According to salesforce.com, 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase based on a promotional email. Because size matters, get ten new ideas adding contacts to your email list.

Size matters when it comes to the number of qualified lead and customer contacts in your email list.

A new report by ExactTarget found that today’s marketing professionals are as interested in increasing the quality of email subscribers as the number of contacts in their email database. The study provides some interesting insights into which tactics email marketers rate as effective in growing their database, and which they are actually using to do so.

Whether you are just beginning to conduct email marketing campaigns for your business or want to expand your email marketing’s effectiveness, these ideas for increasing the number of subscribers in your email contact database can help.

Top 10 Ways to Grow an Email List:

1. Ask for it.

• 71% of marketers said: Capturing an email during an inbound sales call
• Only 23% of marketers say they are doing this to build their email list

Some no-pressure reasons you can give prospects as to why you need an email address or phone number for follow up could be to:

• Answer a question that you “needed” to research in order to answer by email (or phone, if the contact prefers)
• Forward a copy of a special report, statistics or presentation by email
• Send them an exclusive, no-obligation offer
• Let them know about future events, webinars or promotions

2. Make it a requirement.

• 70% said that requiring an email address in order to access a members-only area of a website was an effective way to grow their database
• Only 57% of marketers say they are doing this

Invite prospects into your inner circle! The more valuable the “give away” on your website, the more appropriate it is for you to ask recipients to provide an email address – and sometimes even more information – in exchange.

3. Require email addresses for loyalty or reward program membership.

• 67% of marketers said that in-store loyalty program registration was an effective way to build an email list; however, only 18% are employing this tactic
• 58% of marketers say that online loyalty program registration forms are an effective way to build an email contact database; only 35% are leveraging online loyalty rewards program for email addresses

All loyalty and reward programs should require members to register an email address. Sweeten the deal by sending a special offer to program members at the time of registration and as part of “friends and family” campaigns throughout the year.

4. Add to the customer care protocol.

• 63% of marketers say that capturing an email address during a customer service call is an effective way to build an email list
• Only 23% say their company is taking advantage of this opportunity

A customer service call is a great time to capture or to confirm the phone number and email address of a contact. As with No. 1 above, if you have the ability to use it for personal follow up, it can enhance your overall customer service effectiveness and increase customer satisfaction, as well.

5. Use instant gratification.

• 63% of marketers said that registration coupled with an immediate incentive or reward was an effective way to grow their email contact database
• Half of the marketers surveyed said they are doing so

An example of this would be a registration form where members of your target markets receive an automatic reward, such as a special report or e-book, discount or some other special offer immediately by email upon form submission.

6. Leverage social networks and reward with content.

• 59% of marketers said that promoting content on their social networks where registration was a requirement for access was effective in helping to build an email database
• Only 39% of marketers are utilizing this tactic

Social network status updates reach further and can be shared more easily than almost any other type of marketing. Create special content – like an e-book or template – to give away in exchange for new leads and contacts.

7. Require email address for mobile app use or mobile site access.

• 59% of marketers say that requiring an email address for opt-in to a mobile app or site can help grow a database effectively
• Only 12% have this type of marketing tactic in place

The need to optimize for mobile cannot be stressed enough. More and more consumers have mobile devices and an increasing number use only (or mostly) mobile devices for internet research.

8. Capture emails at the time of account creation.

• 57% of marketers say requiring an email address to create an account on a website is an effective way to build a contact database
• 70% of marketers are using this tactic to build their email contact database

Ensure that any type of account someone can create with your company as a customer, on your website, mobile apps or other programs require input of an active email address (requiring that the recipient click a link on confirmation email to complete account setup).

9. Ask for email at the point of check out.

• 57% of email marketers thought that asking for an email address at the point of sale could help build a contact list
• Only 20% of marketers say their companies are doing this

Many retailers ask every customer for an email address at the point of payment, and some even offer to send a receipt via email as an alternative (or even in addition to) providing a printed receipt. Ensure customers that their information will not be shared with any outside interests and incentivize with the prospect of a discount on a future purchase, special offers or another reward.

10. Use landing pages to capture email contacts.

• 50% of marketers said using paid online advertising to drive traffic to landing pages with email opt-in forms can help build an email marketing database
• Only 27% of marketers are doing so

Landing pages with an email opt-in form for those who are interested in your brand or a particular product or service can help you build your email list, and could represent an enhancement to your paid advertising efforts that results in more leads, conversions, revenue and return on your paid marketing investments.

It’s worth noting that even though marketers rated all of these tactics as effective in building an email marketing list, that for many of the tactics, there is a large discrepancy between the number that say it’s effective and the number of businesses that are actually employing these tactics.

This discrepancy means opportunity to gain market share for those organizations that fill the gap and add these email marketing list building tactics to their overall marketing plan in the New Year.

Source: http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/07/email-marketing-stats.html

• 82% of consumers open emails from companies (Litmus)
• 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase in 2012 based on a promotional email