List Building Tips: Building A Contact List

Building a contact list can be as easy or complicated as you wish. But why make it more difficult than it needs to be? Use the techniques below to increase your subscription and retention rate and build a solid contact list.

Focus On Your Customers. Use your email list to learn more about your customers. An email list is not one-way street. Even if you use your list primary to send out a newsletter always, give your readers a way to contact you.

List a special “editor” email and encourage people to write you with any comments that may have about the latest newsletter issue.

Create a survey about a hot topic that your newsletter relates too. Read the headlines in industry bulletins and then ask your readers to email you back with their opinions.

Make a questionnaire. Lots of people love sharing their ideas with others, especially if they feel they are helping a group of like-minded people.

Take a poll. Use your newsletter to take an “exit poll” on some product or service that you sell. Publish the results on your website at a later date.

Send out “Product Updates” or “How-to Guides” on products or services to former customers. Offer discount coupons to new products or services.

Ask “what did we do wrong” questions. Encourage your readers to give you and your business improvement tips. Provide a simple contact form for people to reply anonymously.

Provide quality content in your newsletter that is not readily available elsewhere.

Create a community. People love belonging to groups of like-minded individuals who understand what their goal is.

Answer questions. Use your surveys and questionnaires to learn what is confusing to your readers and then work to find the answers to their questions. Solve problems. Use your newsletter to provide useful how-to information for your readers.
Vary content formats. Although your newsletter is an email, place links inside to videos, podcasts or PDF files on your website.

Give away something free. Although your readers are already signed up, reward them by offering free products or services a couple times a years. Remember, Oprah gave away a few free cars once to her studio audience and now there is a waiting list that is years long.

Create exclusive elearning courses for your readers. Use the information you have gleamed from your readers to create an elearning course that provides answers and solutions for a common problem in greater detail. Encourage them to forward these special issues with business associates.

So as you have learned that maintaining and building a contact list using the tips above can be a very simple and easy process.