Google guru, Steve Holt and I recently discussed the art of list building on a Google Hangout. 

I hold this free call every Monday from 4 to 4:30 PM ET.  The call-in codes are posted on my calendar.

As usual, it was a fun call!  I took some notes, too. Tweet this

13 top ways to build your list

1.    Offer of a free report on your website.  Make sure the opt-in window appears “above the fold” in the upper-left corner.  Just ask for the person’s first name and e-mail address if you want the maximum number of people to sign up.  See how I do this on my website.

2.    Collect emails at presentations.  You might have to give something away to get audiences to play with you.  But this kind of permission-based marketing is very lucrative, providing the business cards you collect actually end up in your data base and you don’t chase people off  by sending bad content.  By the way, legitimate bulk e-mail platforms such as Constant Contact and Infusionsoft only tolerate one spam complaint per 1,000 e-mails. 

3.    Advertising opportunities.  People surrender e-mail addresses for tons of reasons.  Honor the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and most business associates won’t mind you adding their name to your newsletter distribution list.  The CAN-SPAM law requires that people sending bulk e-mail include a physical address and an unsubscribe link at the bottom of all e-mails.

4.    Social media is a free way to build your list.  Stop thinking in silos.  Be clever about getting Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google + friends to give you their e-mail address.  Again, the trick is to get them to opt-in.

5.    Buy or rent a list.  Neither Steve or I recommended this.  Even if the list contains good e-mail addresses, solid prospects for your business, these poor people will have no idea why you are contacting them.  Since they haven’t opted in, you’ll seem like a spammer, so they will report you as one.  I know I would.

6.    Give people opportunities to share your info.  The easiest ways to do this involve sharing via social media buttons and such.  It doesn’t hurt to encourage people to share, unless you constantly pester people to Like, Share, Add, etc.

7.    Directly ask for additional contacts.  This assertive technique can be fun for everyone if you do it right.  I teach presentation skills, so a lot of my messaging and content is geared for leaders and salespeople.  “Share this with the most successful salesperson you know,” I request.  And people do!  Somehow, it’s easy and fun to identify such a person and comply.

8.    Provide a “Flinstone” sign up list.  Yep.  A clipboard with a piece of paper still works for collecting email addresses.  I urge retail clients to give customers access to a computer so they can do their own data entry or Like my clients’ Facebook page.   

9.   Provide quality content and audience will find you.  Athletes use the phrase, “put the ball in play.”  Amazing things happen when you create, post, and distribute original, high-quality information.  The right people find you.  See how I generate keyword-rich articles for my blog.

10.   Get your articles into existing customers’ newsletters.  When you bother to create short, useful articles people will fall over themselves asking you for permission to publish them.  Be sure to request attribution, which will help you build your list.  

11.   Put a connection offer onto all physical products.  Retail establishments are now putting a “Like our Facebook page” sign on their front doors.  A law firm in Royal Oak Michigan has a bunch of QR codes on their windows.  I spent 15 minutes one cold morning walking around the building scanning the damn things, curious about what info awaited me.

12.   Article swaps and guest blogging.  Remember those articles I mentioned in #10?  Offer related, non-competitive companies a chance to swap articles.  Offer to give them one of your articles even if they can’t reciprocate and you still win!

13.   Place a subtle offer in your e-mail signature.  People forget that your e-mail signature file gets viewed thousands and thousands of times in a single year.  True, many of the people you e-mail are already on your list, but the people they forward your message to are not.  See how I do this.  Click here, then type “Sig file” into the Subject line and I’ll send you my current signature file. 

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