So you’ve rented an Email list or built one from scratch. You’re now searching for ways to expand that list further so that you can continue to get new customers. Here are five approaches that you can use to make that happen. Not all of them will work for your particular situation, but at least one or two of them should be helpful to you:
Keep Your Current List Happy
The first bit of this advice is to keep your current list happy. This accomplishes two things. First, you can halt attrition, meaning that you’re not constantly maintaining the size of your list by adding new members to replace those who walk away. Second and more importantly is that you can get people on your list to recommend you to their friends.
Offer an Inducement to Current List Members
Everyone wants to get a deal and we often lavish our best deals on those who are new to our business. However, the fact is that when we do this, we often ignore our current customers. Keep those customers happy as well and add new ones by offering them a deal for getting their friends to sign up.
The deal may be a $5 off coupon for whatever product you offer, an extra freebie you mail to them or make available for download or pretty much anything else you can think of which gives them a little something extra. It goes without saying though that this method of growing your Email list works best when you are providing quality information in your newsletters to people getting it and not simply sending out spam.
Ask Everyone to Sign Up
People visit your website all the time. Many will drop by for no more than 30 seconds before they move on. Offer them a reason to sign up by using a slide in or pop up box which asks if they’d like to sign up for your Email list about 5-10 seconds after they arrive. Make them a deal where they get some kind of freebie for doing so.
And here’s a great tip: if you want to keep the pure freebie seekers out, you can actually get two things for your trouble. Offer something physical which is mailed to them. Then, charge something like 99 cents or $1.99 for shipping (or even a bit more depending on what you’re sending out). This will get you an address and phone number and will also tell you that this is someone willing to part with money and not just a freebie seeker.
Use Direct Mail
It’s old school, but direct mail can also help you to build your Email list in certain cases. If you have a product that you sell which is disposable, you can send out small free sample packets to targeted direct mail customers (we rent lists like that here at List Guy). This will help you build an audience for your products as well as build up your Email list so that you can sell them more stuff.
Offer a Coupon
Finally, consider offering a coupon which you make available to members of various deal sites like SlickDeals.Net, FatWallet.Com and Coupon Cabin. They get a percentage off of whatever you have for sale and in exchange, you get them on your Email list as potential customers for more products at full price.