So how do you collect email addresses for your mailing list?

One of the tasks I've been given lately is to build a massive contact list for marketing purposes. It isn't for me, and the sheer scale of it is a bit daunting, but by process of scanning and OCR, manual data entry and warm calling, I'm supposed to put together a contact database containing upwards of 100,000 leads.

The funny thing is that from a marketer's perspective, this number isn't enough. Its a good start but to really be successful at marketing a product with email, you must always refresh your list and continually grow it. To give you ideas on how to do this and to remind me of some good tips, I found a great list from VerticalResponse, and I thought I'd share it with you. Here are 29 ways to collect email addresses for your business.

and a sneak peak...

• Incentivize your employees - Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
• Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
• Referrals
  - Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you'll give them a discount.
• Bouncebacks – Get them back! - Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
• Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.