Mailing List & SubscribersMultichannel Marketing

Collecting Email Contacts With Facebook

Woman showing Facebook icon - growing email list through Facebook
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Woman showing Facebook icon - growing email list through Facebook
Source: Freepik

As a business owner, building and growing your email list is essential to your success. And with more than 2.96 billion monthly active users, Facebook presents a massive opportunity to collect email contacts and grow your list. In fact, businesses that use Facebook to collect email contacts have been found to grow their lists by 2.5 times faster than those that don’t. In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of collecting email contacts from Facebook, share some statistics and examples, and provide a practical guide on collecting email contacts from Facebook. 

Why Collecting Email Contacts from Facebook is Good for Business

Collecting email contacts from Facebook is an effective way to reach a wider audience and build your mailing list. By using Facebook’s powerful targeting options, you can ensure that your email campaigns will reach the right people. Plus, Facebook’s user base is so vast that it can help you connect with potential customers who may not have found you otherwise. In addition, collecting email contacts from Facebook is a cost-effective way to build your list, as you don’t solely need to rely on paid advertising. 

Statistics

Businesses that use Facebook to collect email contacts have seen impressive results. Integrating their email marketing and Facebook efforts can enable companies to see a 22% increase in their marketing campaign effectiveness. Another Hubspot research suggested that in 2023, Facebook is set to experience noteworthy expansion as per a survey that states that 23% of social media marketers intend to allocate a larger budget to it than any other platform. Additionally, 43% of marketers are planning to enhance their investment in Facebook. 

How to Collect Email Contacts from Facebook

Now that we’ve covered why collecting email contacts from Facebook is beneficial, we should discuss how you can do it. Unfortunately, the possibility of adding a registration form directly to your company’s Facebook page ended in 2023 (as an example, the WooBox Custom Tab application was used for this). Fortunately, there are a few more tactics and various examples for expanding your mailing list through the platform. Let’s review the best options among them.

Use Facebook Lead Ads

Facebook Lead Ads allow you to collect email contacts directly from Facebook by creating an ad that includes a sign-up form. When a user clicks on the ad, the form is automatically populated with their information, making it quick and easy to sign up.

Step 1: Create the Lead Ad

To create a Facebook Lead Ad, go to your Facebook Ads Manager and click “Create” to create a new ad. From there, select “Lead Generation” as your ad objective and choose your target audience, budget, and the ad’s placement.

Next, you’ll need to create your lead form. Facebook Lead Ads allow you to create a custom form that collects the information you need, such as name and email address. Once you’ve created your form, you can preview it to ensure it looks the way you want it to.

Step 2: Integrate Your Lead Ad with Your Email Marketing Platform

To ensure that the email contacts you collect from Facebook are automatically added to your mailing list, you’ll need to integrate your lead ad with your email marketing platform. Facebook integrates with many email marketing platforms.

To integrate your lead ad, go to your Facebook Ads Manager and select the lead ad you created. From there, select “Settings” and click on “CRM Integration.” Choose your email marketing platform and follow the prompts to connect your account. Make can also be used to connect Smaily and Facebook Lead Ads easily in a few clicks, while Smaily’s support can also help companies create this integration. 

Step 3: Monitor and Optimize Your Lead Ad

Once your lead ad is up and running, it’s important to monitor its performance and make adjustments as needed. Use Facebook’s ad reporting tools to track metrics such as click-through rates and conversion rates and adjust your ad targeting and messaging as necessary to optimize your results.

Facebook Lead Ads is a powerful tool for collecting email contacts and growing your mailing list. By creating custom lead forms and integrating them with your email marketing platform, you can ensure that your email campaigns are reaching a wider audience and driving results. And with Facebook’s robust ad reporting tools, it’s easy to monitor and optimize your lead ads for maximum impact. 

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Source: Freepik

Run a Facebook Contest

Running a contest is a great way to engage your audience, and it also works well for collecting email contacts from Facebook. Simply create a post that promotes the contest and requires users to enter their email addresses to participate. Here are some examples of how to run a successful Facebook contest that will help you grow your mailing list.

  • Comment-based competition. This kind of contest is very popular on Facebook. Run a prize game by asking participants to comment on your company’s post and sign up for your company’s mailing list by providing their email addresses. Choose a prize that is relevant to your audience and motivates them to participate.
  • Run a quiz. Why not host a quiz related to your industry or brand? To select or draw winners based on the highest scores, participants can send you their answers via their email addresses. If you prefer a shorter quiz, you can ask one question and request that participants provide their answers in the comments section. The prize can be drawn from those who answer correctly. For example, you could ask a question about a certain number related to your business, such as the number of hours spent developing a product or the number of annual store visitors. This approach ensures that the correct answer is not immediately obvious, and it also adds an element of competitiveness to motivate more people to participate.
  • Photo or video contest. Encourage users to submit a photo or video related to your business or brand (in addition to their email address). You can then choose a winner based on the most creative or relevant submission.
  • Referral contest. Encourage users to refer their friends to your business or brand. For each referral, the user will receive an entry into the contest, and they must provide their email address to participate.
  • Title or name contest. You can post a photo related to your company or brand and invite users to add a creative caption. Another approach is to launch a naming contest for one of your newly created products, which allows participants to have a say in your brand story. To enter the contest, a participant has to provide their email address. Once all entries have been received, you will select the winner based on the most creative or humorous title that fits your product best.

To ensure a successful Facebook contest, it is crucial to adhere to all of Facebook’s guidelines and regulations. This includes providing clear rules and guidelines for contest entry and outlining the process for determining the winner. It is also important to state in your post that the Facebook platform does not endorse or sponsor your contest in any way. We recommend you always review the latest Meta rules before making your contest public, and also obviously follow local laws.

By following these rules and guidelines, you can create a contest that is engaging and relevant to your company’s audience. Moreover, you can collect email contacts and expand your email list successfully.

Add the registration form’s link to your Facebook page

By adding a link to the signup form on your Facebook page, you make it easy for users to join your mailing list, because they don’t have to go to another page on Facebook to find the signup page. Below we outline a couple of steps to follow.

Step 1: Create a Sign-Up Form

First, you’ll need to create a sign-up form for your email list. For example, you can use Smaily to create a custom form for your company that includes fields for entering a name, email address, and other information. In Smaily, you can create a custom form using a landing page. Here you will find a tutorial on how to create a landing page using Smaily.

Be sure to customize your sign-up form to match your brand messaging. Be sure to include a clear call-to-action that encourages users to sign up for your email list.

Step 2: add the link of the subscription form to your company’s Facebook post

To promote the registration form, you can create a post on your Facebook page that explains the benefits of joining the mailing list and includes a link to the registration form. You can also consider using Facebook ads to promote your signup form to a wider audience.

Best Practices for Adding a Sign-Up Form on Your Facebook Page

  • Make it easy to find.  The post containing the link to your sign-up form should be prominently displayed on your Facebook page so visitors can easily find it. So that it is constantly visible on your page, you can change it to a pinned post. In this way, it is always at the beginning of the company’s page and is immediately noticeable to visitors.
  • Add a signup form link to the “about” section. Instead of the company’s wall, many visitors surf on their descriptive “about” page, where basic information about the company is included. By adding a link to the subscription form there, you will increase the number of members of the mailing list coming through Facebook.
  • Offer an incentive. Consider offering an incentive, such as a discount or exclusive content, to encourage users to sign up for your email list.
  • Keep it simple. Your sign-up form should be simple and easy to fill out, with only a few required fields.
  • Test and optimize. Use Facebook’s ad reporting tools to track the performance of your sign-up form and make adjustments as needed to optimize your results.

By following these best practices and including a sign-up form on your Facebook page, you can successfully collect email contacts and grow your mailing list.

Marketing team holding a Facebook logo showing thumbs up sign
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Conclusion

Collecting email contacts from Facebook is a powerful way to grow your list and reach a wider audience. By using Facebook’s targeting options, you can ensure that your email campaigns are reaching the right people while also saving money on advertising costs. And with tactics like using Facebook Lead Ads, running contests, and sharing sign-up forms, it’s easy to get started. So, if you’re looking to boost your email marketing efforts, consider collecting email contacts from Facebook and watch your list grow!