How to use Facebook and Instagram Ads to Grow Your Email List
Email marketing can be a very powerful digital tool that businesses shouldn’t lose sight of. Email lists should be considered as a captured audience of people who care about your business and what you have to offer which is highly valuable for any business to own. Businesses should be constantly aiming to grow their lists and increase this very high-quality audience who they can continue to grow their relationship with and of course, sell to. Often email lists can function as a marketing tool on their own but they are also an amazing channel to use as part of an overall marketing campaign (especially when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads).
Current and high quality potential customers who are invested in your business enough to hand over their email address to you can be hard to find but there are ways to successfully and economically grow your list by using an email list building focused Facebook and Instagram ad strategy! But first, let’s dive into the benefits and reasons why you should be using Facebook and Instagram ads to grow your email list in the first place.
You can customize your message to your audience’s unique needs and pain points. Identifying your target audience is one thing but engaging with them in a meaningful way that is relevant to them is another. Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to create a very specific message that speaks directly to your audience and if there is anything that encourages someone to sign up for a newsletter, it’s addressing why they need it.
Facebook and Instagram ads will reach your audience at the right time that is best suited to them. Facebook and Instagram know a lot about us, including when we are most likely to engage with ads. Planning a trip? Looking for a new shampoo to try out? Buying a new car? They know! Your Facebook and Instagram ads will show up at the right time when that person values your offering the most.
You can reach your specific target market. With Facebook and Instagram’s targeting capabilities (which is no secret by now), reaching your exact target market has never been easier. Target people based on their demographics, location, behavior, and interests. Delivering ads to an audience who is most likely to be interested in your offering reduces advertising costs and optimizes your results.
Remarketing. Facebook and Instagram allow advertisers to remarket customized ads to the same or similar audience of people depending on what action you want to optimize for. Repetition is important in marketing as most people won’t remember your offering after seeing the ad for the first time which is why this feature is so important. Remarketing ads act as reminders, helping to convert people who have already shown an interest in your product or service and thereby increasing the likelihood that they will take that next step of signing up for your email list before they forget.
Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to reach thousands of people. The number of active users on Facebook today is in the billions and the opportunities are endless. That is if you’re running paid ads. Organic growth on Facebook and Instagram is slow and your posts will reach a minimal number of people due to the algorithm. Facebook ads (not Boosted posts) are the only way to reach a meaningful number of people to drive your business forward.
Facebook and Instagram ads allow for optimization based on specific actions. Again, to reiterate, Facebook knows all about you which is amazing for businesses aiming to grow as effectively and efficiently as possible. With Facebook and Instagram’s impressive targeting capabilities comes the ability to target people based on their likelihood of actually signing up to your email list! Not only are businesses able to spend money on their specific target market in terms of their demographics, location, and interests but also on those people who are likely to hand over their email addresses. How much more optimized can advertising get?!
Now let’s get to the exciting part – developing an ad strategy that will grow the email list of your business dreams! Here are a few ad strategy ideas to get you started all based on the overall marketing principle that you have to give value to receive value. The #1 way to grow your email list strategically on Facebook and Instagram is to offer your audience something that they would find valuable. As soon as you do that, you’re in.
Promote a free download
Free downloads are a dime a dozen these days but there is a reason for that – they work! People see value in the information that is relevant to them, which they can keep and refer to in future. E-books, guides, checklists, fact sheets are all great examples of free downloads that will add value and be available for them to use when they need it the most.
Promote a quiz
Quizzes are a very effective way to grow your email list by only revealing the answer or conclusion of the quiz to the person once they submit their email address. Quizzes are entertaining, they speak directly to the pain points of the audience, they answer important questions, they get the audience thinking about your product or service and you won’t incur running costs to host the quiz of your website, making them highly cost-effective. It is important to ensure that your quiz is very specific and relevant to your business and to the audience targeted otherwise the quality of your email list won’t be as high as you had hoped.
Offer a limited-time discount or coupon
This is a great incentive not only for people to sign up to your email list but to also try your product or service. Placing a limited-time offer on the coupon or discount will create urgency and encourage the audience to impulsively sign up. You could also take it a step further and offer a limited number of coupons or discounts for a limited time.
Run a video series
Pre-record a few videos and release them periodically throughout a short time frame e.g. 1 video a day for 3 – 5 days. These videos should be designed to communicate valuable information to your audience about a specific topic related to your business, answer any pre-empted questions they could have about the topic and lead them down the path of realizing that they need your product or service to solve their problem. Request an email from your audience when they sign up to watch your video series and continue engaging with them over email by sending reminders to watch the new video once it is released.
Host a free live webinar
If you feel comfortable hosting a free webinar live, then go for it! Live webinars are a great way for you to truly connect with your audience, allowing them to ask you questions in real time and engage with you face-to-face. If you don’t want your face front and centre, consider preparing a presentation that you can take your audience through. The presentation will shift the focus away from you and direct your audience’s attention to the message. Attendees will still get to hear your voice and see your face in the small, minimized section of the screen. Run a Facebook and Instagram ad with a ‘Sign Up’ call to action, linking to a landing page with an introduction about what the webinar will cover, the date and time that the webinar will take place, and of course, a form requesting an email address to sign up to attend.
Run a competition
The willingness of your audience to submit their email address to enter a competition is very dependent on how relevant the prize is to them and your business as well as the value of the prize. Competitions can create excitement, generate great exposure and engagement, and give you the opportunity to collaborate with other brands that your audience might already know and love. Make sure to give your audience just enough time to enter the competition and don’t wait too long before publicly announcing the winners. In this case, a ‘Learn More’ call-to-action could be used with the ads linking to a landing page where they can find out more about the prizes up for grabs and the form to submit their email address.
It goes without saying that the ad campaigns themselves must be set up correctly in Facebook Business Manager, the correct targeting must be used, and that you have a sufficient ad spend budget to reach enough people at the different stages of the strategy.
Other things to keep in mind before launching:
Keep forms short and simple. Don’t ask for more information than you really need. Keep in mind that the purpose of this campaign is not to collect job titles and phone numbers, just email addresses. Name and email address is all you need. Shortened forms will improve your chances of the person completing the form and optimize the results of your Facebook and Instagram ad campaign.
Ensure that your landing page is optimized. We can’t stress enough how much a website can impact the success (or failure) of a Facebook and Instagram ad campaign. You could spend thousands of dollars driving people onto your website only for them to leave because the load time is too slow, the messaging is unclear, forms are too lengthy and require too much time to complete, there isn’t enough information or navigation is difficult and confusing (just to name a few). You will be wasting your time and budget if you do not optimize your website before starting your campaign.
Have a plan of action for when you start to receive those emails from your campaign. Start communicating with your audience while you are still top-of-mind so that the foundation of your relationship starts to build straight away. Plan out and implement an email series that’s just frequent enough to let them know that you’re there.
Think carefully about how you are going to continue building this relationship and converting this audience in the future. Keep in mind that the email list you receive from your Facebook and Instagram ad campaign is different from a list of people who landed on your website by choice and signed up for your newsletter. The Facebook and Instagram audience was made aware of your business and offering because you told them you exist – they weren’t necessarily looking for you. A little more time and effort needs to be taken to encourage them to stick around which they will if you do it right.
Facebook and Instagram ads are one of the most effective marketing tools to use if you’re looking to grow your email list. There are a wide variety of strategies out there and the list really could go on however, the best strategy is one that is most relevant to your business, audience, and offering. Feel free to get in touch with us for a customized strategy on how to grow your email list based on your unique business needs!