grabbing subject lines that entice recipients to open your emails.
• Keep Content Relevant and Valuable: Provide valuable information, tips, and resources that are relevant to your audience’s interests and needs.
• Use Clear and Concise Language: Write in a clear, concise, and engaging manner to ensure your message is easily understood.
• Include Strong Calls to Action (CTAs): Use clear and compelling CTAs to guide recipients toward taking desired actions, such as signing up for a class or downloading a resource.
• Maintain Consistency: Send emails consistently, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, to keep your audience engaged and build a reliable communication channel.

Content Types to Expand Reach

There are so many options for content you can use in your email marketing efforts that will help you to grow and engage your audience. Here’s a list of examples we like:

• Newsletters: Share events, schedules, and new offerings with your audience through a monthly or quarterly newsletter.
• Blog Posts: This could include how-to guides, client testimonials, or other relevant content. Ensure your audience sees each post by encouraging them to sign up.
• Videos: Whether it’s a quick reel or in-depth tutorial, people love videos. This is a great way to show off your studio space or an intro to your offerings.
• User-Generated Content: Encourage your clients to share their successes on social media. Leverage a hashtag specific to your business and share these successes via email – ask subscribers to share so you can expand your email list.

Tips to Create Quality Content

What you write and how you write it matters. Since quality content is key, here are more tips to help you find success:

• Understand Your Target Audience: Don’t try to create content for everyone; analyze your audience and cater to them. Find your niche.
• Check Out the Competition: This could be a direct competitor or a related business. Whose content do you like? What don’t you like? Use this info to inform your content.
• Write Catchy Titles: Again, the digital world can be busy. Hook your readers with a title so they’ll want to read on.
• Be Helpful: As a wellness business owner, you can positively impact your clients’ lives – keep providing helpful, valuable information, and results will follow.
• Analyze Results: Over time, you’ll know what content is working best so you’ll know where to focus future efforts.

Leveraging Tech for Advanced Growth Strategies

Creating an email marketing campaign while growing your email list takes a lot of effort. Utilizing technology can significantly enhance your efforts to grow your email list without adding more work to your plate, providing tools and capabilities that streamline processes, increase reach, and personalize interactions.

Here are tech solutions to look for to expand your email list:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

• Segmentation and Targeting: Use CRM systems to segment your audience based on demographics, behavior, and preferences. This allows you to send targeted campaigns that are more likely to convert.
• Automated Campaigns: Set up automated email sequences to nurture new subscribers, welcome them, and guide them through their customer journey with personalized content.

Lead Generation Tools

• Landing Page Builders: Use tools like Leadpages or Unbounce to create high-converting landing pages with sign-up forms optimized for capturing email addresses.
• Pop-Ups and Slide-Ins: Employ smart pop-up tools like OptinMonster or Sumo to display well-timed offers and sign-up forms to website visitors.

Analytics and A/B Testing

• Email Analytics: Use platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact to monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, helping you understand what resonates with your audience.
• A/B Testing: Test different versions of your emails, subject lines, and sign-up forms to determine what performs best and optimize accordingly.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

• Gated Content: Use your CMS to create and manage gated content that requires visitors to provide their email addresses in exchange for access, such as eBooks, whitepapers, or exclusive videos.
• Content Upgrades: Offer content upgrades (e.g., downloadable checklists or additional resources) within your blog posts to encourage email sign-ups.

However, you can get all these tools from one solution. Learn more about software options and how to evaluate them.

Utilize Automated Email Sequences

Save time, grow your email marketing list, and engage your audience by sending perfectly timed email messages by automating your emails.

Email automation is a tool that sends messages automatically based on parameters and schedules that you set up in advance. Each message in the sequences is equally important, so we recommend you take the time to set each one up carefully.

Here are some examples to consider:

• Welcome: When someone joins your email list, the first message in this series could thank them for signing up, and the next message could be more informative and help nurture the relationship.
• Actions Based on Triggers: You can send target messages when specific conditions are met. For example, if someone adds a class to their cart on your website but doesn’t complete the transaction, you could nudge them with an email reminder. Or, when someone takes their first class, send them a thank-you email and request feedback—this will also help build your social proof.
• Seasonal: Since wellness routines can vary seasonally, how about a sequence timed with the seasons? Set them up a year in advance and watch your planning and hard work help grow your email list year-round.

Learn More About OfferingTree’s Email Marketing Feature

Remember, the journey to growing your email list is ongoing. Continuously analyze your results, refine your strategies, and stay attuned to your audience’s needs and preferences. By doing so, you’ll not only grow your email list but also build a thriving wellness community that values and trusts your business.

If you’re ready to take your email marketing to the next level and streamline your business, try OfferingTree free for 7-days or watch a demo to learn more.