8 List Growth Ideas from the Field
Constant Contact's regional directors share list growth tactics
Looking for some ways to grow your list? To give you some ideas, I spoke with a few of Constant Contact's Regional Development Directors. These email marketing experts provide training to small businesses and organizations across the country every day. They have some great ideas to share, as well as some real life examples for you to learn from.
Here are some ideas, from the simple to the creative, that will help you capture more email addresses.
1. Invite people who contact you by phone or email to join-Maybe this isn't such a fresh idea, but have you been doing it? It's easy to get out of the habit. Train yourself and your employees to ask people who contact you to join and explain what benefits they will get from joining. Stu Carty our Director for the San Francisco area advises, "The best time to ask is right after you have helped them by answering their question."
2. Capture sign ups at check out - Attention retailers! If you don't have a sign-up list out at your checkout point, now is the time. Make it prominent and be sure to ask people to join as well. And Stu suggests, "Have a sample of your email newsletter displayed in a Plexiglas stand that you can purchase at your local office supply store. You can reference it and show people what they can expect when they signup for your email newsletter."
3. Put an invite to join in all email signatures - All the directors agree that an email signature is a great opportunity to tell those you communicated with about your email list and provide an easy way to join. Just include a brief description and a link to your sign-up page in the signature of your email.
4. Optimize your website and blog for sign ups - Ron Cates, director of the southwest region, makes the point to "prominently position an email list sign-up box on every website page, because you never know what page a visitor will land on when they do a web search. Also include a sign-up box on your blog and any other social media site your company uses."
Ron has some additional advice on this tip: "Rather than the generic 'Join My List,' include a brief but compelling message about the value of subscribing, along with a privacy statement. And, if you can link to a sample email, that's even better. More people will sign up if they know what they are signing up for."
5. Harness traditional marketing tools - Ron sees any form of traditional marketing as an opportunity to list growth. He says, "You can feature your email communications as a commodity."
He shared this example: "The United States Tennis Association of Central Arizona printed up business-card size "flyers" (due to their low cost) that promoted their newsletter and distributed them to thousands at local tournaments. They also printed low-cost color postcards that solely promoted the newsletter and handed them out at tennis stores, clubs, and facilities."
Ron also suggests that you advertise your email program on your personal business cards. He says, "In one sentence, describe the benefits of signing up and then give the URL to your website. You'll get more visits and additional subscribers."
Do you produce brochures, whitepapers, articles, and other communications that highlight your organization? Make sure to include a plug for your email program!
6. Offer incentives that relate to your business - There's no harm in giving someone a little extra motivation to sign up for your list, especially when the incentive is something that is closely tied to your business.
Pam Adams, director for Georgia, says, "I always suggest placing a free e-book or another valuable downloadable content offer on your website and then providing the link for the download in the welcome letter."
Stu encourages you to "Be bold! What if the manager of a clothing store made an announcement: 'Everyone who signs up to receive our email newsletter in the next 15 minutes gets a 10% discount coupon, which can be used immediately.'"
7. Leverage partnerships - Stu suggests that "businesses partner with other complementary, non-competitive businesses and promote each others' lists."
For nonprofits, Ron suggests these ideas: "A larger nonprofit can ask their corporate sponsors to add information about them along with a signup link for the nonprofit's newsletter to the corporation's website. A smaller nonprofit can ask that their board members promote the list in a similar way."
8. Run employee contests - If you have employees, get them involved with building the list and consider providing some incentives. Steve Robinson, our director in Chicago, shared this story: "A retail business owner I know told me that he has a contest for his high-school aged employees. He rewards the person that collects the most email addresses, with permission, with one hour off with pay on the following Friday or Saturday."
Do you have other creative list growth ideas to share or questions to ask? Visit our Hints & Tips forum and join the conversation by clicking on the "Discuss this article" link below.
