We all know what we can’t do to grow our email list (nobody wants to be a puppy-slayer! see more information on the dangers of list-rental), but for a lot of businesses the question remains  …  what CAN we do to ethically and organically grow our list? We posed the question to Mail Dog VP of Marketing, Alison Hasbach and here’s some of her insight on this topic.

She chimes in that “growing ones list should be a multi-faceted approach. There’s no magic bullet, however there are definitely several tactics that a company must be doing. The worst thing to do is leave it in one person’s (or department’s) hands or simply post an opt-in form on your website and hope for the best  … that field of dreams approach is so 80′s darlings!”

1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter. There’s a ton of places to get cool cards. We love www.moo.com for some real zing!
2. At tradeshows and networking events – Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up. It’s OK to offer a sweeps override as long as you clearly state what the deal is. Yes, actually have someone type them in to your database right away and then send them a ‘Great meeting you!’ email message. The personal touch will knock their socks off!
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in the signature of all of your personal emails.
4. Send an opt-in email (from your personal account) to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, ask them what kinds of networking opportunities they have. It’s NOT OK to simply email the member list, but many chambers have advertising opportunities.
6. Host your own event – art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up. Consider partnering with another complementary business for even more bang!
7. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up. People love, love, love this.
8. Incentivize (is that a word?) your employees – Give them an incentive (money or spiffs) for collecting VALID email addresses (with documentation of course).
9. Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it. Not giving something away for free? Well you should. People love free!
10. Referrals – Ask your customers to refer you, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount. If they’re happy and you make it worth their while, they’ll do it.
11. Bad or bounced emails? Get them back! – Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
12. Trade newsletter space with a neighboring or related business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
13. Don’t neglect SEO strategies or PPC ads – Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services. If you’re using PPC ads, be sure you get the email to help with conversion.
14. Online giveaways or sweepstakes – Send people something physical and ask for their email address and postal address to register (as long as you’re clear about the process, it’s a completely legitimate list-growing technique). Again, partnering is OK as long as you give people the choice to opt-in to partner lists (you can’t just add them automatically or suffer the consequences!)
15. Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
16. Include opt-in forms on every page on your site, not just the homepage. People get to your site from so many ways that it’s crazy not to do this.
17. Pop-up windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address (with an incentive of course).
18. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails so your subscribers can forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
19. Did you know? You can include a forward-to-a-friend button on every page of your site and someone can send a friend the latest email newsletter or special offer being featured.
20. Establish a community – Use Ning (or other tool like it) as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer “email only” discounts and don’t use those offers anywhere but email.
22. Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
23. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it on your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in to your newsletter list.
24. Include a clear opt-in link right inside your emails (or admin links) for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
25. Use Facebook Group/Event Features – Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter or add it to one of your custom tabs or boxes.
26. Take advantage of Facebook’s custom tab feature – Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word. You can also use Mail Dog’s ‘Like’ feature inside your email newsletters themselves…a new and very cool feature!
27. Use RSS – While you don’t need to subscribe to an RSS feed using an email address, don’t neglect this channel for a powerful way to gain new subscribers and readers of your posts. It’s great for your SEO values too!
28. Use Twitter – Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch.
29. iPhone/iPad Apps – Creating a custom app for your business or industry might be just the ticket for helping tap into uncharted targets. It’s a growing channel that may just explode your list size overnight…OK, not overnight, but in a very short time. We see it everyday. It’s amazing.

How do you begin? Start by thinking through all your touch points, consider the above as a jumping off place and come up with your own channels. Just remember to document the activity (with date and time and source of course to prevent any trouble down the road) and monitor to see what’s working or not working for you so you can tweak accordingly. It’s an exciting process! If you need help or feedback, do let us know as we’re happy to help  …  it’s what we do. Hey! Reading this post and not a Dog Papers subscriber? Get it here! LOL!