Watch any episode of the classic television show Antiques Roadshow, and you’ll see the moment when a guest finds out how much their ‘junk’ is worth. You can see them hold the item much more carefully afterward.

Your business’ email list is like treasure in your attic waiting to be discovered. All you need to do is brush a little dust off, and you’ll see how much it can help your business. To start getting the most value out of your new treasure make sure your email list is both continually growing, and keeping your customers engaged with meaningful content and offers.

Start building your list and send better emails with the tools from Constant Contact.

Bigger treasures are always better

Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing strategies, an average of $44.25 ROI (from Salesforce.com), but more than anything it’s a game of numbers. The more people on your email list, the better your chances are at making a conversion and staying profitable.

To put it simply, if you have a conversion rate on your website of 20 percent, but you only have 10 people on your email list, you’re only going to get two customers to make a purchase. With an email list of 10 thousand customers and the same conversion rate though, you’re more likely to have two thousand sales. Bigger lists make email marketing much more interesting.

Keep searching for more

Even if you have a big email list, you’ll need new customers coming in to keep your list fresh. If all of the customers on your list have already seen your products and promotions, but still haven’t made a purchase, they may not buy from you at all. Your best chances lie with the newest customers on your list who are still interested in your business.

You can keep customers signing up to your lists by making it as easy as possible. Let customers sign up for your email list in your store, on your website, and even on your social media pages. You can also boost the number of signups by offering an incentive, like a contest, a special discount, or even exclusive products only available to email subscribers.

No matter how engaged your customers are, there will be those who aren’t interested in buying from you. These customers are likely to unsubscribe from your list or start ignoring your emails, which is part of your expected churn. Churn is another reason to keep new customers subscribing to your list, to replace the ones that are leaving.

Your customers like treasure too

Customers, both old and new, are much more likely to buy from your business if they’re engaged in what you’re saying. Make sure only to send emails that are both useful and interesting to customers. Sending emails customers want means you’ll stay away from sending spam.

Another way to keep your customers engaged is to segment your list into different types of customers. Segmentation means you can tighten your messaging and keep the topic focused on what those particular customers want. For example, only sending new product emails to customers that have purchased your old products. You’re able to make messages more specific and speak to individual customers on a more intimate level.

Start your treasure hunt

No treasure hunter starts with all of the treasure they want right at the start; it’s a work in progress. To start nurturing more value out of your email list, take a look at the types of customers on your list. Of all the customers, what percentage are new versus old, which have purchased from you and who has never opened an email from you.

Once you’ve given your list a health check, then you can start segmenting your audiences and creating emails geared towards those specific groups. At the same time, start creating more opportunities for customers to sign up for your email list to spawn more list growth. Soon you may have a treasure chest overflowing with value, all from a dusty email list sitting in the corner of your attic.

Start building your list and send better emails with the tools from Constant Contact.

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