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An email marketing campaign is only as effective as your list will allow it to be. You can have great offers presented in a clean format, but if you don’t have a good list to send it to, it’s all really for nothing. So before you can get your email marketing campaign rolling, you need to focus on collecting email addresses to build up your list.

Now, I’ve talked a little in the past about building email lists, but today, I want to offer even more ways to help you reach your goals.

1. Include a signup link in your email signature—If you’re like me, you probably send dozens of emails every single day. This presents a great opportunity to further promote your email list. Include a call to action/signup link in your email signature. This way, every time you send out an email, the recipient will see the signup link for your newsletter. I bet more than a few people will click it.
2. Promote your newsletter on print marketing materials—It’s easy to get caught up only in online efforts for building up your email list, but offline promotion can be effective too. Place a call to action and a URL on your print marketing materials driving readers to a signup page for your newsletter. You can include this on brochures, flyers, and even on the back of your business cards.
3. Get emails from your direct mail list—Have a postal list that you send physical mail to? Shoot them an offer that drives them to a landing page and requires their email address before they can access the deal. If the offer is sweet enough, you’ll have a lot of people willing to sign up.
4. Push your freebies on social media—Giveaways can be a powerful tool for building email lists. But as I recently mentioned, just because you’re offering freebies doesn’t mean people will jump at the opportunity to get them. You need to actively promote your giveaways to get people interested, and one simple way to do this is by pushing them in your social media efforts.
5. Advertise your newsletter in other newsletters—Have friends in other businesses with email newsletters? See if you can work out a swap where they promote your newsletter and you promote theirs. This cross-promotion is a good way to benefit both businesses, earning you more signups.

I know you all have some interesting tactics you use to collect email addresses. Let’s hear them!

Recently, I wrote a post detailing 7 ways to build your email list. Because the list is one of the most important factors in determining the success of your email marketing campaign, I’ve come up with another handful of tips for growing your email list. Feel free to leave comments with more list building tips.

1. Include signup links in your email signature—If you’re like me, you send a lot of emails back and forth with your clients and leads. Chances are, a few of these people you email aren’t subscribers to your email list. That’s why you should include a signup link in your email signature. Briefly describe a benefit of signing up (e.g. Save 15% off your next order when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter).
2. Send direct mail offers that require email signup—If direct mail is a part of your marketing plan, you should try to get some of the people on your direct mail list to become email subscribers. A simple way to do this is to include a special offer in your direct mail pieces that requires customers signup for your email list to take advantage of the offer. Make sure the offer is compelling enough to warrant the reader walking over to their computer, signing up for your email list, and making the purchase.
3. Post signup links in blog posts—Do you blog regularly? Include signup links for your email list in each of your posts. It can be placed at either the top or bottom of your posts. If your blog content is interesting and compelling, your readers will probably be interested in seeing what your emails say too.
4. Use article marketing—Not only is article marketing a good way to build back links and to increase your search engine presence, but it can also be effective for gaining more email subscribers. Most article directories allow you to include about 4 links in your articles and author box. Make one of those links a link for signing up for your email list.
5. Place newsletter samples of your website—Another way to entice visitors to signup for your email list is to give them a taste of what they’re missing. Archive past newsletters or excerpts on your website. If your visitors enjoy the limited content they can view here, they might feel compelled to signup for your email list.

Do you have any additional tips for building an email list? Leave a comment with your advice.