Ways to Build Your Email List

Email lists are one of the most valuable commodities to any business with a web presence. As such, most companies are looking for ways to build the size of their email list. This article will point out several ideas of where you can start mining for more valuable email addresses to add to your list.

Website
The first place to start collecting email addresses is on your website. If you don't have a form in a prominent place on your website to capture visitor's email addresses you must get one implemented before doing anything else.

The most basic purpose of any commercial website is to promote your business and if your site does not have a mechanism to capture possible customers you are missing out on some of the most valuable sales opportunities.

Trade Shows
Trade shows are ripe with opportunity. Use them to gather email addresses and grow your business.

Almost every industry has their own set of specific trade shows tailored to them. Since trade shows bring together suppliers and potential customers what better place is there to gather email addresses?

You don't need to have a booth at a trade show to take advantage of all the possible leads at a show. If you are merely an attendee you can make contact with potential customers, ask for the business card and email address, and get their permission for you to contact them.

Networking
Networks of business professionals exist all around you. They are in your local community, your state or region, on the internet, across the nation and the globe. We truly live in a global economy and the opportunities for business related networking have never been better or more exciting.

Retail Stores
You have probably seen fish bowls near cash registers offering some promotion for placing your business card in the bowl for a monthly drawing. These are effective areas to gather contact information of potential customers. Since most business cards these days include email addresses it is now also an easy way to collect emails to add to your list.

An alternative to the fish bowl concept is to have your clerks as a customer at the point of sale if they would like to add their email address to their list to receive exclusive promotions available only through your email marketing.

In summary, it is imperative that you put into action several of these, or other, methods for growing your email list. Once a valid and active email address has been collected you need to make sure you are actively and regularly marketing to those prospects via email marketing software available to you or via email marketing services that are online.