Your subscribers are the cornerstone of your business.

Increasing the size of the list, giving them value and giving them a reason to join you is paramount in growing a valuable, engaged and ready-to-do-business customer list. Their are countless ways to grow your list, strategies, joint ventures and campaign types. Rather than write thousands of words explaining intricate strategies that you will never probably get off the ground.

How about we start from scratch and cover all the bases first? We have broken these into a few main areas:

• Media under your control – These are your titles, websites and existing subscribers
• Email marketing – Get the best from every email you send
• Social Media – Remember they are not really your friend unless they have given you an email address
• Apps, Communities and Mobile Marketing – Bringing ALL your channels to deliver the gold to your marketing database is imperative
• Professional relationships -Your relationships with your titles industries key players will assist in leveraging authority and interest in your communications
• Your Team – Use every touch point to grow your list, it’s in every ones best interest
• External Events – These are an amazing source of valuable new relationships in the real world

In existing media under your control

1) EVERY title you produce will be encouraging your readership to sign up for your titles newsletter. Give them something they cannot get in the magazine and make sure you give it to them.

2) Run an ongoing sponsored competition on your website encouraging new visitors to opt-in to win

3) Running ongoing organic search campaigns that pitch your subscription very specifically within your niche using keywords and multiple campaign sites delivers targeted subscribers

4) Increase the number of newsletter sign up forms on your site. Visitors do not always come through the front door, so ensure wherever they are on the site, they can join your list.

5) Keep the web forms simple, you can always mine for more data later.

6) Sell the benefits. Do not assume they will happily part with their email, what will you swap for it?

7) Either in or adjacent to every blog post, article and feature promote the benefits of joining your list.

8) Add “share this page” functionality to your site

9) Provide a unique offer such as a guide, missing page from the magazine or advertiser offer (good incentive to assist in sharing a list) to opt in

10) Add “lay over” sign up boxes asking those leaving your site to join your newsletter

11) If you have a list without emails and just addresses post them something to encourage them to give you their email address

12) Integration is the key, every system HAS to feed into your marketing database and update automatically. This is essential.

In your email marketing

13) Include a newsletter subscription link, when someone forwards your email, that person can sign up directly.

14) Include a “send to a friend” button on every email promotion and newsletter

15) Incentivise your subscribers with prizes each month to send to as many friends as possible

16) If your some of your list starts to bounce their address, send them a post card or SMS them to respond back with their updated details

17) Ad Swaps are an effective way of growing your list. Lists need to be of equal size to work and cost nothing but a little ad space on a newsletter

18) Add newsletter sign up forms into your partners websites where possible

]19) Create joint campaign sites and capture visitors details

20) Add social media links within the email to encourage your recipients to post your newsletter to their profiles

In your social media

21) In your social media post the link to sign up for your newsletter.

22) Always add the hosted link from your newsletter into every social media account you have

23) Add your newsletter subscription web form into your Facebook page

24) Add your sign up and hosted newsletter links within all your book marking sites

Apps, community and mobile marketing

25) Ensure you have data integration with your marketing database and your mobile apps

26) All mobile sites should include newsletter sign ups

27) Use SMS marketing to capture and fill the gaps in your email database. Send an SMS asking for their email in the response

With your professional relationships

28) Every supplier/client relationship you have is with a company that has a comparable database. Ask yourself, who else sells to my ideal customers?

29) Relationships with respected authorities or personalities within your titles niche. These authorities are respected, followed and their list and even those not on their list will follow their recommendations.

30) Joint ventures with like-minded and interested parties with access to your ideal customers. JV’s have to be fair, give value to both parties and require endorsement from the list owner. What value will you give them to subscribe?

31) Professional associations, businesses and interested parties can always find common ground on which to assist each other in growing, what is it within your niche?

With your team

32) Scrape every contact from your organisation and put them into a separate database and ask them if they would like to become a subscriber

33) Sales and telemarketing teams don’t hang up until each person is asked if they can go on the newsletter 34) Incentivise your team to legitimately collect authorisation to join the database

35) Every staff members email signature should include a newsletter sign up link

36) Every business card has an opt-in on the back

Your external events

37) The infamous trade show bowl. get everyone coming to your stand to enter the competition and put them in the database

38) Ask visitors to subscribe to the newsletter to receive a gift and automate the sign up to send the gift electronically

39) Networking and partner events collect all cards and enter them into the database

40) Host or inspire events where you can bring your like-minded businesses together asking them to register to attend, put your hand up to manage this process If you follow these steps, implementing and capturing your list consistently your database will grow without limit.

If we were to pick one tactic out of everything in the above 40 it would be Joint Ventures.

Go forth and grow your databases with BrandMail, Australia’s leading email, sms and social messaging system…