How To Build an Email List With Petitions

One lesson that every campaign operative needs to learn is how to build an email list. That begs the question: What is the best way to build an email list? Use petitions.

Petitions are simple landing pages that collect a supporter’s name and email address so you can add them to your email list of supporters.

Petitions are the single most reliable tool that can be used to gather information on supporters who actually believe in your cause and will take action for your campaign.

We’ll explain how to use petitions to grow your email list of supporters and raise more money!

Find a landing page platform

Choosing a platform that allows you to easily create landing pages for your petitions is critical.

Being able to create and publish petitions quickly will allow you to capitalize on news stories and current events. As a result, this allows you to capture more emails. So, having a platform that allows you to quickly create those pages and customize them to your liking is important.

Pro-tip: Always maximize your thank you page by sending the supporter to a donation page, an ask to share the petition with their friends, or your website after their signature. This will capitalize on their interest and lead to a more engaged audience member.

If you don’t already have a platform for landing pages, consider using Anedot! We have drag-and-drop landing pages that can be created in minutes.

You can use them to capture non-donation information to build your email list. We have made it easy for you to customize pages and convert new leads quickly!

→ Get started on Anedot for free!

Choose a topic

The topic of your petition is the most crucial element to the success of a petition campaign. You must choose a topic that is timely and relevant to your audience.

You’ll quickly get a sense of the issues that fire up your supporters, so make sure you are responsive to the topics that have the highest conversion rates.

If you try to promote a petition that your audience isn’t immediately concerned about, you will get far fewer email signups.

Create copy

A well-written petition should communicate the urgency of the problem and the need for action.

It should describe the people involved and the problem they are facing. Readers are most likely to take action when they understand who is affected by the issue at hand.

You should also provide a solution with a strong call-to-action. Tell them why you urgently need their response and what their signature will mean for the cause. The greater the urgency, the greater the conversion rates will be.

Pro-tip: The copy for your landing page, donation page, social media, and text messaging should all match each other in order to maximize your conversions along each step.

Promote your petition

After you’ve selected a topic, written copy, and created your landing pages, it’s time to promote your petition.

You can use text messages and social media to share your petition to gather email addresses, but Facebook should be your main focus for promotion. Paid Facebook advertising leads to the largest amount of new conversions of any online tool.

Start by promoting the petitions to supporters who already follow you on Facebook. They’re ready to take action and it will give you a good indication of whether your topic is worthwhile. Then you can create Facebook ads and target them to specific audiences that are likely to respond to your ad.

Create as many petitions on as many topics as you’d like. The wider you cast your net, the larger the list of supporters you’ll get! By doing this, you’ll grow your list of potential supporters who think multiple issues are crucial, and you can target them with emails you think they’ll most likely react to.

Engage your new supporters

After just a few days of running your petition campaign, you should have a list of supporters who you can target with email and start asking for donations!

With an engaged list of online supporters, your donations will come flowing in. Just remember to give them something to care about, and always give them an opportunity to donate!