64 Email List Building Ideas
Visit marketing discussion boards on any given day and you are likely to see the question, “How Do I Build My List”. In fact, there were 531,000 listings to “build a list” in Google.
If you’ve ever wanted some tried and true methods for building your list, you’ll want to bookmark this page immediately. Because we’re going to cover 64 ways you can begin to build your subscriber base TODAY!
First, we’ll cover the “good” ways. In my next post, I’ll mention some ways that would make your mother blush and possibly deny any knowledge of you (only to make sure you never, ever do them!).
- If you don’t have a newsletter yet, start one. People always want to learn more about their topic of interest. GetResponse is a great web-based email marketing software for publishing newsletters and hosting your mailing lists.
- Add a subscription form to every page of your website.
- Make it quick and easy for your visitors to sign up. A first name and email address is all you need initially.
- Be sure to state your privacy policy in your subscription box. Or add a link to a separate privacy policy page right next to your subscription form.
- Be clear, persuasive and honest as to what your subscribers will receive and why your visitor will gain by subscribing.
- Tell them how often they can expect to receive your newsletter or other emails. Do not inundate them.
- Link to a sample issue before they sign up, so they have an example of what you provide your subscribers.
- Archive your past newsletters and make them available on your website. (Bonus: This also produces additional organic search traffic!)
- Don’t be afraid to link to other websites or recommend other good newsletters. Your subscribers will love it and the recommended sites / newsletters may even return the favor and recommend your newsletter!
- Joint venture with other newsletter publishers and mention each other’s publications.
- Create an ebook and offer it free as an incentive to subscribe.
- Create an informative PDF report on your business topic. Only a few pages of useful content are needed for a report.
- Start with your immediate contact list and generate buzz to draw visitors to your site and subscribers to your newsletter.
- Offer a product discount for purchasers who subscribe to your newsletter.
- Give away useful software or web-based tools to subscribers. If you’re not a programmer, hire one through RentACoder or Elance
- Conduct a webinar (a web-based seminar) for which your visitors must register. On the registration form, get permission to send them future mailings.
- Mention your newsletter during your webinar and provide a subscription link. This will give those who haven’t opted-in an additional chance to do so.
- Ask your subscribers to tell their friends about your newsletter.
- Add a link or button on your website and newsletter taking them to a “Tell-A-Friend” form, where they can invite 3-5 of their friends.
- Allow others to reprint your newsletter as long as the content and links aren’t modified and your bio box is intact.
- Add a “Subscribe” button, or a link to the subscription page, in every issue. Then, if your newsletter gets forwarded, the new recipient can sign up.
- Optimize your website for search engine rankings. If you think SEO means “search engine optimism” instead of “search engine optimization”, check out SEObook.com by Aaron Wall.
- If your newsletter or campaign is newsworth, submit a publicity release at services such as PRWeb or BusinessWire. You might get a surge of new subscribers, as well as a number of inbound links.
- Make your email marketing campaign “newsy”. Run a controversial survey and turn the results into a story. Then let the world know about it and get free exposure.
- Include Opt-In information on Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Ask permission to communicate valuable info via email newsletters and promotions.
- Create a squeeze page designed solely to capture new subscribers.
- Find hundreds or even thousands of relevant keywords with services like Wordtracker, and then promote your squeeze page using PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, MSN adCenter, and more.
- Track the effectiveness of your advertising and test changes with services like HyperTracker. Keep the best – scrap the rest. Always keep testing.
- Spice up your squeeze page with a pre-recorded audio message to tell your visitors why they should subscribe. Record it yourself or write a script and hire a voice talent to do it.
- Add video to your squeeze page. Not only can you speak to your prospective subscribers, but even point where the subscription form is located on your webpage!
- Incorporate social proof through testimonials on your squeeze page (written, audio, or even video!)
- Remind double opt-in subscribers to watch their email for your confirmation link and ask them to be sure to click it to confirm.
- Start a free blog with WordPress or Blogger. It’s another way to communicate with your visitors and nicely complements your email marketing and list building.
- Add your newsletter subscription form to every page of your blog.
- Research similar websites and newsletters with Google Blog Search or Technorati. Post relevant, helpful comments with a trackback to your blog or squeeze page.
- Keep your blog readers notified of new posts when they sign up for updates. This has a 3-prong benefit: build your email list, maintain relationships with your readers, and get more traffic to your blog.
- Use a responsible co-registration list-building service like GetSubscribers
- Perform a cross-registration campaign with other newsletter owners by adding a link/banner to the other newsletter on the confirmation page. Subscribers won’t see it until after they’ve joined your list.
- Advertise in ezines and other newsletters. Use a directory like Ezine-Dir to find newsletters reaching your target audience.
- Submit your newsletter to ezine and newsletter directories.
- Promote your newsletter / promotional emails in industry directories and websites.
- Sponsor other people’s contests and get exposure for your newsletter. Give away freebies that don’t cost you money.
- Submit articles to Article Directories like GoArticles, SubmitYourArticle or EzineArticles. Include a bio box at the bottom with a link to your website or the email address to be added instantly (if you are using an autoresponder).
- Visit discussion boards, forums, Yahoo! Answers and similar sites to provide helpful answers, while including a link to your newsletter subscription page in your sigfile.
- Add your newsletter sign-up link to your email signature.
- Promote sign-ups in Confirmation and Transaction emails.
- Include an opt-in link on customers’ credit card receipts.
- Add an opt-in message to Warranty and Product Registration Cards.
- Use sign-up message on all Invoices.
- Network at trade shows and conventions. When exchanging business cards, ask permission to send them your newsletter / report. If they say “no”, write an “X” on the back of their card. Otherwise, add them to your list.
- Hand out sign-up forms promoting your newsletter when speaking to groups or at seminars.
- Include newsletter subscriptions in Trade Show Lead Generation form. Ask booth visitors for permission to send your monthly newsletter to them. (see 50 above)
- Make it easy for your audience to subscribe by including a link to your newsletter subscription page on the footer of your PowerPoint or webinar presentations.
- Look for ways to collect email addresses if you are a brick & mortar business.
- Display opt-in forms at the Cash Register to receive weekly discounts, etc.
- Advertise email promotions on Product Shipping Boxes, Packing Slips and Direct Mail Cards, with links to your site.
- Offer customers a VIP or loyalty program for signing up for your list.
- Request employees use an email signature such as “Subscribe to the Company X Email Newsletter”.
- Call Center and Sales Employees can ask customers and prospects if they’d like to receive newsletters or promotional emails and get their information by phone.
- Encourage email subscriptions by printing on Direct Mail, Catalogs, and all Print Ads.
- If you have a physical mailing list from your offline business, send a postcard to your customers, offering a special for opting-in to your email newsletter.
- Study each offline advertising piece with the thought of integrating a list building component into it.
- Collect email address at each point of contact with customers and prospects.
- Get more traffic to your website. Even if your opt-in percentage doesn’t change, this will automatically result in more subscribers.
As I mentioned in the post “Taking Action”, I’ll be revisiting this list to provide more detail on the who, what, when, where and how of these ideas. If you have questions on anything, please comment below and we’ll get you an answer.
In my next post, I’ll talk about THE DARK SIDE…..the wrong way to build an email list.
Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse
August 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
what a great article….i don’t think you missed one possibility…very good….and thanks!!!
August 31st, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Great article! You covered EVERYTHING anyone needs to know on how to start building a list. This is better than some ebooks out there!
Carlton
http://www.laptopriches.com
August 31st, 2007 at 5:17 pm
WOW - very informative! Someone did their homework and are giving us “newbies” real value instead of hype.
I look forward to the next post…..thank you.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Thanks for such comprehensive article..
Bobby
http://www.ResidualPassiveIncome.com
August 31st, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Dear Simon:
First, let me say how very much I appreciate GetResponse!
Having used the services of many of your competitors over the years,
I can truthfully say that ‘GetResponse’ has suited my needs the BEST.
DEBBI BRESSLER - What a superb article on E-Mail Marketing. I just
wrote to Debbi thanking her for this. I will gladly share it with my associates.
Debbi is a highly talented professional. I have learned far more from her
about marketing + business and financial management strategies than
from most people I know. Not only is she a caring and giving leader - her
her coaching and writing skills are awesome.
I have known and respected Debbi for many years, both as a friend and
a colleague. I greatly admire her ethics, her integrity and her principles.
I look forward to receiving many more great articles from Debbi Bressler
through GetResponse. Many thanks!
Sincerely / Peter A.
www.PeterRArnold.com
Peter Arnold, CLU, CFC / Founder
Business Achievers Academy / Canada
August 31st, 2007 at 6:20 pm
This is an excellent, comprehensive and almost-everything-covered article!
Thanks for sharing!
August 31st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Debbi,
Thank you for a great and informative article about building mailing lists. As a marketer myself I can use at least a dozen of your ideas, and that will surely help me grow my list faster. Debbi, this info is gold and I’ll certainly share this with my subscribers and associates.
Big time kudos from Scottsdale, AZ!
Marissa
August 31st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
[…] from the CEO of my GetResponse email marketing and autoresponder service, Simon Grabowski, about this article which he had just posted to his […]
August 31st, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Dear all,
Thank you for all your feedback,
and please keep it coming. We
love to hear from you.
Stay tuned with us for lots of
new email marketing -related
content and plenty of GetResponse
service enhancements.
Regards,
Simon Grabowski
CEO
GetResponse
http://www.getresponse.com/
August 31st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Hi Debbi,
I have a question about getting people to actually VIEW your mailing. I have a list of about 14,000+ and I just recently began sending out an html-style newsletter which lets me track the “open rate” of these mailings — the number that were actually seen by recipients and not just deleted immediately or blocked somehow. My last 3 mailings have failed to produce open rates exceeding 3,000. This is pretty discouraging to think that a list of 14k is actually less than 3k for all practical purposes. If you’d like to see a sample of one of these newsletters they are archived on my website. This is the June issue for instance:
http://www.highstatusmale.com/news2007june.htm
This was the subject line for that mailing:
HSM Dating & Mating News - Handling the Surprise Flirt
Are there any tricks or techniques you know of to improve this open rate? Should I send these newsletters out in dual format perhaps, realizing that there’s no way to track the open rate of the accompanying text version so the result would be unknown? Anything you have to offer would help, I’m all out of ideas. Thanks!
Mike P.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Great article. That must have taken a looonnng time to put together. Thanks for the ideas!
September 1st, 2007 at 12:47 am
Dear Simon and Debbi,
I want to say a big thank you for the wonderful website you’ve got and to top it off, a GREAT ARTICLE.
Getresponse is an excellent tool for my business as I can stay in touch with my subscribers and some were converted to being my clients allowing me to earn thousands of dollars!
It’s a long list of tips but I definitely believe it’s worth going through every single one.
Rgds,
Linda Seck
Director
LSECK Consulting Services
http://www.lindaseck.com
September 1st, 2007 at 1:16 am
As always, another excellent article
September 1st, 2007 at 2:23 am
___________
Hi Simon,
What a fantastic article! You covered everything & more that even I could think of!
I have been a very happy customer of GetResponse now for over 10 years & happily recommend your excellent & outstanding company to all my many contacts.
This is how I use GetResponse on my own personal web page http://www.200KIncome.com
Thank you again & well done!
Simon AKA “The Millionaire Maker”
Success Coach, Trainer, Internet Marketer & Entrepreneur
http://www.200KIncome.com
September 1st, 2007 at 2:49 am
Wow, great article Debbi. You are always a wealth of information.
Aaron
September 1st, 2007 at 3:33 am
Mike –
I would not be too concerned with the open rate
statistic. Here is why…
Over the years ISPs and email providers and email
client software developers have learned that a
vast majority of spam emails include external
objects (such as images downloadable from
spam-harboring webhosts).
To circumvent this, many ISPs, email hosts, and
email client programs are blocking, by default,
the external objects that spam mail relies upon.
Unfortunately, open-rate technology relays on
external objects (invisible image files) to
function, and as such the anti-spam measures
are significantly reducing these results, because
they’re blocking the vary mechanism that
open-rate uses. Think of it as collateral damage,
or an antibiotic that kills the bad bacteria, but
also wipes out some good ones in the process.
The fact that open-rate shows that 3,000 people
opened your messages doesn’t tell you how many
people *really* opened your emails. I can
guarantee that *many* more people saw them
than what open-rate shows.
You should always relay on open-rate feature
for indicative and not definitive measurements.
That can be useful, for instance, when doing
*comparisons* of open-rates generated by your
different email campaigns.
I wish there was a definite measurement of the
open-rate statistic, but reality is what it is, and
there is currently no way to accurately measure
email opens.
Regards,
Simon Grabowski
CEO
GetResponse
http://www.GetResponse.com
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:21 am
Simon and Debbie,
Thanks so much. Sometimes we get tunnel vision and focus on a single strategy for list building. Reminders from the professionals are a welcome kick in the butt.
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:23 am
Hi Simon,
thanks for recommending this blog post. Debbi really cut through all the bullshit and tell us the real ways to increase our sign ups.
Bill Chen
http://achieved-success.com
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:11 am
Excellent article. You covered a wealth of information that can be applied by both novices and extremely experienced professionals.
Great job.
Kathleen Gage
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:23 am
This is a great reference.
Short and sweet.
Thanks so much, Debbi!
Zamri Nanyan
September 4th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Hi Simon,
Great article. I’ve been a very satisfied customer of GetResponse and I think it can only get better. Thanks.
Regards,
Edmund Ng
CEO, President
www.Internet-Empire.com
edmund@internet-empire.com
September 5th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Wouldn’t there be advantages to a box on each page with a link to the subscription page with all its information, rather than a subscription form box on each page?
September 10th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Hi Simon and Debbi,
I appreciated very much your list ideas! What excellents tips to work with!
I live in Brazil. I work in e-mail marketing services as a consultant and use GetResponse services as well.
I would like to ask your permission to translate your post into Portuguese and Spanish and post it in my blogs (http://blogdejorgealdrovandi.blogspot.com and http://jorgealdrovandi.blogspot.com) quoting you, of course, and linking to the original source, your own blog. That is because the readers will not clearly understand the content in English.
I apply much of your tips in my daily work, as you can confirm in http://www.babelteam.com/5atajos/index.html in Spanish or http://www.babelteam.com/5dicas/index.html in Portuguese, in order to promote my own services. I also use the same concept to promote my customers’ products as the Indigo Project in Punta del Este, Uruguay, at www.indigopuntadeleste.com.uy.
Thank you for sharing with us your knowledge and experience. I’m looking forward receiving a comment to my request.
Jorge Aldrovandi
www.BabelTeam.com
September 12th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Thank you for your great suggestions in this post and all of the other posts you have made. I use your autoresponder services and they are great. Email Marketing is the base upon which you build your eBusiness.
September 30th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Hi Debbi,
The word comprehensive doesn’t do justice to describing your
article. I’ve been thinking about publishing a newsletter and
this give me all of the reasons to proceed.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Marjie Gemmell
Http://www.easybirdidentification.com
October 8th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I am writting to getresponse, because i paid for a 200 new list. around three years ago , buy i didn’t recive that list in my account whit you, it is srcontreras, please pay attention to this. thanks, srcontreras.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Dear Rosaura,
Our Customer Support will get in touch with you promptly.
Kind regards,
Agata Szulc
Marketing Coordinator
GetResponse.com
November 29th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Hi,
Can I manually add leads to my autoresponder? How?
Thanks,
Gerry
November 29th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Debbie,
I think your article really showed me a great way to get my business
going ahead,alot of great information.
Thank You
Robert Decker
January 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
For Sure, these are 64 Secrets unleashed. You`ve proved you are the Leader. Thumbs Up to Getresponse.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Thanks for your comments, Olurotimi and Robert.
Debbi
January 16th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Hi Gerardo,
My role is writing articles for the blog.
Please visit the forum or fill out a support ticket, so Customer Service can help with your request.
Debbi
January 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hi,
I really get the picture what is exactly email marketing now, i have completely zero knowledge about the email marketing concept before, but now, with all those good informations i have a guide to start.
Thanks.
Zakay
January 28th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Hi Mohd,
I am so pleased to hear you say that! The best part about this list is that many of the ideas can be implemented today with no additional out-of-pocket cost.
If you have an interest or quetions about any of these tips, let me know and I’ll be sure to address them in more detail.
Debbi
February 4th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Hi Debbi, great as usual. Does you company help with all these steps or can you refer someone or a website that can.
Thanks,
Kevin
February 5th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Hi guys!
I’m a complete newbie to this whole “market on the internet” thing.
Your information is soooo helpful that it actually steers a “dummie” such
as myself in the right direction. A TON of ideas I never even knew of.
Thanks so much—
David Bates
www.easy-instant-home-business.com
February 8th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi David,
Thank you so much…glad you like the information!
Hi Kevin,
Pick a few of your favorite tips and post them here and I’ll do a “show and tell” and provide more detailed information on how to get it done!
Debbi
February 27th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
What a fantastic and straight to the point article!
I have been a very happy customer of GetResponse and have been recommending them to my customers.
Regards,
Max
CEO
Singapore Web Hosting - http://www.hostsg.com
March 4th, 2008 at 4:50 am
[…] there are a number of ways to build a list, GetResponse provides an easy alternative with their service at GetSubscribers. This service can […]
April 24th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
[…] There are even more ways than these 42 ways to build and maintain an email list but I think you’ll have enough work on your hand for now. If you need more inspiration be sure to check out this post. […]