Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.  Marketing Sherpas research has shown that your email subscriber list is most likely going to degrade by about 22.5% every year.  For various reasons:

• Subscribers’ email addresses change as they move from one company to another
• Unqualified leads opt out of your email communications
• People abandon their old Yahoo address they really never use except for “spam” sites
• Your email content no longer applies to their needs/desires

Now for the good news…There are tons of easy ways to continue to grow or build your email marketing list back up.  As a marketer it is your job to infuse fresh contacts into your email campaigns that you can keep your numbers growing.  This is done with a little bit of ingenuity and time, not by purchasing or renting a list, as we discussed a few weeks back.

Below is a list of 25 ways to ramp up your email database for free:

Grow it with new content

1. Create a new lead-gen offer such as a free ebook or whitepaper which would be available for download after they provide you with their email.  This is a pretty standard lead-gen move. Create a landing page with an opt-in form and a teaser about the free item. The page then normally leads the subscriber down an offer flow or deeper into your blog.  
2. Create a free online tool or app.  Again just like the ebook or whitepaper the visitor would supply you with their email address in order to obtain access to the download.  Make sure to make the tool and/or app worthy of their email address offering.

Grow it with Networking, Traditional Marketing and Advertising

3)  Collect email addresses at tradeshows or other offline events.  There are a ton of industry events everywhere, of course some are much larger than other but even the smallest of crowds could help you grow your database.  Find networking events in your area on sites suchs as MeetUp.com and make sure you are armed with business cards with a link leading them to your lead-gen page.  Of course always remember to send these contacts a welcome email confirming their opt-in to your list.

4) Host your own offline events.  Not finding any networking events in your area? Host your own using sites like MeetUp.com or other social media platforms.  Send a blast out on Twitter or create a boosted Facebook post.

5) Host an online webinar or podcast. Collect email addresses at registration.  Remember to make the webinar or podcast valuable not a timewaster.  

6) Add a QR code to your traditional printed marketing campaigns.  People can easily scan them to opt-in to your list.  Plus they just look “new agey.”

Grow it with the help of a partner

7) Host a co-marketing campaign or offer with a partner.  Ask for the help of a partner (should be a known entity – again not a purchased or rented list) to co-promote the lead capture to both his and your own list.  After the launch the list becomes a shared resource.

8)  Have affiliates run your offer on their website.  You will either have to reciprocate with an equal amount of traffic to your site or set up a pay per subscriber scenario.  

Grow it with Social Media

8)  Add a simple sign up page to your Facebook page.  Yeah, that sounds silly but many people simply overlook this.  There are many different app options to add and set up an email sign-up form to your Facebook page alone. Most email list servers have a custom Facebook app that syncs with your list from Facebook.

Some suggested email sign-up apps are:

• MailChimp’s Facebook Signup App
• Constant Contact Facebook App
• Benchmark’s Email App
• JD Subra Email Signup App
• iContact’s Facebook App

9)  Preview or give teasers of premium content via your social channels.  Just as with your lead-gen page, you can give a glimpse of your free ebook or whitepaper and ask for their email information in exchange for the entire download.   Tweet, post, or share excerpts from the ebook/whitepaper to drive interest and traffic to your lead-gen page. Make sure you include a visual component in each post.

10) Leverage your YouTube channel.  Add call to action and URLs in to all your posted videos that will encourage visitors to subscribe to your list.

All of the above examples are ways that you can ramp up your email list today.  Many of them are not even too difficult to put into action. The objective being to stay on top of your list building so that it never truly dies out.  Keep cycling out the dead weight (look for an upcoming article on list segregation), nurturing the veterans, while still growing the fresh subscribers.

What other ways do you use to grow your list? We would love to hear your ideas!