Grow Your List Offline

Anita · Posted: March 28, 2007, 4:38 pm Post subject: Grow Your List Offline

Grow Your List Offline

This is from a newsletter that I got from Aweber and I wanted to share with you all. This includes a great chart to help you know whether or not they should be added to your lists!

Collect Subscribers Offline
---------------------------

There are many opportunities to get a new subscriber when
you're offline, in the "real world:"

* People calling you by phone to ask questions

You can take subscribers by phone. Come up with a short
pitch/explanation of what you're offering via email
(just like you would on your website) and ask for their
email address.

Put them in a spreadsheet and import the new addresses
daily or every couple of days.

* Visitors to your physical store

Restaurants, bars, doctor's offices... if you have
people coming in person to see you, ask if they're
already getting your specials/newsletter/other
information.

If they're not already subscribed, have a signup sheet
that they can fill out, or give them a card with the URL
of your site/opt-in form so they can sign up there.

* Conferences, Trade Shows, etc.

If you have a booth at a trade show, or are going to a
conference, you're bound to get a lot of business cards.

Just like on the phone, come up with an "elevator pitch"
for your list.

When you're talking to someone and they hand you their
business card, make your pitch. If they accept, write
"Subscribe" or "Yes" on the card.

When you get back from the event, import the addresses
of the people who accepted.

Only Use Opt-In Methods
-----------------------

Just like in the online world, you only want to collect the
email addresses of people who want to receive your emails.

With so many situations that you can encounter offline, it's
easy to think that it's OK to add a given person to your
list, when in fact they haven't given you permission to
email them.

To help guide you, we've published a set of situations, and
whether or not it's OK to subscribe someone's email address,
on our Knowledge Base:

http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/263/

You can also read some commentary we've made about this on
our blog:

http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/collect-subscribers-offline-dos-donts.htm

Follow Up Quickly
-----------------

You've probably heard this before (from us or elsewhere):

Permission. Doesn't. Age. Well.

An email address collected yesterday is far more valuable
than one collected a month ago.

The more time that passes between someone giving permission
to email them, and when you actually start emailing them,
the less likely they are to:

* remember that they gave you permission
* still want your information

This is especially true for offline subscribers because they
may not have been to your website before, and so they won't
recognize your URL right away like an online subscriber can.

So don't wait more than a couple of days to subscribe people
to your list once they give you that offline permission.

They always send out great newsletter but this one really stood out to me. Hope it helps some!

Take care,
Anita Razz

_________________

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