3 Ways a Small Business Can Build an Email List without a Website
Have you heard the saying that ‘the money is in the list’?
There is good reason why this has become an often quoted mantra for many Internet marketers.
Having an email subscriber list, especially one that contains your past customers (if they have already purchased from you they are more likely to purchase again), has many benefits for your business; for instance:
- You can send out an email newsletter, keeping your brand fresh in the memory of your visitors
- You can send out promotional emails for products that are slow moving and bring about sales that probably would not have happened
- You can send out seasonal special offers
- You can ask for feedback about your service or products using surveys, allowing you to be customer focused and improve your business
- You can elicit customer feedback to be used as testimonials that can be displayed in store
- Plus many other possibilities.
How can you, a small business owner, build a list without a website?
I’m going to share with you 3 ways that you can encourage the visitors to your store to share their email address with you.
1. Tell Your Visitors About Your Newsletter
The visitors to your store need to know that you have a newsletter that is emailed to them. You can put a sign-up with some brief information about your newsletter and have a place (customer service desk or at the till) that a visitor can write out their name and email address so that it is private from other shoppers.
It is advisable to have a benefit clearly spelled out so that people have an incentive to take you up on your newsletter; newsletter only discounts work well here.
2. Competitions are a Win Win
People love to win prizes, especially if it is something that they see as being valuable. A prize does not have to be super expensive to be useful but
the bigger the prize the more attention and buzz you will generate for your store.
Clearly display that you are running a competition around your store so that every visitor through your door sees it. Have forms for visitors to fill out and a secure box that they can post their entries in to.
Be sure to always ask for an email address on the competition entry forms and ensure that you have a tick box that says something like ‘tick the box to receive our email newsletter’. Also mention that you have newsletter only special offers that will not be found directly in-store.
Competitions really are a win-win for you and your customers.
3. Instant Discount
You can encourage people to sign-up to your newsletter on their first ever visit to your store by offering them an instant discount on their purchases.
An example of this: ‘sign-up for our email newsletter today and receive 10 % off your total purchase’.
People love to receive discounts on their shopping and this tip can also encourage your first-time visitors to become customers’ right there-and-then.
Final Note
Using the tips above, your email subscriber list will certainly grow. It is now over to you to build a relationship with your subscribers so that they become life-long customers, and even better, raving fans.
To manage your email subscriber list I highly recommend you sign-up to an email service provider such as AWeber. You will be able to personalise your emails with your recipients first name (and other details that you collect) and use professional email / newsletter templates that will give your messages that personal touch.
What suggestions would you add to the list?
To your success,
Karl Foxley
P.s. For a real world example of the tips outlined in this post please read: How a Small Business Built an Email Subscriber List Without A Website
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
10 Comments
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Great tips Karl your really have something here for anyone not having access to a website. I think the best one is competition. This really gets people active and wiling to subscribe to the letter.
It seems many people use aweber. I signed up for their affiliate program but never did use it. have you had any success?
Brian recently posted..How to redirect your affiliate links with an index.php file
Hey Brian, great to see you here. Competitions are great and the fact that, here in the UK at least, I am a member of 5 sites that are dedicated to sharing the latest competitions with their user-base, means instant traffic (If you have a website) and more people through your door (if you have a compelling enough incentive); I’ll be covering these aspects in a future post.
I love AWeber and their affiliate program is great, we recommend it to virtually every business we work with (if it meets their overall marketing plan). The best option and return would be if you purchased the white-label and marketed it that way, to do that it is wise to have an active list first.
Interesting read, I am going to build my list during the month of our big contest! I missed that on the several other contests I have organized… but this one.. no way
Hesham recently posted..The Biggest Internet Cash Contest in the History of Blogging
Sounds awesome Hesham. I’m a bit out of the loop about your competition so can you send me a link or an email updating me… I’d love to get involved and help you out.
Thanks for the email Hesham. I’ve just noticed your CommentLuv link, I could have just clicked that. lol.
All the best,
Karl
Excellent tips Karl, but your store would be your website, yes?
The store(s) I’m referring to in the post would be brick-and-mortar stores… (I think that’s what you are asking
).
My bad. I swear I read e-commerce in there somewhere.
Karl, it’s more difficult for some brick and mortar businesses to collect active emails addresses but it can be done. Just as you said make your customers aware that you even have an email list an send offers to grab their attention. I know this works well for the local car wash in my area. If I see an email from them I know there’s a coupon attached so I rush to open it! Thanks for pulling these tips together in a list.
@Ileane
Ileane recently posted..Top 5 Social Media Extensions for Chrome
‘It’s more difficult for some brick and mortar businesses to collect active emails addresses but it can be done’, you’re absolutely right Ileane. It was easy for my local hairdresser to build a list due to the way the salon runs, very informal and friendly. Some stores just do not have that personal touch where people feel enough trust to hand over their email.