How to Build a Permission-Based Email Database

Email marketing can be a great way to increase your customer base and retain your customers. Email marketing can be a risky strategy that could damage your reputation and reduce your return on investment. It is important to ensure that your email list is permission-based and not bought, traded, or acquired by another organization. These are some tips to help you build a permission-based email marketing campaign list ed email database.

1. Ask your customers for their email addresses at the point-of-sale to get their email addresses. This can be done at the point of sale in retail stores or online.

2. Keep a guestbook in your business. Encourage everyone to sign up and give their email address.

3. Encourage customers to sign up for your loyalty program, birthday club or other special offers.

4. Ask your customers for their email addresses when collecting feedback, either via a comment card, or a survey.

5. Keep business cards organized in a fishbowl near your counter. While this is a common practice in restaurants, it can also be used at your counter. A weekly drawing will be held from the cards that have been received as a gift for your business. For those who don't have business cards, provide registration slips.

6. A sign-up box should be added to your website. For maximum impact, this should be placed above the fold of each page on your website. It is not a good idea to make it difficult for people to find the information they need.

7. Your sign-up box should be added to your Facebook profile. To market to your fans in the future, you will need a way to collect their email addresses.

8. Your sign-up link should be added to your Twitter profile. This is a good place to include it in your bio, so that your profile appears when you click on it. It is not enough to have followers on Twitter; you must work hard to get their email addresses.

9. Include your sign-up link in your email signature. You may not have many people who you email frequently. Invite them to sign up.

10. For seminars, workshops or other in-person events you should provide a sign-in sheet for attendees to enter their email address.

11. All your email marketing campaigns should include a "forward-to-friend" link.

12. Visitors to your booth at trade shows can leave their business cards in a fishbowl. For those who have signed up to your email list, you can conduct an hourly drawing at the trade show.

13. You can easily create an app on your smartphone to collect contact information and email addresses of people you meet in person.