No matter how much social media and SMS grow in popularity, email is still king. It is a valuable tool for business owners because it helps maintain contact with customers while providing important information regarding sales, industry news, and changes in company policies.

While there’s no doubt that email is necessary, getting people to sign up to receive your email can seem a little daunting. If you haven’t had much luck getting sign-ups, these clever ideas could help get their attention and reel them in.

Host a challenge.

A free challenge is a fun way to build your list. Think of a challenge that correlates to your business. For instance, if you sell fitness equipment, do a walking challenge where those who join commit to walking a certain distance for a certain number of days.

Offer a giveaway.

People love to win stuff. This is the email equivalent of dropping your business card in the fishbowl at your favorite restaurant. Give away something like one of your products or services, have people sign up with their email; then, after a specified time, choose a winner.

Create a quiz.

Quizzes are very hot right now, and if you can tie your quiz back to your company, it works even better. Make sure the topic is something that has a broad appeal. A car dealership could have a quiz about the best car for your lifestyle or test their knowledge of cars. Get creative and have fun.

Host a webinar or workshop.

Hosting a webinar or workshop allows you to provide value to your customers and prospects while building your contact list. Think about what your customers would want to learn about or explore and create a webinar or workshop around that. Give them enough to draw them in and get them interested; then tie it to your products or services to take them further.

Provide free access to a club, group, etc.

Create an exclusive group or club that has special products, special deals, or special terms that are not normally offered to “regular” customers. Allow individuals to sign up with their email to receive membership. Just make sure that you keep a steady stream of cool stuff flowing in that group, so you can retain existing members, and they will tell their friends and encourage them to join. You can even institute a referral program from this.

Create a course.

Do you have something you could teach your customers? Create a course! Spread it out over seven or eight email lessons and make sure it adds value and ties back to your company. For instance, if you sell industrial floor scrubbers, you could offer a course on sanitizing and cleaning a facility to meet the cleanliness standards post-pandemic. Each “lesson” could have a different tip as well as a statistic or two, and make sure you always include a call to action.

Offer free content.

Reports, white papers, and e-books are very popular right now. Create some great content and offer it free to individuals who sign up with their email. Industry reports and innovative breakthroughs are popular topics, but tailor them to fit your own business. Make sure you also include at least one call to action, and don’t forget to use your branding.

Tease with a sneak peek.

Do you have a new product launch coming up? Let interested individuals sign up with their email to get a sneak peek or advance purchase opportunity. Behind-the-scenes footage is another popular offering. Have fun, engage your audience, and make them feel like family.

Provide exclusive offers.

People love to receive offers that aren’t available to everyone. Whether you have products that aren’t available to the public, or you are offering special deals and discounts, make your subscribers feel like they are getting something that is not available to everyone. Often you will see this on websites that ask you to sign up for “special offers.” Then they send coupon codes and invite subscribers to special sales.

Create a newsletter.

This is not new, but there are several platforms like MailChimp that give you the tremendous creative flexibility to give your subscribers something really special. Include a link to a blog post, some helpful information, an employee highlight, a recipe, a customer testimony; your options are endless! All you have to do is make it great!

Once you have your strategies defined, incorporate them into your marketing plan. Promote your offer on your website, social media, and announce it in a blog post. As your new contacts come in, make sure your marketing plan includes them. Building your email list is a quick, easy way to get more contacts, but it also expands your brand awareness and broadens your pool of potential customers. Make sure you make very good use of the opportunity.

For more exciting ways to build your brand and grow your business, join the International Association of Women. The IAW is a global network of professional women committed to building up each other as we build our businesses. Join us today.