Email with your dessert? You betcha. Yesterday, I grabbed an ice cream bar, and lo, there on the box was a huge invitation to join the company's email newsletter. Turns out, I already belong (Yes, I do cherish my relationship with ice cream). But I'll bet it draws in plenty of other true believers.

Your mailing list's vigor depends on more than just being able to tap into streams of fresh email addresses. But, you always have to be on the lookout for new blood, given the typical churn rate on a B-to-C list of 20 percent to 30 percent a year. Problem is, where do you find it?

Yes, you're probably doing all the conventional things right: You promote your email marketing program on your home page, and you have a box to sign up for email on your site-registration page (and I don't mean a page that loads with the box already checked).

If you haven't broadened your email opt-in scope for a while, see the list below to find out how others are mining alternative sources for email addresses without ransacking the marketing budget to find the money.

Some tactics just do more with what you already have. Others require a little fiddling in the software department. But, if you heeded my advice in my previous column (Stop emailing like it's 1999) to stop pushing bulk email out through your Outlook client, your IT guy should be so in love with you by now that he'll relish this new initiative.

1. Beef up your own data collection.

Subscriber recruitment begins at home. Do you promote your email program on every page of your website? Do you sell it or just mention it in passing? Call up your privacy-policy page -- is it there? Do you call it out on your "About Us" page? How about on your check-out and thank-you page templates? Google yourself using your best keywords and look at the landing pages -- is it there? Didn't think so.

You don't have to force visitors to sign up before they can navigate around your landing page or jump to another page. If they're on a mission, they won't appreciate being interrupted. But, you never know what's going to trigger a desire to at least see what you offer. If visitors aren't interested the minute they hit your homepage or landing page, they might be later on, after they spend more time on your site. Plus, you must sell your email program as surely and vigorously as you market your products. Stick a benefit statement next to the subscription blank, and write it in the same kind of language you use throughout your site.

2. Add an email invitation to all of your transactional emails.

Seems like everyone is talking about optimizing transactional emails, but I still don't see a lot of companies doing it. Think of all the automated email you send out every day in response to a customer or prospect's action:

• Order confirmation (It's so obvious, but since not everybody does this, I'll state it here.)
• Download acknowledgements/other thank-you pages • Shipping notifications
• Response to information queries
• Accounts due
• Account payments posted
• Customer-service follow-ups
• Status changes (out-of-stock items now in stock, impending account renewals)
• Product tracking
• Feedback/blog posting acknowledgement
• Information inquiries
• Other e-statements (mileage/loyalty programs/event qualifications)

Now, how many of these email messages go to people who aren't in your mailing-list database? If only 10 percent of them sign up, that's still 10 percent more than you had without inviting them at all.

Plus, the heavy lifting has already been done for you, because they're your customers already. Just add a line after the business portion of the message, inviting readers to check out your email program and listing what they can get by clicking the link that leads to your subscription page.

Maybe someone higher up in your company doesn't want to cross the line by adding marketing copy to a business email. So, offer to test it on a couple of high-profile email types that people read, like confirmations or payment-due notices. Then, track to see if your prediction of more subscriptions pans out or if the complaint level makes you queasy.

3. Add an invitation to print support material.

The first time I opened a package from my favorite new online retailer, I found a glossy postcard tucked in with my tissue-wrapped product and a fistful of freebies and samples.

"Don't forget to sign up for our e-newsletter! It's the #1 way to stay up to date and get the inside scoop on special deals and sales," it said. If I hadn't already been on this list, too, the good feeling I got from the way my order was presented would have driven me right to the laptop.

The postcard listed the site URL but not the specific subscription page link. That's okay because I could have typo'd the link and ended up in "Page Not Found" limbo. Just by going to the homepage, I saw the email promo right away, and the submit button takes me right to the page.

Add a promotional message to almost all of your printed materials, from catalogs to sales team business cards. Keep it simple, and make sure your homepage clearly directs inquirers to the email sign-up page. Don't make them hunt for it.

4. Add your subscribe link to all of your social networking contact pages, blog posts and online signatures.

Anyplace your name appears to the public, you should add a one-line email invitation and link to your opt-in page. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plurk, Meebo … the traffic might range from flood-stage to trickle now, but they can all yield top-quality subscribers.

5. Let customers sign themselves up right at the check-out in your stores.

At one discount shoe retailer, the clerk processed my sale, then told me about the email list while I signed the electronic credit validator. After I agreed to sign up, the validator took my email address on the next screen. Confirmation was waiting for me when I got home half an hour later. Sweet!

Now, this happened after the sale. You could argue that by then, the customer might be ready to bolt, and you should try to secure the email address before she signs the credit slip or validator. Test it yourself to see which yields more email addresses.

Bottom line: It never hurts to ask.

Asking for the sale is a critical part of any conversation with a customer. Asking for the email address should become one too.

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About the Author

Wendy Roth is senior manager of training services for Lyris. She works closely with marketing professionals to help them use Lyris' solutions to achieve their highest online marketing objectives, and she collaborates with product development to ensure Lyris' products are based on marketers' changing needs. This article was originally published on iMedia Connection.

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