Report: Half of SMBs actively growing email lists

While most of the headlines these days center around mobile and social advertising options, small businesses aren't counting out email. The grandfather of online advertising is still garnering respect - and attention - from small business. According to new data out from Constant Contact 60% of small businesses are 'actively trying' to grown email lists.

by Kristina Knight

This active growth cycle, finds Constant Contact researchers, is happening constantly. About half (44%) of SMBs say they are focused on growing contact lists because it helps with repeat business while 39% say email fosters the customer relationship. How are they collecting the addresses? About one-third (35%) are using sign-up sheets at the point of sale and 42% collect business cards.

"List growth, and the business benefits that come with it, are clearly on the minds of small business owners today. They realize that engaging customers is a key aspect of both maintaining relationships and finding new ones - and one of the best ways to do that is through email marketing," said Christopher M. Litster, senior vice president, sales and marketing at Constant Contact. "More than two-thirds of the survey respondents said that they train employees to request customer contact information at points of interaction. As email maintains its central position in small business marketing, list growth is becoming a company-wide initiative that small business owners are passing down to all their other employees, from marketers to cashiers to servers."

Other interesting findings include:

• 66% of SMBs train employees to request email information from customers
• 92% gather new email contacts via online sign-up forms on their websites
• 46% collect new contacts via Facebook sign-up forms
• 64% ask customers for email information directly

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: email marketing, email marketing trends, SMB email contacts, SMB trends