Get the steady response you need to keep your business growing. Whether you’re a bookstore, a nonprofit arts organization, a wine consultant, or an accountant, you need a steady stream of business, referrals, or response from the people that keep your doors open.

That starts with staying in regular communication with your audience. When you build an ongoing dialogue with them, you increase the trust and comfort level they have with you. They look forward to hearing from you. It becomes second nature for them to think of you. You’ll stay top of mind with them.

As a result, they’ll become more loyal to you, spend more with you, donate more frequently, and be more likely to refer you to their friends or colleagues.

Sounds great, right? The easiest, most effective way to build that dialogue is with email marketing — by using email newsletters and promotions that you send regularly.

That’s why you should have a list of your customers’, clients’, or members’ email addresses: it’s a real asset to your business. And it’s so easy to quickly build it and at little cost.

Get ready:

Start building your list.

Here are some things you can do to build a permission-based list, wherever you go, however your organization interacts with the public.
At your office or place of business:

• Ask every caller if they want to receive your email newsletter.
• Request customer email addresses on your POS, online ordering, or checkout system.
• Use Constant Contact’s desktop widget, the Contact Capture Tool,to instantly record customer email addresses when they check out.
• Add space to your comment cards or surveys for people to sign up.
• Put tent cards, wall, or counter displays in your place of business. Use a teaser, if applicable, about getting the inside scoop or exclusive offers from you. (Need some? Visit printingforless.com/listbuildkit.)
• Use a fishbowl on your counter to collect sign-up forms or business cards. Offer a weekly or monthly prize, like discounts or gifts from your establishment or other local vendors. Announce the winners in your email newsletter, and add everyone in the bowl to your mailing list.