How to Get More Email Subscribers in 2025

Your email list is your most powerful marketing asset—if you build it the right way.

However, it’s vital to build your email list the right way. Just collecting the emails of hundreds of uninterested people who only want free stuff won’t help. 

The best way to refine your email marketing strategy and ensure high click-through rates is to be aware of the latest trends and developments in digital marketing. For example, how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to encourage people to sign up.

In this article, I’ll show you how to get email subscribers and how to provide value in every email campaign you send.

Key Takeaways

• Using AI to deliver personalized opt-in incentives and segmented email campaigns will significantly improve conversion rates. 
• Features like one-click signups, chatbot-assisted opt-ins, and mobile-friendly forms make it easier than ever for users to subscribe.
• With the decline of third-party cookies, email lists remain one of the most reliable owned assets for targeted marketing. 
• Tactics like spin-to-win discounts, quizzes, and referral challenges can help grow your email list in a fun and engaging way.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• 1. Craft a Compelling, Irresistible Offer
• 2. Make It Incredibly Easy to Subscribe
• 3. Use AI-Powered Personalization
• 4. Optimize Your Signup Forms for Mobile Users
• 5. Leverage QR Codes in Strategic Locations
• 6. Engage New Subscribers Immediately with a Thank-You Page
• 7. Allow Subscribers to Choose Their Preferences
• 8. Grow Your List Through Social Media & Communities
• 9. Improve Your Subject Lines with AI & Data Insights
• 10. Use Gamification to Encourage Signups
• 11. Turn Your Email Preview into a Click Magnet
• FAQs
• Conclusion

1. Craft a Compelling, Irresistible Offer

Signing up for an email marketing list is a trade-off. Subscribers are giving you their valuable personal details, so you need to give them something good in exchange.

If you want to get more email subscribers, you need an offer that converts.

Understanding your target audience is key. What are their pain points and what can you offer that solves their problems?

You could offer:

• A discount code or special offer.
• An e-book.
• A downloadable template.
• A webinar or training course.
• An interactive quiz.

AI-generated lead magnets are big news—coauthor.studio broke the internet at the end of 2024 with its LinkedIn Rewind, which used AI to analyze users’ LinkedIn feeds.

2. Make It Incredibly Easy to Subscribe

A long, complicated signup process kills conversions. Make it seamless.

If you ask for lots of unnecessary data or your form doesn’t provide a good user experience, they’ll give up and move on.

It’s best to ask for as little information as possible. While an email address is the absolute minimum, you might want more data. For example, if you want to offer email subscribers a treat on their birthday, you might also ask for their date of birth.

You can take advantage of one-click signups, where subscribers can sign up with an existing login, like a Facebook, Google, or Apple account.

Alternatively, if you use a chatbot, you can connect it to your email marketing platform and add visitor’s email addresses to it (with their permission of course.)

According to Statista, 97 percent of businesses that use chatbots have noticed an increase in lead generation.

Here’s another handy hint. Place your email signup form in a prominent place so people can’t miss it. Adding it to your website footer, putting it in a user-friendly pop-up, and placing it at the top of your page (“above the fold”) will make it easier for site visitors to spot. 

3. Use AI-Powered Personalization

Personalization is vital if you want to build engagement—71 percent of consumers expect personalization, and 76 percent get annoyed if brands don’t personalize their marketing.

Generic emails don’t cut it anymore—AI makes hyper-personalization easy.

You can use AI tools to:

• Create smart email signup pop-ups that show the right message to the right customer based on which pages they’ve viewed.
• Quickly and accurately analyze data about your subscribers.
• Segment your subscribers into highly targeted groups.
• Create dynamic content that changes based on your individual subscribers’ interests, for example, personalized product recommendations.
• Determine the best date and time to send emails.

4. Optimize Your Signup Forms for Mobile Users

Over 60 percent of internet traffic comes from people using mobile devices.

This means your lead capture pages and email capture forms need to be mobile-responsive.

Here’s what to do to ensure your signup forms work on mobile:

• Implement autocomplete so visitors don’t have to type in their details.
• Make sure all elements (for example, call-to-action buttons and close buttons) are easy to click and well-spaced out.
• Optimize images to make sure your pop-up/form doesn’t load slowly or cause performance issues.
• Test your signups on various devices – a form may look and function differently on Android than on iOS.
• Use pop-ups rather than interstitial ads, which take over the whole screen. Interstitials can frustrate visitors and cause SEO issues if not implemented in line with Google guidelines.

5. Leverage QR Codes in Strategic Locations

QR codes bridge the gap between offline and online, making it easy to collect emails anywhere.

Quick Response (QR) codes are a simple way to encourage people to sign up for an email list even when they’re not online. All they need to do is scan them with their phone, and the code will automatically take them to a signup page.

You can add QR codes to your business cards, catalogs, leaflets, and out-of-home (OOH) adverts. You can even recreate your QR code using unconventional materials, like Marks & Spencer!

Here’s how to make the most of your QR codes:

• Make sure the signup pages they point to are mobile-friendly, as people will access them using mobile devices.
• Ensure people can scan your codes safely. For example, you don’t want people to pull out their phones while driving.
• Use dynamic QR code software. This allows you to track the success of your QR codes and amend the link the code points to.

6. Engage New Subscribers Immediately with a Thank-You Page

The thank-you page after a subscriber signs up for your email list is one of the most underrated places to grow your email list.

You can use it to encourage customers to buy straight away or direct them to resources that show you offer added value as a brand.

Here are some things you can do to customize your thank-you page:

• Tell customers more about you and what they can expect to see in your emails.
• Offer an exclusive discount.
• Provide a free download.
• Include a personalized video message thanking them for signing up.
• Provide links to relevant pages or your social media accounts.

My favorite idea is to use your confirmation page to get other people to sign up for your email newsletter. You can create a referral campaign and offer great things to subscribers who get other people to sign up.

This means you get more email subscribers and your customers become more loyal to your brand—win-win!

7. Allow Subscribers to Choose Their Preferences

Too many emails? People will hit ‘unsubscribe.’ Give them options instead.

For someone who can’t keep up with all the emails you’re sending, don’t force them to unsubscribe. Instead, offer a “light” subscription, or an alternative plan.

Offering a plan customized to their needs and lifestyle means subscribers are more likely to read and engage with your content.

For example, you could offer the standard subscription with a few emails a week, a digest email with just one message per week, and a monthly review that summarizes everything.

If you talk about a variety of subjects, you can also split your email newsletters by topic so email subscribers can sign up for the emails they’re most interested in.

Give email subscribers the option to choose their preferences when they sign up, and include a link to change their preferences in all the emails you send.

AI can also help. Personalization platforms like Bloomreach look at your email subscribers’ data to identify the best time to send individual emails, maximizing the chances of subscribers opening your messages.

8. Grow Your List Through Social Media & Communities

Your website isn’t the only place to capture emails—leverage social media too, especially if you already have a dedicated following.

I recommend creating a targeted landing page specifically for your social media followers. You can then promote it across your posts and in any relevant call-to-actions, for example, on Instagram Stories, at the end of your YouTube videos, and on X Spaces.

You can also promote your link in any communities you regularly engage with, like Facebook and LinkedIn Groups.

Another good option if you want to get more email subscribers is paid social advertising. This allows you to reach new audiences and target highly specific prospective subscribers.

9. Improve Your Subject Lines with AI & Data Insights

35 percent of customers open emails based solely on the subject line, so optimizing your email subject lines can increase the odds of making that all-important sale.

AI has made it easier than ever to create high-quality subject lines. There are tools out there that will generate punchy subject lines for you.

You can also use AI tools to analyze the success of your previous emails and see which subject lines will lead to the best results.

Here’s another great way you can use AI—to personalize subject lines for each recipient based on the products and services they buy and the pages they visit.

You can analyze and personalize your email subject lines manually, but AI means you can work smarter, not harder.

10. Use Gamification to Encourage Signups

Gamification is when you use video game elements on your website and marketing channels to encourage visitors to participate and engage.

It’s a great way to encourage prospective customers to interact with you—it can increase engagement by up to 47 percent!

How can you use gamification to get more email subscribers? A frequently used tactic is to employ a “spin the wheel” pop-up where email subscribers get a randomized discount when they sign up.

If you encourage email subscribers to refer new subscribers to you, you can also implement a leaderboard where they can see how many referrals they have brought in compared to their peers.

11. Turn Your Email Preview into a Click Magnet

Email clients like Outlook and Gmail show snippets of the email in a small preview line after the subject. This is valuable screen real estate.

Think of your email preview like a bonus subject line—you can use it to encourage subscribers to open your email and keep reading!

According to Mailjet, a good email preview can lead to a seven percent higher open rate.

Here’s how to create a killer email preview:

• Keep it short—between 40 to 90 characters.
• Include the most important information first.
• Use FOMO to create a sense of urgency and compel subscribers to click.
• Take advantage of AI tools to generate potential ideas (I use the same ones that I do for my subject lines.)
• Test different preview lines to see which lead to the highest open and click-through rates.

Remember that some email clients might not show your email preview and it may not be visible on some mobile devices.

FAQs

Does Total Email Subscribers Matter?

While a high number of email subscribers is fantastic and can motivate you to create high-quality content, engagement is a far more important metric.

You want your subscribers to open your emails, click on links and call-to-actions, and most importantly, buy your products and services.

Quality is far better than quantity!

How Do You Create an Email Subscriber List?

You can create an email subscriber list by understanding your target audience and their pain points. You can then create an email signup page that appeals to them—you can persuade them to subscribe by offering them a free download or a discount code.

You then need to promote your email signup page, for example, through social media or on your website’s footer.

It’s vital that everyone on your email subscriber list has given consent. You can’t put people on your list without their permission.

How Can You Make Money With an Email Subscriber List?

You can monetize your email subscriber list by:

Selling paid ad spots in your newsletter.

Sending everyone on your list special deals and incentives.

Giving subscribers access to content that gets them in the funnel even if they aren’t ready to make a purchase yet.

Conclusion

Growing your email subscriber list can seem daunting, especially if you’re new to email marketing or are starting from zero. 

However, you can increase your odds of success by implementing a few key techniques and taking advantage of AI and automation.

Remember that while getting more email subscribers is great, engagement is critical. You could have a million subscribers, but if they don’t open or click your emails, it’s all for nothing.

Let me leave you with one final tip for how to get more email subscribers. Think about the call-to-actions you use on your email signup page and in your emails. 

Experiment with your wording and A/B test your call-to-actions to see which drive the best results.