Ways of growing your customer email list

Ask Me Anything Q&A Emailmarketingama

Topic summary

A business is struggling to grow their email list despite offering 10-15% discount popups to new subscribers. The main issue: customers sign up for the discount but quickly unsubscribe after making their purchase, suggesting the discount-only value proposition isn’t creating lasting engagement.

Current approach:

  • Popup offering 10-15% off for email signups
  • Only one carefully crafted email per month (non-spammy approach)
  • Poor uptake and high post-purchase unsubscribe rates

Alternative growth strategies suggested:

  • Social media integration (posts, link-in-bio signups)
  • Referral programs
  • Cross-promotion partnerships with similar brands
  • Header/footer signup forms
  • Site alerts or banners
  • Registration walls for premium content access
  • Contests or user-generated content campaigns

The core recommendation: move away from discount-driven signups, as they attract transactional subscribers rather than engaged audience members who see ongoing value in the emails.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

For the past few years we have tried a popup when the customer comes to the website saying “get 10% off when you sign up to our mailing list” We have tried 15% too after an expert said it was more appealing. The uptake has been poor and we do not have a lot of people on the list. Furthermore, those who sign up for the discount often unsubscribe a few days after they have ordered. We are not spammy with our emails and only send a very considered email a month as we understand the irritation of constant bombardment. What can we do to grow our email list?

1 Like
2

Hi! There are other ways to grow your email audience aside from on-site pop-ups. When you use a discount as the value proposition for signing up, the customer can be incentivized to unsubscribe because they don’t think future emails will live up to the value of that 10% or 15% off.

Here are some other tactics to grow your email list:

  • Social media posts or link-in-bio sign ups.
  • Referral programs
  • Cross promotion with a collaborator or similar brand
  • Include email sign ups in your header/footer
  • Create alerts or banners
  • Have a registration wall to access certain parts of pages of your site
  • Create a contest or solicit user-generated content