By Lisa Kember

If you use email marketing to grow your business, there are some challenges these days. Since the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) went into effect, you must get consent – either explicitly through the recipient opting in to receive your messages or implied consent through an existing relationship.

That has created some concerns about how to best build an email list. But there are still many ways. Just provide some key information, including organization name and contact information, what they will get and how often, and tell them they will be able to unsubscribe. Then you need to track when and how you got their permission, which you can do in an email marketing system such as Constant Contact.

There are lots of different ways to get CASL-compliant consent. Here are a few.

1.    Add a sign-up button to your email –If you share your emails on social media, for example, many of your fans and followers won’t be on your email list. People may also be forwarding your emails to their friends. So put a Join My Mailing List button on any email you send – and make it easy for people to sign up.

2.    Offer a downloadable whitepaper – Start new customer relationships off on the right foot by offering them a whitepaper or another educational resource in exchange for their email address.

3.    Let people sign up with their phone – Give people the option to sign up with their mobile device by scanning a QR code or going to a mobile-friendly signup form.

4.    Use a postcard – If you want to give people the option to sign up by hand but don’t have a convenient place for a paper sign-up sheet, consider this. One restaurant I was in last week had small postcards on their tables inviting people to ‘join the club’ and get promotional offers. I filled one out.

5.    Put a sign-up form on your Facebook Page – Social media offers a powerful platform to build an audience for your business. But it’s also important to move relationships off social media and encourage fans and followers to join your mailing list. This will give you a better way to reach your audience without having to worry about network changes or declines in reach.

6.    Run a contest – One of our clients recently did a random giveaway of a restaurant gift card and in five days added over 100 new subscribers to their email list as people opted in as part of the contest.

Pick at least one of these strategies and see how it works. You’ll be amazed at what a big impact it could have for your email marketing and business success!

Lisa Kember is the Regional Director for Constant Contact in Eastern Canada. She can be reached at [email protected]