Here’s a few quick and simple tricks to grow your email newsletter list.

Monthly Drawings

Hold a monthly drawing for a gift certificate from among the new people who provide their email addresses to you that month.

Employee Contest

Want to get a lot of addresses fast? Start a contest for your employees, staff, or volunteers with a prize to the person who’s collected the most email addresses from customers, clients, or members. Reward them with a day off, a gift certificate, a free meal, or a cash bonus!

Here are some things you can do to build a permission-based list, wherever you go, however your organization interacts with the public.

At your office or place of business:

• Ask every caller if they want to receive your email newsletter.
• Request customer email addresses on your POS, online ordering, or checkout system.
• Add space to your comment cards or surveys for people to sign-up.
• Put tent cards, wall, or counter displays in your place of business. Use a teaser, if applicable, about getting the inside scoop or exclusive offers from you.
• Use a fishbowl on your counter to collect sign-up forms or business cards. Offer a weekly or monthly prize, like discounts or gifts from your establishment or other local vendors. Announce the winners in your newsletter, and add everyone in the bowl to your mailing list.

If you’re online and use social media:

• Add Constant Contact’s “Join My Mailing List” button to your website and your Facebook page so people can join your list.
• Ask your Twitter followers to sign up for your list by providing a link to your sign-up form on your website.

When you’re at events, in the field, or networking:

• Bring a sign-up sheet to every public event you exhibit at or participate in: fairs, open houses and fundraising events – any place where dozens of people will encounter you.
• Leave postage-paid sign-up cards behind when you visit clients so they can mail it back to you. Just write your address on the back and stamp it – it won’t cost them a penny to join.

When you already use email marketing or outgoing communications:

• Make it easy for recipients to tell their friends about you with a “forward to a friend” link.
• Staple a sign-up card to customers’ receipts, or include it in the envelope if you mail them bills.

This list has been slightly adapted from its original source, Constant Contact’s List Building Guide.