Tip 1: Run a Christmas-themed giveaway

This is a smart tactic which also gives you the chance to get a little creative. With some thought, you can capture lots of email addresses while also running a competition that gets a lot of attention. Any positive brand exposure you can gain during this time is a win

You can do something as simple as a prize draw where people have to enter their email address to be in with the chance of winning a fantastic prize, or you can focus on usergenerated content and ask your customers to do something to compete for a prize. If you need to quickly gain a load of extra email addresses, then this is a tactic worth considering.

Tip 2: Offer limited-time holiday season coupons/discount codes

Create urgency by posting limited-time-only holiday season coupons. Customers who want to get the best bargains this Christmas will happily enter their email address in exchange for a decent discount. Create a data collection popup on your site with a strong call to action and an attractive enough offer to lure people in.

Tip 3: Offer exclusive access to a new product launch in exchange for email addresses

Got a lot of buzz building around one of your new products that’s due to launch? Why not take advantage of this and reveal a ‘sneak peek’ of the product to those who provide their email addresses.

Naturally, there are a lot of new products released in the run-up to the holidays – so the earlier you can provide exclusive information to consumers via email, the more likely they are to come to you over a competitor. If your website and payments system allows it, you could also enable pre-orders to lock in early orders. Just don’t forget to collect the email address first, as it will offer plenty more opportunities to sell to them before the big day and in the future.

Tip 4: In-store email address collection via shopfloor staff

Email addresses can be captured offline, too Don’t miss out on the opportunity to snap up some extra email contacts via your stores. Ask people for their email at the checkout in exchange for a discount or small gift such as a toiletry sample or holiday gift; you’ll be surprised how willing people are to provide their email address. For some brands it can be very successful – for instance, stationery company Paradise Pen Co. actually collects 80% of its customer emails in-store, with just 20% of people signing up online.

If people aren’t interested in the free gift, then maybe a 5/10% off today-only voucher to use in store might sway them. Remember, the people who are in your store are already interested in your product because they have chosen to step inside and browse, making them ideal people to target for email address collection. They will have already seen your product in store, and it might just take a well written email with an online discount for them to buy something.

Tip 5 Make your social media channels work harder by integrating a newsletter sign-up feature into your brand’s Facebook page

Facebook pages now offer a few different ways for people to get in touch with you, or to leave their details. You’ve probably spent a huge amount of time and effort growing your Facebook fan base, so it’d be a shame not to capture information from your engaged advocates with a simple newsletter sign-up feature. Get more out of your social media channels by encouraging people to opt in to a newsletter with exclusive deals, offers, product launches and company news.

In-store e-receipts

Many retail brands are also offering consumers the opportunity to go paperless, by taking people’s email addresses and sending them an e-receipt rather than printing one out. This is a huge change – and opportunity – for retail brands, because not only is it helping the environment but it’s also an ideal way to grow the mailing list.

Of course, companies need to ensure they get the right permissions to be able to send more than transactional emails.

Conclusion

These top tips should help you to add a substantial amount of new contacts to your email mailing list. Get started now, so that you can capture enough valuable email addresses in time for the festive online shopping extravaganza. Those extra few email addresses you have worked hard to obtain just might help you to achieve your sales goals. What are you waiting for? Get collecting now.