VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business: 29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business

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September 15, 2009

29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business

There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your email marketing offers. I've put together a list for you to read, so you know all of the ways you can be growing your list.

1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Tradeshows - Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
4. Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it's opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
6. Host your own event - Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
7. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
8. Incentivize your employees - Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
9. Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
10. Referrals - Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you'll give them a discount.
11. Bouncebacks – Get them back! - Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
12. Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
13. SEO - Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services.
14. Giveaways - Send people something physical and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
15. 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.
16. Include opt-in forms on every page on your site.
17. Popup windows - When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
18. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
19. Include a forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
20. Offer a community - Use Ning as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer "Email only" discounts and don't use those offers anywhere but email.
22. Telemarketing - If you've got people on the phone, don't hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
23. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product - then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list.
24. Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
25. Tradeshows - Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.
26. Use Facebook - Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
27. Use Facebook - Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word.
28. Use Facebook - Include an opt-in form on your Facebook Fan page.
29. Use Twitter - Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch.

If you've got any additional ideas, let's hear them!

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Comments

I tend to agree that #17 is not the greatest method, but is still one to consider if you provide super offers like "get half price if you sign up now" or something very hard to resist.

Posted by: VasserPro | May 08, 2010 at 11:11 AM

These are really informative ways for colleciting the email addresses, i always bought the business and casual email addresses on thousand of dollars, which was nothing but the waste of the money, great idea and nice article, keep on going.

Posted by: Personal concierge | January 13, 2010 at 02:48 AM

Thanks for the great ideas and suggestions! I have just signed up in VR and as a beginner many of my questions were answered.

Posted by: Avraam | January 08, 2010 at 08:30 AM

Very well organized list. #17 has been out of favor for over 7 years now.

Posted by: Jay | January 01, 2010 at 07:28 AM

Comprehensive list. I've started using these in my one on one consultation with my clients.

There is however one thing that is new in the market that is worth considering to be added to the list - a wireless handheld from Sterizon for collecting email addresses for physical store-fronts businesses (like restaurants, spa etc) instead of paper opt-in cards or fishbowls.

Yea, #17 may not go well with your online visitors.

Posted by: John | December 25, 2009 at 10:10 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. As the internet gets older we're coming to realize that interaction with clients is as important online as it is offline.

Posted by: Karen (non diet mindset) | December 23, 2009 at 06:49 PM

nice list, but i question how to do #5.
"Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it's opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter."

i have asked just about every ESP if we could do this, but they won't let me send an opt-in email because the recipients did not opt-in previously to my list. are you saying verticalresponse allows this?

sign me up! and please elaborate.

Posted by: rick | September 26, 2009 at 07:36 AM

Ralph,
As leader of a company that specializes in helping non-profits Market and increase their visibility and support, I understand your dilemma. However, though I don't know your organization, the name implies that you have quite a bit to "give away" to people and businesses who are interested in the Green and Renewable energy movements. This is hot right now as you probably know and being associated with Green is big. I would focus on creating proprietary information that those you meet could not get easily or at all except from you. For example, Publish "The 5 things your small business can do this month to save $1000," and make it available via email. Do you do presentations, workshops, consultations? Offer free admission when someone signs up at your web site.

Certainly knowing more about your org. would allow me to provide more detailed advice.

Good luck on the launch.

Mike Schiano
Managing Partner
Green Rain Marketing, LLC
mike@greenrainmarketing.com

Posted by: Mike Schiano | September 25, 2009 at 06:54 AM

Nice long list. Now the big question . . . which ones create opt-in names that will actually read your stuff?

Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Care, Business Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services

Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500100327 | September 24, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Katherine -

A ning community would take a bit of a commitment. But if you marketed it properly and at a minimum monitored what was going on it could be very beneficial to your business. It is an additional way to engage your audience and keep you top of mind as well as generate leads.

Posted by: Jenna | September 24, 2009 at 12:03 PM

Delayne -

To add an opt-in link to your signature, you first need to create a form. (Here are tips on how to do that using VR http://help.verticalresponse.com/site/index/opt-in_forms/)

After it is set up make sure you click the submit button at the bottom, that way a window will pop up that provides you with a URL for you to include in your email signature.

Give support a call if you have trouble: 866-683-7842

Posted by: Jenna | September 24, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Great list! I used it to measure what we've done over the years with our email campaigns and e-marketing. We've done nearly 20 of your 29 items!

Deric Glissmeyer
www.ColoradoKernels.com
and www.UtahKernels.com

Posted by: Deric Glissmeyer | September 24, 2009 at 11:39 AM

Just enjoyed your suggestions on how to mine email. However, being a non profit we do not have products nor services to give away to entice someone to give up their email.

Do yo have suggestions for public charity to start an email campaign, remember we are start-up with hardly a budget or a mailing list to do much of anything so this must be on a shoestring budget, if at all.

We are about to launch our website next month, but we are listed with Guidestar.

Thanks,
Ralph Chesley
Executive Director
Renewable Energy Enterprise Foundation

Posted by: Ralph Chesley | September 23, 2009 at 10:27 PM

Great tips, I use some of them, but i'll start using all of them.
Keep it coming!

Posted by: Steve | September 23, 2009 at 04:31 PM

About a ning community:

Won't adding the ning community do more harm than good if you do not tend it constantly (until and assuming it maintains enough participants) so that it stays "fresh and lively" and not "dead"/not enough people participating which makes your business look "unpopular"?

Posted by: Katherine | September 23, 2009 at 03:48 PM

Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
How do I do this?

Posted by: Delayne | September 23, 2009 at 10:34 AM

Great ideas!

Posted by: twitter.com/NCIBrooke | September 23, 2009 at 08:01 AM

BRILLIANT Suggestions - I will be sharing these ideas with my Entrepreneur friends as well as SCORE Chapter #422 - SE MA business counselors.

Posted by: Marilynn Bever | September 23, 2009 at 07:51 AM

Some good ideas, though I'm sure everybody will disagree with number 17!

Posted by: Matt Saunders | September 23, 2009 at 07:42 AM

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