Thursday 12 May 2011

How To Collect Emails and Build a Large Email List

If you are starting a business and thinking of going the online route to spread the word or promote your business, doing it through email campaigns is really cheap and easy. Essential to this sort of marketing campaign is a subscriber base or email list. Here are some recommendations on how to collect emails and build a large email list.

1. Ask your family, close friends or acquaintances for their email address. The first step in creating a large email list is starting from your own social circles. Your family should be the first ones you inquire and if they can also refer some of their friends who would be interested in the service you offer, that will even become better for you. The same thing applies for your close friends and acquaintances.
2. Include your email address on business cards. On your business card, as a way of advertising, you would always want to include your email address. When people email you, you can then save their email address in your database for future use.
3. Acquire email addresses through your website. If you have a website for your services, make sure that you have a guestbook where clients are able to place their email address and then you, as a webmaster, should be able to collect them securely and include it on your email list.
4. Let walk-in customers in your shop sign up for a daily email digest. There are several ways you could obtain their email addresses, especially during the point of sale. You may want to place a small guestbook. You can also employ the use of email signup cards that you can give out at the counter and ask your customers to write their contact information. Or build into your computer system a place to type in their email as they stand there and tell it to you. Now you have it already, instead of waiting for them to give it to you later.
5. Ask for referrals and offer a program that would encourage your customers to refer a friend to your business. Another way to promote your business is through referrals. You may want to offer small freebies to your clients who manage to refer a few email addresses to be included to your email list, or maybe a small discount for every successful email referral.
6. When you have enough email addresses to build your email contact list, make sure you do not irritate or hassle your subscribers. Settle for a weekly, or maybe monthly, email digest. You do not want to irritate your contact list by sending them emails each day of the same content.
7. You must be careful not to get flagged as spam. Never use someone’s email address on a mailing list unless you have indicated that you will be doing so. Also, make sure they have an option to unsubscribe once they are on the list. If too many people identify you as a spammer, Internet providers can block your emails.

When you have built a large email list, you need take care of your email content. Make sure that your content is informative, fun to read and has real worth to your email subscribers -- making so will facilitate and build good relationship with your subscribers.

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