21 surefire ways to grow your email list with detailed explanations on how to make the most of each of them. How-tos and thoroughly picked examples. Backed by research and 10+ years of Selzy team experience.
Bonus: a cheat sheet to see the big picture.
Best email list building methods by business type
Best for e-commerce
Best for SaaS
Best for creators & bloggers
What email list building is and why it’s important
Email list building is collecting email addresses from people who have opted in to receive communications from you.
It typically involves offering something valuable like a newsletter, discount, or a freebie in exchange for email addresses. It creates a marketing channel that you can use to nurture relationships and promote your products or services over time.
Unlike social media followers, an email list is something you own and control, making it a particularly valuable marketing tool since you’re not dependent on a platform’s algorithm to reach your audience.
We believe in quality email lists. We also believe that you can grow a quality email list from scratch, even if you’re just starting out. That’s why we decided to put together all quality ways to grow your list in this Foolproof Guide.
We don’t just list the ways — we explain how to make the most of them. We add short instructions for the less obvious ways.
Too long to read? What’s the best way to build an email list?
TL;DR: Email list building — Key takeaways
- Email list building is about permission and engagement, not volume. A smaller opt-in list consistently outperforms large, unqualified lists in opens, clicks, and revenue.
- There’s no single best method. The strongest results come from combining signup forms, lead magnets, pop-ups, content, social media, and partnerships — then testing what works.
- Never buy email lists. Purchased contacts harm deliverability, violate privacy laws, and rarely convert. Organic growth is the only sustainable approach.
- Simple, value-driven signup forms convert best. Ask for minimal information and clearly explain what subscribers get in return (discounts, guides, access, or exclusives).
- Growth doesn’t end at signup. Welcome emails, segmentation, and regular list cleaning are essential for long-term engagement and inbox placement.
We strongly recommend experimenting and combining several methods to figure out which combo is the one that skyrockets your list.
Ok, let’s dig in 😉.
What makes an email list high quality?
A quality email list is about engagement, permission, and relevance. Here’s what separates a valuable list from an ineffective one:
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Opt-in vs purchased lists
Quality lists are built organically through opt-ins, when people willingly subscribe because they’re genuinely interested in the content. Purchased lists, on the other hand, fail (spam complaints, poor deliverability, damage to sender reputation, potential legal violations) because recipients never asked to receive from you.
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Engagement benchmarks
A healthy email list should show strong engagement metrics. Averages vary depending on the industry and other factors, but general benchmarks include open rates of 15-25%, click-through rates of 2-5%, and as few unsubscribes or spam reports as possible. A lot of inactive contacts can hurt deliverability, so that’s a good practice to regularly clean lists to maintain their health.
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Consent, trust, and compliance
Quality lists are built on explicit consent. Regulations like GDPR (Europe) and CAN-SPAM (US) talk about clear opt-in processes, easy unsubscribe options, and transparent communication about how you’ll use email addresses.
How to build an email list
Step 1: Choose the right email marketing platform
Don’t use personal inboxes like Gmail for email marketing because they lack the tools you need. Choose a dedicated platform (ESP) like Selzy with signup form builders, automation, list segmentation, analytics, and compliance features.
Step 2: Create signup forms that convert
Place forms strategically across your site:
- Embedded forms will fit in your header/navigation, footer, or inline within blog content.
- Pop-ups can be timed, scroll-triggered, exit-intent, or gamified.
What’s better? Read our article on embedded vs pop-up subscription forms.
Optimize for mobile with large tap targets, minimal required fields, and thorough testing across devices.
Step 3: Offer a compelling reason to subscribe
Give people value in exchange for their email:
- Lead magnets: Free guides, checklists, templates, e-books, or webinar recordings.
- Discounts: “10% off your first order” or free shipping codes.
- Exclusive access: Members-only content, early launches, VIP communities.
- Educational materials: Regular newsletters with industry insights or how-to content.
Match your offer to what your audience actually wants and make the benefit immediately clear.
Website-based methods
Embedded signup forms
An embedded subscription form on your website’s home page is one of the most convenient ways to get leads, as a home page is usually the page that attracts the most traffic.
We recommend putting a signup form in the upper part of your page, as this is where you have the attention of the maximum number of potential clients. The lower you put it, the less the chance they will see it.
The most converting embedded signup form examples
Floating bar. A small but very noticeable signup form that stays in view as the visitor scrolls. It may be located either at the very top of the page or at the bottom of the page. It’s great when you don’t want to distract your website visitor from the main content.
Sidebar. A vertical signup form box. You can place it next to your blog article, so your website visitors will always have a chance to snag your giveaway when they visit a blog post of any kind.
Inline forms. This style of form is embedded into the content of the webpage where you want it to appear.
This inline subscription form looks like a part of the article.
Slide-in scroll box. It’s like a pop-up, but a more polite one. Instead of a giant box popping up in front of you as you read the page, a scroll box slides out and doesn’t interfere with your reading.
Here’s how to make the most of your embedded signup forms:
- Limit the number of fields to a minimum. An example: ImageScape reduced the number of fields in their subscription form from 11 to 4, thus increasing the conversion rate to 120%.
- Keep your text as short as possible. Most users skim content rather than reading it word by word. When decisions are made in 1-2 seconds, you’d better keep it short and stick to the point.
- Provide a good reason for signing up. Offer a lead magnet or a free trial for a limited amount of days.
- Show social proof. For example, how many clients you already have.
Embedded signup forms we love (and why)
Signup form with social proof from Basecamp. It shows the exact number of clients they have — this creates trust. It also not only gives a couple of great reviews but highlights the most compelling stuff (how good the work feels now with Basecamp).
Signup form from Wynter.com. It gives you a tempting reason to sign up (free trial), short and to the point (explains exactly what you will get in the most concise way possible), just one field to fill in (it’s perfect, right?).
Pop-ups and slide-ins
Pop-ups have long been considered as something annoying. This G2 focus group study even showed that 82% of users (USA) hate pop-ups. Surprisingly, they perform 3 times better compared to embedded subscription forms on your website.
6 rules of a great pop-up
(Research data provided by 1 billion+ pop-ups performance research by Sleeknote)
- Show what you will give in exchange for an email. Even if you can’t offer a discount or a free guide/trial, do tell why people need that info you’re going to send them.
- Make sure it shows great on mobile devices. 60% of worldwide internet users surf content on their mobile devices. Give them a great experience so they choose to stick with you.
- Include an image. Pop-ups with images convert better than pop-ups without images by 83.57%.
- Include a countdown timer. Pop-ups with a countdown timer convert better than campaigns without a countdown timer by 112.93%.
- The 8 seconds rule. For those who use a time trigger: (it triggers the pop-up when the timer reaches the seconds you choose in the settings), pop-ups that are shown after eight seconds convert better than pop-ups shown before or after.
- The 35% scroll rule. For those who use a scroll trigger: pop-ups that are shown after a visitor scrolled 35% of a page convert better than pop-ups that are shown before or after.
The most converting pop-up types
Lightbox pop-up. When a lightbox form pops up, the rest of the screen becomes darker. This removes all other distractions and 100% of the user’s attention will be directed to your message. Nielsen Norman Group says that simplicity wins over abundance of choice. This is exactly what a lightbox pop-up does: it removes distraction so making that choice becomes the easiest it can get.
We love this lightbox pop-up from Blog Tyrant for its minimalistic design (only 4 colors are used), the short and very concrete lead-magnet description, and an arrow pointing right where you should type.
Welcome mat pop-up. This type of pop-up appears several seconds after a visitor lands on your site and grabs their full attention, as it takes 100% of the screen. This could be the reason why in many cases they perform much better than other types of pop-ups.
NatureTTL boosted conversions from 0,5% to 4.54% with this welcome mat opt-in form — an increase of 808%. They also added 30-40 new subscribers a week, which makes at least 400% more than before.
In their welcome mat signup form, they offered a free eBook, providing 10 top tips to instantly improve your photos.
Spin-to-win pop-up. This is one of the highest-converting pop-up formats: according to the survey by Wisepops, can improve your conversion rate by 30.3% and performs 3 times better than a regular pop-up, as per Modern Marketing Partners. Well, everybody loves to play a little game, right? That’s exactly what a spin-to-win is about.
Tips for a great spin-to-win
Make it look like it’s a part of your brand. We know there are so many great templates out there. However, if you make sure you choose the colors and fonts in line with your brand, your pop-up will stand out.
Create a separate email sequence for your spin-to-win only. As you can guess, many would just opt in for a prize. When the fun is over, they might mark your emails as spam. To avoid it, you can send a special series of emails that aims at creating even more interest in your product.
Don’t give prizes that are too valuable. Yes, all spin-to-win plugins can be hacked, especially by those with some technical background. You can also use Recaptcha or Cloudflare’s IP reputation system.
Checkout and registration opt-ins
The easiest way to grow your email list is to use contacts from the customers you already have.
Those who made a purchase are the most loyal audience you can have and they will be much more ready for a second purchase with you than any other cold contact on your email list.
If you ask people to register to use your product (for example, to access your blog) or to leave comments under your articles, you can use these emails for sales purposes. The quality of this email list is quite high, as these people are already interested in your brand/blog/service.
It’s a good idea to make a separate list of emails from existing customers, even if there are just a few of them, and to create a special email series for them. You can share secret deals “only for customers” and offer accompanying products to nurture them for more purchases.
Tips for great checkout and registration opt-ins
Put a consent checkbox at the step where they leave their emails, to get consent from them to receive your newsletter.
Do not just confirm the purchase/registration — show your best. Explain how the client can benefit from staying with your brand. According to the Email Marketing Benchmarks report by GetRespons, transactional emails have the highest open rate out of all other types of emails – use this to show your best in that order confirmation email.
Set the expectations. Communicate the frequency of your future emails to not be the source of unpleasant surprises later on.
This is a part of a “thank you for purchase” email from Perfect Grid. They go an extra mile about setting the expectations for those who just made a purchase.
Landing pages
Landing pages are one of the highest-converting tools for email list building precisely because they are built around and serve one major purpose — getting a visitor to subscribe from ads, social media, partnerships, webinars, or lead magnets.
Landing pages work so well for email list building because they focus on one offer, they eliminate navigation menus and unrelated links, they let you match the message to a specific audience or channel (you can create as many landing pages for different channels as you need) and they’re easy to test and optimize for conversions.
What makes a high-converting email signup landing page:
A strong landing page doesn’t need to be complex. The best ones usually include:
- A clear, benefit-driven headline
- A short supporting explanation
- One focused signup form
- A compelling incentive
- Trust signals
- A clear CTA
Landing pages are especially effective when you’re driving traffic from paid ads like Facebook, Instagram or Google, social media bios and posts, partner newsletters and collaborations, webinars, online events, or free challenges, QR codes at offline events and influencer promotions.
Content and education-driven methods
Lead magnets
The concept of lead magnets is simple: you draw people in with something valuable (hence, magnet) in return for something also valuable — in this case, an email address.
This valuable bonus — lead magnet — can be a product discount, some expertise, a free audit, a collection of useful materials, a video tutorial, etc.
Tips for great lead magnets
Create more than one lead magnet for different audiences. For example, if you offer SEO courses, make 2 separate lead magnets for bloggers and online course creators. You never know which one will bring more audience.
Share the value of your lead magnet, so people understand the worth of what they are receiving. Compare these two: “Get my free course (worth 59$)” and “Get my free course”. Yes, you guessed it right, the first one will attract more leads as people get the feeling they will actually save 59$ by getting access to that course, and that’s quite some motivation.
Think further than just another e-book. Anything can be a lead magnet. When deciding on the format, take your audience into account. If your product is for stay-at-home moms — a podcast could be a great idea. If it’s for teens — a cool YouTube video is what you probably need.
We gathered 52 top-performing lead magnet ideas in our major guide. Come on in!
Spread your lead magnet over a series of emails. The biggest issue with lead magnets is that many only subscribe to get it, after which they unsubscribe.
You could potentially create more interest and face less unsubscribes by spreading your valuable content over a series of emails, rather than sending that standard ebook in your welcome email. That’s more work, but it is also more rewarding: the ones who will stay until the end are very high quality leads.
Webinars and courses
Webinars and courses are especially great for growing your list if you have an educational or a B2B project.
Tips for getting subscribers:
Partner up with another company or an influencer within your target audience to get access to a similar audience.
Record your webinar and use it as an evergreen lead magnet. This will bring you constant traction.
Free challenge and training
Free challenge is one of the best ways to quickly grow your list of subscribers and later up-sell yourself. Done through all sorts of lessons, tutorials, and assignments, it definitely is motivating, encouraging, and engaging — all this creates momentum within your community, with you becoming that expert people tend to turn to and become your paying clients.
Make sure your challenge goal is realistic and provides measurable results so that by the end of the challenge you don’t only have people’s emails but their trust, too.
Start collecting sign-ups about one week before the challenge. If you start earlier, you lose the sense of urgency that will get people to sign up right away. If you start later, you may not have enough time to get people registered and excited about the challenge.
Set up a thank you page for the participants. Even if you have a great opt-in page, don’t leave people discouraged by an automated message “Your email is submitted” after they leave their contacts. Add some useful content and links to your brand’s social media pages to get additional traction.
Collaborate with those who have a similar audience to you but offer a different/complementary product or service. For example, there was a 30-Day Walking Challenge that was promoted by Reebok — a win-win combination for both parties. Don’t hesitate to make your perfect match!
You can either run your challenges once in a while or have evergreens — challenges always available for your audience. In this case, you will be able to grow your list unceasingly.
Consider offering a bonus as an additional trigger to opt in. Mention it straight away — for example, on your landing page next to the subscription form.
Quizzes and surveys
A quiz is a fun way to grow your email list. The trick here is to ask for an email address to access quiz results. Seems too easy, right? Yes, however, like with all similar fun ways to ask for an email, a quiz might end up attracting the wrong audience — those who are interested in the actual result of the quiz, not your product.
A survey is a great way to take a very personalized approach to grow your email list and to show that you care about your potential clients’ needs and preferences, too. Create a survey where you ask people about their preferences, difficulties, and needs and offer them a solution (a lead-magnet): for example, a set of recommendations or a personalized strategy. With such surveys, people will know that they will get a piece of content customized around them, not just something general, in exchange for answering your questions.
The best part about both quizzes and surveys is that you will get both quality leads and precious insights into your potential customers.
Here are a couple of things to take into account to make sure your efforts to create, launch and promote a quiz or a survey don’t go down the drain and you end up with quality subscribers.
Tips for making great quizzes and surveys
Make it about your customers, not something general. With personality quizzes, you don’t only get an email, but also tons of insights on your potential customers.
Make sure the topic of the quiz is related to your business. If you sell scented candles, a pop star quiz is probably not something you need. The good news is that you can make your topic and entertaining content work together! You can find cool ideas on how to adapt cool quiz topics to your business on Buzzfeed.
Include a special bonus that fits the results. Asking for an email to give access to results is great. But you can go much further. If you offer a valuable freebie (an e-book, a personalized strategy, etc.) together with the results, users will have much less doubt if they should actually leave that email. Keep in mind that your freebie should be related to your quiz.
One of the greatest examples of a survey is the one from Neil Patel. He suggests answering a few questions in order to get a personalized action plan. By gathering this information for the business, the quiz can then recommend the right products, services, or strategies to help that specific user.
Top quiz/survey makers for lead generation
You do not need coding/design skills to build and launch a quiz. Here are the most popular tools. All of them include goal-oriented templates and the possibility to customize them to your liking. Most of them offer a free trial (except for Qzzr, which offers a free demo).
Giveaways
Instead of asking your followers simply to tag a friend or follow other accounts, you can have them become subscribers by adding an opt-in step to navigate them to your independent subscription page. This way, you’re generating more quality leads — not just temporary ones who are only in it for the giveaway.
By the way, KnivesShipFree.com boosted its revenue by more than $10,000 using giveaways.
Tips for giveaways
Make the prize relevant to your topic to attract those who are genuinely interested. Don’t offer an iPad just because it’s cool. It will only bring you those who are there just to win and leave. Do offer your a free copywriting course subscription, if copywriting courses are what you do. You will have fewer participants than in the case of an iPad, but the ones who participate will be quality ones.
Offer a complimentary bonus to your main prize, which will boost its value.
Mention the value of your prize in the title to grab the attention.
Wishpond stated the value of their prize which immediately grabs the attention.
Use giveaway building tools like RafflePress, OptinMonster, ShortStack, etc. It will make your giveaway look professional and smart and let you easily cross-promote your contest to other platforms.
Add a sense of urgency. It’s a good idea to add a countdown timer. It will give viewers the fear of missing out so they’re more likely to click to enter then and there.
Follow-up after the giveaway. It will help you keep the participants from unsubscribing after the giveaway is over. For instance, you could start sending a welcome series of emails to nurture your new subscribers to become customers.
Audience and community channels
Sign-up buttons/tabs on Facebook
Your most loyal subscribers may be found right under your very nose — on your brand’s Facebook page. The users will more likely give you their emails if they are already following you on social media. Facebook sign-up buttons are fast and easy to set up.
Tips for sign-up buttons and tabs
A button or a tab — choose what’s best for you. On Facebook, there are two options: a sign-up button, or a custom page tab. Important: A custom page tab option requires a minimum number of 2,000 Facebook followers.
Add a call to action to join your list on your cover photo to make the sign-up button harder to miss.
Offer a freebie to give a valuable reason for signing up.
Come up with a catchy description when using the tab option and explaining what to expect after signing up.
To link the button to your Subscribe form:
- On your Facebook Page, click + Add a Button below your Page’s cover photo.
- Select a button from the menu that appears (e.g. the Sign-Up button) and follow the on-screen instructions. The website link that you’ll paste into Facebook should be the URL of your subscription page. Done!
To set up a custom page tab:
- Choose Window > Integrations from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- Select the Facebook Pages integration from the list on the left.
- Use the Add Form to Facebook Page drop-down menu to select your Subscribe form and follow the on-screen instructions in your browser.
Facebook closed groups
Facebook Сlosed Groups provide engagement at a personal level and boost trust, increasing the potential for conversion. Besides, Facebook’s algorithm is designed to prioritize content from Facebook Groups with high engagement. The more you and your group members are posting and interacting, the bigger your reach in the newsfeed will be.
Make providing an email a prerequisite to joining your group. This way, only users who are genuinely interested in the content of the group will join, enhancing your odds of conversion. Don’t forget to mention that by signing up the user gives their consent to receiving the newsletter and special offers.
Tips for Facebook closed groups
Give something valuable in exchange for a valid email. For example, an e-book or a free course.
Be more specific about what you can offer in your questions. For example, instead of asking: “Would you like a free trial?”, ask “Provide an email address if you’d like to receive a free training (worth $59) from us”.
This closed group offers a great gift (with indicated value) in exchange for an email.
Facebook Lead Ads
Facebook Lead Ads is an ad type that allows you to collect contact information such as name, email address, phone number, and more. They appear in Facebook News Feed, Facebook Stories, Instant Articles, In-Stream Videos, Marketplace, Instagram Feed, and Instagram Stories.
With Facebook Lead Ads, your potential clients fill in the signup form right on Facebook, without leaving the service. It spares their time and effort. Facebook automatically prefills the fields, so the user just needs to make a click — done!
Tips for Facebook Lead Ads
Use a carousel ad type to allow people to get more information about what they are signing up for before submitting the form.
Use emojis. It turns out from Selzy’s own Emoji Research, adding emojis into brand’s posts boosts engagement and trust. Also, having emojis in email subject lines results in a higher click-through rate.
Set up one placement for one ad group. For example, configure your ads separately for PC — Facebook — Feed (Group 1) and Mobile devices — Instagram — Stories (Group 2). It will allow you to turn off inefficient placements separately.
Connect Facebook Lead Ads to your email service provider. This tool will automatically upload every contact you got through Facebook Lead Ads to your email list. That’s tons of manual work saved!
Most major marketing platforms are integrated with Facebook Lead Ads through Zapier. This means you need a paid Zapier account for the integration to work.
Selzy offers direct integration with Facebook Lead Ads (no Zapier account needed).
It’s free for any pricing plan.
The most straightforward way to grow your list with Pinterest is to create a pin that leads to a signup page. Here are some tips on how you can make the most of a pin like this.
Tips for Pinterest
Add value to your pin with a lead magnet to attract more leads.
Promote your lead magnet in your bio. People will start to look to you as a continual source of inspiration, and Pinterest will show your content to more people who might also be interested in your Pins.
Link multiple pins to the same destination. Create more than one pin with your lead magnet. Try different types of pins that appeal to different types of pinners.
Carefully consider the timing of your pins. Pins take months to engage but create long-term tracking. For example, summer-themed pins gain traction in early spring, and winter holiday pinning starts in June.
Join Pinterest Group Boards. Group boards expand your reach, with every pinner adding their followers to the total number of the board’s following. The easiest way to find your niche groups is to look at another blogger’s Pinterest profile who’s in a similar niche and see what group boards they belong to. You can also search on a Pinterest group board directory, like PinGroupie.
YouTube cards
Everyone knows how to promote your service/product by adding your subscription page link to the video annotation. Here’s something more exciting.
One of the easiest ways to add a call-to-action to your YouTube videos is by adding clickable call-to-action cards. The cards can appear at any point in your video (you can add up to 5 cards at a time!) and can include a link to an external website (your signup page, your lead magnet, etc.) encouraging your viewers to opt- in.
Quite a small card (with a big red arrow, though, which makes it hard to miss) on Video Creators YouTube channel with a free e-book as a lead-magnet.
To add a card to your video:
- Click on the Edit button next to the video in YouTube Video Manager (in YouTube Creator Studio)
- Click on the Cards tab in the top navigation bar.
- Choose the Link card option to add a call-to-action to visit your opt-in landing page (you’ll have to associate your website with your account first before you’ll be able to link to it).
That’s it! The viewers will see an overlay with your call-to-action right on your YouTube videos. You will also be able to view your cards report to get data on how well your call-to-action cards are converting.
Tips for YouTube cards
Place your card on a relevant video. If the video isn’t relevant to the landing page, send users to a second video that is relevant, bridging the gap.
Add more than 1 card to be able to see which one performs best.
Reddit discussions and AMAs
On Reddit, you can organize discussions around topics and communities (subreddits), which makes it especially powerful for long-lasting visibility and high-intent engagement.
There’s one catch, though: you have to make it as less promotional as possible. People don’t come to Reddit to follow brands — they come to ask questions, solve problems, and share experiences.
Tips for setting up Reddit discussions
Find relevant subreddits. Look for communities where your audience asks questions related to your niche.
Answer questions in depth. Write genuinely helpful replies that solve a specific problem. Short, generic comments rarely perform well on Reddit.
Link only when it adds value. If you’ve created a guide, checklist, or tool that directly answers the question, link to it naturally. Avoid pushing newsletters or sales pages.
Use your profile strategically. Add a link to a lead magnet or signup page in your Reddit profile. Many users will check your profile after reading a strong answer.
Host an AMA (Ask Me Anything). If you have proven expertise, running an AMA in a relevant subreddit can attract highly engaged traffic and quality subscribers.
Partner newsletters
You can grow your audience using a partner’s newsletter on a swapping or commercial basis.
Even if you’re just starting out and cannot team up with bigger brands, think of your friends/acquaintances who run a business and think of ways you could be useful to each other. This way, you will get qualified subscribers who are already used to receiving newsletters and are most loyal to new offers. As a bonus, you won’t have to set up an additional subscription form or a special ad campaign to get new subscribers, because the traffic will come from your partner.
Tips for partner newsletters
Choose a partner with a similar audience. It is important that the audience following your partner is potentially interested in your product. For example, if you organize sports competitions, you could team up with a sports clothes/fitness food brand.
Mention a freebie in the partner’s newsletter. A freebie is always a good idea, so make it your lead magnet when being mentioned in your partner’s newsletter.
Answering Quora questions
Answering Quora questions with a lead magnet, which will get you quality subscribers, seems easy. But how do you know which questions will get more traction and are worth writing a good answer? And how do you make your answer stand out so that it actually gets clicks? Here’s how.
Tips for answering Quora questions
Find the right questions in a smart way. It’s hard to find the lead-generating questions in the ocean of questions Quora has to offer. To find them, start reading as many answers as possible in relevant topics. When reading, identify a few of your favorite Quora writers in these niches. Once you’ve found your favorites, bookmark the topics they follow. Then, bookmark good questions on these topics.
Make your bio work for you. Those who see your answers are very likely to check your Quora profile. Even if you didn’t manage to get them subscribed right from your answer, you might still have a chance at the step where they will check your page, Describe what you do, and include a link to your lead magnet in your bio.
Include pictures in your answers. A study by Xerox indicated that visuals in color increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.
Sean Bestor, a top Quora writer of 2017, shares detailed practical tips on how to get massive traffic from Quora. We do recommend checking it out to fine-tune (or to give a great start to) your Quora marketing.
Direct and offline methods
Offline events
If you organize events like industry conferences or trade shows, it’s a great opportunity to grow your list. And if you don’t, you can try and partner up with those who do.
Tips for offline events
Before the event. Promote it with the QR code leading to your sign-up page.
The QR code on this flyer leads to their event registration page.
During the event. Set up the registration via a tablet on the day of the event. Even if you didn’t ask for an email to register for your event, you can still ask participants to leave their contacts on arrival. Make sure you send them an email immediately asking to confirm their registration.
Registration via tablets is usually good for big-scale events.
Resend your email a bit later (30 minutes later or in a day), if the users failed to confirm their subscription. Those who do confirm will be your quality subscribers.
After the event. Ask for an email to send a survey to assess the event experience. It’s usually a good idea to accompany that with a small bonus, like an e-book with the event highlights or a physical gift (a pen, a cup, etc).
Online chats
Online chats are often the fastest way for people to get more information about your product. Writing an email and waiting for an answer takes too much time so they click that button on the bottom-right corner of your website to start a conversation.
Make sure you show your best when engaging with a potential customer as this is exactly where your high quality leads may come from. Here’s how not to spoil that first impression people get from interacting with your brand.
Tips for online events
Set up a message autoresponder. When website visitors send you a question via online chat, they might sometimes have to wait while your operators go online. The autoresponder will ask them to leave an email so you can send the answer later.
Use online chat software to save time. You don’t need coding skills to launch a professional online chat on your website. It’s easier than you might think. Check this list of the best online chat software to use in 2025.
Chatbots
Userlike study showed that 68% of consumers like chatbots because they provide quick answers. Seems like chat-bots are indeed that one miracle solution, that will magically grow your email list, right? Yes and no.
Tips for chatbots
Offer an incentive. Offer a useful guide, a study, or a popular article — something that your user will be happy to share an email for.
Don’t ask for an email immediately. Set it up in such a way that a user is first engaged in a conversation and is asked to leave an email only later.
QR-codes in presentations
If you frequently make presentations at conferences and webinars, you can use it as an additional channel to grow your email list. Though it won’t be massive, the quality of the subscribers you will get via this channel is extremely high. Just think of it: they listened to/read your presentation and got so interested in your stuff that they decided to subscribe.
Tips for QR-codes in presentations
Put your presentation on your website and share it on social media to make an evergreen lead magnet and never stop getting subscribers from it.
Retargeting channels
Retargeting
Sometimes old school ways are cool. Retargeting is one of them. It works pretty straightforward: retargeted ads are shown on Facebook/Instagram to those who have already visited your website and remind them to take an action (to make a purchase, for example).
In most cases, brands use retargeting to remind you about the items you looked at but didn’t buy. If your goal is to make users subscribe (and nurture them further with your email series), you might want to use your subscription page as a landing page for the retargeted ads.
A retargeted ad with a subscription link is a way to aim for longer-term relationships with your website’s visitors. Instead of trying to convert immediately (and eventually giving up), try to keep in touch with your potential customers until they’re ready to convert. That is especially true for expensive products.
Imagine you’ve just spent a few minutes browsing through some cool audio systems for your home. You’re not ready to buy yet, but you already see a small push to make a purchase on your Facebook feed:
You probably forget about it a second after you scroll down, as you’re not ready to buy it yet anyway. And what if you see this:
“Did you just say special sales…? Maybe one day that sound system will come with a 50% off!”
Even if you’re not ready for a purchase, you’re definitely interested in getting those special deals. It’s free to subscribe, too.
Tips for retargeting
Set up and automate a relevant email drip campaign for those who came via retargeting. Make sure you automate a welcome series of emails for these subscribers. An automatic welcome mail will be sent out immediately after a user has subscribed, while manual sending might delay things and lower the interest of subscribers.
Test and tweak until you have good results. Test out different images, copy, CTAs to see what your audience responds to best. We recommend launching several ads at a time (with different copy, images, and CTAs), monitor how they work, identify the best-performing ones and switch off the rest.
Use a lead magnet to boost motivation to opt in.
Use Facebook Lead Ads to allow people to subscribe right from the newsfeed.
FAQ about email list building
What is email list building?
Email list building is collecting email addresses from people who have given permission to receive messages from your business.
It typically involves signup forms, lead magnets, landing pages, and other opt-in methods that allow you to grow a list of subscribers you can contact directly for marketing, education, or relationship-building purposes.
How long does it take to build an email list?
Building an email list can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on traffic, offers, and promotion channels.
With consistent effort, many businesses see their first meaningful results within 30–90 days. Long-term growth depends more on quality content and trust than speed.
Why can I not just buy a list, to start with?
If you buy a list, people on this list did not give consent to receive emails from you. It’s illegal to send emails to somebody who didn’t give their consent to this. Even if you still do, they will most likely mark you as spam. Too much spam marking leads to extremely poor deliverability. That’s rarely the way to start a sustainable business.
What’s the fastest way to grow an email list?
The fastest way to grow an email list is to combine a strong incentive with high-visibility distribution.
This often includes lead magnets, paid ads, partnerships, or pop-ups targeted at existing website traffic. While speed matters, fast growth should never come at the expense of consent or list quality.
How big should an email list be?
There is no “ideal” size for an email list because effectiveness matters more than numbers.
A small, engaged list can outperform a much larger inactive one in opens, clicks, and conversions. The goal should be steady growth paired with engagement, relevance, and deliverability.
Guide contributors
Evgenia Budrina — Selzy’s Business Development Manager and inspirational leader. Email marketing addict. Former obstacle race company CMO.
Tatiana Zotina — University professor, copywriter and email marketing aficionado. Keen on learning new things and exploring the world.
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