Paperless Ways to Build Your List

If you're adding to your mailing list, paper sign-ups are great to use in a pinch. But this season, why not go for the sleekest sort of sign-up you can in your store, at your booth, or at that event? Here are some great alternatives to your paper sign-up sheets that you may not have thought of:

When You’ve Got Internet Access:

If you have access to a laptop and the internet, then these little beauties might be the answer you are looking for:

• Contact Capture Tool
  
  The Contact Capture tool is a downloadable widget that you can leave open on your desktop. Once you’ve decided on the list you want any incoming subscribers to join and clarify what extra details you might want to get from them, you can just walk away and let people add themselves.
  
  
  
  Best of all, once a subscriber clicks Add, the capture tool just refreshes itself. It’s ready for your next subscriber with no fuss or muss.
  

• Facebook Join My Mailing List App
  
  There are any number of reasons why you might want to have your Facebook Page displayed to curious customers. After all, it never hurts to remind people of your social media presence, and showcasing a vibrant Page can help with that. However, if you keep your Page open to the Join My Mailing List App from Constant Contact, you can also give those curious folks a way to sign up that’s easy and integrated.
  
  
  

When You Are Offline

Even when you don’t have reliable internet access, you can still use technology to make subscribing simple.

• QR Code
  
  You’ve probably seen QR codes around, even if you weren’t aware of what they do or how they work. A QR code is a bar code–like graphic that is displayed as a substitute for a URL. When someone with an app on his/her phone for reading these codes scans it, they are taken to the website that was encoded into the graphic.
  
  So when you make a QR code of your Join My Mailing List link — boom. You’ve just sent people straight to your Join My Mailing List form online without having to say a word.
  
  
  

• Text-to-Join
  
  Text-to-Join is another great way to take advantage of the fact that while people might be out of WiFi range, they are less frequently out of cell phone range. Just set up a Text-to-Join keyword, make it visible to your customers, and your would-be contacts can text that keyword and immediately add their email addresses to your list.
  
  

So spread your wings with all of these inventive ways to help people sign up for your lists! In fact, go ahead and comment below to let us know which one(s) you’ve found works best for you.

We also have these resources that will help you create a better sign-up experience:

FAQ 3834: Help Overview: Join My Mailing List forms and links
FAQ 1677: Editing the Join My Mailing List form
FAQ 5181: Set up and customize a Facebook fan or business page
Guide: A step-by-step guide to collecting customer and member email addresses

Contributed by: Jaime McCall, Knowledge Base Writer, Constant Contact