6 Steps to Building Your Email List With Facebook

Are you offering your donors a carrot? (Photo by kathryn_rotondo)

For many nonprofits, email is the bridge that Facebook fans frequently walk across on their way to becoming a donor. This means having a smart email marketing strategy, in addition to a smart Facebook strategy.

Here are five tips for building your email list with Facebook:

1. Offer a Big Carrot

Before you stick an opt-in form on your Facebook Page, be clear about the carrot you’ll offer in exchange for their name and email. You can do this in a few ways:

2. Put an Opt-in Form on Your Facebook Page

The Case Foundation uses the Mail Chimp Facebook app to add a simple but effective opt-in form to their Page (as shown below). You can also use Static HTML: frame tabs or ShortStack (my personal fav).

case foundation

3. Design For Action, Not Awards

international fellows
Don’t get OCD about creating a beautiful tab. Design for action, not awards. A few ideas:

4. Make it Mobile

mobile friendly

Custom tabs are not viewable on mobile devices, unless you create tabs with a tool like Shortstack or Static HTML: frame tabs which offer smart URLs that display a mobile version of your app.

5. Promote Your List with Updates and Ads

updates

People won’t visit your custom tab just because you built it. You have to post updates, and use Facebook ads to promote it!

In the description of photos, encourage fans to subscribe to your email list to get the inside story. Or share a photo and ask people to take a pledge, like The Human Society of the United States does here (shown above).

6. Measure, Measure, Measure

facebook page conversions
One way to easily measure which approach is working is to to create a unique form specifically for your Facebook custom tab.

This will allow you to see how it performs compared to other places where you’re collecting emails (in the example above, I learned that Facebook converts better than my blog).

How have you acquired emails on Facebook?

3 thoughts on “6 Steps to Building Your Email List With Facebook”

  1. Pingback: Usability, Email List Facebook, Meme Makers, Search Optimize PinterestCurious Light Web Design

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