6 e-commerce lead magnet ideas for growing your subscriber list

As an e-commerce store owner, you will have heard how a thriving email list can help grow your revenue by 10, 20 or even 30%. But what if you’re struggling to get people on your list in the first place? What tactics can you use to get those all-important sign-ups and email addresses?

Below are some tips to grow your email list.

Using a discount coupon code

The most obvious one and widely used, the classic, a Coupon.

This works well as it offers your customer a chance to try the brand and the whole experience for a discounted rate. 10% is common but there are some brands that offer more especially if there is more wiggle room in their margins.

A spin on a coupon is to have a mystery discount. It sparks the curiosity in the customer to enter their address to reveal the amount in their email. Some may find this annoying and a barrier to working out if they want to try your brand or not so that’s something to be mindful of. A mystery discount is always something you could try in a campaign to test its effectiveness on your audience before deciding to use it as a lead magnet.

Free- Shipping

Free shipping – free shipping is a biggie – customers love it

Free shipping is often demanded by consumers now with 47% of customers abandoning carts because of high shipping costs. In this case, you can offer free shipping in exchange for an email address. This removes a barrier to buying from you for the first time but what about subsequent purchases then? This is where you may wish to implement a shipping strategy like having a free shipping threshold or free shipping on selected items or free location-based shipping.

A shopping quiz

For certain brands, a quiz can work really well. New customers to your site might not know where to look or what things might be of interest to them. You can guide them to the right products by offering them a quiz. This way of gathering emails has multiple benefits going forward in terms of segmentation and getting the right offers in front of the right customers.

An e-book or cheat sheet

Offering an e-book or a cheat sheet that fits your target market's needs in exchange for their email address can be an overlooked strategy. Fitness fashion brands could offer a workout guide. Pet brands could offer advice on looking after your specific pet with tips and things to look out for. Lawn care products could offer an e-book on when to apply certain products and achieve the best results.

These ideas can supplement the products you sell and help create trust in your brand.

Hosting a giveaway

In exchange for your customer's details, you can run a giveaway. Customers can input their email addresses to sign up to your list and then have a chance to win a prize. This prize could be anything but if you want to help ensure the quality of the leads you get, make it a prize from your brand. This helps to keep the leads qualified better than offering something generic like an iPad. Certain software out there lets you run more complex giveaways. They do this by allowing multiple entries if someone shares social media posts and follows you on socials.

Offering a free sample or a free gift

The last tip to growing your email list is to offer a free gift or a free sample. I’ve seen various brands do this in different ways. Some brands will offer a free gift with a purchase or if you spend over a certain amount. This gift is a mystery or is clearly stated.

You could just simply send the free gift to the person on sign-up once you have collected their details. I’ve seen a variation of this recently with a men’s skincare brand that would send you free samples to use, all the customers had to do was pay for shipping.

With all these tactics to get people onto your list, it’s important to keep them. If you are offering product insights, tailored discounts, early access to sales as well as valuable content that educates them stick to that so you retain those hard-earned subscribers. All this will help the customer feel like a VIP and will help turn them into a raving fan. And raving fans are great for your brand.