Last Friday morning I stopped in my neighborhood bakery, Noe Valley Bakery, on the way to work. The first thing I noticed – besides the mouth watering pastries – were the signs by the front door and on the wall encouraging patrons to sign up for their email marketing list.

What was brilliant was the simplicity of the message and how easy they made it to sign up – customers simply scan a QR code using their mobile device. Since they’re waiting in line to place their order or pay (and if you look at the customers standing in line, every third person is holding some sort of smart phone), they’ve got a captive audience. According to the staff, since they’ve implemented the signs, they’ve grown their email list by over 100 members in only a few weeks.

Piece of cake! What other ideas do you have to grow your email marketing list? I’d love to hear them.

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