Email marketing has proven to be a powerful tool for small businesses, but the effectiveness of any email campaign is directly related to the size and quality of your distribution list. Here are 5 simple tips for growing your email subscriber list.
- Collect business cards for a drawing. We’ve all seen this, but it works!
- Hold weekly or bi-weekly drawings depending on the amount of cards you collect
- Offer gift cards to your store; or if you’re operate a service business, consider offering free consultations
- Make sure your small business’ website has an opt-in box
- You can use your website for simple email address gathering for newsletters, or full contact forms for lead generation
- Emphasize the box in the overall layout of your website
- Promote opt-ins by offering email promotions, inside industry news, or exclusive how-tos
- Gather email addresses from visitors to your booth at conventions
- Follow-up with an event debriefing campaign with special offers for attendees
- Require completion of a sign-up form as part of your content marketing strategy
- Write an eBook or write a white paper to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry
- Make sure to add a checkbox to the sign-up form for permission to send follow-up emails
- Ask for email addresses as part of the checkout process
- Keep existing customers separate from your general population so you can target them with customer retention campaigns
With all of these tactics, be sure to make clear that the email addresses will be used for future mailings. Sending unwanted messages not only wastes your time and resources, it harms your image in the eyes of your target audience.
