Simple and easy ways to collect email addresses.
- Place an offer to join your mailing list on the back of your business cards.
- Participating in a trade-shows: Offer to sign-up people right on the spot using a tablet-let them know, of course, they will receive an email to confirm their membership
- Include a newsletter sign-up link in your email signature block.
Invite your address book members to join your list.- Join the local Chamber of Commerce, email the member list, introduce yourself, with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
- Host your own event – and request attendees to sign up with their email address.
- Offer a birthday club; give something special to people who sign up.
- Incentivize your employees – Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
- Give away something for free on your website, like a PDF. Ask website visitors to sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
- Referrals – Ask your customers to refer your company in email, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount.
Bounce-backs – Get them back! – Send a postcard or make a phone call and ask for their updated email address.- Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
- SEO – Make sure you optimize your site for keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services. Include a link to join your list in the email envelope.
- Giveaways – Collect email addresses by offering something tangible in exchange for their email address as well as their postal address. e.g. a bottle of water or key-chain
- Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
- Include opt-in offer to join your mailing list on every page on your website.
- Popup windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
- Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone.
- Offer a community – Use Ning (https://www.ning.com/) as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
- Offer “Email only” discounts
- Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
- Put a fishbowl on your counter , collect business cards (and ask for their email if not included) for a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter.
- Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
- Join a group like BNI, ask members to join your list.
Use Facebook – Host your own discussion group. Ask people to join your mailing list for more information. - Post the hosted link to your newsletter on all your social media accounts.
- Include an opt-in form link on your Facebook Fan page.
- Every purchase made is an opportunity to collect an address.
- Use Twitter – Tweet the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch. If you’ve got any additional ideas, let’s hear them!