For those of you who are contemplating or have started Permission Based (Opt-In) email marketing it can be a scary proposition; especially if you have a new or startup business. You know you’re doing it right by choosing Opt-in over blasting and spamming but *gulp* how do you build a nice plump email list quickly?

The great thing is that companies like Constant Contact®, iContact and MailChimp® make it easy to create a professional email opt-in form. Just place a “Join our Email List” or “Subscribe to Our Newsletter”  link on your website to the opt-in form.

With the opt-in links on your website the email addresses will come rolling in. Well, maybe. So what do you if they don’t? Ah, here comes the BEgg…

Networking is the age old technique of gathering contacts. Typical networking venues  include trade shows, seminars, industry groups, etc. After a networking event send a short email message to all the people you spoke with. Be sure to include a recap of your conversation then ask permission to add them to your email lists.

You may have an existing collection of customer email addresses, business cards and event sign-up sheets. Using these may be considered “Implied Opt-In” but it’s dangerously close to spam, so be careful. There are many who believe that, if handled properly, it is a legitimate means of list building. See article by Page Duffy.

Janine Popick’s article “29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business” presents some great tips for email list building. Here are her top five:

1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Tradeshows – Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
4. Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.

And finally, give your customers great educational content. Become the go-to source for information in your industry. Give them ideas on how to work better, faster, cheaper. Relevant content, not just about your product, brings them back for more; like a hot, savory, rich bowl of homemade chicken soup. See article by Ardath Albee.

In the end the BEgg usually comes first but growing an email list the right way will let you place a beautiful golden brown chicken on your table.

I hope this post gave you useful ideas on how to get your email list growing and please sign-up for our newsletter. How’s that for my BEgg?

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