To keep your email list growing like crazy all year long, you need to make it easy for people to sign up. A healthy email list is one of the best ways to boost sales, says our Community Education and Training Manager, Jill Bastian.

“An email list is vital to a business.” She adds, “It has the potential to dramatically increase sales. So, giving potential subscribers/clients/customers lots of options to sign up is important.”

The good news is collecting email addresses isn’t hard. There are a dozens of places where you can set up an email sign up form. From your business website to a sign-up sheet near your cash register, we’ve created a list of six places to put your email sign-up form:

1. Your homepage
The most obvious place to put an email sign up form is on your homepage. This suggestion might not take you by surprise, but it’s worth mentioning because a lot of businesses don’t have a form on the main page.

Having a sign up option on your blog or contact page is great, but customers might not make it past your main page, so you should capitalize on the opportunity. We’ve got a quick and easy email sign up form on our homepage. Check it out.

2. Sidebar content offering
People are more willing to sign up for your email list if they get something in return. You’ll notice that our sign up form above is for the VR Buzz, our newsletter. Our subscribers get some great marketing tips and advice delivered right to their inbox. You can also offer other high quality content. Take a look at the example below. Subscribers get access to a content offering. It’s set off to the side of the website, so it’s not distracting, yet it has a prominent place on the site.

3. Consider a pop-up form
We know what you’re thinking; pop-up ads are annoying, right? Not if they’re done right. For example, Bastian spotted a humorous pop-up ad while she was surfing online. It made her chuckle, so she signed up for their list.

“Even a jaded email marketer can be converted with some clever text,” she jokes. If you add a dose of humor to your pop ups, they’ll serve a purpose. You’ll grab attention and maybe some contacts, Bastian says.

4. A sign-up form on Twitter
Did you know that you could use Twitter to beef up your email list? By purchasing a lead generation card, you’ll attract a whole host of new customers. Think of it as a promotional tweet. You offer customers a deal of some sort in exchange for their email address. It’s an affordable way to add new names to your list. Here’s an example:

We’ve written a how-to article on this very topic. For more information, check out “Grow Your Email List Using Twitter Lead Generation Cards.”

5. At the register
A lot of retailers are asking for email addresses right at the register. When you’re ringing up a customer, you have their full attention, so why not ask if they’re interested in signing up? If you don’t want to enter it into your computer, you can always put a clipboard near the register and ask people to sign up. Remind customers the value they get for signing up.

6. A sign-up form for a drawing
A creative VerticalResponse client, Cinquain Cellars, has a unique sign up system. The winery hosts a drawing. Customers can participate by entering their name and email address into an iPad that’s stationed right at the counter. And entrants are informed they are signing up for Cinquain’s email list when they enter.l

“This has proven to be very successful,” says owner Beth Nagengast. “It’s a win-win. We can build our list of prospective customers, and someone always wins a great prize.”

How do you collect email addresses? Tell us the most creative spot that you have an email sign up/opt-in form in the comment section below.

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© 2014, Contributing Author. All rights reserved.