Growing your list when you're new to email and SMS marketing

Getting started with list growth tools and resources available through Constant Contact

If you're just getting started with email and SMS marketing, welcome! You may have started a contact list, and now your goal is to grow it, while making sure it stays manageable. Don't worry—you're in good hands! We've got tons of tools and resources to help you both grow your list, and get the right content to the right contacts, at the right time. Here's how to get started:

1. Start with a Sign-up Landing Page
2. Add Text to Join to your toolbelt
3. Download the ListBuilder app for on-the-go contact sign-ups
4. Make a list growth plan using your existing web presence
5. Look ahead as your list grows

Be a growth-minded marketer: Want to learn more about list growth? Explore Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List!

Start with a Sign-up Landing Page

A Sign-up Landing Page is the easiest way to start collecting contacts through your web presence, and you don't even need to have a website to use it! If you're registered for SMS marketing, your landing page can be enabled to collect SMS consent so your contacts can receive both email and SMS messages from you too.

Every sign-up form mentions that a contact can unsubscribe at any time, and every email footer includes a "SafeUnsubscribe®" link.

• Create a Sign-up Landing Page to collect new email and SMS contacts online
  
  
   

Design tip: Each Sign-up Landing Page can only have one contact list assigned to it. You can create more than one Sign-up Landing Page so that you can start segmenting your contacts based on the source they came from.

Add Text to Join to your toolbelt

Text to Join helps you collect contacts from wherever they are, both online and offline. Your contacts can send a text from their mobile device to opt-in for both email and SMS communications wherever they are, at any time of day. All you have to do is share the opt-in instructions online, in your storefront window, next to your register, or anywhere else you can think of:

• Add new email and SMS subscribers through Text to Join
  
  
   

Did you know? In order to use Text to Join, you first have to add the SMS Marketing add-on to your email plan, and then complete the SMS registration. Then you can start collecting SMS consent through your sign-up form and enable Text to Join in your account.

 Download the ListBuilder app for on-the-go contact sign-ups

If you collect contacts in-person, like at your register, at a trade show booth, or at a farmers market, you're going to want to install the ListBuilder app on your tablet! It's a quick and easy way to start collecting email contacts, and if you happen to be offline, the contacts update for you when you're back in a service area!

• ListBuilder for Constant Contact
  
  
   

Make a list growth plan using your existing web presence

Once you have a sign-up form created, it's all about promoting it! The landing page can be linked everywhere, from your social media profiles, to your blog, to the footer of your personal email: 

• Add the link for your Sign-up Landing Page to your website
• Grow your contact list through social media
• Use an email to grow your contact list
• Add a link to your contact sign-up form to the signature of your personal email

Look ahead as your list grows

Don't forget that your needs will change over time as your list grows! You'll find that while growing your list remains important, segmenting your list and engaging your contacts will help you keep the contacts you have and entice new ones to join your list too! Here are some resources to keep you on the right path:

• Keeping momentum as you grow your email and SMS list
• Using the Contact Management Dashboard
• Understanding email engagement
• Understanding contact segmentation
• Using contact lists, tags, and segments based on your list size

Join the conversation: Want to explore growing your list even further? Our Community can help! Check out the board for Deciding What Type of List Tool to Use and get advice from other Constant Contact users.

Questions?