Email marketing is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful ways of digital marketing. With other methods of marketing, you don’t have any connection with your potential customers. On the other hand, customers on your email list are your contacts to which you can send marketing emails repeatedly.

And as you continue to learn more about them over the course of time, you can make your emails more personalized to improve your conversions. However, the first challenge for you is to build a huge email list and create a system in which there are hundreds of different touch points to collect your prospects’ email addresses.

Here is a complete checklist of the many ways for you to collect email addresses of your potential customers.

 

50 ways to grow your email list

1. Come up with creative ways to collect business cards at different types of events. For example, put a large glass bowl visibly at a gathering and ask people to drop their business cards in it.

2. Whenever you meet new people, offer them your business card. They will usually offer theirs as a nice gesture.

3. Arrange an event and ask attendees to leave their email addresses so you can send them follow-up emails.

4. Run an online giveaway wherein people have to participate by providing their email addresses.

5. Create a list of customers whose mailing address is in your database. Ask them in the mail to share their email addresses with you.

6. Cold-call prospects to obtain their emails.

7. Start a blog and share valuable information. Ask people to subscribe to receive notifications.

8. Create YouTube affiliate videos and ask in each of those videos to subscribe to your blog. Don’t forget to add in a click-through link on the video or a way on the description bar for them to do so. If you are not confident in your editing skills, use a video editing app available online that is easy to use and convenient.

9. Introduce a lead magnet on the website in the form of a coupon, e-book, or anything of value and exchange it for an email address.

10. Ask your social media followers to subscribe to and follow your blog while also providing their email address.

11. Hold a webinar (web seminar), promote them on social media, then ask them for their email for the purpose of RSVP.

12. Chat with your website visitors through a chat feature and collect email addresses during conversation.

13. Put a contact form on your website that requires whoever will be contacting to put in their email address.

14. Break your blog posts in two parts. Offer the first part for free but the other in exchange for an email. Just make sure the first part of your post is enticing enough. A tip: a cliffhanger is your best bet.

15. Encourage referrals and ask your existing customers to bring in more customers; offer a perk for that effort.

16. Create quizzes on the website and tell visitors they can receive detailed results via email.

17. Answer questions on Quora and ask people to visit your blog and to subscribe to it.

18. Write guest posts and benefit from the readers and other blogs.

19. Take advantage of lead forms on SlideShare to get emails.

20. Put QR codes on your products that take visitors to your landing page. Ask them to sign up with their emails.

21. Request visitors on your blog to provide email before commenting.

22. Take advantage of a creative lightbox form to receive email addresses.

23. Create a mobile app and require email addresses for a one-time login.

24. Use influencer marketing to get the attention of more people.

25. Offer free access to a professional version of your software/application in exchange for an email address.

26. Collect emails and other contact details on trade shows.

27. Offer professional courses through emails.

28. Use the new call to action button feature from Facebook to increase email subscribers.

29. Offer to send a sample of your products in exchange for their email.

30. Run contests like giving a fan a chance to meet a celebrity, then ask for email addresses to be a part of the contest and as a way for them to receive a winner announcement.

31. Create powerful affiliate marketing programs.

32. Create B2B partners and ask them to promote your services/products to their customers.

33. Do SMS marketing to invite people to give their email addresses.

34. Create an email sign-up form right on the homepage of your website.

35. Introduce offers in your brick and mortar business locations in exchange of emails.

36. Show customers your current subscriber count when asking for their emails so they’d feel more comfortable about subscribing themselves.

37. Tell customers what your current subscribers are getting when asking for their emails.

38. Run sweepstakes on the website and ask for emails where you can send details.

39. Ask customers to complete surveys to get an incentive like a discount and politely ask for their emails during the survey.

40. Introduce multiple discount offers on your website based on different segments of your market.

41. Offer several types of discounts like free shipping, 20% discount, etc. but ask to send coupon code in email.

42. Introduce an exit-form on your website to collect email before someone leaves your page.

43. Keep opt-in forms as short as possible.

44. Cold-call old and inactive customers to ask if maybe they have a new email address.

45. Start Twitter campaigns for your followers to win valuable items but ask them to share their emails to be a part of the campaign.

46. Introduce quote calculators on the website and ask for emails to send quotes.

47. Make opt-in forms interesting by putting a funny statement on the opt-out option like “I don’t want to be cool.”

48. Promote contact on email as a preferred way to solve customer concerns and say it is faster than phone calls.

49. Hire influencers to have live video chat with followers. Tell the followers that the influencer will do something interesting if the email list reaches a certain number.

50. Ask followers to give you their email to participate in a birthday club where you send them unique gifts on their birthdays.

 

While the list may seem quite lengthy, you have to understand your target audience first to figure out which method will work best for them. It is also imperative that you maintain a healthy relationship with your existing email subscribers because if they feel valued by being on your email list, they will encourage others to do the same, too.

In the end, take advantage of email segmentation to make the most of your email list!