Email Subscriber

An email subscriber is an individual who opts in to receive regular email communications from a specific brand. By voluntarily subscribing to email newsletters, subscribers initiate a relationship with the brand that ideally grows into a mutually beneficial connection. This allows the brand to share relevant updates, promotions, and content while subscribers gain access to exclusive information and offers tailored to their interests.

In this article, we’ll discover the importance of email subscribers and the acquisition cost. We’ll also show you how to get and calculate email subscribers.

Why are email subscribers important?

Email subscribers are essential for every business for a number of reasons, including future sales, brand recognition, advocacy, customer base, etc. In this section, we’ll discover the benefits in detail.

• They form an engaged audience. In email marketing, a subscription narrows the audience and extends the opportunities for dealing with committed people. They willingly share their email addresses in exchange for something worth subscribing to, like exclusive offers and discounts, valuable materials and news, assistance in making a choice, etc.
• They provide you with a direct communication channel. Email marketing is an excellent way to establish direct contact with potential customers. By sharing relevant content, personalized recommendations, and solutions to subscribers’ problems, marketers can establish good relationships and encourage trust.
• They provide you with feedback. Email subscribers can share various types of feedback and reviews with your company. If you want to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign, the quality of your product, or the relevance of the content you produce, you can ask subscribers to share their opinions. You can always send an evaluation campaign and invite them to rate something or answer many questions.
• They are your potential customers and brand advocates. If the quality of products is high and the prices are reasonable, subscribers will naturally become customers. With the correct strategy, some of them may buy more than once, turning into zealous brand advocates.
• They provide you with lots of insightful information. You can ask for more than an email address during the subscription: a person’s name, country, gender, age, and phone number to send SMS alongside emails. On this basis, you can create personalized and segmented email promotions, birthday marketing campaigns, newsletters, etc.
• They can support other marketing channels. When subscribers see a company’s ad on social media or search engines, they are more likely to convert once they receive an email containing a special offer. By combining several channels, marketers increase the chances of their marketing messages being noticed. The same applies when you organize online and offline events. By sending subscribers announcements and reminders, companies ensure that they know about the event and can become participants.

Now that you know the reasons for getting more email subscribers, it’s time to unveil the costs associated with acquiring them.

Email Subscriber Acquisition Cost

When you're thinking about growing your email list, you should always consider factors associated with costs. This section will unveil what email subscriber acquisition cost is, why it’s important, and how to calculate it.

Email subscriber acquisition cost is a metric that evaluates how much it costs for a business to obtain new subscribers. It covers costs associated with content creation, paid ads on search engines, influencer marketing, sponsored ads on social media networks, labor, and landing page design. Marketers keep an eye on this indicator because it enables them to measure the ROI each email campaign brings.

To calculate the metric, you can use the following formula:

Email Subscriber Acquisition Cost = Total Cost of Acquisition Campaign / Number of New Subscribers Acquired.

Imagine you invested $1,350 in your campaigns and successfully grew your mailing list by 653 new subscribers. Now, let’s calculate the cost per subscriber based on these numbers:

Email Subscriber Acquisition Cost = $1350/653 = 2.1.

From the calculations above, you can see that it costs you $2.1 to bring one new subscriber to your business.

In short, marketers calculate this metric for several key reasons: to assess campaign effectiveness, optimize resource allocation, evaluate ROI, and plan for scaling. With its help, company owners can figure out whether they don’t overpay to acquire new subscribers and grow their business.

However, before calculating email subscriber acquisition cost, you need to bring new people to your brand. Below, you’ll find a list of useful techniques enabling you to attract new subscribers.

How to Get Email Subscribers

There are numerous techniques you can use to bring new subscribers, but some of them might not be as effective as expected. That’s why we’ll provide you with recommendations that will help you succeed.

Create a subscription form

When users enjoy your website, they may consider subscribing to your content and updates. Having a readily accessible subscription form makes it easier for them to sign up and stay connected. With SendPulse, you can create a multichannel subscription form adding links to your messengers.

Below is a simple subscription form created on Studio Three Fitness Studio’s site.

Add a lead magnet

It is almost the same as a subscription form but supplied with a rewarding reason to subscribe. It could be a free e-book or guide, a month free trial, or whatever your future subscribers may find curious and worth subscribing to. Add an active call to action and support it with an image that illustrates the benefit.

Below, you can see how Litmus encourages site visitors to subscribe to the company’s email newsletter in exchange for “The State of Email Innovations” report.

Set up double opt-in

Using a double opt-in method ensures that your audience is genuinely interested in hearing from you. This approach involves two steps: first, you request an email address; second, you send a confirmation email to verify that the subscriber is a real person who wants to receive your communications.

Below, you can see how WizzAir checks whether the person is real by using double opt-in.

Smooth out the subscription process

Let users subscribe in a couple of clicks, and make sure it is easy to type in the email address. Double opt-in is enough.

Below, you can see a simple sign-up form from Sephora. Users only need to insert their email addresses to get updates to their inboxes.

Set the right expectations

Clearly communicate to your subscribers what they can expect—whether it's a newsletter twice a month or daily promotions and offers. You can take it further by giving them control over their subscriptions, allowing them to adjust email frequency and select the content they want to receive. Once subscribers confirm their subscription, direct them to a thank-you page where you express your gratitude, reassure them that you're committed to providing value, and promise to deliver helpful and relevant content.

Below is an example of a subscription form from SendPulse where users can choose what information they prefer to receive in their inboxes.

Create an exit-intent popup

Consider adding exit-intent popups to your website if you want more subscribers. When site visitors are about to leave your site, you can remind them about your brand once again. Enticing offers and discounts for the sign-up will increase the chances of people joining your mailing list. As a result, some of them will provide you with email addresses before closing the tab.

Below, you will find an exit-intent popup from Rhode.

Allow subscribers to set their newsletter preferences

If you want to keep your email subscribers, allow them to set preferences based on their needs and requirements. It will help you increase satisfaction and avoid churn.

Below, you can see that Birkenstock encourages subscribers to update their preferences as soon as needed.

Incorporate gamification

Turning your subscription form into something interesting will grasp users' attention and make them interact. Gamification is one of the best ways to do it. You can invite people to spin the wheel and get perks like discounts, gifts, materials, reports, e-books, webinars, etc.

Below, you can see how effectively Neil Patel connects with potential subscribers using gamification.

Provide a reward for the subscription

You can motivate site visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter by offering them a reward, such as a discount or a gift with their first purchase. This incentive can encourage users to sign up for your email campaigns more quickly and increase conversions.

Below, you can see that L’occitane invites people to access exclusive product launches and beauty trends and get $20 off the first purchase.

Give a free trial in exchange for email sign-up

Consider adding a section on your website where users can provide their email addresses in exchange for a free trial of your product or service. This is a great way to grow your mailing list and generate more leads. If site visitors want to try out your product, they'll be more than willing to share their email addresses.

Below, you will find how ActiveCampaign shares a free trial with site visitors.

Now that you know some effective ways to bring new subscribers, it’s time to figure out how to calculate them. It will help you understand how effective your marketing campaigns and efforts are.

How to calculate email subscribers?

The success of your business starts with email subscribers who can turn into customers over time. That’s why you should understand how to estimate them. We’ll show how to do it effortlessly in this section.

The easiest way to calculate your email subscribers is by monitoring the total number of people who have signed up for your email newsletters during a specific period like a week, month, or year. You can do it by keeping an eye on sign-ups on channels you use for promotion, like websites, social media platforms, email campaigns, pop-ups, etc.

By comparing the numbers for different periods, you can evaluate growth and people’s interests on a general level. However, if you aim not only to understand the total number of subscribers on your list but also to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, you should identify new subscribers, growth rate, and churn rate. Let’s explore formulas that allow you to calculate these measures.

To estimate new subscribers, you should use the following formula:

New Subscribers = Total Subscribers at End of Period - Total Subscribers at Start of Period

So, when you have 123 total subscribers at the beginning of the month and then get 245 at the end of the same month, it means that you managed to acquire 122 new subscribers during this period.

If you aim to calculate how fast your email list grows over a specific period, you should use the formula below to get a subscriber growth rate.

Subscriber Growth Rate = (New Subscribers / Total Subscribers at Start of Period) x 100%

Let’s say you had 647 subscribers at the beginning of a month, and then you succeeded in bringing 210 new subscribers during three months. Let’s estimate what subscriber growth rate you’ll have.

Subscriber Growth Rate = (210 / 647) x 100% = 30%

It means that your mailing list grew by 30% during these three months.

Additionally, while tracking the number of subscribers you've gained over a specific period, it's equally important to monitor churn. This will help you assess the effectiveness of your email campaigns and the quality of the content you're delivering.

You can calculate the churn rate by using the following formula:

Churn Rate = (Unsubscribed Users / Total Number of Subscribers at Beginning of Period) x 100%

Let’s say you started the month with 1,300 subscribers, and by the end of the month, you have 1,250. This means 50 people unsubscribed. Let’s calculate the churn rate.

Churn Rate = (50 / 1300) x 100% = 3.8%

This means that you’ve lost 3.8% of subscribers during that month.

Overall, email subscribers are a crucial asset for any business, as they can ultimately transform into customers or, at the very least, become brand advocates. By providing personalized and valuable content to your email subscribers, you gain an additional direct communication channel, boost brand awareness, deliver value, and drive conversions.

Last Updated: 13.11.2024